- What keeps a family together? Nick Cassavetes, the director of The Notebook and John Q, again demonstrates his sure hand with tales of deep human emotion in this inspiring film about a loving family challenged and united by a child s illness. Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin and others in an exceptional cast bring sensitivity to the story of 11-year-old Anna Fitzgerald, conceived to be
CHRISTINA'S LOVE LIFE IS STUCK IN NEUTRAL. AFTER YEARS OF AVOIDING THE HAZARDS OF A MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIP, ONE NIGHTWHILE OUT WITH HER BEST GIRLFRIENDS, SHE MEETS PETER, HER PERFECT MATCH. FED UP WITH PLAYING GAMES, SHE FINALLY GETS THECOURAGE TO LET HER GUARD DOWN AND FOLLOW HER HEART.Prudes, beware! Despite its tendency to take the comedic low road,
The Sweetest Thing is a near-perfect product of the new-millennial Hollywood. That's a backhanded compliment, but as a fun-loving Yankee girl'! s answer to
Bridget Jones's Diary, the mainstream pandering of Nancy Pimental's lucrative screenplay is undeniably effective. On the opening soundtrack, Macy Gray's "Sexual Revolution" is a perfect accompaniment to gyrating guy-dumper Christina (Cameron Diaz), whose fear of commitment is tested when she meets Peter (Thomas Jane) and knows he's Mr. Right. With supportive gal-pals Courtney (Christina Applegate) and Jane (Selma Blair), she plots to snag the guy, and the movie's road-trip detour mines gut-busting gold from gags involving incriminating dress stains, oral sex, rotting food, garish clothing, and the simple joys of old-fashioned romance. Perfectly cast, raucously ribald, and conventionally charming,
The Sweetest Thing is a schizophrenic comedy, but its dual personalities are irresistibly in synch.
--Jeff ShannonIn Nancy Meyers' The Holiday, a romantic comedy from the director of Something's Gotta Give and What Women Want, two women trade homes ! only to find that a change of address can change their lives. ! Iris (Wi nslet) is in love with a man who is about to marry another woman. Across the globe, Amanda (Diaz), realizes the man she lives with has been unfaithful. Two women who have never met and live 6000 miles apart, find themselves in the exact same place. They meet online at a home exchange website and impulsively switch homes for the holiday. Iris moves into Amanda's L.A. house in sunny California as Amanda arrives in the snow covered English countryside. Shortly after arriving at their destinations, both women find the last thing either wants or expects: a new romance. Amanda is charmed by Iris' handsome brother Graham (Law) and Iris, with inspiration provided by legendary screenwriter Arthur (Wallach), mends her heart when she meets film composer Miles (Black).As a pleasant dose of holiday cheer,
The Holiday is a lovable love story with all the Christmas trimmings. In the capable hands of writer-director Nancy Meyers (making her first romantic comedy since
Something's ! Gotta Give), it all begins when two successful yet unhappy women connect through a home-swapping website, and decide to trade houses for the Christmas holiday in a mutual effort to forget their man troubles. Iris (Kate Winslet) is a London-based journalist who lives in a picture-postcard cottage in Surrey, and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) owns a movie-trailer production company (leading her to cutely imagine most of her life as a "coming attraction") and lives in a posh mansion in Beverly Hills. Iris is heartbroken from unrequited love with a cad of a colleague (Rufus Sewell), and Amanda has just broken up with her cheating boyfriend (Edward Burns), so their home-swapping offers mutual downtime to reassess their love lives. This being a Nancy Meyers movie (where everything is fabulously decorated and romantic wish-fulfillment is virtually guaranteed), Amanda hooks up with Iris's charming brother Graham (Jude Law), and Iris is unexpectedly smitten with Miles (Jack Black), a sup! er-nice film composer on the downside of a failing relationshi! p.
