Screen Scenes

  Columbia Pictures Jennifer Lopez,
Matthew McConaughey star in the movie, "The
Wedding Planner."

“The Wedding Planner” Starring Matthew
McConaughey and Jennifer Lopez Directed by Adam Shankman
Sitting through most romantic comedies these days is a lot like
watching a puppy chase its tail. The turn of events can be
predictable, dumb and even a little nauseating, yet viewers
can’t help but giggle at the delightful situations they
observe. “The Wedding Planner” is your typical,
romantic comedy. It’s predictable, a little bone-headed and
unoriginal, but the movie relies on its cute light-heartedness to
save itself from becoming a complete waste of time. In the movie,
Mary Fiore (Jennifer Lopez) is a meticulous wedding planner who is
the best in the business. Her weddings run smoothly as she swiftly
eliminates anything that might possibly ruin one of her perfect
weddings. Mary, however, is too busy paying careful attention to
the minute details of other people’s weddings that she has no
time to focus on having one of her own. Her cynicism toward love
changes when Dr. Steve Edison (Matthew McConaughey) saves
Mary’s life by rescuing her from the path of a runaway
dumpster. They land straight onto cupid’s arrow as
Mary’s eyes light up at the sight of him. After Mary recovers
from the incident, the two find themselves on a friendly date that
becomes the most romantic evening of either of their lives. Mary is
swept off her feet only to later discover that the man she’s
been obsessing over is the fiancé of one of her clients. Oops!
To make matters worse, Mary’s father is worried about whether
or not his daughter will ever get married. He arranges a marriage
for her with an Italian boy from Mary’s childhood who used to
follow her around persistently asking whether or not she had a
vagina. Now he’s all grown up and slightly more mature. Mary
must plan the wedding for the man she loves while avoiding the
advances of the man she doesn’t. Aside from a few plot
twists, the overall screenplay lacks both imagination and
originality. The predictability of the movie also becomes
problematic. Predicting the end of the movie is about as hard as
predicting the winner of a Harlem Globetrotters basketball game. By
the end of the opening credits, viewers will have already figured
out the movie’s not-so-thrilling conclusion. Nonetheless, the
movie is quite entertaining and funny. The adorable jokes,
situations and faces of Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey add
to this plethora of pleasantness. The happiness of the movie will
keep viewers smiling throughout. “The Wedding Planner”
script is unoriginal and the acting is sub-par, but its delightful
charm will keep audiences chuckling and will help them go home
happy. Isn’t that worth $7.50?

Suneal Kolluri Rating: 6

“Sugar & Spice” Starring Mena Suvari,
Marla Sokoloff and James Marsden Directed by Francine
McDougall “Sugar & Spice” works seamlessly
as both a dumb teen comedy and a ripping satire on the maniacally
materialistic ideals of the average American teen. The blend is
disturbing. Though the film’s premise is absurd ““ five
high school cheerleaders rob a bank ““ director Francine
McDougall treats the material as just another high school movie.
Awash in bright, gaudy colors like an episode of “Saved by
the Bell” and filled with perky, smiling teenage girls
committing heinous crimes, “Sugar & Spice” suggests
something quite unflattering about the nation’s youth. The
story focuses on head cheerleader, Diane (Marley Shelton),
who’s impregnated by star quarterback, Jack (James Marsden).
Getting disowned by their families on prom night, Jack and Diane
are forced to live on their own. Struggling to make ends meet,
Diane plans a bank heist with four fellow cheerleaders. They treat
the event of robbing a bank as an after-school project by coming up
with cutesy costumes, assembling weapons with scotch tape and
studying bank heist flicks. Expecting their bank heist to become
yesterday’s news like “another kid who fell down a
well,” the girls don’t anticipate the media turning
them into sensational figures; nor do they suspect that an envious
classmate, Lisa (Marla Sokoloff) threatens to blow their cover.
Admittedly, the plot is incredulous and the whole movie seems to
use discarded props from a Christina Aguilera video, while the
girls talk in MTV soundbites. This satire questions mass media
instead of glorifying it. The characterizations suggest that the
girls haven’t just lost touch with reality, they have never
touched it to begin with. Unfortunately, to maintain the PG-13
rating, the edge of this satire was blunted to the point that
“Sugar & Spice” could actually be taken as a
cheesey, harmless episode of a morning teen sitcom. In the wake of
Columbine (which incidentally occurred when the movie started
shooting), it’s understandable that some of the edgier
material involving teens and guns was toned down or cut. But the
movie had the potential to pack a big satiric punch at
today’s American teenage culture and its shortcomings.
Fortunately, there’s enough symbolism and ideas remaining to
suggest what the movie was trying to accomplish.

Sandy Yang Rating: 7

“The Amati Girls” Starring Mercedes Ruehl,
Paul Sorvino and Mark Harmon Directed by Anne De Salvo
Most things in people’s lives are really not very exciting or
interesting to anyone but themselves. Perhaps someone should have
mentioned this to writer/director Anne DeSalvo before she made her
film, “The Amati Girls.” The movie focuses on the
intermingled lives of four Italian adult sisters, their mother, and
their relationships with each other. Each sister is at a different,
but conventional, point in her life. There is Grace (Mercedes
Ruehl), the oldest sister with a dominating husband, Joe (Paul
Sorvino). Then, there is the “bad marriage” sister,
Christine (Sean Young), whose workaholic husband, Paul (Jamey
Sheridan), is not spending enough time with their daughter. Of
course, there is also the unmarried and unsettled Denise (Dinah
Manoff), who may finally meet her true love, Lawrence (Mark
Harmon). And last of all, there is the youngest, mentally disabled
sister, Dolores (Lily Knight), and the traditional mother, Dolly
(Cloris Leachman). Although the film strives to be a realistic
family drama, it fails in its attempt at realism. The primary
problem is that the arc of their lives is complete within the
hour-and-a-half time span of the film. Every problem that the
sisters could conceivably encounter through the course of their
lives is addressed and then solved in the film, which covers a
five-month period time span. The major crisis arrives only 15
minutes before the film’s conclusion, and yet, everything is
resolved effortlessly in the remaining time. The film’s
characters are driven by their nature, but unfortunately those
characters are one-dimensional. Ultimately, it is hard to care
about any of the characters because they are each stock, textbook
representations of people in different stages of their
relationships. It would have been nice to say, “If you like
family dramas, you will love “˜The Amati Girls.'”
Even if audiences were to like films about family struggles,
however, this picture offers nothing new to the genre, and instead,
just reinforces the stereotypes that created this uninspiring
story.

Dave Holmberg Rating: 4