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Post by PokerKitten on Dec 10, 2007 21:30:36 GMT
If you ( some of you, at any rate ) can scroll past the pic of Becks in posh underoos, you'll find mention of James at showbiz goss spot Pink Is The New BlogBlah ... I'm so embarrassed to keep admitting how much I want to see this movie. I'm not exactly sure what the strong appeal is for me. I'm sure the fact that Gerard Butler's hotness is in the flick has something to do with it ... but he dies early on and I'm guessing his main contribution to the movie will be voice-over work, so... Anyways, I am very, very pleased to know that James Marsters (ex-Spike on Buffy and Angel) has a part in the movie ... I know that's a deffo draw for me
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Post by PokerKitten on Dec 11, 2007 16:57:12 GMT
HappyMeal/MadBrilliant has a great report of the night, and some excellent pics of her own HERE.
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Post by DeeDee on Dec 11, 2007 17:53:16 GMT
Thanks for the link PK They're lovely photos
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Post by PokerKitten on Dec 14, 2007 0:21:06 GMT
P.S. I Love You Bottom Line: Gimmicky romantic comedy about a woman and her dead husband. By Kirk Honeycutt Dec 14, 2007
Lisa Kudrow, left, and Gina Gershon are best friends to Hilary Swank, center, whose husband, played by Gerard Butler, dies. At the moment, movie tearjerkers about late spouses who haunt loved ones are all the rage.
In "Grace Is Gone," a father and two daughters cope with the loss of Mom in Iraq. In "Things We Lost in the Fire," a mother and two youngsters mourn the death of the husband and father. "P.S. I Love You" is the oddest of the bunch, though, because it feels like the late husband of Hilary Swank's Holly Kennedy, a happy-go-lucky Irishman played engagingly by Gerard Butler, refuses to go away no matter how dead he is. Odder still, when we do see the couple together -- in an opening scene and then in flashbacks -- there is always so much tension between the two.
This bittersweet story about a bereaved young widow struggling to move on might connect with female audiences. Yet its boxoffice should be modest despite the presence of two-time Oscar-winning Swank. The film, written (with Steven Rogers) and directed by Richard LaGravenese, is long and drags in places. But the chief problem is that "P.S." feels like a gimmick.
The film starts awkwardly with a curious sequence in which Holly (Swank) and Gerry (Butler) quarrel about a remark he made over dinner with Holly's highly judgmental mother (Kathy Bates). Then, with calculated abruptness, the movie plunks you down at Gerry's wake in a Manhattan restaurant run by Holly's mother. Girlfriends Sharon (Gina Gershon) and Denise (Lisa Kudrow) comfort Holly while Sharon's husband John (James Marsters) gets the Irish toasts going. Denise is soon cruising the joint in a determined search for her own potential mate while the new bartender Daniel (Harry Connick Jr.) hits on Holly.
A few weeks later, it's her 30th birthday. A birthday cake and tape recording arrive -- from Gerry! Seems while Gerry lay dying of a brain tumor, he concocted a scheme to send letters to Holly for the year following his death. They come through the mail or are discovered in clothes. At one point, he buys her a trip with her girlfriends to his native Ireland. There she meets a new Irish playmate, William (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and visits Gerry's parents, who also hand her a letter.
Nothing here outside the realm of plausibility, but how exactly are these constant communications from the dead supposed to ease Holly's transition to her new life? They serve, for dramatic purposes, to remind her of their courtship and marriage. Just once you'd like to see her get annoyed at these messages from a dead spouse who won't go away. But then she has her disapproving Mom to do that.
It turns out Gerry's parents weren't too thrilled about the marriage, either. So why, you wonder, is an audience supposed to care about this couple?
There is nothing special about this romance. Holly does like to watch old Hollywood movies, which remind you of how these things were once done. Now it's all such a convoluted mess of letters from the dead and guys who can't measure up to a ghost.
The Irish scenery is quite lovely as caught by Terry Stacey's camera and designer Shepherd Frankel makes the Irish and American pubs, homes and apartments feel cozy and lived-in. But the movie itself feels oddly uninhabited. Hollywood Reporter
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Post by nightnurse on Dec 14, 2007 0:25:56 GMT
Saw a poster in town today that says the film opens here on 4th January ;D
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Post by DeeDee on Dec 14, 2007 9:15:45 GMT
Yay Thanks NN ;D ;D hope they advertise it on like all the other films ;D ;D
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Post by PokerKitten on Dec 14, 2007 15:42:46 GMT
Red carpet vid interview with a wee bit of JamesAnd another - P.S. I Love You author Cecelia Ahern joined writer/director Richard LaGravenese and the cast of the romantic comedy, including James Marsters (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) on the red carpet at the film's World Premiere in Hollywood.
