Thanks for checking out our 27 Dresses Review. I had a chance to see this film on Saturday in a theatre packed full of couples and a gaggle of gals!
The General Idea
Plot Outline from IMDB: After serving as a bridesmaid 27 times, a young woman (Heigl) wrestles with the idea of standing by her sister’s side as her sibling marries the man she’s secretly in love with.
The Good
This film does have a few very funny one liners, I had laughter ripped out of me with some quality grade A zingers; sadly they were few and far between. James Marsden was great in his role and really made the most out of a character that could have been a total write off. The chemistry between Heigel and Marsden was great and the best parts of this film were when they were enjoying each others company. I was not a fan of Marsden in X-Men, but by X-Men 2 he had won me over – and now I would invite him to a BBQ.
The Bad
I really did not care for this story. In chick flicks usually you set it up with a “woe is me” intro, a “Yay my life has turned around” middle, a crisis introducing the third act followed closely by a “nope my life really is awesome, there was just a misunderstanding” ending. In 27 Dresses the formula is followed but we dredge in the “woe is me” zone forever. It gets unbelievable that Heigel hasn’t blown her head off in a Deli bathroom, when all we see is her bitch and pine.
Heigl wants to fuck her boss, doesn’t have the guts to approach him and then freaks out when her sister mows her grass. Her sister cannot be blamed however because she was unaware of Heigl’s love of the man. Show me a girl that doesn’t talk about her crush with her sister; and I will doubt her existence. Of course Heigl is the one chosen to plan their eventual wedding and she grumbles and struggles with this unfortunate situation to the point of nausea. Her sister (predictably) is a fake whore that doesn’t deserve the perfect boss and much time is spent watching her dupe the dude as she puts on a front to woo him.
Heigl is also needlessly rude to Marsden’s character for way too long, and continually pushes him away. The cat and mouse angle went on forever and got very annoying. By the time they do hook up, they hardly have 5 minutes of celebration before they encounter their first crisis.
I do not mind if a film is formulaic as long as it is an awesome story; and I can get behind it. This film fucks up the formula, is a bad story and by the end of the film the theatre was quiet. A good chick flick should have everyone whipped up to a point of frenzied celebration, this film had an ending that should have been a shoe in for cheering; but the journey was lacking and people didn’t seem to care.
Overall
If this film had Marsden and Heigl riffing off of one another in an Esso bathroom for 90 minutes – It would have been a better movie. The story was not enjoyable and this film will be a waste of time for most. I give this film a 5/10, Marsden and a few key jokes provided some entertainment, but the movie was hurting.
Here i wrote a review about “27 dresses”: http://www.nbmodena.org/2008/03/22/27-dresses/ if you want to check it out ^^
The screenplay is very similar to the Filipino 2002 movie Got 2 Believe, I am not sure if the producers of 27 Dresses paid the royalty to the original screenplay. It is too coincidental that the key elements of both films are too similar. Just a thought.
You think the movie is bad try working as a photo tech in Wal-mart next to the the TVs and having to see the fucking trailer like 50 times a day. Every time it comes on I find something new to hate about it by Sunday I’ll be wanting to blow my fucking brains out. How the fuck does Higel go from Knocked Up to this bullshit? My co-worker probably said it best: “She needed the money”
Here’s an upcoming flick that’s more ‘conventional’ in its rom-com design.
You know, it annoys me more than anything when people assume girls don’t like action movies.
*sigh* You know, my sister is as girly girl as they get. And her favorite movies? Zombie flicks. If the undead are running around eating people’s flesh, she’s in the front row on opening night.
I personally adore action movies of all sorts, and like the occasional romantic comedy as well. You’ve Got Mail still is one of my favorite movies to watch when I’m not feeling well. But I also pop in Con Air on a regular basis. My favorite movies last summer were Die Hard 4 and No Reservations.
In other words: Doug is just as good a judge as any about a chick flick. A good movie is a good movie, and a bad one is a bad one. Maybe I’m biased because when I was actually studying film, I had to watch and write about tons of movies that weren’t my style. I did it anyway, because it’s easy enough to spot stale characters, a story that goes on too long, and an unsatisfactory end.
As for the review, I do have to throw in that I don’t really tell my sister everything. I don’t recall informing her when I had a crush on the guy who later became my husband…in fact, I don’t remember how long it took me to tell her we were dating. So it’s a little inaccurate to say that was a bad plot element.
But this review echoes a LOT of what I’ve heard about this movie. I still might go see it, but only because I want a happy ending movie right now and No Reservations isn’t out on DVD.
Of course you support anything that makes your wife happy, when she is glad, statistically you have a better chance to have the humpsex!
We don’t have this option, and because of this – may on occasion disagree with your spouse.
