New Release: Eat, Pray, Love

I finally got around to seeing the new Julia Roberts movie.  I was really looking forward to the movie, I really liked the book.  Mostly I was really curious to see how they could make someone's personal inner journey come to life.  It turns out not very well.  Roberts plays real-life author, Elizabeth Gilbert, stuck in a lonely marriage with Billy Crudup.  She leaves him, but immediately gets swallowed up by a relationship with an artist, James Franco.  When she realizes she's going to make the same mistakes, and stay in a bad relationship, she decides to set out on a journey to find herself. 

Her goal was to eat and find a passion for food again.  The book describes the large weight loss she goes through during the stress of her divorce and relationship, but the book skips over it completely.  So the idea of going to eat doesn't make a ton of sense.  But watching her travel around Italy and eat and enjoy being by herself was pretty neat.  She moves her eyes around a lot and smiles to show she's taking it all in.  Then she goes to an ashram (yoga/meditation place) in India.  She wants to seek a spiritual connection of some sort.  This was the most dull part of the book and most beautiful part of the movie.  It was dull to listen to her describe her meditation experience.  I practice meditation myself and it's like listening to someone describe their dream or nightmare, it only makes sense to them.  However, Julia Roberts meet Richard from Texas, played gruffly and touchingly by Richard Jenkins.  He calls her "groceries" because she eats twice as much as anyone (having just come from the "Eat" part of her trip, she has practice).  They get along well and he pretty much speaks in bumper stickers, but acknowledges it (which doesn't actually make it good dialogue).  But their friendship is nice. 

Then for no obvious reason she moves on to Bali, because an old medicine man she met there once said she'd return, so she does.  She hangs out with him, asking him to teach her his theories on life.  He's cute, toothless and funny.  He reads her palm and says she'll have another long marriage this time.  When she's out biking one day, Javier Bardem nearly runs her off the road.  They meet at a party that night, start dating and fall in love pretty quickly.  They do have terrific chemistry, but it's hard to see any changes in Roberts' after her year-long journey to find herself.  She seems just like the same person from the beginning, willing to lose herself in another man and not capable of taking care of herself and being herself.  Overall, the movie really failed to capture the journey she takes in the book.  It was a difficult interior journey, and the book helps it play out with real detail that the movie just couldn't bring out.  It's a decent movie, with a few laughs, beautiful scenery and Javier Bardem.  2.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Not quite the saddest movie ever

Some of the saddest movies I've ever seen are The House of Sand and Fog, Cold Mountain, and The Pursuit of Happyness. I think of them as the saddest movies because very little happy happens, and the very saddest things imaginable actually happen and you're forced to watch. None of those movies are exceptional in almost any way, except that they're really good at inducing crying. I didn't expect much more from My Sister's Keeper. The bald girl in the trailer is obviously sick, and the whole story is about her and her family. However, somehow it's still not that sad. Very good at making you cry, but still a fairly interesting story. I read the book before I saw the movie, and it's one of the best sad books I've ever read, so I was excited to see how they made it into a non-weepy movie. Cameron Diaz is the sick girl's mother, and does a good job of being the lioness running over everyone in her efforts to save her daughter. Jason Patric is the dad, and his role is much smaller in the movie than the book, so he can't be blamed for being just a flicker. Abigail Breslin and Alec Baldwin are terrific fighting Diaz for Breslin's right to her own body (which means her sister will die without the kidney she's fighting to keep). As with all of Jodie Piccoult's (the author of the book) there's a twist that turns everything on its head, but it's not particularly vital to the ending. Overall, a good movie, but be warned, YOU WILL CRY. 3 lambs/stars

Short review: New Moon (that Twilight sequel)

So much has been written about New Moon already, and I don't think that many people who read my blog care much about the new Twilight: New Moon movie so I won't post much. I liked the first movie more than I expected, so I read the books, which I liked less than expected, although I couldn't put them down (I also can't put down a bag of Pirate's Booty - that doesn't mean it's quality food). There were a few things I did like about the movie (beside staring at cute semi-naked guys). The movie did a good job convincing me that Jacob (the Native American kid who turns into a werewolf) might be a legitimate love interest for Bella, which it did much better than the book. Also better than the book was the movie's ability to scrub some of the teen angst and broken-heart isolation that Bella suffers after Edward leaves. The story was compelling, and I liked the set up for the next film. Decent entertainment, but not a terrific movie (and the acting is still pretty bad). 2.5 of 5 Lambs/Stars.

