List Price: $29.98 Our Price: $22.49YOU SAVE $7.49!
Buy it
DVD The Wedding Date (Widescreen Edition)
If you're a fan of the frazzled comic rhythms Debra Messing plies on Will & Grace, or if you're pre-sold on the concept of Dermot Mulroney as the world's most dashing heartthrob--an idea given ample evidence here--this escapist romance may provide just enough distraction. The Wedding Date's Pretty Woman-in-reverse plot finds Kat Kat Ellis (Messing) hiring expensive male escort Nick Mercer (Mulroney) to fly to London and pose as her dashing new boyfriend at her sister's wedding so she can face the best man, an ex-fiancé who broke her heart. Non-fans of the stars or romantic comedies in general beware: there's no real chemistry or conflict, and you should alert the media if you can determine exactly when and why Kat and Nick fall in love. Mulroney has nothing to do but be sensitively suave--the film's entire running time is spent waiting for Kat to realize that Nick, hooker or no, is the best thing that ever happened to her (her father may be cinema's first dad to ever encourage his daughter to snare a gigolo while she still can). This is a relatively painless but forgettable first Date; you probably won't need a second assignation.--Steve Wiecking
Review(s): DVD The Wedding Date (Widescreen Edition)
HOT! HOT! HOT!
I can't say enough about this movie. I absolutely LOVED it. Dermot Mulroney is SMOKIN' HOT in this one! The story is great and the chemistry is out of this world. A MUST SEE!!
Expect the Expected...But Messing Carries the Film With Confidence
I didn't have many expectations going into this early 2005 movie since it seemed like one of those studio concoctions that give away the whole predictable plot in its trailer. For the most part, I am not mistaken in my preconceived notion, as this is indeed a featherweight romantic comedy wherein director Clare Kilner seems intent on doing a gender reversal on "Pretty Woman" with a heavy dollop of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" on top and even doing a sly tweak on the Walls of Jericho scene from "It Happened One Night". This is the kind of confection that depends almost entirely on the appeal of its star.
Luckily, Debra Messing has sharpened her comedy skills after years on the wonderful though sometimes wavering "Will & Grace" and gets a rare opportunity to carry a film on her own. She stars as Kat Ellis, a mid-thirtyish, Manhattan-based woman, who decides to hire Nick Mercer, a male escort chosen right out of the classifieds, in order to accompany her to her younger sister's London wedding where the best man is Jeffrey, Kat's ex-fiancée, who dumped her after seven years. The Lifetime TV movie-like premise is as contrived as it sounds, but Messing - despite years of abuse from Jack and Karen on the small screen - is inarguably beautiful with a nice, self-deprecating awareness about her and an impressive gift for physical comedy. Truth be told, she is just another variation on Grace Adler without Grace's clinginess and screeching operetta singing voice.
Helping her keep things afloat is Dermot Mulroney, an actor who has kept himself under the radar for years but seems to alternate between high-profile chick flicks ("My Best Friend's Wedding") and more interesting fare ("About Schmidt"). He makes palatable his no-win role as the ideal man of the world by underplaying the stereotype and mostly observing the proceedings. The rest of the movie is hardly worth going into, except to say that first-time screenwriter Dana Fox provides some good lines, predictable plot turns, and an interesting and quite unexpected note of melancholy toward the inevitably happy ending. There are some amusing sideline performances, in particular, a brassy Sarah Parish as Kat's man-hungry best friend and Victor Ellis as her supportive stepfather. An underused Holland Taylor plays her typically vituperative character, this time as Kat's edgy mother.
The DVD extras seem pretty sparse and focused squarely on Messing. She offers the only voice on the alternate audio commentary track, and while she is likeable and as informative as she can be from her perspective, there is no one else to bounce thoughts against or provide more a of a behind-the-scenes perspective. If that is not enough, there is an eight-minute interview with Messing with film clips interspersed, and ten minutes of deleted scenes which I frankly did not bother to watch. This is all lighthearted fare which will not disappoint Messing's fans and anyone else in need of an undemanding, cliché-ridden romance novel of a comedy.