I respect you Doug and TMB but I gotta say my wife enjoyed the heck outta the movie. And I just have to support anything that puts a smile on her face…especially if that “something” doesn’t involve the Kamasutra’s ‘upside-down broken lotus’ position. Don’t ask.
I do not mind chick flicks, Down With Love was one of my favorites, Bridget Jones’ Diary was great and The Devil Wears Prada was one on my favorite films last year.
I tried to enjoy this for what it was – but it wasn’t good.
TMB…lighten up. It was a FUN movie you could take your girl to and really enjoy. Enjoy it for what it was.
Dammit. I wake up today and hop on the site to find that I got owned overnight:)
“Heigl wants to fuck her boss, doesn’t have the guts to approach him and then freaks out when her sister mows her grass.”
LMAO
Can we PLEASE get a real girly-girl to do your primary review for the next testosterone-based action film?
No?
Meanies.
And of course, now I go back and read Doug’s review…
Wow. I think many of my comments to Kristina regarding ‘genre specificity’ apply to you, Doug. Wowza!
“Heigl wants to fuck her boss, doesn’t have the guts to approach him and then freaks out when her sister mows her grass. Her sister cannot be blamed however because she was unaware of Heigl’s love of the man. Show me a girl that doesn’t talk about her crush with her sister; and I will doubt her existence.”
You don’t really know what the true dynamic was between them. Heigl was Older Sister Bringing Up Younger Sibling after mother died…so she may very well have kept a ton of stuff to herself…and even upon the sister’s arrival in her apartment, you can tell that Heigl knows her needs, her wants…I hardly think theirs was an ‘equal’ relationship.
Throwing the personal into the public… I’m always curious as to how guys like Doug ‘get along with women’. (Translation: how well he does with them.) Because unless he’s got his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, I can’t imagine such a harsh viewpoint-
“In 27 Dresses the formula is followed but we dredge in the “woe is me” zone forever. It gets unbelievable that Heigel hasn’t blown her head off in a Deli bathroom, when all we see is her bitch and pine.”
-about some pretty consistent behaviour patterns would win him any-
Oh, wait… This is the Real World I’m referring to, and Lord knows, there’s no logic in how people respond to each other, especially the sexes…especially women towards men.
Right; where were we…?
This is the exact reason I like this sight.
I was not going to see this movie even though I love Marsden and as a Mo, I think he’s totally hot. I guess you could say he’s my boy next-door fantasy as Hiegl is to a thirteen-year-old boy’s. After reading Probitionate’s rather well thought out argument… I just have to.
I agree with your last statement too. I didn’t even like her that much in Roswell. I don’t think her Mo on a leash is that great either. Am I bad…
“Show me a girl that doesn’t talk about her crush with her sister; and I will doubt her existence.”
“Her sister (predictably) is a fake whore that doesn’t deserve the perfect boss and much time is spent watching her dupe the dude as she puts on a front to woo him.”
If a woman and her sister were as dissimilar as these two sound to be, it would not be believable to me if they were close and shared their secrets with each other.
Kristina: Ouch!
I think this is one of those instances where someone hates a genre so much…or what a genre is predicated on…that their POV essentially removes all objectivity. I’ve said this before about many critics: ‘If you don’t even like the notion of slasher films, why bother reviewing? It’s like a country-western critic railing on about hip-hop.
Not that I’m dismissing your opinion… LOL
Rom-coms are about romance. (And comedy.) They’re about Love, they’re about Finding Someone, about Being Coupled, about Falling in Love.
Now, for you, these elements alone are distasteful, due to your personal politics. You’re very bristly, cringing at the very notion of a woman wanting a man in her life, THE Man in her life…which you interpret as being some kind of validation. As if ‘Before Man’, the woman in question lived a shite existence. That she had no value.
But movies aren’t Life. They’re accentuations, exaggerations…they’re a zoomed-in-on part of a kajillion-ringed circus. (I find it hilariously ironic that I would be soapboxing on this, given that this is the very premise of ‘Cloverfield’…and every moron out there is wah-wahing about how we’re not really told The Whole Story. Duh!) And this movie…as with all rom-coms…zooms in on one woman’s tale: a perennial bride’s maid who wants to wear the star’s costume.
It seems to me that your umbrage at this premise is enough to tell you to go see ‘There Will Be Blood’ again. lol Sorry, I am being snide…but I don’t think I’m being cruel here. See, I’m a male, older than the lead character here, and I know exactly what she’s talking about, why she behaves as she does. I’ve done a hell of a lot of stuff in my life. I’ve lived on two continents, in three countries, I’ve had some pretty fascinating jobs, I’ve been to Africa, I’ve worked for Hugh Hefner…but ya know what? I’d LOVE to be coupled. I’d LOVE to find The One. Would she ‘validate’ me? No. Would she ‘complete’ me? No. But I do crave being coupled. To build the same sort of life that Heigl wants to build. Does that make me neurotic or miserable, the male version of a ‘cunt’? Not even close.
