sunnysusan12

This was a very enjoyable watch. Meryl Streep has long been one of my favorite actresses and she did not disappoint in this role. Indeed, I can only imagine what a fun time she must have had revving herself up to be the biggest b*tch imaginable every day for work.

While Anne Hathaway is fast becoming a favorite with me, it was strange to see her living with her boyfriend - the film didn't sell their being a couple or spend much time on their relationship from the get-go and I didn't really buy into it much. I don't know that the movie needed to explore that relationship more but frankly, for the amount of time spent on developing that side of things, they could have been shown as two people dating in separate cities.

Of course, part of the movie takes place in Paris, so that was lovely, lovely. As far as anything else goes, do yourself a favor and watch the gag reel. I always find it interesting to see the deleted scenes and listen to the director's commentary on them but the commentary on the full film was a bit blah and I didn't bother going through it all.

I really wanted to like this movie, especially when I saw that Patrick Stewart was in the cast as the voice of the raven since I'm a long-time Patrick Stewart fan. I realize I'm a snob when it comes to "The Snow Queen." This was one of my all-time favorite children's stories. I also realize that anytime you read a story and create your own image of things, a movie will have a hard time living up to your creation. That being said, I really enjoyed "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" but, alas, I cannot say the same for this movie.

The CG effects were cool but distractingly obvious. It was sort of like watching somebody's first attempt at a video production using CG. Gerda's mother was played by an actress (Juliet Stevenson) I had seen before but couldn't remember where. To give a gauge as to how emotionally engaging the movie was, I spent most of the movie trying to figure out where I had seen her before.

I would say that, for young children not familiar with the original story, this would be a good 'pop it in the VCR for an hour so I can get some cleaning done' movie. But if it wins any awards, I'd be shocked.

While this re-make of the 1943 film "The More the Merrier" starred my favorite heart-throb Cary Grant in his final screen role, I have to say that his performance in said movie was about the only thing that made it an enjoyable watch. One viewing was enough. It was too...60's formulaic romantic comedy movie-style...Exceedingly dated. It was interesting to see the setting of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and it was a delightful surprise to see George Takei unexpectedly in a small role, but aside from some amusing acrobatics on Grant's part & some cute scenes of his interactions with a pair of local kids, catch it on late-night re-runs if you like but I wouldn't shell out money to see it.