NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU
RYAN: We’ve now seen “Paris, je t’aime 2” also known as “New York, I Love You.” Next up will be “Detroit, I Hate You.”
CAROLINE: [laughs’ That would be brilliant. Sadly, “New York, I Love You” is a serious downgrade from the adorable “Paris, je t’aime.” As a New Yorker, I had such high hopes for this “sequel,” but it really didn’t deliver. I was so excited to see all the city streets and sites, but it didn’t even deliver on that level. 
RYAN: I really liked the first hour, and loved seeing all the different parts of the city. The cast is great – Natalie Portman, Christina Ricci, Andy Garcia, Robin Wright Penn, Bradley Cooper, Chris Cooper, Orlando Bloom, etc. But the big difference is that in the Paris version, each movie was very distinct with its own title and credit page, and in this one, each film is not well delineated. Some of them even overlap.
CAROLINE: I hated that. The great thing about the Paris version was how each short movie was its own vignette with different characters, and each totally reflected the style of its director. The New York version has characters interwoven throughout; which sounds cool in theory, but here it bugged me. And they didn’t even tell you who directed what until the end credits.
RYAN: That bothered me too. And the one with Shia LeBeouf was very confusing.
CAROLINE: The cast was really fun, and it was a nice surprise to see who would pop up next. This just in – Hayden Christensen still can’t act. But the rest of them are great. Most of the stories just weren’t that satisfying though, and some were never resolved and just kind bled into the next one.
RYAN: A few were clever and interesting but looking back on the movie as a whole, I’m disappointed. By the end, I was so bored that I very well might have fallen asleep had I not fought valiantly against it.
CAROLINE: Please. I spent most of the movie in a near doze. And I’m bummed because I had really high hopes for this movie. I’m not sure why they made it so different from the Paris version. Apparently each director had only two days to shoot theirs and one week to edit, and it shows. They shouldn’t even call this a follow up to “Paris, je t’aime.” It’s not worthy, and it felt amateurish in comparison.
RYAN: Some of the pieces did feel like student films. It does feature Natalie Portman’s directorial debut, however, which was decent.
— BOTTOM LINE —
CAROLINE: I really wish I could say this is worth seeing especially for you NYC-dwellers out there, but this movie did not make my heart sing as “Paris, je t’aime” did. I liked a couple of the love stories, but that was it. The first fifteen minutes is OK, but after that it pretty much stinks. Maybe the caliber of directors they used this time just wasn’t as good.
RYAN: I still appreciate the uniqueness of using many different directors in one film but ultimately, I was more bored than not. I think I liked it more than you did, but the second hour dragged big-time. If you’re a New Yorker it might be worth seeing; but other than that, not so much.
— RATING —
