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Sweet Home Alabama

Sweet Home Alabama

List Price: $19.99
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Enjoyable but predictable
Review: Reese Witherspoon is a very entertaining actor with a few gem movies up her sleeve (ie. Election & Legally Blonde). "Sweet Home Alabama" is entertaining but very predictable. Storyline focusses on a pretentious woman about to marry a politician's son but needs to go back to her hometown first to clean out the skeletons in her closet. The movie didn't do great things at the box office but is good enough entertainment for a friday night at home with a DVD and a block of chocolate.

DVD SUMMARY:
The DVD features a 16:9 transfer, eight deleted scenes as well as an alternate ending. This ending was originally the one they wanted to go with, but test audiences didn't approve. Let me say that the ending that did get used is indeed better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: FOR THE HEART
Review: This movie was great! A clothes designer is engaged
to the Mayor's son, but she has one small problem, she is
all ready married. As she travels back home to end this problem
she suddenly realizes just what is important in life, oh if we
all could have our eyes open to this.
Talk about a movie that grabs your heart strings, this is the one. Who will she chose to live the rest of her life with?
I loved this movie and would reccommend it for all to see.
Excellent from start to finish!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A sweet and sassy romantic comedy
Review: Oh, to have Melanie Smooter-Carmichael's "problem," forced to choose between a rich, hunky, Kennedyesque guy from New York City and a sweet, studly estranged husband in Alabama! This romantic comedy contrasts the urbane sophistication of New York with the quaint folksiness of small-town Alabama, a motif that's been around since the days of Mark Twain. What makes this rendition work is the performances, particularly that of charming, seemingly-natural Reese Witherspoon. The girl can do no wrong. Once again she shows a remarkable timing for comedy, and projects the right blend of world-weary wisdom and little-girl innocence. Dark-haired Patrick Dempsey and rugged, blond Josh Lucas are perfectly cast as the two men who represent different potential futures for Melanie. It is wonderfully brave that C. Jay Cox (who wrote the screenplay) and director Andy Tennant have refused to make Melanie's choice an easy one--either man would make a wonderful husband, yet only one can be the right choice for Melanie. It is to the screenwriter's credit that he never goes for the easy laugh or the easy way out. The supporting cast is also perfect, especially Mary Kay Place and Jean Smart as a pair of Southern mamas. Candice Bergen's cold, patrician New York mother is a bit of a caricature, albeit a funny one. The George Fenton soundtrack helps establish the hominess of life in Alabama, which represents a past Melanie (in "Gone with the Wind," Melanie was the good girl who did everything the right way) tries to escape from. This film is a lovely antidote to all the violence, gore, and video-game commercialism in so many films today. The commentary by the director is interesting and enlightening, as he describes his rationale for deleting certain scenes. The DVD also has the unused original ending, which would have given the film a bit of a different spin. Even if you can see the ending coming a mile away, you can't help but cheer the happy couple on. A warm-hearted and completely likeable film.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Making Lemonade Out of Lemons
Review: Reese Witherspoon's rise in Hollywood was something special to behold. She has great range, and always comes off as thoroughly believable. She really is committed to her craft, so God bless her. Her performances in "Freeway" and "Election" seemed harbingers of bigger and better things to come.

Except there's one problem: The Hollywood that once was is no more. Once an actress of Reese's calibre makes it big in independent fare by such excellent directors as Alexander Payne and Matthew Bright, there's nowhere to go but down.

I should have seen the writing on the wall with her performance in the formulaic but thoroughly fun "Legally Blonde." But, this one is just plain formulaic, and just plain dull.

From frame one everything is one slick, but lifeless cliche. The gay fashion models and makeup people, the rich fiance, the goober ex-husband and the slow-witted southerners, all stock characters right out of made-for-TV central casting.

I won't go too much into the threadbare plot, save to say it's another "country girl makes it big in the city, goes home, gets comeuppance and learns you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl," etc., etc. It's basically the same plot that made "Tarzan's New York Adventure," "Crocodile Dundee II " and the Dukes of Hazzard spinoff "Enos" so forgetable.

