Boomerang (1992)

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Robin Givens, Halle Berry, David Alan Grier, Martin Lawrence, Grace Jones, Chris Rock, Tisha Campbell, John Witherspoon, and Eartha Kitt
Grade: B+

One of the smoothest posters known to man.

Summary

In New York, advertising executive Marcus Graham (Murphy) arrives at work and greets all his coworkers on the way to his office. This includes Tyler (Lawrence), Gerald (Grier), mail clerk Bony T (Rock), and all the women. He tells his secretary Noreen to send a card and a rose to several different women he’s banging on the side, and Noreen reminds him he also has a meeting with Lady Eloise (Kitt) tomorrow at 9AM. Additionally, Nelson (Geoffrey Holder) is waiting for him and a woman named Anita called. Getting into his office, Marcus is greeted by Nelson who has recut the advertisement they made for “Kissable”, a lipstick brand. Nelson shows him the new cut, but it’s a bit too suggestive in some areas like a woman sucking on a banana and dangling cherries on her tongue. Though Marcus does like the overall commercial, he tells Nelson to lose the banana and cherries for obvious reasons. Once Nelson leaves, Marcus gets a call from Anita, and he quickly lies to her about getting into a car accident but how he’s down to meet up with her soon. The next call comes in and it’s casting for the body lotion spot. Later, Marcus meets up with Tyler and Gerald for lunch where they get on the topic of Marcus’s impressive sexual exploits. He argues that he listens to women and he’s all about romance. Apparently, Tyler and Gerald don’t. Then, Marcus and Tyler give Gerald shit for getting no pussy, while Gerald and Marcus both agree that Tyler is way too aggressive in his approach with women. Just when Tyler goes on a rant about a menu item being racist, Marcus sees a woman named Christie (Lela Rochon) in the distance walking her dog and he has to meet her. Excusing himself from the table and buying a leash off someone who is with their dog in a nearby park for $20, Marcus goes near her and acts like he lost his dog. He gives her his card to call if she sees his dog, but when she sees how much distress he’s in, she gives him her number to call when he eventually finds it.

Later that night, Marcus gets his house ready for his date until he’s interrupted by Yvonne (Campbell), his next-door neighbor who knows Marcus’s womanizing tendencies very well considering they went out once. Currently, he has a court order in place to make sure Yvonne keeps his distance from him. After he dismisses Yvonne, Marcus has dinner with Christie. Nevertheless, when they talk over dinner, Yvonne can be heard from outside trying to interrupt their conversation by calling Marcus a liar and such. So, they go into the living room where Marcus continues to lie, saying he hasn’t been with anyone in two years since his ex-girlfriend Debra. He creates this elaborate story about how he can’t trust anybody because he almost married Debra until she cheated on him on their wedding day with the best man and the priest. Christie is buying all of this, and it leads to sex back at her apartment. In the middle of the night, Marcus pulls the sheet up a little bit and sees Christie’s jacked up feet, so he sneaks out. The next day at lunch, Marcus tells Tyler and Gerald what happened. They deduce he’s too picky, and they’re right. Marcus admits he’s looking for perfection. Back at work, Marcus runs into Bony, who asks if he’s meeting with Lady Eloise to discuss that merger. Marcus assumes he read his mail and tells Bony not to do that, but he shows off his apparent talent to read through envelopes when he has Marcus hold up another and proves it. Marcus is impressed, but he leaves when Bony asks for a raise, despite being there for only nine days and being on time most of the time (by his own account).

Following this, Marcus has a private meeting with Lady Eloise. It’s just her by herself, as the rest of her administrative team will be there the following day. Lady Eloise talks about how when she took over the company, she considered Marcus a “prime asset”. She goes on about needing strong department heads to oversee this merger and flirts with him heavily, inviting him over that night to her home “Lavender Hill”. That night, Lady Eloise’s butler Todd (Jonathan Hicks) lets Marcus in, and he’s greeted by a dressed-up Lady Eloise inviting him to dinner. Todd leaves the room and starts laughing because he knows what’s about to go down. Marcus tries to ignore it. They have dinner and have sex soon after. Though Marcus is noticeably uncomfortable throughout the whole ordeal, he wants that promotion and relents to her obvious advances. The next day, Marcus notices the gorgeous Jacqueline Boyer (Givens) in the lobby of his workplace and follows her to the elevator to introduce himself and compliment her, but she laughs off his advances. They go into the elevator together and realize she’s having her first day at his work and in his department. In fact, she’s heard of Marcus’s name once he says it and compliments his work, which he’s appreciative of. When he tells her about the “secret” that he’s about to become the head of marketing, Jacqueline is saddened to tell him that she was in fact brought in to take the job over Marcus. Naturally, he’s shocked, especially considering what he did to get the job, or who he did to get the job.

