wedding – NZ Film Freak

Tangled

Director: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
Writer: Dan Fogelman. Based on Rapunzel by Brothers Grimm
Starring: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy
Released: November 2010
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Based on the Brothers Grimm classic, Rapunzel, this modern tale Tangled brings the comedy back.

While it’s sad that Harry and Meghan’s Royal Wedding is now over, we can at least enjoy all the other Royal Weddings on the big screen – including Rapunzel’s. Tangled may be eight years old, and the original story released in 1812, but Rapunzel is still a classic!

A notorious thief called Eugene Fitzherbert AKA ‘Flynn Rider’ (Zachary Levi), finds a tall tower to climb and hide in while being chased. But he soon realises he’s not alone. Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) is energetic and naive, but well-trained in self-defence. Skills that come in handy when Flynn intrudes.

Quick note: Zachary Levi sounds an awful lot like Will Ferrell in Megamind…

She has been locked in this tall tower by the witch, Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy), who unbeknown to Rapunzel, raised her after being kidnapped from the king and queen at birth.

As per traditional fairytales, our heroine has an animal best friend by her side. In this case it’s a chameleon called Pascal who mocks Flynn frequently. However, my favourite animal is by far the horse (of course) named Maximus. He is incredibly sassy and reminds me a lot of my pony’s personality. Worryingly.

This is a fun fairytale that has some much needed updating. While our heroine has retained her innocence, she is far from helpless and uses her hair as a weapon rather than solely a lure for handsome men to climb.

Despite it not being Disney’s best princess film, and despite the frequent songs (which is to be expected I know) this is a quirky, funny and thoroughly enjoyable Sunday afternoon watch with the family.

Jodie’s rating: 6/10

Top 10: Best Wedding Films

As I am in the wedding spirit, I decided to indulge in some wedding films. But which ones are worth watching, and which ones are simply too cringe? As it turns out, most of them aren’t worth watching.

With intentions to watch every wedding film in the movie industry, I unfortunately failed after seeing five wedding film fails in a row. It was torture. So instead of my original idea of writing a wedding film directory, it has now been split into two posts:

Top 10 best wedding films, and Top 5 worst wedding films. (I couldn’t endure watching anymore bad movies, hence the shorter list.)

So here we go, welcome to the land of Jennifer Lopez and Julia Roberts. Here are the wedding movies that I say ‘I do!’ to:

Bridesmaids (2011)
The best wedding film, not to mention best comedy of all time. I can not stop watching this movie. Everything that could go wrong does go wrong in the lead up to Lillian’s (Maya Rudolpf) wedding, mostly at the expense of poor Annie (Kirsten Wiig), Lillian’s best friend. It is absolutely hilarious and a movie you could watch on repeat. Forever.

The Wedding Singer (1998)
One of my favourite comedies of all time with a brilliant soundtrack! Don’t let Adam Sandler put you off either, this is one of his few good films. It’s about a hopeless romantic Robbie (Adam Sandler) who is a wedding singer. But after his bride-to-be ditches him on his wedding day, he falls into a downward spiral. Meanwhile, Julia (Drew Barrymore) is looking for a wedding singer for her upcoming wedding and befriends Robbie in his time of need.

My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
This is such a scandalous film actually. Probably a bit underrated. Unlike most rom-coms, the protagonist (Julia Roberts) is the baddie! Trying to break up her best friend’s wedding so that she can confess her love to him. It’s quite an exciting film.

Bride Wars (2009)
Sassy, catty and shrew! Bride Wars is about two best friends (Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson) who are both desperate for the same venue. The claws soon come out and the cracks begin to show in their friendship. It’s an easy watch and I love the vengefulness of the bridezillas.

Wedding Crashers (2005)
While it’s crudely about John (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) crashing random weddings to get lucky, it’s certainly a very funny film once everyone’s put their boobs away. What begins as just another wedding to find a fling, ends with John developing a genuine crush on Maid of Honour Claire (Rachel McAdams). Meanwhile, Jeremy is trying to convince John to escape the wedding early as Claire’s wildly intense and immature sister Gloria (Isla Fisher) forms a strong attachment to Jeremy.

The Proposal (2009)
The Proposal is about a successful book editor Margaret (Sandra Bullock) is no longer able to work at her job in the USA because she’s Canadian. However, she manipulate her secretary Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) into marrying her so that she can keep her job. However, if Andrew’s going to get married, he’s determined to do it on his terms – she must meet the parents. It’s nice to see a female protagonist in a strong role, but imagine if the gender roles were reversed. Could you imagine the backlash?