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Post by PokerKitten on Dec 18, 2007 0:24:11 GMT
From a piece at CinematicalP.S. I Love You is the tale of a woman (Swank), who falls for the perfect Irish man (Butler), only to lose him to an illness. But he's not completely gone. To help his love get over the shock of his death, he's created a number of letters that get sent to her, guiding her to take chances and move on to her next love. Could it be Harry Connick, Jr.? Jeffrey Dean Morgan? James Marsters? Not bad choices at all. If only every girl could have those men to choose from.
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Post by PokerKitten on Dec 21, 2007 0:08:53 GMT
A romance with lots of tears and a good amount of comedy film By BETSY PICKLE Scripps Howard News Service Thursday, December 20, 2007
Those who object to being force-fed copious amounts of cheesy romance and Irish charm should steer clear of "P.S. I Love You."
If it's not clear from the title, "P.S. I Love You" is all about love -- being in love, losing a love, being haunted and guided by love. Cynics need not apply.
This is a romance with plenty of tears and a good amount of comedy. It stars Hilary Swank as Holly Kennedy, a discontented New Yorker who lives in a five-floor walkup with Irish-born husband Gerry (Gerard Butler).
Holly doesn't know what she wants from life. She can't keep a job. She doesn't think she's ready for a baby. She thinks she and Gerry should buy an apartment, but they can't afford it.
Meanwhile, she's married to one of the best-looking men on the planet, with an Irish accent to boot. Gerry is crazy about Holly ("crazy" perhaps being the operative word) and will do anything for her. He's happy with her and their life.
Every now and then Holly is reminded of this, and she becomes a likable person. Then Gerry dies of a brain tumor, and she's alone. The wake is lovely, and Holly holds up well until she goes home to the empty apartment.
Except that it's not empty to Holly. Gerry is there with her, talking to her, playing his guitar, holding her. She wallows in her imaginary idyll and very real squalor until her mom, Patricia (Kathy Bates), and friends Denise (Lisa Kudrow), Sharon (Gina Gershon) and John (James Marsters) come to celebrate her 30th birthday.
The party becomes surreal when a cake is delivered -- sent by Gerry, along with a letter. He promises more letters, and he delivers. His goal is to keep Holly from mourning and moping, and as time passes, Gerry's plan succeeds.
Directed by Richard LaGravenese from a screenplay he and Steven Rogers adapted from a novel by Cecilia Ahern, "P.S. I Love You" is overloaded with blarney and beautiful men. As if Gerry weren't enough, Holly also gets a chance with an infatuated barman, Daniel (Harry Connick Jr.), and another Irish stud, William (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). And people thought "Enchanted" was the biggest fairy tale of the season.
Kudrow has some of the film's funniest bits of business as a single woman on the prowl, while Bates provides the most realistic character. Butler is almost too adorable, while Connick and Morgan are not to be sneezed at.
The fly in the ointment is Swank, who has the double onus of lacking a palpable warmth on-screen and being given a character who seems like a shrew. A much-delayed backstory lets Holly off the hook a bit, but she goes through most of the film seeming like an ungrateful wench.
There are other holes in the film's fabric, but they aren't fatal. With a different lead, this could have been a chick-flick classic. As it is, "P.S. I Love You" is at least a contact high for fans of Butler, Connick and Morgan.
Rated PG-13 for sexual references and brief nudity.
3.5 stars (out of five)scrippsnews
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Post by marilyn on Dec 21, 2007 3:11:46 GMT
It opens tomorrow here....there's actually a midnight show tonight at the Palaces for a few pics that open tomorrow, but I have to get up for Gabe in the morning and not likely to happen, lol! But I will have a go at it....think I'd better be quick if I want to see it on the big screen, cos there are so many new pics coming out that most movies, even well received ones, are getting hustled out quickly! And I'll have to go alone, cos B will NEVER sit thru a chick flick...he'll only fall asleep and snore really loudly..... ;D
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Post by PokerKitten on Dec 21, 2007 14:12:38 GMT
Oh dear - but at least James comes out of it well in this review... Maybe it goes along with the perils of naming your movie after an afterthought, but PS I Love You is a film with such a serious identity crisis that it feels like different members of the cast believe that they're making completely different films. Oscar winner Hilary Swank is convinced that she's in a drama about a far-too-young widow dealing with the passing of her rebellious husband, played by 300's Gerard Butler. Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon are in a wacky "girl comedy" like the countless ones that appeared in the wake of Sex and the City. Harry Connick Jr. doesn't seem to be sure what movie he's actually in, but it's the most interesting of the three.
