Traveling Pants Work Their Magic Again

This summer The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is back with a sequel that will satisfy those that loved the original and most readers of the novels the movies are based upon. The movie opens with a montage of what has happened since we first met the girls three years ago and catches us up to date with what is going on as they embark on the summer after their first year of college.

Carmen (America Ferrera) can not wait to catch up with her friends and spend the entire summer together, only to find out everyone else has other plans. Lena (Alexis Bledel) will be taking a figure drawing class at her Rhode Island art school, Bridget (Blake Lively) was accepted to take part in an archaeological dig in Turkey, and Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) will be repeating her screenwriting class at NYU due to her romantic comedy couple breaking up. With everyone heading their separate ways, Carmen follows new college friend Julia (Rachel Nichols) to Vermont for a theatre festival.

Of course all sorts of romantic and life entanglements pursue and director Sanaa Hamri and screenwriter Elizabeth Chandler do a superb job weaving in and out of the girls' separate storylines with relative ease. This movie is a combination of the last three books in the series and so book followers will have a little more insight into each character, but may be slightly distracted by the rearranging of the time events take place when comparing it to the novels. While this shift helps the film flow more naturally, it may be frustrating to readers who know the lives of each girl as much as their own.

This film is rated PG-13 and deservedly so. As the girls are about to leave their teenage years behind, they are approaching adulthood and the maturity that goes along with that. However, the mature themes throughout the film are tasteful, never gratuitous, and are issues that most teenage girls and young adults can relate to and empathize with. Each actress proves that they are the next big talents to come out of Hollywood with the in-depth portrayal of their characters. Amber Tamblyn does a particularly good job portraying Tibby's fear of letting people in that lies beneath her sarcastic attitude and quick wit.

Friendships are not always as comfortable as a worn pair of jeans and this friendship is no exception. However, the love each girl has for each other is strong and true; just the kind of friendship every one wishes for and some truly lucky already have. Take a friend or two to see it, and you are guaranteed an enjoyable time. Take an acquaintance and you might just find yourself at the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Oh no, here he goes again!

That was the cry of audience members at a screening of Mamma Mia! anytime Pierce Brosnan began to sing again...and again...and again. While most of the actors were able to handle their renditions of ABBA songs, Brosnan brought a longing for old film adaptations of musicals a la West Side Story or The King and I; where the leading ladies might have had the right look, but not the right voice and so were dubbed during musical numbers. It became downright comical whenever the former Bond began to sing; unfortunately for him, those were the few serious moments of the film.

Mamma Mia! is not a film to see if you don't want snippets of ABBA songs stuck in your head for days. That is about all you can take from this film; the contrived plot may be successful for the live stage show, but falls extremely flat given the abilities of film. Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is about to be married on the small beautiful island where she was raised by her single mother, Donna (Meryl Streep), when she decides she wants her unknown father to give her away. Going through her mother's old diary, she discovers that there are three possible fathers. Sam (Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), and Harry (Colin Firth) all receive wedding invitations and show up unbeknownst to Donna until she falls through a roof to find them all standing together like a Greek version of "This Is Your Life".

It takes Donna a long time to figure out why the guys are there after a twenty year absence. The guys are just as clueless as to why they were invited to Donna's 20-year-old daughter's wedding; everyone is so clueless about the obvious that it makes you wonder just how many brain cells they killed while they were hippies together all those years ago. It is then no surprise when all three think they are the father and never suspect why the other men are there.

Comic relief from all this stupidity comes from Donna's two best friends who have also arrived for the bridal festivities. Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski) try to bring back a little bit of fun and mischief to Donna's life (for all the "fun" she seemed to have in her younger days, she now seems to be striving for sainthood), and bring a refreshing take on women beyond their 30's having a wonderful time that is far too absent from most movies of today.


The Greek isle that plays background to all this silliness is absolutely breathtaking; when you can see it. Director Phyllida Lloyd is unable to make the most of the movie set, instead filling the screen with silly dance numbers from a massive ensemble of supporting cast that seem to come to the tiny island villa for a chorus of "Dancing Queen" before disappearing again into a mysterious void.

In the end, if the movie is given as much thought as the character's give to their own devices, the audience should be able to mind-numbingly tap along to the disco beat. For a night out with the girls (and guys of the dancing queen variety), I'm sure this film could be a fun way to start the evening festivities. However, if you are a fan of ABBA and would rather see a film with some substance, might I suggest renting either The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert or Muriel's Wedding followed by a sing-along to ABBA's greatest hits. Preferably while you are home alone.