*Winks*

Marcus continues the conversation by bringing up how he’s the logical choice since he’s the vice president of marketing for Chantress, but Jacqueline is the director of marketing for the Lady Eloise company, and they are acquiring Chantress. Marcus doesn’t understand because Lady Eloise told him herself that the job was his, but Jacqueline gives him the bombshell of the fact that she’s just the name of the company. She hasn’t made a decision in 15 years and has no power whatsoever. That job goes to a board of directors in Paris. Jacqueline is well aware how she uses her fake power to influence young men and implies Marcus did the same, which he denies. Unfortunately, Lady Eloise walks by and loudly whispers that she doesn’t have any panties on, making Marcus look like an idiot. Jacqueline laughs and leaves, with Marcus still denying the whole thing. Later, there is a huge black-tie party to celebrate the merger. Marcus hangs with Tyler and Gerard, and they discuss Marcus potentially quitting his job to protest the decision, but they rescind the idea when Jacqueline comes there way. She approaches them with Angela Lewis (Berry), a woman who works in the art department. Right after this, Jacqueline and Marcus do a massive presentation for everyone at the party, with Jacqueline leading things. She introduces the new face of the Lady Eloise company in famous model Strangé (Jones). To celebrate this, they pull off an elaborate entrance for her, dropping off a gigantic crate via helicopter, with Strangé coming out on a carriage being pulled by men dressed like gladiators. It goes over well for all the people in attendance. Afterwards, Marcus is looking around for Jacqueline and runs into Angela, who correctly guesses Marcus’s interest in Jacqueline, though he denies it. It’s a playful conversation but Marcus deflects and brings Gerard in to replace him, so he can go after Jacqueline once he spots her on the escalator.

Marcus talks with Jacqueline privately and decides to be very open about flirting with her and making this a thing. She says she doesn’t date co-workers, so he jokingly says he quits. She fans this off by saying she needs him. Then, she grabs him and blows an eyelash away from his eye in a seductive manner, which he calls her out on. Once again, she laughs it off, saying that if she decides to seduce him, he’ll know. The door is officially left open for Marcus to keep trying. The next day at work, Bony asks Marcus how long it’s going to take him to fuck Jacqueline because him and his co-workers have a betting pool going on about it, but Marcus says it’s strictly a professional relationship. In a board meeting, chemist Llyod (Leonard Jackson) gives Strangé the new fragrance they want to market as the essence of sex. Strangé is not pleased with the smell and lets Jacqueline know. Lloyd insists this is the one that tested positively, so what is Strangé’s response? She shows him the essence of sex by taking off her thong in front of everyone at the meeting and rubs it all over his face and head. Lloyd storms out in disgust. Marcus chases after him and tells him that no one is changing the fragrance and that it’s fine. Thankfully, he’s able to calm down Lloyd enough to bring him back into the meeting. Strangé is still pacing back and forth angrily about her decisions being ignored, as Jacqueline uses her pen to flick her thong off her spot on the table towards Marcus. Marcus does the same by flicking it over to Angela, and she flips it behind her to Nelson, who puts it in his jacket pocket. Strangé continues on her rant about her ideas for the name of the fragrance such as “Love Puss”, “Pig Puke”, “Afterbirth”, and “Steel Vagina”. Everyone hates it, but no one is speaking up, except Nelson who loves it because he’s a weirdo. Marcus is able to save the day by describing what the fragrance should be about and relates it to the Strangé name itself, playing to her ego as he does it. Everyone agrees on the name and the meeting ends on a happy note.

