Tuesday, January 22, 2008

27 DRESSES

Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, Malin Akerman, Edward Burns, Judy Greer

Cinema 4, Shang Cineplex

"Always a bridesmaid, never a bride!"

Light rom com (romantic comedy) with a good cast, a predictable plot but oh so amusingly enjoyable to watch. Especially for a bride to be like myself. Not that my wedding will be as elaborate as the ones portrayed in the film but it was a delight to watch.

Jane (Katherine Heigl) as the title implies has worn 27 dresses as a bridesmaid. The woman is adept at being the ever reliable bridesmaid who does everything! She goes to the fitting of the bridal gown because she is the same size as the bride. She can order a wedding cake in just 3 weeks flat. She even multitasks by attending two weddings simultaneously! I'm surprised she didn't just get a job as a wedding planner.

But Jane has her own job as the personal assistant of some Richard Branson type executive. You know the sort of guy who can balance his thriving career with his philantrophic duties like sponsoring young kids at baseball camp. George (Edward Burns) aside from being Jane's boss is also the guy whom Jane is secretly in love with. To make things worse, Jane's younger and more attractive sister, Tess (Malin Akerman) suddenly breezes into town and sweeps George off his feet. He is so smitten, he immediately proposes to Tess. Thus Jane must now help plan the wedding of her own sister to the man she has been pining for since time immemorial.

As predictable love stories go, they introduce a potential love interest for our main character. He comes in the person of Kevin (James Marsden). A reporter who writes about weddings of the week in the commitments section of the New York Journal. Yet he himself has a rather cynical and sarcastic view about weddings. Longing for the day when he graduates from the commitments section to longer feature articles for the newspaper.

Does Jane get to wear her 28th dress as a bridesmaid to her sister's wedding? Or does she end up finally becoming a bride? We all probably can guess or know for sure the answer to the latter. Happy endings do abound in light romantic comedies, after all. It is up to the story line and I'd say the cast to keep us sustained until the very (happy) end.

The formula works due to the presence of Katherine Heigl who in all her towering frame glory still looks radiant as a bridesmaid even when she gets to wear the most hideous looking gowns ever made for bridesmaids. Her love hate relationship with James Marsden is convincing because of their chemistry and correct comedic timing. Although he seems to be losing his boyish charm which can't be a good thing especially if he stars as a romantic lead in rom coms. Malin Akerman who I have never heard of before makes a believable dumb blond spoiled brat younger sister because of her blond, well scrubbed appearance. A bit hard to believe that a somewhat heavier looking Edward Burns as George is a gung ho entrepreneur. At least he doesn't whine at all in this movie as he has a tendency to do in his other roles. But whether he is plausible or not in this movie, I still love the guy!

The film is cohesively edited, with some funny dialogue and authentic wedding preparation scenarios. Although expectantly predictable, it has its required conflict moments where the lead character must hurdle some challenges before being triumphant. It also tackles sibling rivalry, betrayal of trust issues, unrequited love and finally the discovery of one's true self.

Friday, January 11, 2008

NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS

Nicholas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Jon Voight, 
Ed Harris, Helen Mirren, Bruce Greenwood, Harvey Keitel

Cinema 1, Shang Cineplex

Ok so yes I've been busy (my wedding arrangements) and had no time or rather couldn't find the time to head over to the cinemas and catch a film. So my first movie for 2008 fell on treasure hunter Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) to entertain me. He didn't disappoint. It was a good welcome back from my movies hiatus, I'd say.

There are certain films I watch purely for entertainment purposes. Any movie with Nicholas Cage in it qualifies in that category. They are mostly full of action scenes with an easy to figure out plot coupled with some romantic involvement with the leading lady sort of material.

Now back to Ben Gates, this time he embarks on another wild goose chase to several historical places to redeem his ancestor's name. Apparently his great grandfather was involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He of course brings along his reliable (comic) side kick Riley (Justin Bartha), his estranged girlfriend Abigail (Diane Kruger) who I thought was already his wife but it seems they never got married. His separated parents Peter and Emily (Jon Voight, Helen Mirren) and the token bad guy Mitch (Ed Harris) hot on his trail.

The treasure dates all the way back to the Lincoln assassination with the discovery of certain clues hidden with a page in the diary of John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin. Or wait I might have gotten that wrong, the treasure dates all the way back to the colonization of Americas by Spanish conquerors. Something about a city of gold full of treasures amassed during that long forgotten era. They travel around the world and find clues in famous landmarks like Buckingham Palace, the original statue of Liberty in Paris, Mt Rushmore and even the Oval Office in the White House.

So whereas the original National Treasure had some innovative aspects to offer the audience mostly through the ingenious techie Riley. Its sequel more or less banked on a rehashed formula. The implausible plot lines like kidnapping the President of the US so you can go hunting for clues together seemed rather preposterous. It also relied on comic side kick to draw in the few laughs, the ala Indiana Jones escapades into a decrepit cave/tunnel which falls apart, the antagonist suddenly turning into an ally to help find the treasure. All the cliches possible in a treasure hunt movie were present. The only added 'attraction' would be the rather brief yet significant role of Helen Mirren as Ben Gates's mother. She has a commanding screen presence with an eloquent manner of delivering her dialogue.

Well as I mentioned earlier, it is best not to take any of Nicholas Cage's movie too seriously. I mean that in a good way not as an insult. But if you do have a thing for treasure hunting escapades then I suggest you are better off watching the reality show "Treasure Hunters". This show pitted teams of 3 members each against each other for a chance to win a loot of treasure. They were given clues on their cellphone, got to travel all over the world, did arduous tasks in a race, learned important historical facts on each leg. That was an interesting reality show. National Treasure was after all just a movie!