Forget About Voldemort, Greed is Latest Potter Enemy

As reported on MSN.com:

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth installment in the blockbuster film franchise about boy wizard Harry, is moving from its planned Nov. 21 release to July 17, 2009, distributor Warner Bros. said Thursday.
The move was made to take advantage of an open weekend in Hollywood's busy summer season, said Alan Horn, Warner Bros. president and chief operating officer. The film had been on schedule, and the change was not due to any production snags, he said.
"The picture is completely, absolutely, 100 percent on schedule, on time. There were no delays," Horn told The Associated Press. "I've seen the movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November."
The switch will mean a two-year lag between the film adaptations of books five and six in J.K. Rowling's fantasy series. But it will shorten fans' wait between "Half-Blood Prince" and the final two installments, which are being shot simultaneously next year.

Based on book seven, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the last two movies are due out in close order, in November 2010 and summer 2011. Horn said the later release of "Half-Blood Prince" will not affect the schedule for the final two movies.
Horn said the studio has had success with past summer "Harry Potter" releases, including the fifth movie, which was released in 2007 and became the second-highest grossing in the franchise.
The recent Writers Guild of America strike also had affected Hollywood's lineup next summer, leaving a key date open for Warner to slot in "Half-Blood Prince," Horn said.
The July 17 release will be over the same weekend that Warner debuted this year's blockbuster "The Dark Knight," which had a record-breaking opening weekend and is on its way to $500 million domestically and the No. 2 spot on the all-time box-office charts behind "Titanic."
"Half-Blood Prince" finds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) returning to his wizard classes with a clandestine assignment to root out dark secrets about the early years of his archenemy, the dark Lord Voldemort.
The film is directed by David Yates, who made the fifth movie and also is shooting the final two.
Last February, another big Hollywood film, Paramount's "Star Trek," was bumped from a December release to May 8, 2009. Paramount executives said that move also was intended to take advantage of an open weekend in the summer lineup.

Hairspray : It's Afro-tastic!

I'll admit right up front that I'm not a big fan of musicals. Sure, The Wizard of Oz is my favorite film, but it is a fantasy; I don't expect to be greeted in a foreign land by a Lollipop Guild (though how fun would that be?!) so I'm not thrown off by spontaneous songs in the land of Oz. My normal issues with musicals occurs when serious plots are interspersed with random acts of singing. This should have made me hate Hairspray, a musical about a girl trying to stop segregation on her favorite local dance show; but despite all my own prejudices, I found myself toe-tapping along for most of the two hour sixties explosion.

The main reason this third installment works (first was John Waters 1988 movie starring Ricki Lake, followed by a Broadway show still running) is that it doesn't apologize for being a bit ridiculous and over the top. There are serious issues brought to the forefront; mainly discrimination of others due to their appearance, whether it be the color of their skin or size of their waist; but it doesn't become overly preachy on the subject. Lighter in satire than the original film, there are still plenty of tongue-in-cheek comments and song lyrics that are refreshingly never spelled out, regardless of whether the teen or preteen target audience will get them.

Corny is as corny does for James Marsden, who plays the host of the "Corny Collins Show" except on "Negro Day", the last Tuesday of the month hosted by Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah). Tracy Turnblad (newcomer and recently arrested Nikki Blonsky) and her best friend Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes) can hardly make it through the slow clicking of the school clock before they can race to Tracy's house to watch the teenage dance show. Tracy's mother Edna (played surprisingly sweet and ladylike by John Travolta) doesn't enjoy listening to them squeal in delight as they see the head heartthrob Link Larkin (Zac Efron) but doesn't consider it quite the abomination that Penny's strictly religious mom does (hilariously played by Allison Janney). Tracy's dad, played by Christopher Walken, loves his big-haired, big-bodied beauties and supports whatever will make them happy.

Helping Tracy keep the beat without denting her 'do are the kids she meets in detention (for inappropriate hair height, of course), especially Seaweed (Elijah Kelley) who teaches her some moves that would make "pelvis Elvis" jealous. Along with his sister Little Inez (Taylor Parks), he shows her what life is like on the other side of town. Tracy enjoys it so much she wishes "every day could be Negro day" on Corny's show. Talk like that makes her enemy number one for the antagonists looking to stop progress from happening.

The villains of the film are ice queen mother/daughter duo Velma and Amber Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer and Brittany Snow respectively) who make it real easy to dislike them. Luckily this is a musical, so all will end well and they will get their comeuppance (not really a spoiler...could the feel good summer hit of last year really end any other way?)

When the heat is up and your mood is down, this is a perfect video to rent to lift your spirits and keep you out of the summer slump at the August box office.