Writer/director Richard LaGravenese (Living Out Loud) opens PS I Love You very promisingly, as we meet Holly and Gerry Kennedy (Swank and Butler) in the middle of a serious fight. For nearly ten minutes, LaGravenese doesn't do anything sweet or cutesy, seemingly trying to tackle the serious issues that come along with being near-30 and not sure what you want from this world. Swank and Butler have good chemistry, making a believable married couple, and all the memories of the goofy behavior that have dominated the commercials for this film begin to fall away. For a few moments, it feels like a real movie about real people might unspool, which would've been such a pleasant surprise. But that opening tease only makes what comes after the credits that much more frustrating.
After the opening credits, Gerry is dead. He haunts his widow both physically and through a series of letters that instruct her to try and break out of her shell, pleasantly goading his widowed wife into getting over her pain. Holly has no idea how the letters are coming, but decides that she must follow all of their instructions, with the help of her friends Denise (Lisa Kudrow) and Sharon (Gina Gershon). Kathy Bates plays Holly's mother and Connick plays the awkward new guy in her life who may have stronger feelings than friendship for our heroine.
Like a lot of books-turned-movies, PS I Love You tries to be so many things to so many people that it ends up being mostly nothing at all. The movie never finds the believability of that first pre-credits scene again, going through so many different moods and styles that none of them stick. Real scenes of regret or loss are followed by some of the most awkward physical comedy in years (there's a horribly written scene on a stranded boat that's one of the worst in a long time). Characters flit in and out merely to serve the purpose of Gerry's letter plan, and the underused Kudrow and Gershon are reduced to nothing more than plot devices to resolve Holly's state of indecision. It's not a spoiler to say one gets married and one gets pregnant. Too bad neither feels like a real character.
The men actually fare better in PS I Love You than the women. Butler takes a role about as far from 300 as possible, proving that this breakthrough star has some range, and character actors like James Marsters, Dean Winters, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are appropriately charming. Swank does her best, but she seems lost in the movie's identity crisis, taking the project seriously one moment and doing a pratfall off a karaoke stage the next. After the year she's had - Freedom Writers, The Reaping, and now this one - Swank needs to talk to her agent before the luster on her Oscars gets any muddier. Deadbolt
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Post by wrigglerosie on Dec 22, 2007 9:59:24 GMT
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Post by PokerKitten on Dec 22, 2007 14:15:06 GMT
Lots more Making of PSILY airings coming up for US folks:
HBOe Mon, Dec 24, 6:00 PM HBOe Tue, Dec 25, 5:05 AM HBO2e Wed, Dec 26, 9:45 PM HBOSGe Thu, Dec 27, 11:45 AM HBOe Fri, Dec 28, 9:45 PM HBOSGe Sat, Dec 29, 10:45 PM HBOe Sun, Dec 30, 4:45 PM HBOSGe Thu, Jan 3, 10:45 PM
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Post by Cyrus on Dec 24, 2007 9:03:42 GMT
gahh I've been out here for so long that I didn't even put together that one of the projects that he was working on (I didn't read all the thread cuz it just kept getting longer fast with comments and I can't keep up with stuff anymore) is a movie that was just released Dec 21 and I'd seen a commercial for it the other day and not even really paid attention.
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Post by Ditto on Dec 24, 2007 9:41:20 GMT
I can't wait to see this movie. It's had such mixed reviews! Lol at EBay, I see Tyra really really wants James outfit. I'd quite like the tag I must admit. Hope she gets it, she was in front of me in line at Cardiff. ;D
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Post by PokerKitten on Jan 6, 2008 19:10:48 GMT
More Making of PSILY airings coming up for US folks:
HBO2e Mon, Jan 7, 4:30 PM HBOSGe Sat, Jan 12, 10:45 PM
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Post by wrigglerosie on Jan 6, 2008 22:48:40 GMT
Has anyone actually been to see it yet? I'm going on Tuesday night... ;D
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Post by PokerKitten on Jan 6, 2008 22:54:00 GMT
I think NN is planning on seeing it this week sometime. And I'd be surprised if Ditto hadn't gone yet! We'll be expecting reports from y'all.
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Post by Ditto on Jan 7, 2008 5:42:42 GMT
We're going later this morning, but I was gutted the other night re the Channel 5 review...they slated it! Really really slated it and on national telly too, I was cringing! Oh well...
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Post by Pluto7077 on Jan 7, 2008 17:50:30 GMT
Andrew thingy on GMTV loved it and reccomended tissues It's not even being screened in my town so we'll have to go further afield. Hope you enjoy it Ditto, and NN too
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