-- Jeff Shannon
Extras from The Holiday
First Look Featurettehigh bandwidth
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Film Clip: "Sushi for Two"high bandwidth
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Film Clip: "Oh Brother"high bandwidth
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Stills from The Holiday (click for larger image)
Beyond The Holiday on Amazon.com
On Blu-ray |
CD Soundtrack |
The Films of Nancy Meyers |
After the wildest party night of their lives, two mismatched strangers, Jack (Ashton Kutcher) and Joy (Cameron Diaz), wake up in Vegas to discover they not only got lucky â?" they got married! The road to annulment takes a hilarious turn after Jack wins a three-million-dollar jackpot while playing Joyâ??s quarter and a no-nonsense judge (Dennis Miller) sentences them to six months â??hard marriage.â? What follows is an all-out war of the sexes as Jack and Joy go to outrageous lengths to try and cheat each other out of the money. But in the end, they may learn that when you gamble on love, you just might win, against all odds!What Happens in Vegas is a co! medy waiting to happen. It takes an old premise (drunk strange! rs regre tting their decision to get married in Las Vegas) and adds in a dilemma (a $3 million slot machine win) that could've been easily resolved. But then again, there would've been no movie if the unhappily wedded couple figured out that splitting the money in half and getting their marriage annulled would've been quick and effective. Cameron Diaz plays uptight clean-freak Joy, who has just been dumped by her fiance. Ashton Kutcher is Jack, a slacker furniture maker who has been fired--by his own dad. Each goes to Vegas to let off some steam. And while they have nothing in common (except being exceptionally good looking) they make out, get married, and fight over the money Jack wins with Joy's quarter. Instead of letting the couple get divorced, a judge sentences the odd couple to half a year of marriage. What happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas, but extends into New York where Jack and Joy live. Both actors have fared well in comedies, especially Diaz in My Best Friend's W! edding. And while Kutcher still has to live down Dude, Where's My Car?, he showed a lot of comedic flair and charm in A Lot Like Love. But the two face an uphill battle here with inane dialogue and a premise that not only is unbelievable, but unlikeable. The two are so incompatible (and immature) they can't even control bathroom time and, in Jack's case, his bladder. --Jae-Ha Kim
Beyond What Happens in Vegas on DVD
27 Dresses on DVD | 
Juno on DVD | 
Dodgeball â€" A True Underdog St! ory on DVD |
Stills from What Happens in Vegas (Click for larger image) As any kid who's ever forcibly shot milk through their nasal passages can testify, the key to a great gross joke isn't so much the content as it is the delivery. The proudly crass
Bad Teacher certainly has great big gobs of greasy, grimy potential, chief among them its central performance by an exceedingly game Cameron Diaz, but it occasionally fails to nail the dismount. This film from director Jake Kasdan (
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) is exactly what the title says: after getting dumped by her rich boyfriend, a lying, cheating, and perpetually boozing middle-school teacher (Diaz) hatches a scheme to con her school out of enough money to pay for cosmetic surgery, while squaring off against the aggressively cheerful teacher across the hall (a very funny Lucy Punch). Lessons are not learned, thankfully. Although the title and atti! tude recall the effortlessly filthy
Bad Santa,
Bad T! eacher feels more like a spiritual sequel to Diaz's earlier Sweetest Thing, a women-can-be-gross-too comedy that spent more time congratulating itself on how far it was willing to go instead of actually going there. While Bad Teacher certainly has its number of belly laughs and worthy outrages (particularly during a hilariously awkward love scene between Diaz and a nerded-up Justin Timberlake), it's hard not to end up with a general feeling of missed opportunities. Too often, it toes the bad-taste line, when it should be jumping over it with a rocket cycle. --Andrew WrightCameron Diaz and Ewan McGregor are star-crossed lovebirds on the lam in this twisted romantic comedy from the creators of "Trainspotting." Celine (Diaz) is a spoiled, rich young woman whose worst nightmare is having her credit card rejected. Robert (McGregor) is a hapless janitor whose greatest dream is to write the Great American Trash Novel. They have nothing in common - except the bur! ning desire to live "a life less ordinary." When Celine is kidnapped by the inept Robert, a pair of celestial cops are dispatched to earth to make sure they live that "life less ordinary" together. Co-starring Oscar® -winner Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo.A Life Less Ordinary is a surprising disappointment, considering it is the third film from director Danny Boyle, writer John Hodge, and actor Ewan McGregor. This disjointed and strained romantic comedy is not even near the same league as Trainspotting and Shallow Grave. Cameron Diaz is a spoiled heiress and McGregor an aimless janitor brought together by two angels (Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo) hoping to hang onto their wings. McGregor kidnaps Diaz, the boss's daughter, after being fired from his crummy job. She is not all that averse to being snatched. Most of the laughs are lost to a scattershot story that feels preposterous instead of magical. --Rochelle O'GormanStudio: New Line Home Vide! o Release Date: 11/17/2009 Run time: 110 minutes Rating: Pg! 13Grab a box of tissues and settle in for a heart-wrenching exploration of illness, morality, and familial bonds in this excellent screen adaptation of bestselling author Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. When parents Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian Fitzgerald (Jason Patric) find out that their daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) has leukemia, they make the difficult choice to utilize the advancements of modern medicine and impregnate Sara with a child genetically ensured to be a donor match for Kate. Throughout the many years of dealing with Kate's illness, the needs of individual family members--including Kate's parents, her brother Jesse (Evan Ellingson), and her sister Anna (Abigail Breslin)--are largely ignored in light of Kate's more serious needs. Still, Kate's sister Anna rarely complains about helping Kate, even when it involves undergoing painful bone marrow aspirations. Recently, however, Anna has had a change of heart and has decided to stand up for her right to have ! a say in medical procedures involving herself: she's enlisted a lawyer, Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin), to help her sue her parents for medical emancipation. The issue is highly emotional and the familial strife is further compounded by the fact that Kate is quickly failing and needs an immediate kidney transplant for even a chance of continued survival. The emotional struggle of dealing with serious illness while trying to meet one's own needs permeates the film, as do the staggering moral dilemmas inherent in the advances of modern medicine. While Picoult's readers may be disappointed that the film doesn't delve as deeply into Anna's and Jesse's characters as the book does, My Sister's Keeper is nonetheless an intensely powerful film bursting with emotion and moral quandary that leaves viewers pondering what lengths they might go to in a similar situation. --Tami Horiuchi
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