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There are very few things actually captures the true essence of living in New York City, Woody Allen films come to my mind first and foremost, but HBO’s Sex and the City also comes to mind. but recently, Woody has been AWOL from NYC, spending his time in Europe and Sex and the City held their series finale in 2004. This has left a gap even with rumors that Woody Allen will return to his NYC roots for his next film, I might just need something to hold me over until 2009.

I was hoping that the Sex and the City movie would be that holdover. I enjoyed the television show, but I can’t say I’m a part of its rabid fan base. So, the advantage for me was that I knew all about these 4 women going into the film…

After watching the movie, I felt that it held pretty true to the television show and would satisfy the film’s built in fan base. It felt like 3 or 4 episodes of the television show back-to-back. After telling the person I saw the movie with this, I realized that this may not be such a good thing after all.

The film didn’t just feel like 3 or 4 episodes of the show, it felt like the film ran long, with these episodes just tacked onto the back of each other, instead of a tight continuously flowing story.

The next realization I had was there was very little setup for the main characters (and why the casual viewer should care about these 4 relatively well off women). Now, for someone like me, who knows these four strong ladies very well from their tv escapades, this was not a problem, but what about for someone who has either never seen the tv show or has only seen a handful of episodes? Well, these people just get a quick (~2min) video recap of the tv series laying out the history of the characters and a voice over by Sarah Jessica Parker to go with it and my guess is that this will leave the uninitiated confused and in the lurch.

Even with these misgivings and the fact that there were times when I felt the film was just a bit long, I DID enjoy the movie, there were a handful of unexpectedly funny moments, Charlotte’s troubles during international travel being one of them (a point I disagree with my favorite reviewer, Roger Ebert on). I feel like for those people who are NYers, New Yorkophiles or fans of the tv show, you should definitely go out and see this film (especially if you’re planning on pre-gaming with a Cosmo or two), but if you’ve never really seen the show or know the characters, you’d be better off not initiating yourself to this world with this film, just go back and rent/borrow/buy the dvds of the original series.

Thanks to No Guarantee for the above pic.

Enjoy

Dany

The Other Boleyn Girl stars two of the most beautiful 20 somethings in Hollywood today, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson.

These two play probably the most famous sisters in English history. Portman plays Anne, the smart and headstrong sister, while Johansson plays Mary, the shy and often looked over younger sister (according to this film, at least). Portman is extremely strong in this movie, in almost every scene she is the strongest presence whatever room she’s in. Eric Bana plays King Henry, but outside of a couple of scenes (one of which where he’s alone and furious with Portman in her room), it feels like he is completely overshadowed.

Two other strong performances come from Kristin Scott Thomas (The mother of the famous Boleyn girls) and David Morrissey (The Duke of Norfolk, patriarch and uncle to the Boleyn girls). There is one scene in particular, where Anne is being lectured to by her mother and Thomas‘ monologue about women’s power over men is wonderfully performed.

I know it’s early in the year, but as of now, my favorite performance of 2008 is Natalie Portman as the strong and complicated Anne Boleyn.

Thanks to Elstree Film Studios for the top pic and to EDU’s Worthless Blog for the second pic.

Dany

Cassandra’s Dream is Woody Allen’s 3rd London based movie he has made in as many releases and at first, I thought this was a very different type of story compared to anything Allen has done previously, but after a few days of thinking about it, I realized I was wrong.

First off, the movie stars Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, has Tom Wilkinson in a small, but interesting role as well as Woody Allen finding one of his most beautiful leading ladies he has ever put on screen, Hayley Atwell, a woman I can understand wanting to do anything for, to keep interested in me.

The problem though is that after seeing Match Point, this London based Allen film falls flat. The acting performances are uneven, at best and there was more than one scene that was written to be serious, but ended up causing laughter from the audience! Collin Farrel’s performance was by far the most varied, there were some scenes where he shined, but for a majority of them though, he was pretty disappointing to watch. Wilkinson, an actor who has become one of my favorite actors to look out for, after his small, but memorable roles in such films as In the Bedroom, Batman Begins and Michael Clayton, also had scenes that switched from well acted to absurd in what seemed like a blink of an eye… very disappointing.

The ending, something I won’t reveal here, just seems too tidy for a writer/director as talented as Woody Allen. It’s a shame, I adore Allen, but this movie seems like a far inferior combination of Match Point and Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Thanks to 20minutos.es for the above pic.

Dany

I already knew the general story from the theatrical production that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street came from, since I had family who put on the production in the past. After hearing a very positive review from a trusted source of this film version of Sweeney Todd I got pretty excited about seeing this film.

This was not one of the best movies I’ve seen recently, but I did enjoy this film quite a bit. I thought Tim Burton does an amazing job of making what must have been buckets of blood look absolutely beautiful. I haven’t seen such amazing blown out colors in a film and blood treated so beautifully since Dario Argento’s Giallo masterpiece Susperia. I was just a bit disappointed by the music and story

Johnny Depp keeps making a great leading man for Burton. His performance, especially when he gets to play off of Helena Bonham Carter (who is enthralling to watch as the ghostly bleached white, sickly brown eyeshadowed partner/potential lover for the former Edward Scissorhands). The performances of the supporting Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall were just a pleasure to watch whenever they were allowed to overtake the screen.

One of the biggest problems is that the songs were not all that great, but I WAS surprised at how some of them sounded, I wasn’t sure how they would turn out with the main actors doing their own singing, even though I thought there may have been too many times when the characters broke into song. The beginning and end of this film are pretty tightly done, the mid section is a bit story thin though.

Let me go back to the production values though, because THIS is where the film really shines. Most every scene is shot perfectly. over 95% of this film portrays the gloomiest London, very similar to the way Burton shot Sleepy Hollow, but it was never more noticeable than after Carter’s BEST hopes and dreams musical number which brought all those blown out colors to the screen, that are a stark contrast to the rest of the movie. I must say though, there was one scene, when Depp was getting off the ship where Burton makes the mistake of lighting him with a warm street lamp, which gives him a slight rosy glow which is a total mismatch for EVERY other scene in the film for his character. Other than that scene, the film looks absolutely amazing.

Thanks to Movies and Life for the above pic.

Dany