Rating: 
Summary: Renee was okay, but Colin was darlin'
Review: Good movie? Yes. Great movie? No. It's true that Renee Zellweger did a good job with her English accent, and she's a fine actress--BUT, there have to be at least 100 British actresses that could have done the role at least as well, if not better. Thoughts of her in her other roles as Nurse Betty and in Jerry Maguire, for instance, kept intruding and kept me from believing, "Renee Zellweger IS Bridget Jones..." Nah. If Colin and Hugh hadn't been so very good as their characters, and if the screenplay hadn't done justice to the original Diary, this wouldn't be even a good movie. Read the book AFTER you see the movie, otherwise you'll just want to slap Renee for spoiling the character.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun but flawed
Review: Bridget Jones Diary evolved from a newspaper column, became a book and then almost simultaneously became a film and a second book. While Helen Fielding locked herself in an LA hotel room penning 'The Edge of Reason', accomplished screenwriters Richard Curtis (of NOTTING HILL and BLACKADDER fame) and Andrew Davies (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, VERY PECULIAR PRACTICE etc) hacked about at the first Bridget Jones novel to create the screenplay for this movie. Fielding had no track record on screenplays, so it was understandable that an experienced professional should be drafted in. But two?? The end result is something reasonably satisfying, but as a romance it's not as convincing as say, NOTTING HILL, and as a comedy, it's not as funny as FOUR WEDDINGS. There just aren't enough top-quality jokes spread about the movie -- the writers don't make the most of Bridget's two opportunities to deliver really bad speeches, for example. I get the sense that if Richard Curtis had been given total authorial control over the screenplay, he would have put more effort into it.This DVD goes nowhere to explain the resentment Fielding felt about having the two screenwriters brought in. She is tight-lipped in the interview on the DVD, but the questioning is undemanding. Fielding has deliberately set the screenwriters an insoluble task for THE EDGE OF REASON, because in that book Bridget Jones goes to Italy to interview Colin Firth as Colin Firth. As for the other extras on the DVD, it's clear that the editor did a good job: the right deleted scenes were left out of the movie, even if one or two contained a greater sense of the diary feel of the original book. When I originally saw this at the cinema, the audience, who seemed to be 90% female, enjoyed this enormously. My main criticism of the plot was that Bridget doesn't provide Darcy with sufficient grounds for falling in love with her. Bridget seems to win largely through comparison with Darcy's snooty lawyer girlfriend. We see big leaps in the affection Darcy has for Bridget, and it would have been nice to have had a couple more scenes to smooth out those leaps. Contrary to all my expectation, Renee Zellweger gives an excellent portrayal of Bridget. Her English accent is flawless, and she only gives her American roots away by occasionally looking too directly into her parents' eyes. I liked it. A good movie, but not a great one.
Rating: 
Summary: Faithful to the book?
Review: A very funny book made into a very attractive movie.
Which to do first - read the book or watch the movie?
I guess read the book.
BUT the movie has been fleshed out quite a bit.
The only place where it fails is in the friends of Brigid.
They are flat and muddled and very uninteresting.
But on the plus side we have injokes with Mark Darcy echoing some of his poses and walks from Pride and Prejudice and a good central performance from Renee Zelweger as the hapless Brigid.
Maybe you will lose a bit of patience with her as she does not develop as a character but this often happens if an actress is mostly concerned with putting on an English accent to the detriment of character development.
You`ll either love it or be completely indifferent - that depends on the amount of interest you have in thirty-something singletons living in London and in Colin Firth as the sexiest hunk of all time.
I enjoyed it and would watch it again and again.
My favourite addition was Mark`s Christmas sweater and tie.
Hilarious and an improvement on the book.
Also the ending which left lots of room for the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Screamingly Funny ! Don't miss this !
Review: I could watch this over and over again! Renee Zellweger was fantastic! It was flawlessly easy to forget she's American! She was completely believable, which is impossible for most American actresses! The humiliations Bridget found herself enduring were hysterical!
Colin Firth was magnificent as the understated, uptight, Mark Darcy. The way he keeps meeting Bridget after their inital wacky introduction is priceless! His surprisingly "Hunky" ending is not to be missed! I'd never seen him before, but I will again!
Hugh Grant's completely believable sleazy, British, upperclass, playboy boss Daniel Cleaver will leave you booing, hissing, and trying to shake his sleaze from your mind long after the movie's ended.
Every actor on this film has something to be proud of. Bridget's wacky friends, her bizzarre parents, as well as coworkers and others are all wonderful individual characters in their own right. It was a pleasure!
The script was a gem. Each scene is charming. Situations and dialogue. The upbeat narration fills in any gaps, sets the tone, and moves the story along at a nice pace. Just as you think the climax of the film can't go any higher, along comes another twist that takes you on another loop of the ride.
Well chosen music also adds to the emotional punch of the situations. Bridget's last gutsy conversation with Daniel in the office and the subsequent musical choice of "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" by Aretha Franklin as she leaves, will have you rolling on the floor with laughter! An inspired choice!
Her diary in the title is the record of her year of self improvement leading to her happiness and almost destruction, and the source of her narration. Don't miss this!
