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Wedding Planning: What Not to Watch While Preparing For the Big Day

BuzzSugar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:30:18 -0700

If you're planning a wedding, it can be discouraging to settle in for a movie or TV show in which marriage is, well, not cast in the nicest light. Here I've rounded up some movies and one TV show that may be great entertainment but won't exactly give you the warm fuzzies about getting married.

American Beauty - Sure, there's a lot more going on in American Beauty than just a failing marriage, but the union between Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Carolyn (Annette Benning) still isn't exactly inspirational. In addition to general suburban dystopia, there's a lot of infidelity, ogling of teen girls, and overall contempt within the marriage. Oh, and that ending is a pretty big downer.

More titles to avoid if you read more.

Little Children - I'd say you'll want to avoid both watching this movie and reading the original work by Tom Perrotta. Like American Beauty, it's riddled with infidelity and overall malaise surrounding married life. The main female character, Sarah (Kate Winslet) is enormously bored with her quiet life and her role as wife and mother. Handsome stay-at-home dad Brad - also dissatisfied - manages to temporarily fill the void in her but at the end of the day nobody can truly do that. General feeling after watching this movie: bleak.

The Ice Storm - Speaking of bleak, The Ice Storm serves up cold desolation and hopelessness in spades. A wintry storm symbolically covers everything in New Canaan, CT, in a stark, numbing chill as two families celebrate Thanksgiving. For marrieds Ben and Elena Hood (Kevin Kline and Joan Allen) this mostly means drinking way too much and despising each other. Don't let the promise of young, adorable versions of Christina Ricci, Katie Holmes, and Elijah Wood lure you in. It's too cold in this movie.

Kramer vs. Kramer - Anger, fighting, divorce, custody battles . . . you're just going to want to avoid this one for a while. As you probably know, the story is based on the real-life court battle in which a divorced couple fought over custody of their son. It is poignant and stars some phenomenal actors (Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep), but it's definitely not "oh baby, marriage is awesome" material.

Tell Me You Love Me - Well, at least these couples are getting therapy, but still, as excellent as this HBO show is, it can also be incredibly depressing. While one couple is busy not communicating, another is fighting over their inability to get pregnant, and a third is still haunted by a long-ago extramarital affair. Good times. And by "good times" I mean "avoid this like the plague before getting married - especially if you have a tendency to get cold feet."

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Movie Night: Deep-Freeze Films

BuzzSugar — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:54:42 -0800

So many movies, so little time. Thankfully, BuzzSugar is here to help you sort through them all! Every Thursday, we'll choose a theme for a weekend Movie Night and feature three must-see movies in keeping with the topic. This week's Movie Night: deep-freeze films. So if the weather outside is frightful this time of year, make a protective pillow fort and turn on these icy-themed films.

The Ice Storm
Tobey Maguire stars as teenager Paul Hood, who returns from boarding school to a deteriorating world. His family is struggling to stay together, the Watergate scandal is threatening to unravel Washington, and a fierce ice storm is gearing up to freeze over his suburban Connecticut town. With a strong cast which includes Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Christina Ricci, The Ice Storm depicts how the atmosphere of free experimentation and liberalism prevalent in 1973 caused a freezing of one family's morals. The literal freezing of the physical world outside as a figurative device is heavy-handed at times, but also effective, and visually startling.

Two more so read more

Fargo

In Fargo, the only thing thicker than the Minnesota accents is the snow cover. An iced-over Upper Midwest landscape serves as the perfect setting for this noir thriller, which is one of the best examples of the Cohen brothers' ability to combine the bleak with the bitingly funny. Fargo tells the story of hapless used-car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) who gets embroiled in a botched murder, while Frances McDormand pulls off a near-flawless performance as Marge Gunderson, the very pregnant detective investigating the case. Other highlights include Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare reimagining Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as incompetent criminals.

The Cutting Edge
I know so many people who like the movie The Cutting Edge but won't admit to it. True, it's not a complex, socially important film, but it is very fun and satisfying to watch. Moira Kelly is charming as the beautiful but spoiled figure skater Kate Moseley, who, in order to remain in the 1988 Olympics, must team up with a new skating partner. Her coach brings in hockey player Doug Dorsey, and the two make beautiful figure eights together. Their personalities, however, do not harmonize. Competition movies are so much fun because of how predictable they are, especially when they feature a relationship that is feisty and argumentative but which you know is only masking passionate attraction. Guilty pleasure, much?

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:30:19 -0700

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. Check out this week's picks!

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
I admittedly wasn't a fan of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past when it came out in theaters, but it may be worth considering if you're in the mood for a romantic comedy that doesn't make you think too much. The premise: When playboy Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) attends his brother's wedding, he runs into his first love Jenny (Jennifer Garner), setting off a Christmas Carol-like chain of events, complete with ghosts. Yes, the plot's contrived and Connor is incredibly smarmy, but I enjoyed the supporting cast of characters, especially Emma Stone as an 80's ghost with a bad perm and Michael Douglas as Connor's Lothario uncle.

27%

Two more up next, so read more.

Observe and Report
Observe and Report follows a self-important, semi-delusional mall security cop (Seth Rogen) who flips out when he realizes he may not become a police officer - or win over the makeup counter girl of his dreams (Anna Faris). When I first reviewed it, I was surprised by how dark the film turned out to be for a Rogen and Faris comedy. Still, it does have a few laugh-worthy moments, and Rogen fans will probably want to add this to their must-see list.

51%

Lymelife
Set in the 1970s, Lymelife is an ensemble drama that follows two families in a Long Island neighborhood dealing with a Lyme disease scare. It boasts a decent ensemble cast, including Cynthia Nixon, Alec Baldwin, and Timothy Hutton, but Rory Culkin (yes, Macaulay's brother) is the heart of the film as a 15-year-old struggling in the midst of messed-up chaos. (Emma Roberts also turns in a memorable performance as his crush.) The reviews were mixed when the film released in theaters, but if twisted suburbia is your thing (i.e., American Beauty or The Ice Storm), then Lymelife is worth checking out. Bonus material includes an alternate ending.

54%