DVD Round-up

Over the weekend, I saw two new DVDs from Netflix. As it's a bit of lull in the DVD season for movies I missed, but wanted to see so there were a few older ones that popped up at the top. The first was Bonneville, a lesser known movie starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, and Joan Allen as friends from Idaho who decide to travel to California. Lange's husband has died and his daughter from a previous marriage is threatening to take away her house if Lange doesn't return the dad's ashes to Santa Barbara. They decide to drive in a 1966 Bonneville convertible. Lange had promised to spread her husband's ashes around the world they'd traveled together, but doesn't want to lose her house to her step-daughter. She does find a way around her problem, but her friends help her get to Santa Barbara on time. There are fun adventures like any road trip movie, but given their age, the adventures are a bit less disgusting and more fun than a college version. The acting is impressive, the writing decent and the story compelling. A solid film to like, 3.5 of 5 stars/lambs

The second movie I saw is one of the best sports movie I've ever seen. The Express stars Rob Brown (Finding Forrester) as Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy (the award for best collegiate football player). He grows up in Pennsylvania in the late 1950s and attends Syracuse University (Go Orangemen!) at the urging of former player Jim Brown. He tries to keep his head down and stay out of trouble, but ultimately can't escape the influence his star playing has on the African-American community and the civil rights movement. The year he leads his team to the Cotten Bowl game in Dallas he (and the other two black players) are not allowed to enter the hotel where the team is staying as it's a segregated hotel. His coach, Ben Schwartzwalder (played really well by Dennis Quaid), often runs into Davis' drive to further both his own career and the cause of civil rights. While the movie could step into broad statements and make a hero out of a small person, but even after researching some of the interviews done about the historical accuracy of the movie it seems that Ernie Davis was as amazing as the movie slowly explains that he was. The acting is good, and the games are shot in a way that's easy to follow both the course of the game and the deeper meanings when certain tackles occur (some of the Texas players find more pleasure beating on the successful black players rather than winning the game). It's a terrific film, and I highly recommend it. 4.5 stars/lambs

The Time Traveler's Wife: Review (minor spoilers)

Obviously, if you've already read the novel upon which the movie is based, this review won't contain any spoilers. However, if you've not read or heard anything about it, this might reveal a bit more than you'd like. Here's the summary of what I thought first, then I'll add specifics. I really liked it. The Time Traveler's Wife is a wonderful love story with a bit of a fantasy (or futuristic) spin. 4.5 of 5 stars/lambs, not quite perfect, but there were elements of the book I similarly thought weren't great and the movie was wonderfully faithful to the book.

Now, the specifics of what I liked and why. Eric Bana stars as Henry DeTamble, a research librarian who has one small anomaly, he un-willfully travels through time. He can't control where or to when he goes or even when he'll return to normal time. When he's in his 30s and 40s he travels back in time and meets a little girl named Claire. Claire spends her life growing up and becoming friends and ultimately falling in love with Henry, even though he only visits as an older man and infrequently. However, they meet when they're both in their 20s. Claire has known him her whole life, but in his 20s, Henry has not yet met Claire. That's sort of where the movie starts, and then follows Claire's life in real time, with flash backs and forwards following Henry. As I'd hoped, the movie is much easier to follow than the book, which just gives you dates and the characters ages to keep you oriented, while the movie gives you actual images of each person at a given age to compare (they grey Henry's hair, cut Claire's hair, etc.). We follow Claire and Henry through falling in love, marriage, and children, all the while struggling with how to understand and deal with Henry's "condition". While I never picked up on the underlying messages in the book, the time travel and the love story is too strong, the movie does a terrific job, mostly with the acting, of introducing greater themes the material is exploring. The idea that the person you love could have a disease, disability or "condition" is one that many if not all couples will someday deal with, and we get to watch as Claire (a wonderful Rachel McAdams) struggles with trying to hate the "condition" and not the man. I think she reaches an equilibrium and questions whether it's fair have to love someone with this condition and how you can get through it. Okay, that was the weightier theme that I really liked. The other issue they do a terrific job of demonstrating is the concept of fate and choice. If Henry will eventually always go back in time and meet Claire, does she really have any choice but to fall in love with him when she meets him again as an adult? If he knows the house they will eventually live in, does he have to search until he finds that house, or can he choose whatever he wants? They do a good job of explaining their paradigm of time travel in the film. It's a great love story too, Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana have great chemistry. Also, the supporting characters of Ron Livingston (currently in "Defying Gravity" on ABC which is a great series so far) and Stephen Tobolowsky as Dr. Kendrick who helps the couple figure out how to keep their fetus from time traveling before it's born. I cried very hard at the end, and that's all I'll say. Terrific movie for anyone who likes love stories, sci-fi, fantasy or great acting.

