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DVD Spanglish
Anyone familiar with writer/director James L. Brooks (Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets) knows the man has a real feel for interesting women and a disarming way with a one-liner. The main women in Spanglish are Deborah Clasky (Téa Leoni), a moneyed SoCal mom, and non-English speaking Flor Moreno (Paz Vega), the beautiful Latina whom Deborah hires as a housekeeper. The one-liners, some of them amusing, are everywhere. Brooks provides an intriguing set-up for the two women to butt heads--Deborah's pudgy daughter Bernice (Sarah Steele) needs the affection at which Flor excels, while Flor's clever, bi-lingual daughter Cristina (Shelbie Bruce) is enamored of the financial advantages Deborah can provide--then proceeds to make Deborah so hatefully ignorant you can't imagine why her neuroses are the main thrust of the film. And Deborah's celebrated chef husband John (Adam Sandler, way over his head) is such a perfect parent he doesn't seem human--what happened to the Brooks who had Terms of Endearment mom Debra Winger turn to her scowling little boy and grunt "Don't make me hit you in the street"? Cloris Leachman has a nifty supporting role as Deborah's boozy, ex-jazz singer mother, but it's only one offbeat chord in an earnest film that hits all the wrong notes. --Steve Wiecking
Spang-yuck: Mr. Perfect Gets What He Should Have Expected (a painful movie to watch)
I just watched this movie last night and I was not impressed. I cannot say I was disappointed because Sandler's movies tend to be of the "potty-humor" and "pop-culture" lot, of which I do not care for either, so I didn't expect much. But this movie managed to fall short of even my expectations.
If you were looking for Sandler humor, it was there if you looked close enough; but there was simply not enough to have you laughing like you expect to when you see a movie that he stars in.
On the other hand, if you were looking to see a good movie, one that would entertain you for about 2 hours on a lazy evening, this film fell even shorter. There were gaps in the story line, underdeveloped characters, difficult scenes, and an attempt to get the audience to wish for an affair that would end a family.
The introduction to the upper-class white family left you with a question that the film never answers: What did the boy do to upset his mother? The film introduces Sandler's character in the same scene as this question, and then drops the question as if it were never asked. (The question as to the boy's terrible act is answered in a deleted scene you can watch on the DVD.)
And speaking of "as if it were never" introduced, we meet Sandler's son, and then it is as if he doesn't exist until almost the end of the film when he says goodbye to the housekeeper from the pool. That's it. He is one member of a family of four and yet his character is never developed. Where is he when the daughter is being taken to school or mom is up all night crying?
Also, from the moment Sandler sees the new housekeeper, it is obvious that they will fall for each other and you are expected to cheer for this affair (since the wife is such an odd, irritating, shallow, freak of a woman.) To cement the fact that Sandler's character should and rightfully could have an affair (and that you "should" be happy for it), the odd-ball wife cheats on her perfect, sensitive, loving husband.
(Perhaps, if Mr. Perfect had not married for looks and a hot body, but rather married a woman for her personality qualities and compatibility, he would be appreciated more as a husband and father. Alas, we are asked instead to pity him for his poor selection and selfish short-sidedness.)
Let's not even talk about watching Sandler's character have s*x with his wife. You are invited into their room to watch it from beginning to end. There isn't much flesh to see, but you do get to hear the misses' strange, p*rno-like climax noises. This scene was awkward and embarrassing to watch.
It was painful to see how Sandler's wife in the film treats their daughter. While it helps to establish how shallow the wife truly is, it is difficult to believe Sandler's character never takes a stand for his daughter as her self-worth is torn apart by her mother's perverse actions. As a mother of five children, this was truly painful to watch.
Then there is the contrast between the "wonderful" ethnic life the housekeeper wants for her daughter and the "shallow," Americanized life the Caucasian family lives. While I think it is fantastic that a mother would want her daughter to remember who she is, and I agree that part of that identity is where she came from, none of the negative sides of that life were shown, while the Americanized life's down-sides were exaggerated to ridiculousness.
For example, this little girl is growing up in the Barrio. They are quite poor and there can be little doubt that the daughter attends a school that is filled with gangs, drugs, and other pitfalls. However, the private school where her daughter has obtained a scholarship is represented as an "evil." Also, while the Caucasian family is represented as shallow, distant, and constantly fighting, the Hispanic people in the film are represented as warm, close, and deep.
Even with this ridiculous bias, some stupid Hispanic stereo-types rear their ugly heads. From the family crossing illegally into the States (there are many legal Mexican immigrants who struggle to survive and find balance--not all Hispanic people are illegals) to the "naive" Hispanic woman falling for a total rip-off when trying to purchase a program to learn to speak English, this movie has plenty of unfavorable stereo-types of Mexican immigrants.
Overall, I generously give this movie 2 stars. I like Sandler's traditional comedies over this film, and they are pretty bad. If you still think you want to buy this DVD, please rent it first and watch for yourself.
