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The Wedding Planner

The Wedding Planner

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Romantic Comedy must-see
Review: This film was a fantastic, feel-good, romantic comedy, the kind you want to watch over and over again (preferably with a box of chocolates). Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughy shine in this brilliant romance. The kind of warm and fuzzy type of film that most romantics at heart will thoroughly enjoy. A true Chick's Flick about weddings and finding your soul mate. It's a MUST-SEE!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Date Movie
Review: Hey, I'm not much of a date movie person, but this was good. Jennifer Lopez really had it in this one. Mary(Lopez) is a wedding planner who one day gets into accident when a doctor(Mcconaughy) saves her life. They fall in love and she finds out that he's one of the grooms at one of her weddings she's planning. A pretty predictable ending but the rest of it wasn't. I think it deserves two thumbs up!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Makes you yearn for Kate and Spencer, Doris and Rock
Review: The week that The Wedding Planner opened, its star, Jennifer Lopez, set some firsts. The movie came in at number one, and so did her new CD. Rarely before had a popular performer managed such a feat. The album is fairly memorable, but, alas, the movie is not at all. It should soon fade into oblivion. Perhaps the best thing about it is that is offers further proof that Ms. Lopez can act.

When it opens, Maria [Lopez], who plans weddings for a living, is orchestrating a lavish one. She pulls the big event off smoothly, and then goes home. Here we see that, outside of her profession, Maria doesn't have much excitment in her life. She lives alone and has nothing better to do with her spare time than to eat some takeout food and watch TV or to join her father and his friends at their Scrabble club. One day she is crossing a street and gets the heel of one of her new Gucci shoes caught in a manhole cover. While she tries to free her shoe, she is nearly run over by a runaway dumpster. She is saved by the handsome Steve [Michael McConaughey], who is a successful pediatrician. That night they have a romantic, but chaste, date in a park. At first it looks as though Maria has found Mr. Right, but the next day she finds out that Steve is the fiance of her newest and richest client. Meanwhile, her father, an Italian immigrant, decides that Massimo [Justin Chambers], a boy she knew as a child in Italy, is perfect for her. This sets up one of the oldest plots in the romantic comedy genre. A girl is in love with a man who isn't available while being pursued by a nice guy she doesn't love.

The problem with The Wedding Planner isn't the tried and true story line. There are, after all, only a few acceptable themes in romantic comedy. The problem is with the dialog. The screenplay is not outrageous enough to be a screwball comedy, not racy enough to be an adult comedy and not clever enough to be laugh-out-loud funny. It is simply bland, which is a problem in any kind of movie.

I suspect that Ms. Lopez was drawn to the part because her character is a prim, buttoned up type, the opposite of the star's real life image. Playing against type, she does a fine job, but this is not enough to carry such a lightweight story. McConaughey drawls his way through his role, playing Steve so limply that it's hard to see the attraction. Bridgett Wilson-Sampas is good as Steve's intended, Fran, who only thinks she wants him. What few great comic moments there are belong to Joanna Gleason and Charles Kimbrough as Fran's out to lunch parents, and to Justin Chambers as Massimo.

You know a movie is in trouble when it constantly reminds you of other, more memorable movies. I kept thinking about Hepburn and Tracy or about Doris Day and Rock Hudson. I remembered how witty and outrageous some of their movies were. I found myself wishing I were watching one of them instead.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Non-realistic...
Review: ...stuff like that wouldn't happen in real life, I mean...the ending. That would totally go wrong, but I was happy with the outcome. I like happy endings, but in reality...that wouldn't happen. It was a really sweet movie, Mary (Jennifer Lopez) plays as the sweet/control freak wedding planner. She falls in love with one of her client's boyfriends...in which she tries to keep her feelings aside so she can focus on her work. Well...that client's boyfriend falls in love with her. And...you predict the ending. In all, the movie wasn't that bad.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun and warm love story
Review: To describe the storyline quickly is Mary and Eddie fall for each other, then discover that Mary is the wedding planner for Eddie's fiance. Eddie, not meaning to fall for Mary, meets her in a very unique and romantic way... and then surprises himself by how much and how quickly he cares for her.

This is a very sweet and unique love story. The romance that develops between the two is very touching. As the wedding approaches, and the young couple fight to suppress their feelings, you'll be swept away by the emotional turmoil and the conclusion.

For those of you that are thinking... sure, he is in no position to even be thinking of another woman in that way... well, the writer took care of that also... but you'll have to see the movie to discover how there are no hard feelings when all the emotions are out in the open...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is a great movie!
Review: This movie is so good! I could watch it over and over. Jennifer Lopez does an excellent job in this movie and I really recomend that everyone see it. It has such a good story line that just pulls you right it. And "no" its not neccisarily a girly movie. It is really good! I hope you enjoy it!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Plan on skipping this one
Review: "The Wedding Planner" has all the originality, credibility and wit of a bad TV sitcom. The film boasts a storyline so hoary and wheezy that one could probably trace its antecedents all the way back to that marvelous 1934 classic "It Happened One Night" - if not indeed even further back than that. It's the oldie about the bride-or-groom-to-be who discovers just at that crucial last moment, when all the guests have gathered for the wedding, that he or she is actually marrying the wrong person and that his or her real, honest-to-God genuine true love is just out there waiting in the wings ready for the taking. "The Wedding Planner" doubles our pleasure by having TWO such disastrous weddings happening at the same time.

