two for one.

It seems like every time I update this thing, I say it seems it's been forever... and so it has been, once again. BUT I really am trying to be good about it from now on, because I have to make my own website for part of a class, and this blog will be moved over to that website hopefully. SO I will need constant info going from now on for that site...

So tonight, I'm going to give you two for the price of one. My 'Enchanted' review and one for '27 Dresses.' Both of which I wrote for my internship/now job, BigLickU.com... enjoy.

Adams leaves you ‘Enchanted’

By Jenna Hasskarl

(Nov. 26) Disney’s new animated-turned-real-life epic adventure “Enchanted” hit the big screen on Wednesday, and the main star of the film is certainly Amy Adams.

In the traditionally hand-drawn opening, Adams plays Giselle, a beautiful red-headed princess (HOORAY!), who lives in a cute bungalow in the forest and who just wants to find her one true love. James Marsden plays Prince Edward, who doesn’t realize he wants to marry because his evil step-mother Queen Narissa, Susan Sarandon, is scared of losing her crown and has kept him from ever seeing a fair maiden.

But when Prince Edward hears Giselle singing, he’s set on finding her. They meet and immediately decide to marry tomorrow! The wedding day comes; but before Giselle can make it to the altar, Queen Narcissa pushes Giselle down a well to where happily-ever-after doesn’t exist: modern day New York City.

Adams gets lost, and no one is very friendly; she gets shoved onto a Subway and ends up very downtown and even more deserted. She finds a castle on a billboard and manages to climb up and start knocking on the billboard because she honestly believes this will help her get back home.

It’s when she’s up on the billboard that divorce lawyer Robert, Patrick Dempsey, and his daughter Morgan drive by. Morgan runs out of the taxicab when she sees Giselle and tries to help. Giselle tries to get down but then finds herself hanging from the billboard. Robert is there to catch her, and still wary of Giselle’s naïve persona, he takes her home.

Giselle’s best little friend Pip, a chipmunk, is the only one to see Giselle get pushed down the well; so the next thing we know, Prince Edward is falling through the well to rescue Giselle with Pip right behind him.

Meanwhile, Robert agrees to let Giselle stay. The only problem is that, when she wakes up, his apartment is a mess. So what does Giselle do? She summons the animals, of course. So with a little yodel, all the rats, pigeons and cockroaches from NYC arrive in Robert’s apartment.

Giselle gets all of these pests to help her clean Robert and Morgan’s apartment by singing the “Happy Working Song.” (All of the songs were great.) Of course when Robert finds the pests in his apartment, he is none too pleased. All of the songs in the film are sung by Adams and Marsden themselves and are quite catchy.

Adams does a wonderful job floating around New York City, just as if she were still moving about in her animated world. Her hand motions stay whimsical and light throughout the film. It’s only when reality and New York City’s own magic affect her toward the end that her hand motions become more human.

The cast is good, but it’s Adams who shines and enchants her audience. The musical number she sings in Central Park, “That’s How You Know,” gets a couple hundred people to follow her, and you really feel captivated and drawn to her as an audience member too. And she can really sing!

“Enchanted” also has something for adults. There are more jokes about Disney clichés than one can count, and they’ll have you laughing about how silly those clichés actually are. For example, it was mostly adults in the audience who laughed at the joke about getting married tomorrow. It’ll also have you rehashing all those hours you spent watching the Disney films when you were a kid, remembering how crazy some of the plot lines in those films are too.

The only problem with “Enchanted” is the end, which is a bit drawn out. It builds you up but then leaves you hanging and wanting a bit more. I won’t give anything more away because I don’t want to keep you from seeing it.

Overall, I really liked “Enchanted,” clichés and all, and I highly recommend it. Adams’ optimistic and wide-eyed personality shines through so much that you actually believe she could have fallen out of a fairy tale. It’s a fun film to catch with friends and family this holiday season.





27 Dresses: Always a bridesmaid…
By Jenna Hasskarl

“Always the bridesmaid and never the bride” should be Jane’s (played by Katherine Heigl) middle name or official life slogan. She’s the girl we all dread being. Instead of being a bridesmaid for maybe five weddings tops, Jane has been a bridesmaid for 27 weddings. Not only is that a lot of weddings, it’s a lot of money this young New Yorker has got to spend on dresses.

Predictable and sometimes a little over-the-top, “27 Dresses” does deliver a cute and entertaining romantic comedy. Mainly, Heigl and James Marsden, who plays her love interest Kevin, are the best parts about the movie.

Heigl, who has been all over the Hollywood scene lately and recently got married herself, is selfless, loveable and cute; we want her to succeed. And we actually don’t mind that she’s been in 27 weddings because we see that she’s actually good at organizing the show.

Jane falls in love with weddings when she’s a small child at a family member’s nuptials. The bride has torn her dress and little Jane has got the perfect idea: to use her sister’s hair ribbon to put the dress back together and save the day.

Although the outcome is totally unrealistic for a kid to pull off, she’s then asked to carry the train down the aisle -- and that was the start of her love for weddings.

Now into her later 20’s, Jane is still in love with weddings and even manages to be in two at the same time. Marsden’s character catches her frantically changing in the back of a taxi on the way to the second wedding, where, as she does at the first one, spends just enough time to give a toast or participate in a cliché wedding dance, then she’s back to the other and repeats this process all night long.

But Jane also has dreams of her own. She’s in love with her boss (Edward Burns), who then, much to Jane’s dismay, happens to fall in love with and propose to Jane’s sister, Tess (Malin Akerman).

With her dreams shattered, Jane tries to be supportive as she plans her sister’s wedding and goes along even when her sister steals all of her own ideas for her dream wedding.

“27 Dresses” also lives up to its genre name of romantic comedy thanks to “The Devil Wears Prada” scripter Aline Brosh McKenna, who serves up plenty of fun and witty banter for Heigl and Marsden. Even the slightly overdone sing-along to Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” in a bar is fun and leaves you smiling.

Judy Greer plays Jane’s best friend Casey, whose witty antics deliver laughs as well. She seems to always play the best friend in these sorts of movies, so hopefully some day she can move up to leading lady status.

The other real shining star of the movie isn’t on screen but off. Catherine Marie Thomas, the costume designer, created 27 beautiful, outrageous and/or down-right awful bridesmaids dresses that give the movie some real character.

Overall, “27 Dresses” could have been a bit more daring with its script but Heigl and Marsden are just so darn likeable that you don’t care so much about the predictability of the film. And for anyone else out there who has noticed that Marsden never gets the girl, or at least the girl he sets out for, his luck may change! (I’m not really giving anything away, am I?)

Let’s face it: Jane must be the prefect bridesmaid if she’s organized, selfless and willing to wear these awful dresses for you on your special day.