Posts tagged romantic
“Confessions of a Shopaholic” Pretty Lame
Mar 11th
Pretty Lame
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC starts off bad, goes downhill from there, and then manages to redeem itself just enough that all in all it is not good, not bad, but just okay.
This says something about a movie that, after all, is making fun of what is a serious problem for some people.
No, I am not talking about compulsive behavior that causes some people to spend money beyond their means. I am talking about the compulsion that some people have to search for romantic love.
Isla Fisher plays Rebecca Greenwood, a young and attractive magazine writer in New York City who discovered the power of shopping when she was a little girl and the fact that you didn’t have to pay money for anything if you had a “magic card,” which is what she called a credit card.
Now she has 12 of them and the bills to prove it.
To explain her compulsive behavior, Rebecca says, “When I shop, the world gets better, and then it’s not anymore and I need to do it again.”
When the magazine that Rebecca works for fails, she buys an expensive green scarf that she cannot afford for an interview with a fashion magazine for a job that she believes will make her happy forever if she gets it.
Then through a series of ridiculous setups and even more ridiculous payoffs, Rebecca is hired to be a columnist for a financial magazine and to write about how to save money.
Hugh Dancy plays Luke Brandon, the editor of the magazine whom Rebecca lied to about her credentials, and so now she is in serious trouble, right?
Wrong. Rebecca’s even more serious problem is that she has a bill collector after her who she tells Luke is an ex-boyfriend who is stalking her.
So, Rebecca is advising people about debt and she is up to her eyeballs in it, she lied about herself to her editor to get the job, she has a bill collector after her, and what else could go wrong?
Well, for one thing she attends a meeting of Shopaholics Anonymous and when she talks about shopping, she causes all the other members to relapse.
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC is pretty lame from beginning to end, but if you’re a sucker for romance–and who isn’t–it redeems itself.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Bride Wars” First Thing Women Want
Jan 14th
First Thing Women Want
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
BRIDE WARS is a silly chick flick that is NOT a romantic comedy, just a comedy.
However, the only people laughing in the audience when I attended were women, and some of them were laughing hysterically. (No pun intended.)
Starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway, the story is about two best friends from childhood for the past 20 years who have been inseparable ever since they saw a wedding together at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
So, all their lives they have dreamed and planned to have their own weddings at the Plaza and that each of them would be the maid of honor for the other one.
And then the complications ensue.
They both get engaged at about the same time, and so they meet together with Marion St. Claire, the most sought-after wedding planner in Manhattan, played by Candice Bergen.
Earlier, they had criticized a wedding, one of them saying, “It ain’t June,” and the other one adding, “And it ain’t the Plaza.”
So, they settle on two of the only three available dates in June, which is 3-1/2 months away, and here is where the complications ensue.
Marion’s assistant mistakenly books them both on the same date, and let the forced comedy for women begin.
I know what you’re thinking: “Are there any men in this movie?”
Yes, there are. Two fiances, a brother, and an assistant, but except for the assistant, the men are so nondescript that you can’t even tall them apart, and they have almost no role in the story.
And any men in the audience will start losing interest when the two women start fighting with each other. You see, guys would just split the check down the middle, have two separate weddings, order pizzas, and turn on the ball game.
Now, men would ask what is so funny about two brides fighting. Or sympathetic about their making up?
But then the movie isn’t over when you think it’s over. We get an added scene that is a ho-hum setup for a sequel.
BRIDE WARS is a chick flick times 2 that is apparently all about the first thing women want, which in the end might not be anything more than leading to a sequel that would be a chick flick times 4 about the second thing women want and named BABY WARS.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”