The Wedding Planner (2001)
Revenge is served cold. Or in this case, rather sweetly. The Wedding Planner is about J-Lo’s character Mary who finds herself as the wedding planner of the man she’s been dating (Matthew McConaughey). He’s been cheating on her this whole time, but she doesn’t let the bride-to-be know and continues with the wedding plans, taking every opportunity to embarrass the groom-to-be.

27 Dresses (2008)
I’m not totally in love with Katherine Heigl, so I would prefer it if a different actor played her part, but it’s an enjoyable enough film anyway. It’s about always being the bridesmaid and never the bride. It’s a fun and easy watch for sure.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
I refreshed my memory of this film recently, and I have to say that while it is quite funny, I’m not really sure what the storyline even is. There’s no ‘absolute low’, or major conflict that the hero has to bounce back from. It’s quite a dry story, really. But it is funny in a lot of scenes.

Monster in Law (2005)
Monster in Law is about an over-bearing mother in-law who tries to break her son and his fiancee (Jennifer Lopez) up. But the mother in-law is so over theatrical that it’s quite difficult to watch without cringing. J-Lo is an odd choice, but it stars Wanda Sykes so that makes up for it. It’s a tad too Americanny for my taste really, but it’s pretty funny anyway.

Keep an eye-out for the sequel to this post – Top 5 Worst Wedding Films.

Don’t forget that Prince Harry’s and Meghan Markle’s Royal Wedding is this Saturday (19 May)!

Father of the Bride

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Director: Charles Shyer
Writer: Charles Shyer, Nancy Meyers, Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett
Released: December 1991
Starring: Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams, Martin Short, Kieran Culkin
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As part of an upcoming post about the ‘top 10 wedding movies’, I realised I had a lot of research to conduct.

I had originally disregarded Father of the Bride, but a few people told me it’s actually worth a watch. It’s based on a film of the same name, which was made in 1950. All in all it’s an enjoyable enough film, but unfortunately it’s also my worst wedding nightmare come to life.

It’s about a father, George Banks (Steve Martin), and his comedic journey of organising a wedding for his daughter Annie (Kimberly Williams). A lot of unfortunate yet funny things happen, particularly when the in-laws meet for the first time and when George has a break down in a supermarket.

[at a supermarket]
George: I’ll tell you what I’m doing. I want to buy eight hot dogs and eight hot dog buns to go with them. But no one sells eight hot dog buns. They only sell twelve hot dog buns. So I end up paying for four buns I don’t need. So I am removing the superfluous buns. Yeah. And you want to know why? Because some big-shot over at the wiener company got together with some big-shot over at the bun company and decided to rip off the American public. Because they think the American public is a bunch of trusting nit-wits who will pay for everything they don’t need rather than make a stink. Well they’re not ripping of this nitwit anymore because I’m not paying for one more thing I don’t need. George Banks is saying NO!
Stock Boy: Who’s George Banks?
George: ME!

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But from the perspective of a soon-to-be bride, Father of the Bride becomes a terrifying movie.

As parents of the bride, George and his wife Nina (Dianne Keaton) pay for the entire wedding, but the cost of 500+ guests threatens debt and money troubles for the modest Banks family.

To George’s relief, his beloved daughter chooses to have the reception at home, which he hopes will save money. But the money saved is promptly spent on an elaborate wedding cake and a flamboyant wedding planner named Franck Eggelhoffer (Martin Short).

(At this point, I wish George would put his foot down but Nina encourages him to keep paying out for everything.)

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I’ve heard the wedding planner is many people’s favourite character because his accent is funny. But I think it’s so over-done, to the point that I could understand even less than the other characters could.

By the time the wedding day comes, the father doesn’t even get to try the food, see the cutting of the cake or the first dance because he is running around like a headless chook keeping everything in order.

Annie took advantage of her dad, and didn’t even say anything on the wedding day when he went missing.

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While the ranting of George and his emotional turmoil is comedic and light-hearted, I found it a bit upsetting. Putting my parents through that much stress is my worst nightmare, and I’m sure many parents and brides would feel the same.

Not only did George lose his daughter, but the final scene shows him and his wife in a large empty home with rubbish and broken glasses littering the carpet.

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Maybe I shouldn’t look so deeply into this family film.

The sequel came out in 1995, but I’m not in a hurry to see it.

Jodie’s rating: 5/10

Love Will Tear Us Apart, Again – Broken Social Scene

If you’ve watched The Time Traveler’s Wife, you would have heard this song.

I love this cover of Joy Division’s original song. It’s so relaxing, yet this is another emotional song that makes you feel almost sad as soon as you hear the first three piano chords.

I couldn’t help but learn the chords on the piano after hearing this. It’s quite a simple song, but it’s still so enjoyable. The guitar is quite quick paced, where as the vocals and piano are slow and prolonged, and by these two speeds playing at the same time, it tells a story within itself.

Jodie.