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Wedding Planner
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
"The Wedding Planner" is not a particularly original film, doesn't offer outstanding dialogue and I'm sure I can think of more problems. Yet, with its old-fashioned romantic comedy feel and tone as well as the energetic performances of its leads, it rises nicely above the material. It's the rare date movie that girls will like and guys won't hate sitting through.
Jennifer Lopez plays Mary Fiore, an ace wedding planner who we see bringing things together with ease at a fancy wedding as the opening credits roll. Everyone watches her and thinks that she must have the most romantic life outside of work, but amazingly, she sits in her little San Fransisco apartment and prepares dinner for one.
One day, she gets the heel of her new shoe stuck in a manhole cover just as a giant garbage dumpster gets knocked out of place and comes down the street after her. And, with the hills of San Fransisco, the thing could probably pick up speed fairly quickly. Lucky for her, doctor Steve Edison(Matthew McConaughey) saves her (and the shoe is also ok). The two even end up going to an outdoor movie together and for once, Mary is happy.
Although, only for a moment. It turns out Steve is the fiance of Mary's next wedding subject, played by Bridgette Wilson-Sampras. The film could have stopped with this and coasted along with these plot pieces to the end, but no... Mary's father has set her up with a guy from her past that she doesn't really like and who appears at the wrong place at the wrong time. Steve and Mary are walking in the park when Steve manages to get a statue's "part" stuck to his hand.
Directed by first-timer Adam Shankman, the film could use several small fixes across the board. The screenplay does manage to get a few funny bits across, but for the most part, the film lucky that the two leads often give some energy to rather bland material. Lopez particularly does a fine job as Mary, continuing her streak of fine performances. McConaughey doesn't particularly get to do a great deal and after an outstanding and suprising performance in last year's "U-571", I would have hoped the actor would have taken a more complex part, but he's passable in the role here.
I usually particuarly hate this kind of formula romantic comedy, and although "Wedding Planner" occasionally is awkward and isn't terribly memorable, I didn't hate sitting through it and at least parts and pieces of it worked very well - better than it should have and that's a compliment to both cast and crew.
The DVD
VIDEO: Columbia/Tristar offers "The Wedding Planner" in an impressive 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer on this dual-layered disc. Although one might question the use of 2.35:1 for a romantic comedy, Shankman and DP Julio Macat do a fine job of filling the frame. Thankfully, they have also chosen not to go the route that romantic comedies like this one usually take, which is to go for a softer look. Sharpness and detail throughout the movie are quite pleasing, with very nice depth and clarity to the image.
Problems are very few and far between. One or two minor speckles appeared, but there were no other print flaws to be found. I noticed an instance or two of edge enhancement, but these were also almost too brief and minor to mention. No pixelation or any further problems appeared.
Colors were outstanding. A couple of wedding sequences (or the flower shopping scene in chapter 20) presented jaw-droppingly beautiful colors as flowers presented a rainbow of colors that looked well-saturated and vibrant. Otherwise, the beautiful scenery also presented bold, bright colors that looked superb. A wonderful job from Tristar. The layer change is at 45:43.
SOUND: With "The Wedding Planner" being both a comedy and romantic, you would think that the film has two strikes against it in the sound department already. Yet, that's not quite always the case. The film does offer the majority of its sound from the front speakers, but the surrounds do kick in some decent ambience when possible, and occasionally offer the film's music. So, in other words, the audio worked well with the material and offered about as much as it could.
Audio quality was fine, as well. The music sounded light and warm (although the score got a little corny for my taste at times) and dialogue sounded clear and crisp, although there were a couple of scenes where the dialogue didn't seem to sound well-integrated with the scene. Although not nearly as stunning as the picture quality, the sound was very enjoyable.
MENUS:: Menus are non-animated, with very basic film-themed images serving as backgrounds.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: Although not one of the best commentaries I've heard lately, it's often quite a fun one - director Adam Shankman is joined by Writers Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis. Shankman provides quite a bit of energy on his own and does usually carry the track. Backing him up though, writers Falk and Ellis provide their own enterainment at times - the two are a former couple and although they are quite pleasant to one another here, there are times when the two start to get into verbal spats that are light in tone, but one senses a little underlying anger.
The commentary is a mixture of things. Most of the time, the three discuss what we didn't see - stories about what happen behind-the-scenes and light humor about what works and what doesn't. On the topic of what works, there's a bit too much discussion and praise of what does work at times and the three get a little wrapped up in their own work. These moments don't last long though, and the three go back to amusing chatter.
Deleted Scenes: 7 deleted scenes are included - some of them are mildly entertaining, but the movie works fine at its current length and these would have dragged it out. Optional commentary from director Shankman is included.
Featurettes: "The Dancer And The Cowboy" is a very short featurette about the dance sequence and there is also a similarly short promotional featurette.
Trailers: Trailers for "The Wedding Planner", "U-Turn", "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Anaconda".
Final Thoughts: "The Wedding Planner" is no "My Best Friend's Wedding", but it's a good date movie with entertaining performances and a nice, old-fashioned feel. Tristar provides a strong disc as well, as the picture quality is superb and audio is about what you'd expect from a romantic comedy. The extras are a bit mixed - the commentary is entertaining and informative, but the featurettes are a bit thin. Still, recommended.
