Rating: Summary: Chris Basham Loved It!... Review: I loved this movie. Enough said...
Rating: Summary: Monsters Inc. is #1 Review: I dont know why everybody is calling this movie a chick flick Sully and Mike are both males. Futhermore changing the name to the Ya-Ya Sisterhood disturbs me for the two main charters are monsters.
Rating: Summary: YA YA! Okay, its a chick flick ... Review: (not that there's anything wrong with that) .....but guys, if you want a hint into the strange world of women's friendships, watch this with your loved one and listen to stories of her own lost youth. You will learn answers to many of the mysteries of women and the world we inhabit (if only in dreams.). Imagine Charo, coochie-cooing the words YA YA! and you'll have an idea of the true meaning and fun of this movie. I will admit, I found it best to have a little knowledge of the book. But don't read the book. Listen to it. The (UNEDITED) audio version of this fine novel really gives life to the words and one can really appreciate the enunciation of the most important words about this group of life-long friends. YaYa! (See my review of the audio tape on Amazon.com under "ISBN: 0060094818" and find out exactly what Charo REALLY has to do with this film.) Rebecca Wells wrote an earlier book based on similar characters and ideas, but the mother was not as likeable nor excusable. She hit the "motherlode" (pardon the pun!) when she penned "The Divine Secrets..." I would love to have these quirky women as caricatures in my life. What a gift to have this kind of lifelong communication and keepers of secrets (even though they all may need a good month at the dreaded "Betty.") Hell, therapy would ruin their antics of these bigger than life characters. I love the southern charm of this story and yes, Steel Magnolias comes to mind. But nothing comes close to this bond, and the film is cast perfectly--unfortunately leaving no room for Shirley MacLaine's character. She couldn't do better than her role in "Magnolias," no matter how far south the story may be set. In a series of stories from an amazing scrapbook (hurrah for the prop team -- the book appeared just as I imagined!) Siddha learns about her mother's past and the reason they both slam the phone against the counter when they finally answer each others' calls. The men in this movie are important characters, but are side men to the women's antics and the amazing charm these great Ya Yas have over all who meet them. The screenplay does the best job possible while cutting out a few characters to keep the story flowing. No elephant available, but what a great view of the world the Ya Yas inhabit! Siddha gets a return visit to the good memories while listening to the answers that mother would never had given her.... this is what the sisterhood is all about. She finds the wonder of being mothered by four deliciously free and feisty women. I wish all women could have the type of friendships these women found and hope that all daughters can find the love and support from such an open, wonderous group. I gave this to my best friend, announcing to her that she was on my YA YA list. I only hope that, after seeing this movie, you will begin the search for those lost YaYa sisters from your own past to find the joy, memories, and love this film exudes. All in all -- what fun, tragedy, enlightenment, discovery and ghosts come out of a simple event: Siddha's interview with a Time magazine writer looking for an edge to interview this up and coming playwrite. A long summer night: friends, family, entoxicating hints of shrimp gumbo, live cajun music, the scent of gardenias keep the viewer inside the world of Ya Ya! While we feel our bare toes (painted with bright red polish, of course) squishing between blades of the wonderous cushion of green green grass; we leave as an honorary member of the Divine Secret Sisiterhood of that summer of the eternal Ya Ya . There are five ***** in this movie! coochie coochie!
Rating: Summary: A Waste of Time Review: To say that this is a "chick" movie is insulting to chicks.If you like stories about gals from the South who drink like fish, talk too much, and act like fools then I guess this is the movie for you. It bears slight resemblance to the book, except it has the same characters. The jumps in time are confusing, the situations the women find themselves in are contrived and implausable, the characters are outrageous, but if this is what floats your boat, and it obviously does some people's, then pop some corn and let your mind go numb.
Rating: Summary: Funny and touching! Review: Four young friends [Vivi, Teensy, Caro and Necie] in Louisiana create a secret sisterhood in 1937, swearing eternal devotion to each other and they remain best friends through all the triumphs and tragedies in their lives. When Siddalee Walker [Sandra Bullock], the daughter of Vivi [Ellen Burstyn], a successful playwright, has an interview with Time magazine in which she condemns her mother's impact on her life, Vivi goes ballistic, cutting her daughter out of her life. So, the other members of the Sisterhood "kidnap" Siddalee, attempting to set her straight about her mother. The film then jumps back and forth in time, with Ashley Judd playing the younger Vivi. She has a lot of happy adventures with her Ya-Ya sisters, but also has to deal with a jealous mother, a true love who dies in WWII and a family with a man [played, in present day, by James Garner] she had to settle with. There is also a dark secret that is the core of the mother-daughter alienation, which must be dealt with in order for the rift between Vivi and Siddalee to heal. The entire cast is just fabulous, including the present-day sisters, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight, Maggie Smith and of course, Ellen Burstyn. The dialog is full of wickedly hilarious one-liners about men, alcohol, friendship and growing old. The DVD is wonderful. There's commentary by Ashley Judd, Callie Khouri [the director], deleted scenes, a documentary titled "Unlocking the Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," Alison Krauss' music video for "Sitting in the Window of My Room" and a lot more! Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, sadly, did not do much box office, which was a shame, as it is a realistic vision of women and life-long friendships. Do not miss this one!