The UGLY truth: review

Yesterday after a difficult task was completed, I treated myself to a matinee of The Ugly Truth, and as it was a Tuesday and a movie that's been open a while, I was the ONLY person in the theater! I loved it. Watched the movie like it was my living room - disobeyed all the rules of movie watching. I checked my phone, texted, listened to voicemail. It was totally fun, and worth it even if the movie wasn't great. The Ugly Truth is the name of a cable-access TV call-in show hosted by Gerard Butler's character, Mike, that tells the truth about what attracts guys - T&A mostly. He oversimplifies things, but I doubt he's wrong. The conflict begins (because what's a romantic comedy without conflict) when Katherine Heigl's character, Abby, a producer for a local news show, confronts him about the assumptions he's making. However, he proves he's right by helping her get a date with her neighbor (a perfectly hot doctor who fits all of Abby's control-freak criteria). They continue to work together and you can see from a long way off that their opposites will attract. The movie is every cliche in the book, with a lot of really vulgar jokes thrown in too. There's no way some of the things he says would pass muster on a morning news show. It's funny in some parts, but doesn't actually show us anything new, and pretty much drags the genre back 10 years with the recurring theme that women are lead by their heads, and men by their crotch. Butler and Heigl do have really good chemistry and Butler is incredibly charismatic (though he talks out of one side of his mouth trying to hide his accent). A decent movie, but nothing great. 3 of 5 Lambs/stars

DVD Round up: Twilight, The International, Nick and Nora, Shopaholic

I've been very remiss in keeping up with my DVD watching. But fear not, I've seen lots, just nothing so amazing that drove me write about it immediately. But here's my take on the last 4 I've seen. All enjoyable, but nothing terrific. For no other reason than the chronological order I saw them, here they are:

Twilight was written for a younger demographic, but I finally gave in a watched the DVD. I've enjoyed vampire fare in the past (okay, that's a lie, I LOVE Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and True Blood) so I expected to enjoy this too. Stephanie Meyer played a little fast and loose with the vampire "rules" but nothing that's totally crazy, just reinterpreting the canon a bit. The major difference the movie showed was that vampires don't burst into flame in sunlight (a very common plot point in Buffy) but rather shine like diamonds. Basically, Bella (Kristin Stewart) moves to the Pacific Northwest to live with her Sheriff Dad. She meets Edward (Robert Pattinson), a little different, at high school and eventually falls in love with him. She finds out he's a vampire, as is the rest of his family. However, they've sworn off feeding on humans so for the most part they're safe. Another group of human feeding vamps move into the area and start causing conflict. That's about where the first movie ends, nicely setting up the sequel. It was good, very good supporting cast and decent acting. Bella's internal monologue gets annoying, but drives the teen angst remarkably well. 3 stars/lambs

Next, I saw The International, with Clive Owen as an Interpol agent trying to take down a huge banking conglomerate that traffics in arms and debt. Naomi Watts plays a ADA for New York City helping him try to prosecute the huge bank. They meet up with an Italian politician who is going to give them lots of info, but he gets shot, presumably by the bank assassin. Then they're back in NYC and go to the Guggenheim museum to follow someone they think is a higher up member of the bank (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and end up face to face with the bank's assassin and the assassins sent to kill them. There's a huge shoot out that's pretty awesome, but overall there's very little character development of any of the characters. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either, 2.5 stars/lambs

I am also not the prime demographic for Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, but I enjoyed that too, a bit. Michael Cera plays Nick, the long-suffering now ex-boyfriend of Tris, a classmate of audiophile Nora, (Kat Dennings). The whole thing follows them around NYC, as high school students I was a little disbelieving, trying to find a particular band playing. Nora's friend Caroline gets drunk and Nick's band agrees to take her home. She thinks she's being kidnapped and escapes causing all of them to start searching the city for both the band and Caroline. It's funny, and the tween/high schooler actors are all showing lots of skill, but overall the movie wasn't really for me. 2 lambs/stars, but could see that if it was your thing, it could be a 4.

