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Capone Reviews ENCHANTED!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
Number one in the country over the holiday weekend.
Duh.
I am an idiot, and forgot I cut Capone’s last review off and had it in this word file where I edit articles. My apologies to Capone. Maybe now that you’ve all had a crack at seeing this one (a lot of you, according to those numbers), what did you think? I’ll let Capone kick off the conversation:
I had a sneaking suspicion I'd dig ENCHANTED just from the trailer. I thought that if the filmmakers handled it right, the film could be a clever, funny look at how the idealistic world of fairy tales clashes with today's high divorce rate, rampant cynicism, feminism, and plastic surgery used to achieve ideal beauty. The good news is that the film gets most of it right thanks primarily to a little spitfire of an acting goddess named Amy Adams as a would-be princess named Giselle.
Giselle is every beautiful Disney heroine rolled into one. Her story incorporates bits from Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and a whole long of Cinderella. She can talk to her woodland animal friends, an evil queen is out to kill her, and her prince (the appropriately full-of-himself James Marsden) is on the way to save and marry her. But the biggest thing that makes Giselle fit right in with her beloved Disney peers is that she's animated, at least at first. After being rescued by Prince Edward from a horrible troll, Giselle prepares for her wedding day, when an old hag (Susan Sarandon's evil in-disguise Queen Narissa, who just happens to be Edward's stepmother) pushes into a magic well. Giselle pops out into a place where “no one lives happily ever after,” according to Narissa: New York City right in the middle of Times Square. Talk about Disney-fication. She's also gone from being animated to very much human, still in her puffy wedding dress.
Confused and scared, Narissa is befriended by handsome divorce attorney Robert (Patrick Dempsy and his daughter Morgan, who knows almost immediately that there is a real life princess in their midst. Robert just thinks she's weird but sweet and full of romance and hope. What follows is what you'd expect. Narissa shows Robert how to let love into his heart, while he teaches her how to survive in the cold cruel world. The problem in their obvious romance is that he's got a lovely girlfriend (Idina Menzel) and Prince Edward follows Narissa down the well to save her. Significant others are such a drag.
Adams (so good in JUNEBUG, TALLADEGA NIGHT, and a couple of great appearances on “The Office”) so completely sells her character, it's kind of unfair to the other actors. She doesn't hesitate to break out into song (a couple of fairly catchy ones from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz populate this movie) or calls New York own special brand of woodland creatures to help in her time of need. Almost as good and maybe a bit funnier is Marsden, who marches through the Big Apple like he owns the place drawing his sword on anyone or anything that looks like a threat. Between winning turns in ENCHANTED and HAIRSPRAY, Marsden has really shown me he's a formidable comic and musical force. Timothy Spall is on hand as the queen's suitor and reluctant partner in crime. I'll admit, it's a bit weird that Menzel is in a movie featuring musical numbers in which she doesn't get to sing. But I find her wildly beautiful, so who cares?
Director Kevin Lima hasn't exactly dazzled me with his previous film work--102 DALMATIANS and the animated TARZAN--but he's taken the tired conventions of some of the less inspired animated works throughout history and turned them into something fresh and entertaining. Screenwriter Bill Kelly (BLAST FROM THE PAST and PREMONITION) has truly studied these films and dissected them in a fascinating way. You may think I'm overstating things a bit, and I'll admit the final confrontation between the Queen and the good people of New York is totally unnecessary and bloated, but most of ENCHANTED is right on the money. Certainly the swooning, oooing and aahhhing chorus of 13-year-old girls in my audience thought this was a real winner. And for a brief time, my inner 13-year-old girl thought so too. [One last P.S.: I swear that I wrote this review before I saw Harry's comments about his inner 8-year-old girl. Technically, I am older than Harry, so my inner girl deserves to be older too. That is all.]
Capone
Giselle is every beautiful Disney heroine rolled into one. Her story incorporates bits from Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and a whole long of Cinderella. She can talk to her woodland animal friends, an evil queen is out to kill her, and her prince (the appropriately full-of-himself James Marsden) is on the way to save and marry her. But the biggest thing that makes Giselle fit right in with her beloved Disney peers is that she's animated, at least at first. After being rescued by Prince Edward from a horrible troll, Giselle prepares for her wedding day, when an old hag (Susan Sarandon's evil in-disguise Queen Narissa, who just happens to be Edward's stepmother) pushes into a magic well. Giselle pops out into a place where “no one lives happily ever after,” according to Narissa: New York City right in the middle of Times Square. Talk about Disney-fication. She's also gone from being animated to very much human, still in her puffy wedding dress.
Confused and scared, Narissa is befriended by handsome divorce attorney Robert (Patrick Dempsy and his daughter Morgan, who knows almost immediately that there is a real life princess in their midst. Robert just thinks she's weird but sweet and full of romance and hope. What follows is what you'd expect. Narissa shows Robert how to let love into his heart, while he teaches her how to survive in the cold cruel world. The problem in their obvious romance is that he's got a lovely girlfriend (Idina Menzel) and Prince Edward follows Narissa down the well to save her. Significant others are such a drag.