Rating: Summary: A guy weighs in Review: Ever have a bunch of gripes about a movie yet you can't deny you had a good time watching parts of it? Ya-Ya Sisterhood is one of them, for me. Im gonna take a guess here and assume this is one of those too-rich-to-get-on-the-screen novels-we are introduced to the little Ya-Yas in childhood, but we have no idea why their bond was so special, how the whole mythology came about.However, Ellen Burstyn and Fionnula Flanagan et al. are so much fun to watch as they play their roles, you get over the short introductions. Sandra Bullock plays a neurotic, marriage shy writer who has spilled all the family skeletons out of the closet in her new play. Her mother, a deeply emotionally scarred woman and seeming Southern shrew,finds out, and begins to torment Bullock in a rage by mail and phone. Bullock is about to give up on her relationship with her mother when her mothers' childhood friends intervene, and slowly reveal the truth behind her mother's anger. Sounds black, but its all done with genuine heart and lots of humor. The flashback style can get hard to follow, and it'll take a while to find out who everyone is, but this guy liked it in spite of its disjointed composition.
Rating: Summary: Ya-Ya Review: This is a moving story of how challenging parenthood can be and how the results of poor parenting can leave children in emotional turmoil. It tells of a woman who had a somewhat difficult childhood because of being resented by own mother and how she struggled to raise her own while experiencing a nervous breakdown. The woman's daughter (Bullock) grows up resenting her mother for the way she raised her not realizing all her mother had been through in those days. The story also show how important true friendship is and how it can help us to face our demons and overcome our fears.
Rating: Summary: What Planet are Some Reviewers From? Review: At least one reviewer said this movie could be about any southern woman at any time. From that I can suppose only that some amorous doters of such trendy movies just get caught up in the sensation and lose touch with reality. If this WERE about any southern woman of any time, then geez! That would mean all southern women are (and always have been and will be) either new-agers or dysfunctional Catholics. It would mean that all of them don't mind being all wrapped up in the "sisterhood" motif, to the extent of pretty well neglecting their husbands, even when those husbands are sweet and longsuffering. The real patience being tested is that of those of us who still believe that marriage can be a beautiful thing and realize that it takes active committment from both partners. As long as the mania represented in this movie prevails, it can only make life harder for us. I mentioned the sweet and longsuffering husbands, and indeed the movie does have those. Actually I believe that's part of its set-up by which it is out to sneak in its real message back-door-wise. Indeed the major male characters herein are likeable and even overindulgent in their mates' pompous aloofness from them. In this way the movie risks over-idealizing MEN, rather surprisingly. Of course we all know that there are bad men, but I won't dwell on that, for that's just what we would more usually expect movies of such themes to dwell heavily upon. What is most disturbing herein is, despite the inoffnsive nature of the main male characters, the pagan-ish rituals (which the title would tell us the movie is all about) feature prominently "let no man put us down" rhetoric. So the message seems to be, no matter how docile and neglected the men are, it's still the rightful birthright of the women to nurture their own elitist clique that further reinforces their aloofness from their longsuffering mates. No wonder marriages are dysfunctional in such a world! There is, by the way, some hint of portraying negatively some minor male characters. One is a little boy who makes disturbing and hurtful racist remarks. But his age almost makes one pity him for being perhaps too young to know better and for how the then almost as young title "sisterhood" basks in self-righteously putting him down. Then there's a vague comment in flashbacks about some man who is said to have treated his horses better than his wife. It's unclear just which character in the movie if any the remark is made about. But the best candidate is a man who is soon heard to call his wife a "Catholic idiot". The audience, I suppose, is expected to heap all the blame on his head for offensive stereotyping. But as for the "idiot" part, that's really the movie's doing - it DOES stereotype her as an idiot, and not a very nice one at that. That part of the stereotyping is just put in her husband's mouth, making him a fall guy. While there can seem to be a watchable story in this movie as one watches, anyone with a capacity to reflect on it objectively afterwards can think only, "How manipulative!"
Rating: Summary: Great fun!!! Review: I went to three video stores before I could get my hands on this dvd.And it was the first day it was released.I would call it a chick flick, but then again how many Ben Affleck,Vin Diesel, Arnold Swarzenegger(however you spell that) movies have I had to sit through.I would like to thank the producer(Bonnie Bruckheimer) for getting this movie made.
Rating: Summary: Read the Book Instead Review: Reading some of the glowing reviews at this site, I wonder, did I see the same movie? I generally enjoy this kind of "chick flick", but I was frustrated and a bit bored watching this. It just didn't capture the spirit of the book at all. (And those accents--please!)
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