Finally, I just saw Confessions of a Shopaholic. For this one, I'm definitely the demographic, I've read all the books and love chick flicks. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't live up the books and probably didn't succeed because it deviated from the book too much and didn't come up with a more plausible story. Isla Fisher plays Rebecca Bloomwood, a confirmed shopaholic with a taste for designer clothes and the inability to pay for them. She works and loses the job for a gardening magazine. She wants to work for Alette (a fashion magazine run by Kristin Scott Thomas) but takes a job with a financial savings magazine to try to pay her bills and work her way toward Alette. Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy who has lost the ability to shave) runs the magazine (deviation from the book - he's a huge financial manager in the books) and finds lots of value in Rebecca's opinions on personal finance. It comes to a head when a collections agent outs Rebecca's debts on national TV showing her as a fake. Predictably Rebecca and Luke fall in love and all is well. Not the greatest, but not the worst. 3 lambs/stars.

New Releases: The Hangover AND The Proposal

Okay, there are some spoilers in these reviews, mostly because pretty much everyone who is going to see them already has, and those who haven't might find a few spoilers funny. First, The Hangover. Four guys head to Las Vegas for a bachelor party for Doug (Justin Bartha from National Treasure). However, everything goes terrible off kilter when Doug's slightly strange future brother-in-law Alan (scene stealing Zach Galifianakis) gives them all roofies and when they wake up the next morning, they can't find Doug. The spend the day retracing their steps and talking to people they saw, including the new wife of Stu (Ed Helms), Mr. Wong (the always hysterical Ken Jeong) and Mike Tyson. The comedy appears in both the activies that are re-enacted and in the dialogue of Alan. He's just strange and says things that his slightly cooler pals can only stare at. Overall it's a funny movie, but I still think most of the other movies of the same genre are funnier (Role Models, I Love you Man, Step Brothers). It really doesn't have anything new, except actors who are given their chance to be stars and funny (I've loved Bradley Cooper since his time as Will on Alias). 3.5 stars/lambs

The current number one film (The Hangover is second this week) is The Proposal. I was expecting very little going into the movie. I enjoy Sandra Bullock's movies, but Ryan Reynolds' romantic comedies haven't been wonderful (good, but not great). So possibly I enjoyed this movie so much more because I didn't expect much from it. I'd waited a little to see The Hangover, and it has been much hyped (and deservedly so) but I thought it only just lived up to the hype, it wasn't any more. The Proposal follows Sandra Bullock's Margaret as she bribes her assistant (Reynolds) to marry her to avoid deportation. Because of the timing of the wedding, they're investigated by INS and to prove the legitimacy of their love, decide to go home to his parents' house in Sitka, Alaska for his grandmother's (Betty White) 90th birthday. She's an uptight publishing executive and arrives in the rural town in her Christian Louboutin stilletos and is afraid of the water (his family "the Alaskan Kennedys") live in a huge house on an island in the Sound), but she does a good job to try to fit in an keep the charade going. Andrew (Reynolds) hasn't seen his family in 3 years (it's not easy being Margaret's assistant) and has struggled with being the son of the weathly family. The two of them do a good job of pretending to be engaged and of course end up learning more about each other and ultimately falling in love. It's a very funny movie, both from Bullock's pratfall type humor and Reynolds dry wit commenting on it. I really liked it. 4 of 5 stars/lambs

Men are jerks and women are crazy...

