Connie And Carla (Full Screen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Within its genre this is a definite 5! Truly hilarious!
Review: Connie and Carla delivers on all fronts. What a true gem of a movie! Nia Vardalos delivers a film far superior to her "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". The laughs keep coming and coming. The humor is spoken and seen. This film is sort of a cross between "Some Like It Hot", "Victor/Victoria" and "Sister Act" - only it stands on its own.

When they witness a mob hit, Connie and Carla, two sad dinner theatre wanna be's (who are actually relegated to singing in a lounge at the airport), go on the lamb to escape being killed themselves. They escape to the one place where they figure there is no culture - L.A. - but even better West Hollywood - gay mecca for the west coast.

Getting to this point, the film is awkward as it sets up the scenario. However, it is still quite funny. Once the action moves to West Hollywood, the action gets ridiculously hilarious.

To earn a living and to achieve their dream of being paid performers, Connie and Carla pretend to be men in drag in a drag show. To do so requires that they wear garish make-up. Toni Collette's make-up alone is a sight gag that had me rolling on the floor more often than I could count. Add to that Collette's perfect (has she ever been anything but in any film?) timing and performance and Vardalos' great facial expressions and you've got a comedy team worthy of noteriety.

The bald faced innocence with which Connie and Carla believe that dinner theatre is truly a high art form is a further point of hilarity that continues to be milked throughout the film to great success. To that, I must add, one complaint: the stunt casting of Debbie Reynolds. It seemed forced and unnecessary. But that is just me. It didn't diminish my overall enjoyment of the film.

In fact, casting is one of the things that this film has definitely got in its favor. The supporting cast of drag queens are unique and memorable without being intrusive into the overall story. The villains of the piece are believable without being caricatures. Truly the supporting cast are fine character actors who should be proud of the work they've done on this film.

And finally, I'd like to praise Vardalos and the studio for making a film about "controversial" subject matter that could, in all honesty, be watched by every single member of the family. This is a family film. There is very little, if any cursing, and not a lick of nudity. There is no innuendo that could slip by a child's sharp wit, and yet parent and child alike would find this film funny as all get out.

Vardalos and Collette are the drag equivalent of Lucy and Ethel (is that possible since they're already women?).

I cannot tell you how much you will enjoy this film! Go see it!

Rating:
Summary: Nice movie, bad target marketing
Review: Connie and Carla is a decent enough movie. I think Nia Vardalos is a brilliant physical comedienne (witness the way she is constantly bouncing off - literally - David Duchovny) and I will watch anything featuring the great Toni Collette. There are moments of pure comedy genius in this film. As noted elsewhere on these pages, C&C's 'audition' - featuring "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" - is the movie's high point. It's a wonderfully staged, spine-tingling piece of moviemaking.

Still, I have to wonder about Nia and her production team (Rita Wilson, et al), who so brilliantly marketed their previous film together. After finding a broad target audience with "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding," you'd think they'd want to go back and build on that. But marketing a movie about drag queens to the "Wedding" demographic was going to be a tough sell. The results bear that out. C&C barely cracked eight million dollars in the US box office receipts, despite a production and marketing cost of almost 5x that amount. Let's hope this movie finds its audience in DVD market. We need more of Nia.

Rating:
Summary: LMAO
Review: I have NOT laughed SO hard at a movie in YEARS! This movie is SO funny you had better bring a box of tissues with you when you watch it! GREAT performances by all! A MUST SEE!

Rating:
Summary: Bad Follow Up Film
Review: This movie was stupid.I liked "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" but this movie was just stupid and...gay.The movie is about Connie & Carla (Nia Vardalos & Toni Collette) who are sing at a nightclub and then witness a murder by a mob boss so they wind up in Hollywood where they walk into a gay bar and see a bunch of guys in drag singing.Connie decides to dress up as men and sing at the club,but then the show becomes a hit threatening to reveal where they're hiding.As a sub plot one of the drag queens brother
Jeff (David Duchovny) shows up to make amends with his brother and Connie falls for him.He too feels something for her but doesn't wanna make a move because he thinks she's a guy.The movie was a little bit funny in a "Cheaper By the Dozen" sense,
it has a lot of hit and miss jokes but halfway through the film it just falls flat.Nia Vardalos picked a horrible script to follow up to the mega hit "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and David Duchovny should have found something better.C- for the movie,only because I chuckled a few times

Rating:
Summary: Connie and Carla Do L.A.!!!
Review: While not as good as the Oscar nominated MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, this second film by writer/actress Nia Vardalos was a really really fun movie...it was an obvious mixture of SOME LIKE IT HOT, VICTOR/VICTORIA, SISTER ACT, and TO WONG FOO, without a single original thought, but some very cute musical numbers from films like YENTL, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, HAIR, SOUTH PACIFIC, OAKLAHOMA, and FUNNY GIRL, just to name a few.

The film was full of cheesy moments and terrible dialogue (a shame considering Vardalos's first feature was so inspired), but the chemistry of the stars, plus the great musical numbers, more than save it. There was also a great cameo appearance by Debbie Reynolds (gotta love her), and even a mention of WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN?, one of my favorite Reynolds films, which no one seems to have heard of.

Toni Collette was outstanding (she has a wonderful voice), and even Nia Vardalos (really annoying AFTER the GREEK WEDDING hype), surprised me...They are extremely convincing as a couple of drag queens, more in look than behavior though....it doesn't matter cause nothing in this film is very plausible it's just FUN! See it, especially if you like musicals...It's this year's CAMP!