Bride Wars Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Bride Wars
One minute, she's struggling with addiction and family drama in the winning Rachel Got Married. The next, Anne Hathaway was skyrocketing to the dredge, terrible marriage stereotyping, and wedding wars with Kate Hudson. Jeffrey M. Anderson said there's one worthy minute in the film, but the "rest of the time, for 88 out of its 89 minutes, it's a movie totally devoid of life." Also on Blu-ray. Skip it.

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The Uninvited
One would think that a film with David Strathairn and Elizabeth Banks would be worth a moment or two, especially since they're not running to the horror/thriller genre every day, but as Jette Kernion said in her review in February: the story is weak, Banks' lines are "stilted and almost laughable," and Strathairn's performance "made me want to go home and put on one of his better movies to forget about his nearly wooden character in this one." That's enough reason to Skip it. Also on Blu-ray.

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Martyrs
Movies that make Saw look like Sesame Street aren't the type I usually have in my queue, so I'll leave this entirely up to Scott Weinberg: "It may be one of the most ferocious horror films ever made -- but Martyrs is also quite effectively chilling and consistently disturbing ... frankly I think it's one of the most fascinating pieces of 'hardcore' horror cinema you'd ever want to see." Buy it ... if you have the guts.

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Nothing But the Truth
Another political drama in Rod Lurie's stable, Truth boasts the likes of Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda, Vera Farmiga, Matt Dillon, taking the Valerie Plame case and morphing into an amped up drama with intrique based around missile strikes on Venezuela. Eric Snider said from TIFF: "Still, for all its strengths, Nothing But the Truth falls under the umbrella of good but not great." Rent it.

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Also out: Frost/Nixon: Complete Interviews, What Doesn't Kill You (also on Blu-ray), While She Was Out

Like thousands of others, I lost an important source of income earlier this year, so I've keenly felt the impact of the current economic recession on my greatest passion: watching movies. But though it may "sound counterintuitive," CNN reports that "movie ticket sales are way up in this down economy" because "struggling people are looking for a $10, two-hour escape."

They point to the stunning box office success of the critically slammed Paul Blart: Mall Cop, He's Just Not That Into You, and Bride Wars, and quote Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com, who claims that "only movies that turn away from financial realities will succeed during the recession." Dergarabedian also cites the opening weekend success of the new version of Friday the 13th and declares: "If Jason is scaring the crap out of you, you can't really be thinking about your mortgage, you know?" Riiiiiiiiiight. Of course, most of the younger crowd that were scared by Jason don't have mortgages yet to worry about.

In my case, I recently raced out to a late morning screening to catch Clive Owen in The International because the first weekend screening of the day at my local multiplex costs only $6.00, compared to $8.00 for early afternoon shows and $10.00 for anything after 4:00 p.m. I shaved down my Netflix account, canceled the premium movie channels from my satellite TV subscription, and now shop only for bargain-priced "gotta have" DVDs online.

What about you? Is the recession impacting your movie watching? Are you choosing different types of movies -- comedies and thrillers instead of dramas? Are you going to more matinee shows? Are you watching fewer movies in theaters and more on TV, your computer, and your cell phone not for the convenience, but because it's cheaper?

Gran Torino's expansion into wide release, plus strong openings for The Unborn and Bride Wars, combined for a surprisingly robust early January weekend at the box office.

With Gran Torino, Warner Bros. appears to have pulled off a genuinely successful platform release -- which isn't easy (though perhaps somewhat easier when your movie is a populist crowdpleaser). The film crept along in limited release for four weeks before expanding to 2800 screens this weekend for a cool $29 million. Next week, Defiance will attempt a similar coup, and we'll see what happens; my guess is that it won't play nearly as well.

Bride Wars and The Unborn essentially tied for second place with around $21 million each. Both did well, which is not a huge shock; the obligatory January horror film tends to be easy money, and Bride Wars pretty much matched the precedent set by 27 Dresses last January. And Screen Gems found an audience for its African-American-led drama Not Easily Broken, which did an okay $5.6 million on just over 700 screens.

The first real post-holiday weekend was rough on the holdovers, which, with the exception of Slumdog Millionare, pretty uniformly took hits of 50% or more. Unsurprisingly, Marley & Me remains the biggest winner of the holiday season; it should top out around $140 million. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, meanwhile, is hoping to hold on for long enough to get a boost when the Oscar nominations come out.

The full top 10 after the jump.

Life. It's a word that describes pretty much everything. Certain movies have "life" in them, like Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married. Somehow, some way, that movie managed to capture a feel of what it really feels like to live, what it feels like to attend a wedding, what it feels like to need and hurt and be lonely. Anne Hathaway was a big part of why that movie worked, playing an essentially selfish, needy character but doing so in a completely three-dimensional way; we understood where her flaws came from, rather than simply being presented with them. Now here is Ms. Hathaway again, in a new movie, Bride Wars, and she manages that life once again, but only in one scene, for one fleeting moment. The rest of the time, for 88 out of its 89 minutes, it's a movie totally devoid of life.

In that scene, Emma (Hathaway) runs into with her ex-BFF's brother, Nate (Bryan Greenberg) and reluctantly goes with him to help him try on his tux (and, of course, tie his bow tie). Her relationship with her fiancé is faltering, her plans are falling apart and she misses her feuding friend. Nate asks her how she's doing. She says "fine." He prods, and she breaks down, all of those emotions: excitement, grief, uncertainty, coming out at once. She re-composes herself and leaves the store. It's an example of a skilled actor overcoming weak, lazy material, which is something I've come to see more and more lately.

No, I'm not just recycling lists here. Since there were no new releases last week, this week's top five is the same as last week's, so that sense of deja vu you're experiencing is nothing to worry about.