Adams (so good in JUNEBUG, TALLADEGA NIGHT, and a couple of great appearances on “The Office”) so completely sells her character, it's kind of unfair to the other actors. She doesn't hesitate to break out into song (a couple of fairly catchy ones from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz populate this movie) or calls New York own special brand of woodland creatures to help in her time of need. Almost as good and maybe a bit funnier is Marsden, who marches through the Big Apple like he owns the place drawing his sword on anyone or anything that looks like a threat. Between winning turns in ENCHANTED and HAIRSPRAY, Marsden has really shown me he's a formidable comic and musical force. Timothy Spall is on hand as the queen's suitor and reluctant partner in crime. I'll admit, it's a bit weird that Menzel is in a movie featuring musical numbers in which she doesn't get to sing. But I find her wildly beautiful, so who cares?
Director Kevin Lima hasn't exactly dazzled me with his previous film work--102 DALMATIANS and the animated TARZAN--but he's taken the tired conventions of some of the less inspired animated works throughout history and turned them into something fresh and entertaining. Screenwriter Bill Kelly (BLAST FROM THE PAST and PREMONITION) has truly studied these films and dissected them in a fascinating way. You may think I'm overstating things a bit, and I'll admit the final confrontation between the Queen and the good people of New York is totally unnecessary and bloated, but most of ENCHANTED is right on the money. Certainly the swooning, oooing and aahhhing chorus of 13-year-old girls in my audience thought this was a real winner. And for a brief time, my inner 13-year-old girl thought so too. [One last P.S.: I swear that I wrote this review before I saw Harry's comments about his inner 8-year-old girl. Technically, I am older than Harry, so my inner girl deserves to be older too. That is all.]
Capone
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Crap, two in one morning?
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I totally bought it. It was funny. sarcastic, silly, romantic, and full of self-referential satire. Disney makes fun of itself better than Schrek ever did.
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...is getting its Mojo back over the last few years. I mean, POTC, Sky High (which became my most watched DVD of the last two years!), Kim Possible and now Enchanted! Yes, they are still putting out more forgettable stuff than real greatness, but if they manage to do something right, they do it DAMN right! So maybe we can be proud again to call ourself Disney Fans till 2017?
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I can't believe I am saying this, but reading the review, half the time Capone says "Narissa" he is actually referring to "Giselle" unless he saw a different movie where Cyclops tries to marry his own mother, and McWeeny "just thinks (the evil queen is) weird but sweet and full of romance and hope". Which probably would have been a funny movie unto itself.
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Hairspray, which I rented for my daughter over the weekend. It was neat seeing Cyclops playing off of Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer, who I would still do in a heartbeat).
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Good review, despite calling Giselle Narissa for two thirds of it.
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It looks like Les Visiteurs, or The Visitors to the US Peons.
The fish out of water story is so tired and hackneyed not even William Shatner would like it. I'm holding no hope for it. -
like high divorce rate etc????????? Bad move pal, I think I'll go and burn my bra...
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I watched hairspray over Thanksgiving thanks to my 18 year old football playing brother who say it and loved it when it was in theatres, he made us watch it and it was really great, I was very impressed and I was glad to see that Waters was in it even for a split second, blink and you miss it kinda cameo. Marsden is really proving himself as a comic song and dance manDisney is really making a come back, this looks great, glad I'm not the only one that has watched and rewatched and rewatched Sky High, I love that movie, I think that may be the most pure "comic book" movie since The Rocketter
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The Notebook, X-men, Superman Returns and now Enchanted. Guy can't catch a break!
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Wow, you really think she is hot? You should have heard the "ugh's!" from the theater crowd when she first walked into Dempsey's apartment. I've seen hotter trannies that this woman!
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He was comparing it to "how the idealistic world of fairy tales clashes with today's high divorce rate, rampant cynicism, feminism, and plastic surgery used to achieve ideal beauty."
To a feminist, a poor, wimpy girl vying for a man's love may be seen as offensive, pathetic, or out of date...or that beauty is all that makes the worth of a woman.
Anyways, who cares, my girlfriend liked this movie...maybe I'll give it a chance. -
what women wouldn't leave you for Patrick Dempsey, Ryan Gosling, Wolverine or Superman.
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Twas merely a case of 'right place, right time.'
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..no homo.
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and he tried to save kateeeeee holmes from a brainwashing cult.but he did shoot Lincoln
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...run by the only guy in that whole town with a mustache. Hmmm.
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She is absolutely adorable in this film. I defy even the most jaded of you fanboys to not fall head-over-heels in love with her.
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It's weird how only Disney seems to be able to make movies that feature deliberately goofy performances that are still Oscar-quality.
PotC1, I'm looking at you... -
Johnny Depp deserved an Oscar nomination for the first PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. It's not very often the Academy recognizes a comedic performance and it's nice when it actually happens. ENCHANTED is a pretty good movie. The script could have used another pass or two, the direction was uninspired, and the finale definitely feels bloated, but Amy Adams as Giselle and James Marsden as Prince Edward give towering performances. They both absolutely carry this film.
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I enjoyed the shit of out this, too. I'm not afraid to admit it. Give up some props for the Chipmunk!!!
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Really? Wow, it must really blow to be such a joyless, cynical turd.
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How do you figure?
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I'm actually chris hansen.. would you take a seat?
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...and naked
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the articles here actually get edited?
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