Like far too many lazy romantic comedies, "The Wedding Planner" is based on a premise so reeking of incredibility, coincidence and contrivance that any attempt to connect it to the real world vanishes at the outset (and before you accuse me of being an unromantic and of not understanding that suspension of disbelief is an essential ingredient in any film in the romantic comedy genre, I will just point to the brilliant 1967 film "Two For the Road" as evidence that this does not have to be the case). Jennifer Lopez plays Mary Fiore, a hotshot wedding planner so absorbed in the minutiae of her work that she just can't seem to find the time or the inclination to look for Mr. Right herself. One day she is "rescued" from near-death - in a scene of stultifying stupidity - by a handsome pediatrics doctor named Steve, played by Matthew McConaughey. A feeling of mutual attraction develops between them, which leads to heady complications when, to Mary's utter amazement (but to no one else's in the audience), Dr. Steve turns out to be the fiancée of the very woman whose wedding Mary has been planning. As always, the well-intentioned characters struggle with the complexities of the situation, momentarily consider the feelings of their future spouses, then immediately run off and do what's best for themselves anyway. And why is it that, in situations such as this one, those rejected suitors always turn out to be either so self-absorbed and hateful that we don't care a bit if they're hurt by the wedding day turnabout, or so completely self-negating and understanding that they end up happily wishing the newly formed couple bon voyage with the rest of their friends and family? Either way the audience is let off the hook and we are free to root for our two main characters with a clear conscience. Some genres just have hopeless conventions I guess.

One could conceivably overlook the mountain of clichés under which the story lies buried had the film at least managed to bring even a touch of freshness, style and wit to its execution. Instead, we are subjected to an assortment of silly, lowbrow antics such as Mary finding herself on an out-of-control horse so that Steve can ride along and rescue her, or Steve breaking off the genitals of a statue and having to hold the newly glued piece on while talking to a policeman. The dialogue doesn't help to raise the sophistication level of the film much either.

Where "The Wedding Planner" really falls down, however, is in the performance department. Jennifer Lopez appears to be a reasonably likable and attractive young woman, but she seems hopelessly puerile and amateurish both in her line readings and in her body language. McConaughey is his usual blank self, and virtually every supporting player is forced to indulge in the broadest sort of comic overacting in a desperate attempt to wring at least SOME laughs out of this tired material.

The way I look at it is this: if you have seen "Runaway Bride" - yet another bad romantic comedy - you've already seen "The Wedding Planner." So skip it and rent "Two For the Road" and see what great romantic comedy is really all about!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: What can I say .. ?
Review: Another movie chosen "by the girls" in the family for our family night movie. It was all right but not what I expected. It had its funny moments and the characters were fun to watch, but the plot kind of dragged and it was nice to see the closing credits.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Entertaining, but could've been much more
Review: 2 people want to get married. So they hire a wedding planner. Only problem is, the wedding planner falls in love with the groom. This is pretty much the premise of The Wedding Planner. The movie has its comedic moments, but honestly, with this interesting premise, it could have been a LOT funnier. As is, it's more of a chick flick attempt at a romantic comedy, with much lost potential. It's better than other wedding flicks (My Best Friend's Wedding comes to mind) and it's also more realistic in the fact that the bride is not painted as some "evil and rich" woman that's controlling the groom but he's too blind to see it (as is the usual cliché). In this respect, The Wedding Planner wins, and overall it is an entertaining movie to watch. It's just sad to see that it "coulda been a contenda" had more thought been put into the comedic aspects of the movie...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: At least I didn't spend money on this movie!
Review: Yes, I am one of those women who loves a good romantic comedy -- I've watched so many, and will watch so many more. But the key word here is GOOD romantic comedy. Sadly, this movie was not good. Matthew tried, J-Lo tried, heck, they all TRIED, but it was just too cheesy to save. Why was it necesary for J-low to mention the m&ms quote? As if this was some romantic thing he had mentioned before. He just likes the brown ones, and for a stupid reason. Let it go. This movie was so badly written it never stood a chance. J-Lo we loved you as Selena, Matthew, you did a great job in A Time To Kill, so what possesed you to make this movie? The world may never know. If you want to see a much better written romantic comedy that didn't receive nearly as much press, check out 'Just Write' starring Jeremy Pivon and the guy who played J-Lo's father, he did much better in this movie. Also check out 'Music from another room' very good.


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