Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Women

Went to see The Women this weekend. It was okay but, not quite as good as I was hoping it would be and it definitely wasn't as funny as I was expecting. The story itself was good. I liked the whole thing about finding yourself and not losing yourself in a relationship. That's something that probably resonates with everyone.

The biggest problem with the movie was that there wasn't enough interaction with the main characters. It's called The Women you'd think there would be a lot of scenes with the 4 main women in different combinations and that just wasn't the case. It just didn't feel real that Meg Ryan's character only had one on one interaction with Annette Bening's character. The only time Debra Messing and Jada Pinkett Smith were involved was when there was a scene that had Annette in it. It just didn't make since, the whole point of the movie (or at least I thought it was) was that it was suppose to be about women supporting each other and being there when they needed each other and that wasn't the case.

I also felt that they took the title of The Women a bit too far when there were like no men what so ever in the film. Sure they were talked about but, never seen. It was just odd and really forced. A fact that I felt was made even more obvious with Jada's character being a lesbian. No problem with her being a lesbian it's just that it seemed that it was more like they did it to try and be trending and so they could use it as a device to further enhance the no men allowed thing. There is only one scene where they all get together at a restaurant/bar and it was a lesbian one. The fact that they had to point out twice that Jada's character picked the place was just drawing attention to all the wrong things.

For the most part the acting was good. It was nice seeing Meg Ryan on screen again and she did what she could with what she was given. The material was a little week for all of them. Jada and Debra certainly didn't have a lot to do but, they made the best of it. Probably the best part of the whole movie was Jada freaking out watching Debra's character give birth at the end. Annette Bening was okay I just felt she wasn't the best choice for the role. I felt she played it a little too stiff at times.

In the end it was okay and I was really hoping it would be the movie to back up the success of Sex and the City and say female driven movies can do good box office more than once a year. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I saw it at a matinee and unfortunately I really can't recommend seeing it in theaters. If you do I certainly wouldn't pay full price but, you'll probably be happier if you just wait for dvd.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

This won’t be a long post considering there wasn’t that much worth discussing from the Emmy’s. They pretty much sucked and not because of who the awards went to. I really didn’t care that much this year because I watched so few of the shows nominated. And the one category I did care about wasn’t a surprise. As much as I would have like to see Kyra Sedgwick or Mariska Hargitay win Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series I knew from the minute Damages premiered that Glen Close was going to win the Emmy. He role was award bait whether it was on tv, major motion picture, or a play.

As for the rest of it, it was just dull. I knew it was stupid of ABC to not only have 5 "hosts" but, to use reality tv hosts. That was just stupid. They were constantly tripping over their lines and they were bland as hell. Unfortunately for ABC they apparently didn’t realize that the hosts actually do set the tone for the show. The audience wasn’t into what was going on and they wanted it to be over with as much as the viewers. You have to keep these things hopping and lively so people are engaged and don’t realize how long it is taking.

I did enjoy Laura Linney’s little line about supporting community organizers. That was a great little jump on and off the soapbox in a split second moment. I think it took people a few seconds to figure out what she was talking about. But, that is how it should be done.

Kathy Griffin and Don Rickles were great. Not often do you see Kathy flumaxed like that. It was great watching her struggle to get him on task and the gestures she made when it didn’t work. That was the best night comedy wise of the night. Screw the controversy of what she said when she won her Emmy last year someone needs to wake up and have her host the big show.

And would the directors of these things pull their heads out of their butts. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Emmys, the Oscars or the Golden Globes they are always screwing when they show clips. They are constantly showing clips for every category and then by the time they get to the big awards they don’t have time for clips. NEWSFLASH folks, the views don’t care about seeing clips for the small categories they want to see them for the big ones. All the series acting and show nominees should get clips. If you are behind in the middle don’t show the clips for mini-series and made for televison movies. Don’t show clips for writing and directing and stop with those stupid things that you let the variety shows do for the writing nominations. It’s all about the big awards folks. And whether you want to believe it or not people like to see the clips because they know those clips come from the submitted episodes and everyone always wants to know which episodes people submitted.