Rating:
Summary: Great movie, not what I expected
Review: When I heard about this movie, I had thought it was going to be another formula Hollywood comedy with a lot of double entendre's and sight gags, but instead I was truly delighted. Bridget Jones' diary, is about your typical urban single girl getting beyond the point when her relatives think she should be married. She has suffered through the ghastly fix ups and the constant inquiries into her love life to the point an affair with the office snake seems appealing. This show is different with its British based sense of humor, so it is fresh in that respect. Renee Zellwenger, put on some weight to more truthfully represent the average woman. She also has the average woman's friends; all quite odd and suffering together. Renee does a marvelous job at sticking her foot in her mouth as Bridget and often, no always says the wrong thing. In other words, a portrayal of a real human being. Her lipsynch with the song: "All by myself" alone in her room is one we can all sympathize with. The story focuses on a time in her life where everything kicks in: Potential relationships, family problems and job dilemmas. All the typical stuff the rest of us deal with, and as usual, all go down the drain at the same time. Viewers of the old "Life and Times of Molly Dodd" TV series will particularly like this movie. It reminded me very much of that. A great movie, once again, Ms. Zellwenger, shows her wonderful comic talent.
Rating:
Summary: I am crazy about Colin Firth!
Review: I loved this movie...it has it all. Renee was wonderfully irreverent. She said what most women only think about life, men, etc.
I had never seen Colin Firth until this film and I almost didn't realize how fetching he was until the end of the movie. Greatly underplayed..I want to see more!
Hugh Grant was great as the villain-it really fit him. I watched the movie twice and now I have to buy it. It's a classic.
Rating:
Summary: A great surprise!
Review: I rented this movie under duress. I fully expected it to be pretty bad. However, I haven't been this pleasantly surprised by a movie in a long time. In short, it was very, very funny, touching and superbly acted by everyone; especially Renee Zellweger. She pulls off a perfect English accent and does a great job of playing a clueless 30-something Londoner. Do yourself a favour and get this movie. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: surprising language
Review: When I watch a romantic comedy, I'm not expecting to be bombarded with the use of the f-word, but that was the case with this movie. I had a hard time focusing on the plot because I was wondering the whole time if we're supposed to believe that Brits use the f-word in every other sentence. I remember back when Al Pacino's Scarface was criticized for its language. It didn't bother me in that movie because you expect gangsters to use it. But it seemed out of kilter here and spoiled what otherwise would have been a more enjoyable movie experience. I mean, what would Sleepless in Seattle have been like if Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were saying (...) all the time?
Rating: 
Summary: Iffy adaptation
Review: I pushed the eject button on this DVD wondering "Why on earth would anyone, leave alone a stand-in for Mr. Darcy, want to be with Bridget? Don't get me wrong, I understand the idea: the main character is lovable despite her flaws, and for once it isn't a Cinderella story about becoming beautiful (read: skinny) when you thought you weren't. She drinks, she smokes, she's kind of a bumbler socially, but she can still be happy, right? She can still find true love. That's a likable premise. Except... um... why were we supposed to like this woman again? Hugh Grant and Colin Firth are really fun in this movie. Grant seems to relish his role as the scoundrel, and man, the guy has wonderful comic timing. Colin Firth basically is meant to be Pride and Prejudice's Mr. Darcy -- the character's name is Mark Darcy, and Firth played Darcy in the BBC miniseries version of that book -- but instead of being proud or disdainful, it seems as if the direction might have been "do your best to bore the audience." He's a bland, bland guy, Mark Darcy. Firth works through that okay, he's a flawless actor and he can make his limp noodle of a character stand up -- but even he can't rescue the idea that his character would fall in love with Ms. Jones. Why would he do THAT? This movie's working really hard to make Bridget adorable, to make her haplessness touching. It didn't work for me. Bridget's an "event magnet"; she's the sort of person things are always happening "to" mainly because of how oblivious she is to everything outside her own head. She's self-involved, and things just sort of keep knocking over when she accidentally stumbles into them. The lovable quality just didn't outweigh the obnoxious one. She's really kind of a jerk in several spots. It isn't Renee Zellweger's fault, she's basically as adorable as anyone going. It's the writing and the directing. I mean, c'mon -- the character goes to a "tarts and vicars" costume wearing a playboy bunny costume. When she realizes it isn't really a costumer, she continues to wear her outfit, complete with bunny ears, for the rest of the party and (apparently) all the way home to her flat in London. Hours after her humiliation, she hasn't taken the ears off? That's pretty DANG contrived. Jack Tripper could have stumbled in from "Three's Company" at any moment, making lovey eyes at Bridget, and you wouldn't have blinked. This struck me as just another poor, soundtrack-pushing adaptation of a pretty good pop novel. The DVD includes some of the original "Diary" entries as an added feature, and they give you the sense of a bright-enough person who's being endearingly self-deprecating in her journal. That never came across for me. My advice is to try the books.
Rating:
Summary: the real deal
Review: this movie was so real. none of that thin-as-a-wafer leading lady. renee zellweger was hilarious, even hugh grant was great and im not a hugh grant fan. not only was the movie top notch the sound track can stand on its own too. i highly recommend this movie and the extras on the dvd are not too shabby.
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