Manda-13

Mary Poppins Returns was...a thing that happened. There is really no comparison when it comes to the original. While Lin-Manuel Miranda's Jack was charming, I did not enjoy Emily Blunt's cold portrayal of Mary. The songs were forgettable, the plot depressing and simplistic, and the ending was just a little too on the nose. It lacked all of the charm and magic of its predecessor, and in short, it's not a film I'm likely to watch again.

Let me preface this by saying that I am a straight female who has been a fan of the SATC series since its second season. I have every episode on DVD and have honestly seen every episode at least 5 times, including the commentaries by Michael Patrick King. That said, I could not be more disappointed in the film. To say that this movie was for fans of the series is insulting in my opinion because where the series had heart, depth and some intelligence, the movie had labels, poop jokes and lame choices by the characters.

First of all, yes, Carrie Bradshaw is the main character, but could the other 3 women have been treating any more cavalierly? The "plot lines", if you can call them that, for the other characters seemed to be thrown into the mix just to give them something to do while Carrie ran around town, changing outfits and hair colors to the delighted shrieks of 15 year old fans. I can only imagine that was the audience the film wanted to capture because expecting grown women to follow this crap is insanity.

Secondly, the ending of the film made me completely lose respect for Carrie. I cannot imagine an emotionally healthy 41 year old woman making the same choice she made. I think she needs intensive therapy because she is obviously a masochist who values the ability to purchase brand name couture more than her own happiness. And if the ability to buy couture is what makes her really happy, well, then, the 15 year old target audience should be thrilled.

That said, I probably will see the sequel. I'm hoping they bring in more writers from the series to add some of the emotional oomph that this movie painfully lacked. *sigh* I just can't seem to quit SATC.

I went into Mission Impossible 2 without too many expectations. I saw the first film and thoroughly enjoyed it. I figured I could expect much of the same from the sequel. Well, I was wrong...very wrong. I was at least expecting a plot, but, alas, there was none. The poor excuse for a plot is that there is an "evil" man ready to set a devastating disease loose on all mankind and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), along with the requisite beautiful partner find the source of the disease and bring a living sample of it back to Anthony Hopkins (he is only in the movie for about 8 minutes total, so I don't remember his character's name). I was turned off by the time the opening credits rolled. The film opens with a man speaking in an indistinguishable accent, so I had no idea what he was saying. But I had many opportunities to try to figure it out since they replayed the monologue 3 times throughout the run of the film (for no real reason). Then we are faced with a plane being hijacked, and then we zoom to Tom Cruise hanging from his fingertips off the egde of a cliff while the opening credits rolled. I truly believe the only real reason behind this movie is to make Tom Cruise look "cool". John Woo was certainly the right director to go to for this, since he is known for his use of slo-mo, and penchant for symbolism in his films. The only real reason to see MI2 is to see Tom Cruise. Period.

MI2 is bound to disappoint many. It's not a real action film, because there is very little action, and it's not a drama, because the characters are not developed at all: Ethan Hunt=good, Sean Ambrose=bad, Nyah=sexy. That's another annoyance. Thandie Newton is a talented actress, but here, she is reduced to basically being a Bond girl, her estrogen used as a plot device. And, finally , speaking of plot devices, the overuse of the mask f/x is extremely tiring. Give us a break Mr. Woo! We all saw FaceOff, it's a cool effect the first 20 times we see it. After that, it's a ridiculous parody of itself, a la Scooby -Doo cartoons, that insults the audience. At one crucial point in the movie, it's obvious to everyone that a mask is being worn by one of the characters because it had been used 7 times prior to that in the movie. Yet, we are supposed to be shocked by the ultimate revelation...sloppy filmmaking, to say the least. All in all, I gave MI2 a 2. It was silly, overwrought, and campy in it's own way. Go see it if you must (and I know most of you must), but take heed...you may have a hankering for Scooby snacks by the time you leave.