Once Reese gets back to her wrong side of the tracks hamlet in Alabama, every scene seems to open with her making a grand entrance and greeting everyone out of her past with some obligatory variation of "well, look what the cat done dragged in."

She really does her best with the part, it's just that there's really no part there at all. Candice Bergen is enjoyable and annoying, but like Reese, should be looking for a new agent.

Reese Witherspoon should be getting Carole Lombard kind of roles. It's a crime against acting that she's playing parts that even Madonna should turn down.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: What's wrong with the rich guy??
Review: This is a cute movie with many lovable characters. The plot line is kind of familiar. Girl escapes her hick home town and falls in love with and gets engaged to a rich big City Guy. Girl realizes that her country roots are stronger than she thought. Girl dumps City Guy and re-marries Alabama Guy.

The problem here is that the City Guy is not shallow, mean, stupid or undesirable in any noticeable way. He is smart, kind and madly in love with Girl. When she goes back to the Alabama Guy, the viewer feels like Girl has lost her mind.

This is a fun romantic comedy, but the motivation behind her choice to leave the City Guy is not clear. Alabama guy is lovable and newly rich, and he and Girl are still legally married to one another. However, the situation is not especially believable. Depite the problem with this point of logic, it is still a good chick flick.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not a home anyone would recognize
Review: This movie is an insult to Southerners, an insult to women, and an insult to anyone with any degree of intelligence. I was thoroughly disappointed -- I had really expected this to be much more clever.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pretty good, actually!
Review: I have to admit, I didn't have very high hopes for this movie when I went to se it, but I thought I would support my favorite actress. Well, I saw it and fell in love with it. The moment it came out on DVD, I bought it. very, very good movie for anyone, any age.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: REESE'S 2ND TOUR DE FORCE !
Review: Of course!And that was just three years after her first(Cruel Intensions).She fits for every role,teen,mature.She knows how to play at her fingertips.I've heard that them productors first intension had been putting Meg Ryan for "Felony Melanie" role.She would not mess it up but she's too old and cliché.But maybe Renée Zellweger would do.
Anyway Reese Witherspoon was the center-focus of the movie and that's why people liked this flick so much.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Sweet, Romantic Movie-an interesting DVD
Review: "Sweet Home Alabama" is a romantic comedy, with the emphasis on the romance. A beautiful, young Manhattan clothes designer (Witherspoon) becomes engaged to the son of the mayor (the gorgeous Patrick Dempsey). One hitch: unbeknownst to her fiance, she is still married to her high school sweetheart (the also gorgeous Josh Lucas) in Alabama. So our heroine must travel to the South, and to her forgotten past, to get her divorce. Of course, her trip back home does not turn out the way she envisioned and she ends up having to stay there longer than expected.
When you see the movie the first time, many of the scenes are very funny. When you see it again, you still enjoy it (if you're a fan of this genre), but more for the romance and the beautiful settings (there is a scene in Tiffany's that is amazing) than the humor. However, it is still well worth the trip to Alabama again and again. Witherspoon packs so much charm and grace in her role.
The DVD is actually a great buy for movie fans. The director takes you through an entire storyline that was cut (Witherspoon's assistant having a crush on Dempsey's character) and explains why. He also shows you an alternate ending that was shot and cut. His commentary over the film is also interesting, particularly as this was one of the first films shot in NY after September 11th. Plus, he tells you about various choices he made-for example, both guys were good guys, making the heroine's decision harder.
I would recommend "Sweet Home Alabama" to fans of the romantic comedy genre or Southern flavored movies. I would caution those who don't like romantic comedy-this movie most likely won't change your mind. However, for all students of film, the dvd is interesting for the insights into the process of making this movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Really cheesy!
Review: But what a fun movie! I'm glad she came to her senses at the end of the movie! I'll certainly make this one part of my comedy collection!


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