Case History of Mothers and Daughters
Theme is basically about mothers and daughters (2 generations[a young Mexican mother and her daughter) and the affluent American family of 5(five) she eventually works for(father,son & [3 generations:a daughter,her mother and her mother's mother(played by Cloris Leachman)..fine acting by all & continuity in plot and "attempts at solutions".
Left!... Left!... Left!...
Spanglish was quite a disappointment considering the make-up of the cast: Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni among others. It is the story of a California family that hires a Mexican cleaning lady with no knowledge of English that uses her daughter as an interpreter. The more time she spends with the family the more she finds out about the problems they are facing. Consequently, she becomes fond of her employers and wishes to help them bridge their differences, until she falls in love with the man of the family and the woman of the family falls in love with her daughter....
In short, the acting is pretty good (but nothing great, with the exception of Tea Leoni who does a wonderful job of portraying the psychotic wife), while the dialogues and the plot are just average.
The characters are, overall, weak, bland and just plain uninteresting (e.g. the alcoholic mother in law and the two kids)
Though the potential for a good movie was definitely there it fails to take off. A shame really...
Nevertheless, it should be noted that Paz Vega's potential to make it big in Hollywood is definitely there.
In a nutshell, it's probably not a movie you would want to add to your collection, but it will provide for an evening's entertainment, and that's about it.
No masterpiece here... 3 Stars
With Sideways, Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Storytelling) has become an unlikely but engaging romantic lead. Struggling novelist and wine connoisseur Miles (Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party. Almost immediately, Jack's insatiable need to sow some wild oats before his marriage leads them into double-dates with a rambunctious wine pourer (Sandra Oh, Under the Tuscan Sun) and a recently divorced waitress (Virginia Madsen, The Hot Spot)--and Miles discovers a little hope that he hasn't let himself feel in a long time. Sideways is a modest but finely tuned film; with gentle compassion, it explores the failures, struggles, and... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Alexander Payne DVD Release Date: Released the 05 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Meet the Parents found such tremendous success in the chemistry produced by the contrasting personalities of stars Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller that the film's creators went for broke with the same formula again in Meet the Fockers. This time around, Jack and Dina Byrnes (De Niro and Blythe Danner) climb into Jack's new kevlar-lined RV with daughter Pam (Teri Polo), soon-to-be son-in-law Gaylord (Stiller), and Jack's infant grandson from his other daughter for the trip to Florida to meet Gaylord's parents, Bernie and Roz Focker (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand in a casting coup). The potential in-laws are, of course, the opposite of Jack, a pair of randy, touchy-feely fun-lovers. The rest of the movie is pretty much a sitcom: put Bernie and Roz together with Jack, and... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jay Roach DVD Release Date: Released the 19 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Four extremely beautiful people do extremely horrible things to one another in Closer, Mike Nichols' pungent adaptation of Patrick Marber's play that easily marks the Oscar-winning director's best work in years. Anna (Julia Roberts) is a photographer who specializes in portraits of strangers; Dan (Jude Law) is an obituary writer struggling to become a novelist; Alice (Natalie Portman) is an American stripper freshly arrived in London after a bad relationship; and Larry (Clive Owen) is a dermatologist who finds love under the most unlikely of circumstances. When their paths cross it's a dizzying supernova of emotions, as Nichols and Marber adroitly construct various scenes out of their lives that pair them again and again in various permutations of passion, heartbreak, anger,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Mike Nichols DVD Release Date: Released the 29 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Sweetness that doesn't turn saccharine is hard to find these days; Finding Neverland hits the mark. Much credit is due to the actors: Johnny Depp applies his genius for sly whimsy in his portrayal of playwright J. M. Barrie, who finds inspiration for his greatest creation from four lively boys, the sons of widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet, who miraculously fuses romantic yearning with common sense). Though the friendship threatens his already dwindling marriage, Barrie spends endless hours with the boys, pretending to be pirates or Indians--and gradually the elements of Peter Pan take shape in his mind. The relationship between Barrie and the Llewelyn Davies family sparks both an imagined world and a quiet rebellion against the stuffy forces of respectability,... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 22 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Like its predecessor Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve is a piffle of a caper, a preposterous plot given juice and vitality by a combination of movie star glamour and the exuberant filmmaking skill of director Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight, The Limey). The heist hijinks of the first film come to roost for a team of eleven thieves (including the glossy mugs of Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, and Don Cheadle), who find themselves pursued not only by the guy they robbed (silky Andy Garcia), but also by a top-notch detective (plush Catherine Zeta-Jones) and a jealous master thief (well-oiled Vincent Cassel) who wants to prove that team leader Danny Ocean (dapper George Clooney) isn't the best in the field. As if all that star power weren't enough--and the... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Steven Soderbergh DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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