The theme of He's Just Not That Into You is pretty clear and straightforward - if a guy wants to date you, he'll try to date you. If a married couple isn't sleeping together, one or both of them are sleeping with someone else. Most guys, or all guys, don't plan every detail of their interactions with a woman, thus women shouldn't pay that much attention to the details. This movie is a crazy amalgam of stories of twenty to thirty somethings in various stages of relationships and how men and women react differently to relationships. There were no revelations about the modern status of relationships, though they tried to say something about how new technologies makes us always available and yet there are hidden meanings (supposedly) to all the different types of interactions (e-mail vs voicemail, eharmony vs myspace vs facebook). The acting was pretty good by everyone, particularly Ginnifer Goodwin (Walk the Line and "Big Love") and Justin Long. I didn't like Bradley Cooper's character at all (though he was REALLY funny on Saturday Night Live last week) and Scarlett Johanssen was just annoying. Overall, not a great reflection on society, dating or men or women. 2 Lambs/stars

Bride Wars review

Bride Wars is not for everyone - it's unapologetically a chick flick. There's even a moment in the film when the brides are asked if they need to consult their fiancees and they of course answer no. I don't think I know a guy who would love Bride Wars except maybe to watch them torture each other, but even then it's still so girly that few guys will enjoy it. Basically, two best friends (Oscar nominees Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway) get engaged at nearly the same time, and their dream since childhood is a June wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York City. They gloss over how ridiculously expensive that would be with one of them having a high paying law job and the other saving for 10 years. Anyway, they go to a wedding planner (Candice Bergen) who accidentally books their weddings the same day, causing a problem in having each other as their maid of honor. Rather than fixing it with either a double wedding or some sort of slightly staggered wedding they insist someone must change their date. They refuse, become enemies and start sabotaging the weddings. Bad tans, hair dye, scheduling snafus, etc. follow before a very sweet, but not treacly, reconciliation toward the end. It's a cute movie, go with your best friend ladies. Also, I loved seeing Chris Pratt (Everwood) as one of the fiancees (that's him in the picture with Anne). 3 lambs/stars.

My Best Friend's Girl is Raunchy

The new movie with Dane Cook, Jason Biggs, and Kate Hudson, My Best Friend's Girl, is not good. Even as a romantic comedy it fails. The weird thing is, most of the acting is actually good, even Dane Cook, really. So the premise is that Dane Cook has a side profession as an asshole. He gets hired by guys who screwed up their relationships, got dumped, and now want the girl back. Cook fits in by being so awful, any guy will look good by comparison. Jason Biggs is in love with his co-worker, Kate Hudson, a monogamy junkie who needs to date around before settling down with nice guy Biggs. So she dates Dane Cook. Fairly obviously from all the commercials, she ends up with Cook. However, you get to watch him be as awful as any human being really can be. Some of it's deliberate, and some is just the writers trying to show off how disgusting and stupid they can be. I actually think this movie could be remade in a way that wasn't disgusting (and I liked the raunchiness of the American Pie series). This movie is over the top and really poorly written. 2 of 5 stars/LAMBS.

Two new movies

For a change we actually got two new movies at the local cineplex. So I took in the double feature of Burn After Reading and The Women. First, Burn After Reading, the Coen brothers new comedy, delivered in the style I expected. It was funny, confusing, expertly acted, with new original characters and a decent amount of violence. A basic outline of the plot begins with John Malkovich as a CIA agent being fired. He yells and fights but is still fired and decides to write his "mem-wahs" (memoirs for the rest of you). His wife, Tilda Swinton, is actually sleeping with a really weird, creepy, womanizing US Marshall, George Clooney. This world of Washington insiders eventually gets involved with much of the staff of "Hardbodies" gym when a CD of Malkovich's info is dropped in the ladies room. Brad Pitt, as the greatest character he's ever played - Chad the gym guy, and Frances McDormand (a woman who just wants 4 elective surgeries to improve her appearance) decide to try to blackmail Malkovich to get money out of the deal. Lots of things go wrong as you might expect, but obviously moronic hilarity ensues. Pitt's perforamnce as Chad is still funny to remember. He wears shorts and his uniform all the time, rides his bike, listens to his ipod constantly and has frosted tips. His dancing skills will become iconic (or maybe just funny forever). It wasn't quite up to the standard of Fargo, but the characters were more entertaining. 4.5 of 5 stars/LAMBS.