Even better, as everyone exits, Angela thanks Marcus for introducing her to Gerard because they’re going out that night. After this, Jacqueline talks with Marcus about how difficult it will be to work with Strangé, a meeting in New Orleans on the 24th, and how all the sales reps are going to be there. There is a lot of work to be done between now and then, so Marcus suggests they talk about it over dinner. She knows what he’s trying to do, but he insists it’s strictly business. That night, Marcus sets up his place for a date, as expected. He plays it cool once she shows up and invites her to have a look around, but she quickly runs into Yvonne when she’s outside, who tries her hardest to ruin things by telling Jacqueline of Marcus’s tendencies until Marcus brings Jacqueline back inside. At the same time, Gerard goes to Angela’s place for their date. This is where we flip flop between the two dates, and we see how different they are. Gerard and Angela have playful conversation about art and food, but Marcus starts to get agitated by Jacqueline who seems disinterested and wants to eat in front of the TV so they can watch the Bulls/Knicks game. Gerard and Angela’s date ends on a positive note with a kiss, while nothing happens between Jacqueline and Marcus. Three weeks pass, and Marcus, Tyler, and Gerard are working out together. Gerard and Angela are progressing slowly, but Marcus isn’t gaining much ground with Jacqueline. Of course, Tyler gives shit to both of them even though he isn’t getting anything. Even so, Marcus isn’t giving up. He just knows that making things happen with Jacqueline is going to be much more difficult than he previously thought.

Even worse, he quickly finds out that she’s a much different person than he initially expected.

My Thoughts:

Boomerang is quite the rarity, as every rewatch makes me like the movie a little bit less, with the problems becoming more noticeable with time. Even so, there is still a lot to like in the Eddie Murphy comedy, one of the premier cinematic representatives of the entertainment industry in the 1990s. Along with the fashion indicative of the time, commercial industry premise, the score, and upper-class Manhattan living, the cast consists of a who’s who of 90s stars. Not only do you have the controversial ex-wife of Mike Tyson in Robin Givens playing our star’s romantic adversary, but you also have substantial roles for Halle Berry in her breakthrough, In Living Color‘s David Alan Grier, future Martin stars Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell, Saturday Night Live‘s Chris Rock, and a prime Murphy leading the charge. Through Reginald Hudlin’s direction and Murphy’s story idea to subvert the tropes of your typical romantic comedy, we are treated to a different, yet breezy genre film that does a pretty decent job tricking us into thinking it’s going to be more than it is.

The selling point of the aptly-named Boomerang is the case of the old switcheroo, a womanizer getting his own treatment and not liking it. Early on, the film plays with this well, with Givens being the perfect choice for the sexy, manipulative executive who begins to use Marcus Graham like he’s never been used before. Now, you have to keep in mind the context of Robin Givens’s casting. At this point in time, she was looked at by the general public as one of the most hated women in America following her public split from Mike Tyson, with the media painting her out to be a vindictive gold digger. Utilizing her public persona to her advantage, she slides right into the role of the male protagonist’s female version of himself with relative ease. Her name does most of the work for her, but this is no knock on her performance. Actually, Givens does a great job with the character and fully understands who Jacqueline is inside and out, so those who may not know who she is will not be lost on the character she is portraying. In addition, she oozes sexuality, looking better than the models their company hires. She knows it too and uses it to her advantage without ever explicitly explaining her plans like how men generally do. Jacqueline just sees her target and does just enough to hook them, forcing them to pursue until she decides when it’s time. Once it’s over, she moves on, as she’s career-driven and has no plans on stopping. If you call her a whore or whatever else while watching how she goes through her business, you’re missing the point. Boomerang‘s whole idea is centered on the fact that she is playing the typical male character in a romantic comedy. You’re just not used to it because of the reversal of roles. Neither is Marcus, as he is this person as well and doesn’t expect to meet his match until he officially loses ground to her because of how tough she is in her ways.

