Rating: Summary: Sweet Home Alabama Review: This movie was great! We had a girls' movie day out and we had a blast. We live in NC and the south was portrayed so well - we felt like we knew the characters. Reese Witherspoon is such a great actress. Girls grab a friend and check this movie out!
Rating: Summary: Reese Witherspoon shines in this lovely romance/comedy.!!! Review: I am not a huge fan of romance-comedies, but this movie sure gives me a different opinion all together. Alan, the director, did an outstanding job with this one. I suggest you watch this movie as soon as you can, because it sure is one you don't want to miss. Reese plays a woman, who started off with nothing, and on her own, amassed a huge amount of fame as a hot new clothes designer in New York City. After her big show, she gets asked to marry a man, who seems to be absolutley in love with her. One little problem....she is still married to a man who lives in her hometown, in the state of Alabama. This movie revolves around her going back to her sweet home Alabama, to get her Husband to sign divorce papers, so that she can move on in her life. What is going to happen to her? Who is she going to end up being married to? She has to choose from either: A.) A man, who is very famous/rich/ and who absolutley loves her. -0r- B.) A man, who has been in love with her since he was 10 years old. This movie keeps you in complete suspense, and I will be purchasing this movie as soon as it comes out on DVD. Watch it, But it, or just read about it, but don't miss it. Enjoy! :)
Rating: Summary: sweet, old-fashioned symmetry Review: Reese Witherspoon shines, surrounded by strong supporting characters like Mary Kay Place (of the TV series, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, popular some 20 years ago), and a shrewd, witchy Candice Bergen. "Sweet Home Alabama" is made according to the old-fashioned formula of romance, dilemma, and symmetry. The film begins and ends at the same place, the beach on the Gulf Coast in a severe electrical storm. My sole criticism is that some of the outfits that Witherspoon wears in the film belie her successful career as a New York fashion designer. Her two love interests, her Alabama high school sweetheart who stocks his refrigerator with non-lite Bud, and her New York fiance who stages his marriage proposal in an after-hours opening of Tiffany's jewelry department, could not be further apart, geographically and otherwise. This good-natured film will evoke nostalgia for the well-made stories of the 1940s. Barbara Stanwyck or Bette Davis could easily step into the role. Recommended for the entire family, all ages.
Rating: Summary: Neil Young was right. Review: Are they ever going to allow Reese Witherspoon to be in a decent movie? Jeepers -- even *Legally Blonde* was better than this. *Sweet Home Alabama* features Reese as a up-and-coming fashion designer in New Yawk City who's about to marry a John-John Kennedy-type (Patrick Dempsey. The ladies in the audience will not buy the comparison). He's the sort of guy who has enough pull to have Tiffany's stay open after-hours, allowing our heroine her pick of the entire store. (I wish Hollywood would stop giving women ideas like this!) But before happily-ever-after can commence, Reese has a secret past to tidy up back home in the malarial swamps of Alabama -- primarily, a 7-years-overdue divorce to finalize. I won't waste your time with any further summary of the plot. Let's just say there are no surprises. The lazy and greedy producers of the movie expect the star's considerably talented shoulders to bear all the burdens. (The showy supporting cast -- Fred Ward, Candice Bergin, Mary Kay Place -- do not help her. They know what they've gotten into here, and their collective response is one of boredom.) Well, Reese heroically makes the effort, but she's starting to look a little unhappy, if you ask me. Turns out we DO need that Neil Young around, anyhow.
Rating: Summary: If you want a chick flick, see "The Banger Sisters" instead Review: I was disappointed by Sweet Home Alabama. I like Reese Witherspoon very much- in fact, she is in some of my favorite movies (Election, Pleasantville and Legally Blonde). I love light romantic comedies so I don't know why I didn't like this movie. Maybe because I never really ended up laughing - I did smile a few times - and my 15-year old daughter loved the movie. However, I think you can definitely wait for this one to come out on video. This movie will appeal to teenage girls and young women who have yet to find out that life is not like the movies. In other words, pure fairy tale. An adorable, perky, soon to the be the next greatest fashion designer from New York, Melanie Carmichel, becomes engaged to the mayor's hottie of a son. But before she can marry him, she has to tie up loose ends back home in Alabama by getting her (secret) first husband of seven years to sign the divorce papers. He refuses. Melanie then acts like a complete jerk to just about everyone she knew back when (which surprises no one in her home town because she was obviously not the most popular person in Pigeon Creek, AL). Then, because this movie has to have some sort of plot, she begins to feel those old feelings for the first guy. As they say over and over in the movie, "Oh my god?!" What should she do? Should Melanie marry her rich, loving handsome and powerful fiancé in New York who defies his mother, the mayor, to marry her? Or, should she surrender to her sexual urges and go back with dull and boring (but cute in an "aw shucks, maam" kind of way) husband number one (who's name at this point I've already forgotten) and live in Pigeon Creek, Alabama? Tough choice. Even if you haven't seen it, you know how it will end. Not that I cared either way - I just wanted the movie to be over so I could see "The Banger Sisters" which ended up being hysterically funny and very entertaining.
