New Year's Eve

First Hit: I don’t know how Garry Marshall created such a vapid film about a great subject with great actors.

New Year’s Eve is a perfect subject and so many things can or don’t happen on that infamous night of nights.

Here we follow various people and their experience of this storied night. You’ve got Tess and Griffin (played by Jessica Biel and Seth Meyers respectively) in a race to win $25K for having the first baby of the new year against Grace and James (played by Sarah Paulson and Til Schweiger respectively).

You have Ingrid (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who is a homely, afraid and not living her life. She breaks away, quits her job and hands her to do list to Paul (played by Zac Efron) who is a bike messenger. They climb on his scooter and he, being creative, finds ways to deliver all of Ingrid’s dreams in one night.

Then there is Kim (Sarah Jessica Parker) who works all the time and is very protective of her daughter Hailey (played by Abigail Breslin) who wants to be trusted to meet up with her friends. Kim tells her "no" but Hailey steals out of her room anyway and heads down town with Kim desperately following and trying to find her.

There is Laura (played by Katherine Heigl) a caterer preparing food for the most famous and luxurious New York New Year’s Eve party where the entertainment is being provided by her former boyfriend Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi).

Also there is Claire Morgan (played by Hilary Swank) who is in charge of the famous ball drop and who is linked to a dying Stan Harris (played by Robert De Niro). There are more many more stars in this movie but to be quite frank this is what killed the film. Too many actors vying for limited shallow parts having limited characteristics and story lines..

Biel had a couple funny lines as a pregnant wife. Meyers was mediocre as Biel’s husband. Paulson was the better pregnant wife as was Schweiger as her husband. Their story was more interesting. Pfeiffer was hard to watch as she played Ingrid too close to the chest. Efron was the best of all the actors and he made the film interesting. Parker was useless to watch and was uninteresting. Breslin was OK as the teenage girl wanting to experience her first New Year’s Eve kiss. Heigl was alright as the jilted woman. Jovi was more or less just being himself, a musician. Swank was in the worst role I’ve seen her in, in quite some time. De Niro gave the worst dying person act I’ve ever seen on film. His eyes were too alert and his actions too fast to be on his death bed. Katherine Fugate wrote a painfully soft, sophomoric, and generic script. Marshall’s direction shows he needs to retire. How can one direct so many wonderful actors (and there were more that I didn’t mention) into a wastefully sentimental uninteresting film.

Overall: This film goes for the easy sentimental story and in doing so made me wish it was over sooner than later.

Sex and the City

First Hit: I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it and I loved one the themes of this film - forgiveness.

Because I haven’t had a television for over 15 years, I’d never seen the HBO television series of the same name. I didn’t know what to expect but I do know not many television series have converted well to the film medium (Think - Brady Bunch).

If the television series was as fun as this film was, then I might have enjoyed watching it the series. Four women, very different from each other yet connected through their femininity, love of the city (New York), and interest in men; share their differing life experiences together. Through all the ups and downs they, no matter what, are there for each other.

The major plot of this film is that Carrie (Played by Sarah Jessica Parker) is going to marry Mr. Big (Played by Chris Noth). Mr. Big, having been married twice before, just wants something simple and Sarah lets the wedding get away from her and it becomes the "talk of the town wedding". He just wants to be reassured that it is “just the two of us”.

The sub-plots are Samantha Jones (Played by Kim Cattrall) is living in LA as a manager for her much younger actor stud boyfriend. His work schedule is keeping him away from being home and giving Samantha what she likes, lots of sex. This is causing Samantha to wonder about her life and her hunky neighbor.

Charlotte York (Played by Kristin Davis) is the more straight and princess-like wife who couldn’t have a child and therefore adopts one. But then she becomes pregnant. She is in a happy marriage and is “happy most of the time” which is different from the other three girls.

Then there is Miranda Hobbes (Played by Cynthia Nixon) a tight lipped lawyer who thrives on her schedule but has a husband who is more open, kind, and flexible. These differences are starting to show and causing breaks their family unit and the scenes with the child in the restaurant and them together making love are especially telling.

With these 4 plots set in place this film unfolds in a clear, fun and thoughtful way.

Michael Patrick King is the film’s director and does a wonderful job of setting up the film for those of us who didn’t know the characters from television and then briskly moves the film along. Even though it is 145 minutes long, I was never bored and felt like each piece fit and brought something to the overall experience. What I liked most about the film is that there was this strong message throughout, which was forgiveness. It was about the forgiveness of friends, spouses, boyfriends, and fiancés.

Overall: Although there were some parts (1 crucial part) that didn’t work for me, I thoroughly enjoyed this film and the characters.

Smart People

First Hit: Although billed as a romantic comedy, it seemed more of a drama with some good acting.

There are four really good parts in this film and they're handled admirably by Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church.

This mix of brings together a dynamic set of characters in a movie that has an underlying dull tone. Quaid plays a professor who has lost his wife and his drive for living an engaged life. He is cynical, lazy, non-caring, and buries his sadness and hurt by just checking out.

When someone approaches him in his field of expertise, he quickly sizes them up and cuts them down as being unworthy of this time. His daughter, played by Page, is lost in her own way. She is the family glue while also attempting to be perfect.

She's a perfect Republican, Student, and by filling in for her deceased mother she's the perfect daughter. She is also a cynical wise cracking friendless lonely girl who doesn’t want anyone to interrupt their household until she heads off to college.

Quaid gets hurt in a fall and because of the injury has to be driven everywhere he goes. Paige doesn’t want to do this and brings in Quaid’s brother Church who is a drifter and loner that is always broke and finds scams for jobs. He gets the job of driving for Quaid, moves in and causes havoc, and misses many of his appointments to pick up Quaid. While at the hospital Quaid is treated by Parker who was a former infatuated student of his and is now a physician. They begin to date which causes an upheaval in the household.

Overall: The acting was very good and the characters interesting but I would have like more on the Parker and Quaid relationship and less on the Page and Church relationship.