1. Marley and Me: $24.2 million
2. Bedtime Stories: $20.5 million
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: $18.6 million
4. Valkyrie: $14 million
5. Yes Man: $13.9 million

We've got three new releases and two films going into wider release starting with:

Bride Wars
What's It All About: Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson star in this comedy about best friends who become bitter rivals when their weddings are scheduled for the same day.
Why It Might Do Well: We've got two highly charismatic leads and a cute premise that should appeal to women.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Men will run screaming from this one.
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $21 million

With the R-rated comedy becoming one of the hottest trends of the past couple years (thanks, in part, to a dude named Judd Apatow), we're starting to see a bunch more creative, down-to-earth (albeit foul-mouthed) comedies hit theaters -- with some, like Tropic Thunder, Burn After Reading and Knocked Up, fighting for awards consideration. But what will 2009 bring? Are we on a similar path as both 2007 and 2008, or will the new year bring back the boring, familiar plot threads and idiotic characters? Here's what we're looking at:

*Film(s) to watch that month
++Apatow involvement
# Best comedy of the year

January: Bride Wars, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, New in Town (Grade: C-)
February: *++Fanboys, He's Just Not That Into You, Pink Panther 2, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Miss February, Fired Up, *Youth in Revolt (Grade: B)
March: All About Steve, *I Love You, Man, This Side of the Truth, The Accidental Husband, Adventureland, The Janky Promoters, *Monsters vs. Aliens (Grade: A-)
April: The Ugly Truth, *Observe and Report, 17 Again (Grade: B+)
May: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, My Life in Ruins, Next Day Air, *Bruno, Night at the Museum 2, *Up (Grade: B)
June: Land of the Lost, The Hangover, *++Year One (Grade: B+)
July: Ice Age 3, *I Love You Beth Cooper, 500 Days of Summer, G-Force, *++#Funny People, *They Came from Upstairs (Grade: A)
August: Julie & Julia, *Shorts, Dance Flick, Post Grad, Max's Mardi Gras (Grade: C)
September: *Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Grade: B)
October: *Toy Story (3-D), Zombieland (Grade: B)
November: Tooth Fairy, *The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Three Stooges, Old Dogs (Grade: B)
December: Alvin and the Chipmunks 2, *The Princess and the Frog (Grade: B)

So based on early buzz, trailers and so forth, I'd say the best months for comedy in 2009 will be March and July. What do you think about the upcoming slate, and which comedies are you looking forward to the most?

In writing posts for Cinematical over the last few years, I have been pained at the sheer lack of women-centric comedies that really deal with those parts of female nature that are so very real and relevant. You know -- cool clothes, spray tans, and perfect weddings.

Yeah, I like me some fashion and beauty from time to time, and I even have quite the Fluevog fetish, but come on, Hollywood -- this is getting old! I mean, I knew what was coming when word of Bride Wars hit, but seeing the trailer (over at /film) just makes me want to bang my head against the wall many, many times. The hope I had in Gary Winick -- that's gone. The trailer is basically just a parade of stereotypes -- the girls hungry for marriage who have it all planned out and obsess about it, who accidentally find their rings before the proposal (or at least one does), and then busy themselves with body insults, clueless guys, and of course, quickly growing to hate each other over trivial things.

Yeah, it's just a movie, but even fluff can be better than that! Someone needs to send Kate back to the Almost Famous years and remind Anne about the better wedding-centric work out there, like Rachel Getting Married.

For the upcoming romantic comedy Bride Wars, we've already got Kate Hudson battling Anne Hathaway. The actresses play best friends who begin warring when they both pick the same wedding date. Instead of compromising, sharing, or figuring out a way to make things work, neither will back down from their chosen date, and they begin competing for everything from venues and services to the guests they hope to score.

Now Variety reports that Candice Bergen has signed on to co-star as Marion St. Claire -- "the queen of all wedding planners." (I wonder if she works with Franck Eggelhoffer?) I think it's safe to say that Ms. Bergen will be someone both women fight to hire, and since she's listed as a co-star, maybe the planner will play both sides of the fence. While Bergen has been busy over the years, from her stint on Sex and the City, to her main gig on Boston Legal, The In-Laws was her last movie gig, in 2003. Now she's got bridal wars and The Women coming our way.

These days, it's hard to believe that Kate Hudson is a Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated actress. It's been years since she twirled as a band-aid, grabbing the hearts of William and Russell. Since then, she's surrounded herself with mainly romantic comedies -- some good, some bad -- and let her award-starting past slip away. All the way back in November of 2006, there was news of a new feature called Bride Wars. At the time, there was word that she had troubles getting the pic off the ground (she's one of the film's producers). She must've had more troubles to make it take this long, but all these months later, Variety reports that she finally has a director, Gary Winick, and has someone to star and war with -- Anne Hathaway.

Unlike Katherine Heigl's upcoming 27 Dresses, which is more about inner pain, this is about outwardly-warring brides, who are friends no less! Coming together from the pens of June Diane Raphael, Casey Wilson, Karen McCullah Lutz, and Kirsten Smith, "Hathaway and Hudson will play best friends who are pitted against each other when their wedding dates clash. They compete for venues, services and guests, once it's clear that neither will step aside." What is it about weddings that makes some women so crazy? I wonder if they'll end up in the hospital like that insane Grey's Anatomy episode where two women prioritized the perfect wedding over their health and safety?

So, will this help Hudson into better fare? Or be a crash and burn scenario for Hathaway? With Winick's involvement, I'm hoping for the former. He's responsible for the cute 13 Going on 30, and the great indie flick Tadpole. But this is all contingent on the project moving smoothly from here.