BRIDE WARS
RYAN: I absolutely loved the new romantic comedy, “Bride Wars,” starring Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson.
CAROLINE: I, on the other hand, was disappointed in it. I found it choppy and underdeveloped, and overall not very well made. The script just wasn’t that good.
RYAN: Wow – I totally disagree. And I usually notice when a movie is poorly put together. I had rather high expectations and yet I thought it was clever, unpredictable, and not cliché.
CAROLINE: I really can’t see how you would say that. I didn’t totally predict the ending, but it was pretty clear how everything was going to turn out. I didn’t find it funny, though I did enjoy Kate and Anne’s performances, and there was definitely some stuff I liked about it since I’m a girl and this is a chick flick. For example, the scene where Anne’s boyfriend proposes is very sweet and made me misty.
RYAN: I enjoyed that too. And pretty much all of Anne’s scenes, since I lurve her.
CAROLINE: There were a couple plotlines that were introduced and then never really followed up on. And the guys who played their fiancés were so bland and boring that they were practically interchangeable. They even looked alike and I actually couldn’t tell which one was which in some scenes. I really wanted to like this movie, but as it went on, I started to realize it just wasn’t very good.
RYAN: I hear you about the guys, but this is a female driven comedy first and foremost and I thought it was a good one. It’s hard enough to get a movie with two female leads greenlit in the first place.
CAROLINE: I just had higher hopes for its smartness and humor. It was very stereotypical of women as Bridezillas, and that all we want to do in life is get married.
RYAN: Well, LBH, let’s be honest, a lot of women are like that. And this movie isn’t necessarily supposed to be witty; it’s just the female version of all the guy buddy comedies we’ve had recently courtesy of Judd Apatow.
CAROLINE: Maybe; I just thought it would be better. Casey Wilson co-wrote it, and I think she’s sassy and funny on SNL, so I thought the script would be more coherent. But maybe it fell apart in the editing process. I will say that your girl Anne H. looked gorge throughout the movie. Usually she bugs me. Kate looked OK but she had a strange hairstyle that looked like a bad wig. At least I hope it was a wig; if it wasn’t, she needs a new hairstylist and colorist immediately.
RYAN: I thought they both gave strong performances, and that in some scenes Kate was better than Anne, and vice versa. Kate Hudson is just so freakin’ cute that it’s hard to think anything else about her. Anne is more beautiful than cute to me. Candice Bergen is also in it as the wedding planner.
CAROLINE: She’s been hitting the Botox hard.
RYAN: Honey, she needs to at her age. She’s always great though.
CAROLINE: I didn’t like her in this. I thought she was underused in the scenes where she could have been funny; but then they made her the narrator of the film which didn’t work at all. Her voice over wasn’t good.
RYAN: Kristen Johnston has a supporting role, and she’s funny enough. But there was one scene where she delivered some one-liner and it just wasn’t funny, but the editor put in a pause after she said it for the audience to laugh, and no one laughed. Painful.
— BOTTOM LINE —
CAROLINE: This isn’t is a great movie. There were moments I liked, and some very sweet scenes, including the very final scene; but overall it wasn’t that funny or cute. I might recommend it as a rental or to watch on the plane, but that’s it.
RYAN: I recommend it. It’s so the kind of movie I know I’ll watch again on TV whenever finding it whilst flipping the channels.
CAROLINE: Well, I can’t rule that out either.
RYAN: [laughs’ Maybe I just love these actresses so much that I’d watch them read the phone book. I suppose it’s not a must-see on the big screen though, since there aren’t special effects or anything. At the end of the day, it’s a January release; but I enjoyed it very much.
— RATING —