It’s quite the case of the old western in “This town ain’t big enough for the two of us”, with a majority of the second act being the chess match between them and the male being surprised of how powerful an uncaring, good-looking, intelligent female can be when they have the upper hand and know it. Right when she wasn’t committed to another meet-up between the two and said she would call Marcus, with Marcus answering on the first call and agreeing to a date weeks in advance, even though he’s angry at the timing, she knows she has him right where she wants him. Jacqueline is very smart in her movements, but what makes her untrustworthy to the audience, despite her being the undeniable hottie she is, is that she has this wicked quality attached to her smile and looks. There is a real sense of danger around Jacqueline, and a lot of the time, this is still a very attractive trait that would make many men fall at her feet. The same can be said in the reverse. How many times do you hear of a woman dating a dangerous man and think, “I can change him!”. More than you would like to admit, right? Though the circumstances are different here, the same idea applies to Boomerang in-between the lines. Not knowing what to expect of Jacqueline is still hot, which is why Marcus still relents to her advances. Initially, Marcus sees Jacqueline as another woman who is yet to be conquered, but once he becomes seriously attracted to her because of how different she is (and how powerful of a fuck she is), he finds himself at her feet willing to do whatever to make the relationship work until he realizes how much he is putting into it and how much she doesn’t care, an admitted masculine trait.

Being that this is his baby, Eddie Murphy understood exactly what needed to be done as Marcus Graham. He plays the role of a lothario well. He’s got the swagger, the charisma, and all-around smooth approach that convinces the audience he can pick up any woman at the drop of a hat. It’s not that he’s outwardly bombastic or is buying drinks for everyone at the bar for the attention of one woman. It’s actually his personable and conversational approach that is very convincing. This isn’t just with the comedic bits like faking losing his dog to attract a woman who is a dog-lover. The perfect example comes with his private conversation with Jacqueline at the merger party. The dialogue and Murphy’s low-key admittance of his attraction to Jacqueline was such a smooth, take-notes method of someone who’s been doing this for a long time and who’s gotten a lot of success from it. Even when you think about it objectively, if you handled this conversation like Marcus, you’d float just as well. He’s right. This is the “Mack Daddy Vibe” that only someone as good as Marcus can pull off so authentically. Somehow, he avoids the awkwardness that could slip through the cracks of such a topic and seamlessly transitions from flirting, to her turning him down, to her jokingly calling out her seductive traits knowing there’s something there, even if she does outwardly decline his offer. It’s an expert scene on talking to women without looking like you’re a threat that needs to be kept at bay, a fine line some men seem to crossover from time to time because they’re not as good as they think they are. Jacqueline doesn’t say “Yes” but she doesn’t say “No”, and after she seductively blows that eyelash away from his face (she knew exactly what she was doing and so did he), she notably leaves the door open with just a few subtle looks and key phrases.

There is heat there, and in that moment, they both see it as having each other right where they want. The movie continues to trend upwards to a point, including the sex scene where Jacqueline comedically fucks Marcus like a guy (not in the literal sense, though that would have been hilarious) and after he cums, he immediately says he has to call his mother. This leads to Marcus losing his power and becoming the “movie female” in the relationship, getting mad at Jacqueline coming and going as she pleases without keeping consistent contact, so he never knows what to think, her wanting to watch the game while eating instead of having a nice dinner together, or having the relationship being strictly physical when he’s starting to want more and not knowing how to accept that she doesn’t. It’s funny because we’ve seen a female character getting revenge on the whore-ish guy on behalf of all women in a film, but it’s usually because they expose the man for sleeping around. Never does a woman unknowingly defeat a whore-ish guy so definitively, that it makes them a better person. It’s quite the treat for those wanting something different because of the main characters’ dynamic and how unreadable Jacqueline can be at times. Is she that different of a woman, or is she messing with him when she asks Marcus to get her a beer while she watches the game? Early on, you can tell she’s messing with Marcus especially when it comes to work stuff, but it gets harder to decipher later on. Is this part of her strategy or if she really is the female version of the “asshole boyfriend” character? It’s fun to watch it unfold and her antagonistic and uncaring responses to his real feelings make Givens’s Jacqueline the ideal personality to go head-to-head with Murphy’s Marcus.

