Joyful Noise

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celebrities, Dolly Parton, entertainment, Film Review, film reviews, gospel choir, Jeremy Jordan, joyful noise, Keke Palmer, Kris Kristofferson, movies, music, Queen Latifah

Riding on the coattails of the TV series Glee Joyful Noise is the story of a small town gospel choir competing to be the best in their field.  With Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton in the lead, great music, strong voices and a mix of beautiful and quirky young singers you’d think that Joyful Noise has the perfect combination to be a fun-filled film. But a bit like Dolly Parton’s wardrobe it only ends up being a little bit tacky and gaudy and sadly lacks the charm that Dolly has to make it work.

The story is simple; when the choirmaster Bernard Sparrow (Kris Kristofferson) dies Pastor Dale (Courtney B. Vance) decides to name Vi Rose Hill (Latifah) as his successor, sidelining Sparrow’s widow GG (Parton) in the process.  Loyalties are split but while the two main characters try to work it out a Romeo and Juliet scenario develops between GG’s grandson Randy (Jeremy Jordan) and Vi Rose’s daughter Olivia (Keke Palmer).

As the story plods along the choir practises to compete in the final sing-off concert, Parton and Latifah fight, sing and dislike each other, Jordan and Palmer make-out, sing and rebel against the rules. But nothing feels real; the scenes are often over-acted and the dialogue is dull, self-deprecating and always unrealistic.

The last big number comes as a surprise when suddenly bit-players have interesting solos but have otherwise only feature a few minutes throughout the film. But then this fits into the messy stitching that holds the plot together.

Another surprise is the fact that although she is forever present on our screens and in our ears it has taken Dolly Parton twenty years to return to the big screen in a lead role, why she chose GG in Joyful Noise is anyone’s guess.

All in all Joyful Noise is filled with good songs, bad lip-synching, a tired love story and many dull moments. The only thing that save’s this film from being a total fiasco are the two young rising stars Jordan and Palmer and the two real live divas Latifah and Parton.

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Friends with Children

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Chris O’Dowd, Edward Burns, entertainment, film, Friends with Childern, Jason Frymann, Jennifer Westfalt, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Megan Fox, reviews

We’ve all seen it happen: friends get married, have kids and change. Not that they want to, not that they intend to but they do! Writer, actor and first time director Jennifer Westfalt and her long-time partner the mad man himself Jon Hamm , have watched  this happen to their friends and decided to turn experience into the film “Friends with Children”.

This funny, heart-warming and at times very sarcastic film tells the story of six friends, two couples and two singles. It all starts off very Sex in the City with the friends having dinner in a chic Manhattan restaurant appalled by the children at the neighbouring table. When the hot and heavy couple Ben (Jon Hamm) and Missy (Kristen Wiig) return from a quickie in the toilets, Leslie (Maya Rudolph) and Alex (Chris O’Dowd) announce to their friends that they are pregnant and swear that nothing will change.

Four years later it is a totally different story. While Leslie and Alex struggle to manage two kids and have moved to Brooklyn, Missy and Ben seem to only communicate through snide comments over their baby’s buggy. Forced to witness these changes  Adam (Jason Frymann) and Julie (Jennifer Westfalt) congratulate themselves on being free and single, the only problem is they both would like kids. So as they watch their friends fall apart the singletons make a pack to have a child together, share all the benefits and responsibilities but NOT be a couple.

At first things seem to work out and both find bliss with gorgeous partners. Adam hooks up with curvaceous dancer Mary Jane (Megan Fox) and Julie finds the perfect male specimen in the delicious Kurt (Edward Burns).  But as nothing can last, not even in a romantic comedy, soon everything changes and trouble follows.

Somehow Westfalt has managed to take a seemingly mundane topic and turn it into a series of traps and twists that define the characters and show how parenthood changes them.  And while it is very funny at times and you can’t help being torn between laughing at and crying for the parents this film is still very honest and even real if you can look past the incredible beauty selected on screen.

Wigg is wonderful with her icy stares and snide comments, Hamm plays a man who regrets and thus drinks very well and Rudolph and O’Dowd make a loveable quirky couple whose warmth always shines through.  And even though Fryman does a great job of portraying a man who thinks he only wants sex to find out what he really wants is love, the show is all about Westfalt.

Not only did she direct this film beautifully and her script is witty and resourceful but her character Julie shows all the raw emotions of a woman looking for love, not wanting to compromise but knowing that time is running out.

And while you may be reminded of “When Harry met Sally” or other rom-com classics “Friends with Children” is a clever film that is not afraid to take a few risks and show life as messy and colourful as we all know it can be. A must see film of the summer, whether you are parents or not.

 

Think like a Man (Act like a Lady)

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Act like a Lady Think like a Man, Chris Brown, entertainment, Film Review, Gabrielle Union, He’s just not that into You, Kevin Hart, Meagan Good, Michael Ealy, reviews, rom-com, Steve Harvey, Think like a Man

Just like the dating book “He’s just not that into You” Steve Harvey’s bestseller “Act like a Lady, Think like a Man” has now been scooped up by Hollywood and turned into a motion picture.

Centring around a group of friends from an interracial Basketball team and the women in their lives the story follows how both men and women play the dating-game.

Entertainer Steve Harvey and his book link the stories together by unabashedly stereotyping the characters into categories: The Peter Pan type, the man who just does not want to grow up and take on responsibility; the Mama’s Boy, the man who always puts his mother first, the Hit-and-Quit-it guy, the man who stops being romantic once he has had sex, or the “cookie” as Harvey calls it and then there is the woman who acts like a man.

As each sub-plot plays out the book gives solutions to each problem, like the 90-day rule before she surrenders the “cookie”, or make him chose between his mother and you and so forth. Sadly the film fails to be original, the script is not very funny and the talented cast (Michael Ealy, Chris Brown, Kevin Hart, Gabrielle Union, Meagan Good etc) seems flat.

In many ways “Think like a Man” feels like an African-American version of “He’s just not into you”, it has the same structure of mix and match stories, the characters are only superficial and there is no real passion or twists to the plot. The solutions for the problems are either common sense or just a whole load of nonsense and it doesn’t help that Steve Harvey pops up throughout the movie pretending to know it all. More often than not it feels like one long advertisement for the book but just not selling it.

As rom-coms go “Think like a Man” is no worse than many out there, but if you are looking for laugh-out-loud moments or clever punch lines they are few and far between and you always see them coming.  Overall it may be better to spend the night at home with a box of cookies and watch on-demand TV.