A little FOUR WEDDINGS & A FUNERAL, with a backwards-PRETTY WOMAN concept
***THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.***
THE WEDDING DATE is a good romantic movie. It is not a frivolous "chick movie," because there are definitely some dark, bittersweet moments. (There is nothing wrong with a frivolous chick movie, either, if that is what you want. This just isn't one.) The concept of a possible relationship between a woman and the man she pays to escort her to a wedding usually brings to mind PRETTY WOMAN. While I watched the movie, I actually thought more about FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, because of the wry British humor and some of the self-effacing and bawdy characters that I remember from other British movies.
A previous reviewer described Dermot Mulroney's character as "not ... particularly charming, intelligent, nice or interesting ... [just] handsome. Yawn." I completely disagree. Nick's work is based on reading people and seeing what they need in each social situation (not just romantic ones). He adapts to their need at the moment and plays the role he is needed to play. He can be a "man's man" when alone with Kat's male friends and family without having to resort to sophomoric behavior (e.g., when supporting Ed about turning down the prostitute). Yet, he also can handle himself with the women (e.g., the scene where he brings Kat's forgotten purse to the pub, and the women are flirting all around him). In addition, you see that in the scene where he is meeting Kat's ex-fiance, where he just lets the guy start spilling his guts, even though he probably didn't know he was talking to the ex when they began talking. You also see him mentally changing gears when he's talking alone with Kat's stepfather, where there is a lot alluded to while they size each other up. In fact, the movie pretty much spells it out for us when Nick tells Kat that he is there for HER (while she was nervous about the whole escort arrangement), letting her know that he feels it's his job to help her however he can in her quest to make everyone not focus on feeling bad for her past broken engagement and make this wedding weekend as painless as possible. So, he definitely was NOT "doing nothing and just standing there, looking pretty," as the forementioned reviewer characterized it. It's usually the wisest person in the room who sits back & lets others talk, revealing themselves in what they say and how they say it.
This previous review also belittled Kat because she paid "$6000 + airfare to London for a wedding date to make an ex-boyfriend jealous," according to the reviewer. There were a whole lot more people at that wedding than just the ex, and as shown in the first party Kat & Nick attend in England, her being jilted on the day of her wedding was going to be focused on a lot during her sister's wedding weekend, no matter what. So, it was understandable that she would want to make the experience as positive as possible, with a handsome, experienced escort on her arm to smooth over the rough patches of the weekend. Remember, the movie clearly showed that she was a people-pleaser: she was a highly-valued customer service rep for her airline (so much so that she was pulled away from checking in for her flight to manage an "angry customer" emergency), so she pleased people for a living. She also seemed to be used to letting her sister, Amy, have the spotlight, as well as whatever she wanted (e.g. when her sister asked for Kat's drink at the first party of the weekend and Kat gave it to her). So, by bringing a date that everyone would like and believe was really her boyfriend, she was helping to ensure that Amy would be the focus of her own wedding, not her "poor, sad sister, Kat."
It helped to watch the Deleted Scenes to understand a little more of the story's plot points, but I would still have enjoyed the movie thoroughly, even if I hadn't seen them. As someone else has said here in the reviews section, Debra Messing does not talk straight through her audio commentary. There are many times where I forgot I was listening to a commentary, because I was engrossed in watching the movie again & she hadn't spoken in a while. That could have been corrected by having someone else do the commentary with her, such as the director, writer, producer, or even Dermot Mulroney would have been an excellent choice (but I don't know if he normally does commentaries). However, I did still get interesting info & insights out of Debra's commentary and am glad I took the time to watch it. I just suggest you watch the Deleted Scenes before you watch the commentary, so you are familiar with them before she refers to them.
I think that there are some movies that don't strike a chord enough for me to buy them for my DVD collection; I'm just content to have watched them once, and that's it. HOWEVER, I think that this movie is worth owning, and I recommend that you buy it, as I will be.