What changes everything is 90s “It” girl Halle Berry, with her role starting out as a cute supporting player and turning into the driving force behind changing the trajectory of the movie. It’s a genuine surprise because she’s not treated like an important piece to the story upon her introduction. It feels like an accident how she takes over the movie and becomes such a vital person in changing Marcus’s life for the better. She’s phenomenal and every bit of sweet as you would imagine. If you didn’t have the benefit of hindsight and you hypothetically didn’t know who Berry was, you could watch Boomerang and come out of it with the same opinion that every Hollywood executive probably did in that “There’s something about that actress. I want to see her more”. Berry possesses the “movie star” quality in her first fleshed-out role, and you would be a fool to not notice it with how likable she comes across onscreen. She’s very unassuming at first and is given the job of someone who works in the art department within the company. Everyone, including the audience, is initially thinking she’s just a likable supporting player that gives the main characters advice before they work through whatever they have going on. In a typical romantic comedy, that is usually the case with how the character is presented. However, it’s as if she wins so many of us over in such a small amount of time, she cannot be denied. She forces herself into the love triangle because she’s such a good person. Angela leads by example in teaching Marcus about women, love, romance, and understanding who you are as a person. She’s also every bit the opposite of Jacqueline. It’s when you start realizing, as Marcus does, all Jacqueline has are her looks. Along with being beautiful in her own right, Berry’s Angela has everything else. She’s the total package.

Unfortunately, Angela’s insertion into the plot leads me to some of my biggest issues with the film at the same time.

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

Technically, we end on a happy note, with Marcus choosing the lovable, caring, and much more mentally stable Angela over the manipulative Jacqueline. However, everything in the last half hour is misguided and makes our protagonist look like a selfish prick. First of all, he screwed over Gerard bad. He knew Gerard liked Angela and was lying to save face when he said that he was the one who broke things off because things were getting too serious. Anyone who’s a human being can read the body language of Gerard in that scene. Marcus is no dummy. He noticed it too. He just wanted a verbal confirmation from Gerard, so it’s technically cool that he fucked her, knowing he already did it without his permission before he has this conversation with him. It’s these twisted mental gymnastics that Marcus uses to justify what he did instead of helping his goodhearted friend when he was practically asking for it without saying so. Instead, Marcus took all the women for himself, used them both, cheated on the good one after getting her, dropped one for the other, and his friends are left with nothing. This was my same problem with My Best Friend’s Girl, as Dane Cook’s douchebag character does wrong the entire movie, fucks every hot girl in sight, then takes the one girl that his friend wanted, fucks things up with her, and apologizes. Then, somehow, everything is just magically okay and the good guy just steps aside and accepts that he sucks. This is always ridiculous no matter what movie tries to justify such behavior.

Honestly, how is it okay in this instance? Gerard didn’t do a single thing wrong in this entire movie, lost the one girl he liked, he got shit on by his best friend, gets absolutely nothing in return, and then a simple apology where Marcus wasn’t even man enough to directly say it to him is good enough for Gerard to sit firmly in the backseat? No, fuck that! Gerard should have been furious and on the verge of beating Marcus’s ass for betraying him, considering their slow breakup literally just fucking happened! Marcus beds like a hundred women a month, brags about it, and takes Gerard’s girl because she’s actually normal? Sorry, this “apology” after everything that transpired is nowhere near good enough to convince us Marcus isn’t a scumbag. You can’t give me a character who gets to fuck every hot girl he wants to, can screw over his friends, and get away with everything after a simple apology. That doesn’t sit right with me, and it shouldn’t sit right with any sane person. Gerard is right. Marcus doesn’t care about anyone but himself. Why would Gerard think he would treat Angela right for the first time ever, even if Marcus cares about her like he says. They are both know Marcus’s track record with EVERY woman before Angela. Why would she be any different? He doesn’t deserve her. In fact, Marcus proves Gerard right when he does in fact cheat on Angela like he does with every other woman. Now, the audience and Gerard is supposed to feel bad for Marcus because he finally feels remorse? Sorry, I don’t. The very least the screenwriters could have done was give Gerard a new girl in the closing scenes that is comically similar to him to put the audience at ease. In My Best Friend’s Girl, they at least did it in the credits. In Boomerang, Gerard just eats shit and likes it.

No one is saying that Angela should be with Gerard just because he’s a nice guy. She has her own autonomy and just isn’t attracted to him, and that’s fine, though I do wonder why they broke things off because it was never explained. It also begs the question why they decided to have a dinner party with Gerard’s parents if they weren’t dating at that point because why would he subject himself to such embarrassment when he didn’t have to?

Regardless, the issue was with how Gerard’s supposed BEST FRIEND went about things to snake her from behind his back when he was still recovering and give a half-hearted apology to make up for it.