So in terms of your comments, ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks.’
: )
As for the film…
I concede that this film does not adhere to the usual paradigm of a rom-com. And that Heigl is a very passive partner in her own story. And that there is no ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ cookie-cut storyline. And there’s no Leading Man-as-primary-target for her to expend all of her angst on. (No, there isn’t.)
And ya know what? These are the very elements I was applauding. I loved the fact that this was a slightly-skewed tale. That Heigl wasn’t trying to sabotage her sister’s relationship to win her long-coveted boss from her. I loved how Marsden was a non-predatory Leading Man (even though really, skewing the paradigm all the more, there really wasn’t a Leading Man at all in this film. By the end there’s a de facto one, but not a marquee one.)
I appreciate that rom-com fans haven’t absolutely embraced it, as they maybe did with ‘Love, Actually’, or others. And even from my usual POV, that of a screenwriter, there were all manner of flaws, storytelling-wise. And there’s no question that someone who supports a particular genre will overlook a ton, simply because of their love for its ilk. Having said all this, I enjoyed ’27 Dresses’. (I thought the ‘Benny and The Jets’ scene in the bar was one of the most entertaining I’ve seen on-screen in a hellova long time. I was transfixed by Marsden’s engagement here, thought he was great.) But you’ve got to be on-board with the genre before you can appreciate anything about a movie…and clearly, Kristina, you’re not on-board with rom-coms. (It’s probably safe to say you’d like to torpedo the lot. Hmm… Wondering how you feel about love songs…)
P.S. And I sure don’t believe that Heigl is Leading Lady material.
And no matter how much people try to sell me on Heigl as America’s next sweetheart, she comes across as too much of a cunt for me to properly support.
preach it!
The thing that makes films like this so offensive to me is that, no matter how “independent” the woman is, her life is not complete until she finds the “perfect man”. Lemme guess without seeing this film: she’s gorgeous, successful, has a kickass apartment, great friends and family, but she’s in AGONY because her love life isn’t 100% perfect like a fucking fairy tale, right? It is BULLSHIT. It’s insulting to me that these are the kinds of films that are made for my gender, yet they all push this ideal of find a man, find a man, find a man now or your life is worthless! This shit is ridiculous. Women are not neurotic cunts who are miserable because we don’t have a boyfriend. I’ve got a lot of good shit going on in my life without a boyfriend. Guys are nice, but they are not the be all, end all to a woman’s life. Being single is not a fucking death sentence, and I refuse to sit through a film that is trying to tell me otherwise. It’s bullshit!
TRAILER PARK OF TERROR
ANNOUNCES SECOND SCREENING
A Rock n Roll Horror Film
Launches at Slamdance
Demand for Tickets so incredible, Slamdance offers a second screening
At the Same Time as the Originally Scheduled One.
TRAILER PARK OF TERROR screens Monday, January 21 at the Slamdance Film Festival and is rapidly becoming the MUST SEE flick in Park City. Directed by Steven Goldmann and starring Nichole Hiltz, Lew Temple, Hayley Marie Norman, Ryan Carnes, Myk Watford, Jeannette Brox, Priscilla Barnes and Trace Adkins. Alan Brewer provides the brilliant, tension-elevating music.
TRAILER PARK OF TERROR is based on the popular and hugely successful Imperium Comics series. Slamdance Programming Director Sarah Diamond stated in Variety on January 16, “It’s one of our Twilight films, and I think it’s going to be a big hit.” Adding to the buzz surrounding the feature, WIRED magazine named TRAILER PARK OF TERROR’s trailer one of the top ten in Park City this year. WIRED Magazine also goes on to state that “Zombies rule Park City again.”
The film involves the adventures of six troubled high school students and their chaperon, an optimistic youth ministries Pastor, as they return from their mountain retreat. During a raging storm, their bus crashes, hopelessly stranding them in the middle of nowhere. The luckless group seeks shelter for the night in a ramshackle trailer park they find down the road. However, it’s not refuge or help they find. Instead, terror finds them in the form of Norma, a damned redneck reaper with a killer body who dispenses vengeance and death aided by her cursed companions, a bloodthirsty brood of Undead trailer trash.
Fear has a new home — and its TRAILER PARK OF TERROR.
For interviews with the cast and crew in Park City, please contact Thomas DeLorenzo at 213.407.6988. You can also learn more about the film at http://www.TrailerParkofTerror.com.
Thomas DeLorenzo
[email protected]
213 407 6988 mobile
213 507 0201 text
i think it’s a good film…