Related DVD's The Wedding Date (Widescreen Edition)
As an esteemed television journalist put out to pasture by the networks and faced with the engagement of her son, Jane Fonda is fierce, funny, and ready to rumble as the title character in Monster-in-Law in a way that the rest of the film itself never really is. Jennifer Lopez, the film's other above-the-title star, is set to marry handsome, wealthy Michael Vartan but has one helluva time dealing with his insanely possessive mother. The result is pretty much what you'd expect--lots of snarls and slapstick and an easy, kisses-all-around conclusion, though it is surprising (and maybe a little disheartening) to watch Fonda throw herself into such disposable comedy with such gusto. Director Robert Luketic, who slept while Reese Witherspoon tottered off with his Legally Blonde,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jennifer Lopez - Jane Fonda - Michael Vartan Director(s): Robert Luketic DVD Release Date: Released the 30 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $28.98 Your Price: $17.98YOU SAVE $11!
Buy it
Will Smith's easygoing charm makes Hitch the kind of pleasant, uplifting romantic comedy that you could recommend to almost anyone--especially if there's romance in the air. As suave Manhattan dating consultant Alex "Hitch" Hitchens, Smith plays up the smoother, sophisticated side of his established screen persona as he mentors a pudgy accountant (Kevin James) on the lessons of love. The joke, of course, is that Hitch's own love life is a mess, and as he coaches James toward romance with a rich, powerful, and seemingly inaccessible beauty named Allegra (Amber Valetta), he's trying too hard to impress a savvy gossip columnist (Eva Mendes) with whom he's fallen in love. Through mistaken identities and mismatched couples, director Andy Tennant brings the same light touch that made... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Andy Tennant DVD Release Date: Released the 14 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.94 Your Price: $13.99YOU SAVE $5.95!
Buy it
The sight of two lost souls finding something unavoidably necessary in each other carries The Upside of Anger through it pleasant episodic drift. When Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) realizes that her husband won't be coming home again, she hits the skids and the bottle, leaving her four thunderstruck daughters (Alicia Witt, Keri Russell, Erika Christensen, and Evan Rachel Wood) to fend for themselves while she fends off the attentions of concerned neighbor Denny Davies (Kevin Costner). Writer/director Mike Binder (who has a good bit as Costner's sleazy producer) juggles too many subplots in this comedy/drama--his charming young actresses are all but wasted--then tosses in a wrongheaded climactic twist and terrible explanatory narration from young Wood. But the two leads do... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Joan Allen - Kevin Costner - Erika Christensen - Keri Russell - Alicia Witt Director(s): Mike Binder DVD Release Date: Released the 26 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $27.95 Your Price: $20.96YOU SAVE $6.99!
Buy it
Something got lost in translation from 1996's critically acclaimed Japanese comedy, but the American remake of Shall We Dance? is not without charms of its own. In being transplanted from Tokyo to Chicago, the original version's subtle humor is shaken out of its cultural context, but this is an otherwise faithful adaptation in which a weary lawyer (Richard Gere) battles his mid-life crisis with ballroom dancing lessons, while his wife (Susan Sarandon) hires a private detective to see if he's cheating. Those expecting a Jennifer Lopez showcase will be disappointed; her role as the melancholy dance instructor keeps the beautifully lovelorn J-Lo on the sidelines, while a cast of standard-issue supporting characters (especially Stanley Tucci's clandestine faux-Latin dance lover)... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Gere - Jennifer Lopez - Susan Sarandon - Stanley Tucci Director(s): Peter Chelsom DVD Release Date: Released the 01 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $29.99 Your Price: $22.49YOU SAVE $7.5!
Buy it
F.B.I. operative Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) famously went undercover in a beauty pageant a while back, and now she's supposedly so recognizable that her only use to the agency is as a pretty public representative. Dumped by her boyfriend (whom Benjamin Bratt wisely decided not to portray this time around), a gloomy Gracie goes along with the promo biz until her friend, Miss United States (Heather Burns), is kidnapped along with pageant official Stan Fields (William Shatner) in Las Vegas. Bullock still has perk to please her fans, but neither she nor her awkward alter-ego has any purpose in a sequel to a movie released five years prior. The result is a desperately unfunny, feature-length commercial for Las Vegas tourism, with outdated homosexual stereotypes (Diedrich Bader, as Gracie's... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Sandra Bullock - Regina King - William Shatner Director(s): John Pasquin DVD Release Date: Released the 21 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.96 Your Price: $14.97YOU SAVE $4.99!
Buy it