The same can be said about the climax between Marcus and Angela. First of all, there is no sense of time at all. How long after their breakup did he finally decide to see her in person? Is it days? Weeks? Months? A simple caption of “3 Months Later” would’ve meant a lot here to digest the approach from Marcus and where Angela is at in her career. Instead, it’s all just thrown together that Marcus quit his job and started teaching kids art at the same low-income community center Angela did, proving that anyone can be an art teacher, though I digress.

Nevertheless, this apology was WORSE than the one with Gerard. This was not a sincere, on-the-verge-of-begging apology that makes Angela believe that Marcus is truly the man she belongs with and vice versa. Actually, Murphy’s performance in that scene felt a lot more like a guy who got caught cheating with his ex and is feigning sorrow because he knows the woman he cheated on with has the kids and the house, and she’s the stable option. He did not do enough at all to warrant Angela giving in to him so easily. How can she ever trust Marcus again knowing what she knows about him? She thought she changed him, and he still did the same thing to her too! How is a simple “I can’t breathe without you” enough to convince her things are going to be good this time? She even asks him at one point to give her ONE good reason as to why she should take him back, and he says nothing because he has no argument! How are you this unprepared for apparently the woman you love and can’t breathe without? Marcus needed to be more emotional in the apology, and Angela needed to be a hell of a lot more reluctant considering everything that has happened. It’s like she says herself, “Angela had to start looking out for Angela”. Her giving in so easily doesn’t fit the executive role she’s fought to get at that point of the film. A simple line like “I missed you”, sounds to me like Marcus is going to cheat on her next week. With how the way the scene plays out, it would have made a lot more sense had the movie ended like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video, with Marcus turning to the camera and acknowledging that he’s lying through his fucking teeth. The film concluding with Marcus ending up with Angela was what needed to happen. Unfortunately, the poor combination of writing and acting in this crucial final sequence missed the mark catastrophically. It was supposed to convince the viewer our protagonist has learned from his mistakes but doesn’t come anywhere close to this goal.

No one is saying Marcus should be crawling on his knees and begging for forgiveness, but he should be damn close to it because that’s how bad he screwed Angela over after winning her trust. He recovered and won way too easily after fucking over virtually everyone who loved him, and it made everyone else look weaker-minded as a result. Simply put, that third act was a major misfire.

Besides this, there are a lot of funny moments generated from the cast of comic actors like Tisha Campbell’s Yvonne constantly trying to get revenge at Marcus, John Witherspoon making everyone uncomfortable at the dinner party sequence (which results in Marcus just silently hugging Gerard), and Marcus’s two best friends being all-around softie Gerard and rough-around-the-edges Tyler, played by David Alan Grier and Martin Lawrence respectively. The dynamic between the three friends was well done, with each man and their approach with women being completely different and fitting their comic personas well. Lawrence especially does well as the misogynistic friend who’s constantly hurdling insults, but he’s even funnier with his penchant for finding racism in everyday things. His analogy regarding billiards and how the goal is for the cue ball to knock in the black eight-ball to win is “because of the white man’s fear of the sexual potency of black balls” was really funny, especially when Marcus jokingly buys in and throws out another conspiracy, so Tyler gets excited because he thinks he’s made a breakthrough with him. Gerard is right. They do need to find him a woman quick. There’s a lot of humorous moments and lines that enhance the presentation of the story too like Bony T asking if Malcolm X died for this when Marcus breaks things off with Jacqueline, the whole thing with Lady Eloise and all the callbacks to it, the disastrous Strangé commercial, and the racism they encounter looking at suits in a clothing store. Additionally, the exchange between Yvonne and Marcus when she finally lets her guard down and asks to see if he wants to come over, and Marcus responds with, “Not even if Jesus was pouring it” might have been the funniest of the film. The timing of it following such a heated scene was picturesque.

Boomerang is an entertaining romantic comedy that does a good job playing with the genre’s tropes and the male/female dynamic in a relationship. Highlighted by a star-studded cast, there are a lot of funny moments and solid dialogue that will keep you invested from beginning to end. Unfortunately, the best part of the second half of the film in the Angela character brings out the worst in the story and its characters. In doing so, the potential of the movie quickly falls apart towards the end after such a hot start, losing sight on what it was trying to say from the outset with maddening solutions that don’t fit with what’s going on. If you watch Boomerang once, you’ll love it. Sadly, each rewatch will find you angrier with the main character and how things play out, and you’ll like it a hell of a lot less.