"The Wedding Planner" is not a particularly original film, doesn't offer outstanding dialogue and I'm sure I can think of more problems. Yet, with its old-fashioned romantic comedy feel and tone as well as the energetic performances of its leads, it rises nicely above the material. It's the rare date movie that girls will like and guys won't hate sitting through.
Jennifer Lopez plays Mary Fiore, an ace wedding planner who we see bringing things together with ease at a fancy wedding as the opening credits roll. Everyone watches her and thinks that she must have the most romantic life outside of work, but amazingly, she sits in her little San Fransisco apartment and prepares dinner for one.
One day, she gets the heel of her new shoe stuck in a manhole cover just as a giant garbage dumpster gets knocked out of place and comes down the street after her. And, with the hills of San Fransisco, the thing could probably pick up speed fairly quickly. Lucky for her, doctor Steve Edison(Matthew McConaughey) saves her (and the shoe is also ok). The two even end up going to an outdoor movie together and for once, Mary is happy.
Although, only for a moment. It turns out Steve is the fiance of Mary's next wedding subject, played by Bridgette Wilson-Sampras. The film could have stopped with this and coasted along with these plot pieces to the end, but no... Mary's father has set her up with a guy from her past that she doesn't really like and who appears at the wrong place at the wrong time. Steve and Mary are walking in the park when Steve manages to get a statue's "part" stuck to his hand.
Directed by first-timer Adam Shankman, the film could use several small fixes across the board. The screenplay does manage to get a few funny bits across, but for the most part, the film lucky that the two leads often give some energy to rather bland material. Lopez particularly does a fine job as Mary, continuing her streak of fine performances. McConaughey doesn't particularly get to do a great deal and after an outstanding and suprising performance in last year's "U-571", I would have hoped the actor would have taken a more complex part, but he's passable in the role here.
I usually particuarly hate this kind of formula romantic comedy, and although "Wedding Planner" occasionally is awkward and isn't terribly memorable, I didn't hate sitting through it and at least parts and pieces of it worked very well - better than it should have and that's a compliment to both cast and crew.
The DVD
VIDEO: Columbia/Tristar offers "The Wedding Planner" in an impressive 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer on this dual-layered disc. Although one might question the use of 2.35:1 for a romantic comedy, Shankman and DP Julio Macat do a fine job of filling the frame. Thankfully, they have also chosen not to go the route that romantic comedies like this one usually take, which is to go for a softer look. Sharpness and detail throughout the movie are quite pleasing, with very nice depth and clarity to the image.
Problems are very few and far between. One or two minor speckles appeared, but there were no other print flaws to be found. I noticed an instance or two of edge enhancement, but these were also almost too brief and minor to mention. No pixelation or any further problems appeared.
Colors were outstanding. A couple of wedding sequences (or the flower shopping scene in chapter 20) presented jaw-droppingly beautiful colors as flowers presented a rainbow of colors that looked well-saturated and vibrant. Otherwise, the beautiful scenery also presented bold, bright colors that looked superb. A wonderful job from Tristar. The layer change is at 45:43.
SOUND: With "The Wedding Planner" being both a comedy and romantic, you would think that the film has two strikes against it in the sound department already. Yet, that's not quite always the case. The film does offer the majority of its sound from the front speakers, but the surrounds do kick in some decent ambience when possible, and occasionally offer the film's music. So, in other words, the audio worked well with the material and offered about as much as it could.
Audio quality was fine, as well. The music sounded light and warm (although the score got a little corny for my taste at times) and dialogue sounded clear and crisp, although there were a couple of scenes where the dialogue didn't seem to sound well-integrated with the scene. Although not nearly as stunning as the picture quality, the sound was very enjoyable.
MENUS:: Menus are non-animated, with very basic film-themed images serving as backgrounds.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: Although not one of the best commentaries I've heard lately, it's often quite a fun one - director Adam Shankman is joined by Writers Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis. Shankman provides quite a bit of energy on his own and does usually carry the track. Backing him up though, writers Falk and Ellis provide their own enterainment at times - the two are a former couple and although they are quite pleasant to one another here, there are times when the two start to get into verbal spats that are light in tone, but one senses a little underlying anger.
The commentary is a mixture of things. Most of the time, the three discuss what we didn't see - stories about what happen behind-the-scenes and light humor about what works and what doesn't. On the topic of what works, there's a bit too much discussion and praise of what does work at times and the three get a little wrapped up in their own work. These moments don't last long though, and the three go back to amusing chatter.
Deleted Scenes: 7 deleted scenes are included - some of them are mildly entertaining, but the movie works fine at its current length and these would have dragged it out. Optional commentary from director Shankman is included.
Featurettes: "The Dancer And The Cowboy" is a very short featurette about the dance sequence and there is also a similarly short promotional featurette.
Trailers: Trailers for "The Wedding Planner", "U-Turn", "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Anaconda".
Final Thoughts: "The Wedding Planner" is no "My Best Friend's Wedding", but it's a good date movie with entertaining performances and a nice, old-fashioned feel. Tristar provides a strong disc as well, as the picture quality is superb and audio is about what you'd expect from a romantic comedy. The extras are a bit mixed - the commentary is entertaining and informative, but the featurettes are a bit thin. Still, recommended.
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