Rating: Summary: How Sweet It Is---Sweet Home Alabama Review: Having been born and raised in Alabama, I was anxious to see this one and be sure Hollywood didn't paint us as the barefoot rednecks they usually do. They did and they didn't, but it was pretty realistic and heart-warming. Afer all, this is the family-oriented state where real men drink a cool one instead of a martini, coon dogs are named after Bear Bryant, and a pickup truck is more in demand than a BMW. Reese Witherspoon is Melanie Carmichael, the Bama belle that "escapes" to New York and carves out a glamorous career in fashion design for herself while capturing the heart of the mayor's son. One small problem prevents her from accepting his marriage proposal---she never actually got a divorce from her high school sweetheart. So she plans a quick trip to Sweet Home Alabama to get the divorce and high-tail it back to the Big Apple. But once she's back home, things happen and Melanie doesn't seem to be able to leave. This is an entertaining romantic comedy that proves to be more than a chick flick. There were many men in the audience (including my husband) and they seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were. In fact, at the showing I attended, people stood and danced when the band played the title song, but then this is Sweet Home Alabama where line dancing in the aisles at the movies is Ok when they're playing the state's anthem. In addition to Reese Witherspoon who is adorable as always, there are lots of familiar faces in this one. Josh Lucas, who was Russell Crowe's nemesis in "A Beautiful Mind," plays her husband while Patrick Dempsey is perfect as the sophisticated New Yorker in love with her. Kudos to Jean Smart and Mary Kay Place as the Southern mothers while Candace Bergen plays the Mayor of New York to such perfection that her character was booed (good-naturedly, of course) by the audience on several occasions. I doubt this movie will win any Oscars or change anyone's life, but it will make you remember how good home can feel and that it is so often the people we loved first that we love most.
Rating: Summary: It's Awesome Review: I have seen this movie twice and am planning on seeing it a third time. Witherspoon is a great actress! the plot and the music are great, and the second it comes out on VHS or DVD I will own it.
Rating: Summary: Reese rocks but the picture is average Review: Reese Witherspoon is probably one of the most talented actresses of her generation. She could make moviegoers see a Tom Green movie if she was in it. I just wish she would tackle more roles like she had in Election and Freeway. The movie had its moments and Reese had chemistry with both of her leading men. I loved her scenes with Josh Lucas and I thought she looked wonderful. I also think that she has made much better movies. Reese, you are a very talented woman and I would see any picture you are in! I just thought that this could have been a better movie!
Rating: Summary: Actually 2.5 Stars, But Rounded Up For Reese Review: Ah, the classic movie love triangle. When done well it can be sublime (see "The Philadelphia Story"). But, it's certainly been done to death and if you can't bring anything fresh and new to the concept, it's best to leave it alone. The producers of "Sweet Home Alabama" got lucky. They got Reese Witherspoon. Otherwise, this film would've been a disaster. The's film is so very predictable which, by itself, is not so bad. Charm can take you a long way. However, the charm ends with Witherspoon (OK, Mary Kay Place is great, too). This movie is being marketed as a comedy, yet it's major downfall is that it's just not very funny. Oh, it tries, but it relies on so many stereotypical jokes and situations that it just fails (the "married your cousin" joke is an especially egregious example). Since you know how the movie is going to end, there's no suspense and, since the jokes fall flat, there's nothing to keep you interested. Except for Reese. She is consistently good and doesn't fail here. Her scene in a pet cemetary (it would take too long to explain, BELIEVE me!) is particularly good. She looks great and acquits herself very well. She just doesn't have much to work with. The rest of the supporting cast (Josh Lucas, Patrick Dempsey, Ethan Embry, Candice Bergen, Jean Smart, Melanie Lynsky and Fred Ward) are fine as far as their characters are allowed to go (Smart is sadly underused; Ward, Lynsky and Bergen are all stereotypes). The aforementioned Place is the only one who does anything with what she's given. What a waste. Finally, another stereotype stuck in my craw. There are two gay characters in the film who have a little "moment" toward the end of the film. Now, in real life, these two would not look at each other twice. Yet, the filmakers seem to think, as many do in "real life", that being gay is all you need to have in common to be "friends". Sadly, no. But, that's par for the course in a film that relies on those very stereotypes to get cheap laughs. Reese deserved better.
Rating: Summary: Really Cute! Review: A really cute, heartwarming movie about returning to your roots. It is sort of a chick flick, but it was really good. Reese Witherspoon is such a good actress and Josh Lucas is really loveable and hot in this. It is really cute and I felt it was worth the overpriced movie ticket price...See it!
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