The Women was a remake of the 1939 movie based on the play by Clare Booth Luce. This version starred the best Meg Ryan we've seen in ages (but that doesn't make her terrific either), with a terrific Annette Benning and great supporting performances by Cloris Leachman, Debra Messing, Candice Bergen, Eva Mendes and Debi Mazar. I liked the movie, but it didn't really go anywhere new. Since it was a remake, it really should have been more unique in taking the themes created by the original work and bringing new things to it. I saw the original very recently too, and it was more interesting for its time, but the new version just took all the cliches that make sense in certain scenes and applied today's version of them. They didn't investigate much beyond the original. There were some interesting questions - what do you do when you find out your husband's cheating?, do you stay or leave?, how far does a friend have to go to end the friendship? and if everyone already knows your business is it worth trying to pretend any more? Ryan and Benning do a great job of being friends, hand working women, and annoying at the same time. I liked the overall story, but wasn't impressed in general. It was interesting to watch a movie that had not a single man anywhere in it (except 1 obvious one). All the scenes were deliberately situated not to be ridiculous without men (a lesbian bar, a woman's luncheon, day spas) but it was still interesting to realize. Definitely a chick flick, but only a 3 of 5.

Sisterhood Continues

I confess, I'm nearly 30, but I've read all the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books by Ann Brashares. The main reason was a friend gave me an autographed copy of the 4th one knowing I'd enjoyed the first one years ago. So, in order to read my gift, I went to the library and read the middle two also. Yes, there are 4 books in the series and I've read them all and now I've seen both movies based on the series. And, in a moment of brilliance, the movie makers chose to make the first and fourth books rather than sticking to the series. Given that the actresses had aged (and the two middle books are pretty boring) it definitely makes sense. Also, the story lines from the last book are much more interesting. They follow Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Carmen as they have summer adventures during college - RISD painting class, NYU summer school, archaeological dig, and summer stock theater in New Hampshire, respectively. Each of the stories is told well, with each of the characters going through something big in the growing pains category in finding their identities. They suffer through angsty broken hearts, family loss and growth, and figuring out how to stay friends with your childhood pals while growing up. Unlike the previous movie or the any of the books, the "pants" connection is really lost in this movie. Yes, they mail them back and forth (as if mail would go to and from Turkey in less than a week?) but the idea that they have magic in them and good things happen when you wear the pants is lost. They jump between characters without the pants being very involved. Also, while I understand they are "magical pants" I have trouble believing a pair of jeans will continue to fit the same 4 girls throughout high school and into college. My own jeans didn't last that long. In general the acting is good (though, Alexis Bledel should stick to TV as much as it pains me to criticize Rory), the stories interesting and believable. Overall, it's a great little movie, entertaining and worth watching on TV someday where I'm sure it will enjoy endless hours of play. 3.5 LAMBS/stars

Sex and the City is Awesome!

Definite spoiler alert! I saw Sex and the City: The Movie last night with 2 girlfriends and we loved it. The theater wasn't particularly full, but it was nearly all women, as you'd expect. The ages of the women did surprise me - though given the other movie at our duplex theater is still Indiana Jones perhaps it was just the better choice. And it definitely was the better choice. It's a great movie. It's very true to the original series - they focus on fashion, men are plot devices not characters, and they travel all over New York City. However, the movie kicks it up a notch. They have the time to do mini-fashion montages (bad 80s dresses, fabulous wedding dresses, and clothes from the original series) which the TV show wouldn't have time for. They also have the time to develop a few stories a little longer than the show would have been able to - like Carrie's devastation and recovery. She is heartbroken and swept away by her friends to recover, and she really looks as broken as the rest of us feel - like the world should stop until you figure out how to live again. I cried twice during the movie, once in sadness when Carrie is hurt and once in happiness when Charlotte gets great news (sorry, I'm trying not to completely let the surprises out). The side story lines - Miranda's relationship struggles, Samantha's identity problems, and Charlotte's happy life - are all perfectly complementary. Isn't that always the truth - when one of your girlfriend's lives is falling apart another comes through and is getting everything she always wanted and you look at them both trying to figure out where you're stuck in the middle? I think Sex and the City does a great job creating characters that are compilations of people - there's no way any individual person could be all the things Miranda, Samantha or Charlotte are, but pieces of each of them are present in all of us all the time. I loved the movie, and highly recommend it to anyone who liked the series, even if you didn't know much about it you'll like the movie. Oh, and Jennifer Hudson's addition as Carrie's personal assistant is terrific. She's a little stereotyped as the modern 20-something add on who knows all the current best ideas for cheap fashion (Bag, Borrow and Steal anyone?), but she's a great actress and proves she can do comedy and hang with the big girls. Loved it!