I thought this movie was cute in some ways, stupid in others. Dakota Fanning annoyed the hell out of me in this, but she's a good actress.When I went to Uptown Girls I was just expecting a stupid little chick flick that my friend was dragging me to see and of course it was but this particular movie was a little better than I thought it would be. Brittany Murphy plays the part so good you wonder if maybe this is how she really lives but then again that is coming from a not so big of a fan. The movie ends up not totally a waste of your time feeling but a little too close for me. My advice is to wait until the cheap theater has this movie playing or wait until your friend rents it. Then again that is all up to you. Okay! I thought that was a really stupid movie! I excepted more from it! I thought that the previews for the movie showed you every scene and I know what the end was and what happened next! It wasn't one of those movies that I was one the edge on my seat waiting for the next part to happen.Though I expected this movie to be funny, having seen Brittany Murphy in Just Married, I was sadly disappointed to realize what a sad, depressing movie it actually turned out to be. The previews were misleading and because of their roles in different movies, I expected better. I did read the reviews before seeing the movie, so I guess I got what I deserved, but I don't like going by what critics say because sometimes they dis my favorite movies. I doubt it will take long for Uptown Girls to reach the dollar movies.This movie is promoted as a comedy, a comedy that it sure doesn't measure up to be! It is deep, slow, and the few sprinkled in moments of humor (those you saw on the trailer I might add) don't pull it out as a worthwhile two hour movie. Save your money. Wait for it to come on video, just as something to do for a few hours. So I can't say I had much of a choice the weekend I saw it except to see Uptown Girls starring Dakota Fanning and Brittany Murphy (who I can stand). I don't know what to think of Brittany Murphy anymore. Her career started out good with many funny guilty pleasure films like Clueless, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and Girl Interrupted. Then she went to Cherry Falls, which was one of the worst films I have ever seen, and then went on to do some so/so films like Don't Say a Word, Spun and 8 Mile. Then every film after 8 Mile has been worst than the next, first with the horrible, awful, silly Just Married, etc.. So needless to say I was very hesitant to see her new film Uptown Girls. The trailer to me didn't look like something I wanted to see but I figured she was teaming up with promising young actress Dakota Fanning so I figured what the hell I will give it a shot. I am sure it can't be that bad. So continue on reading to read my thoughts on Uptown Girls.
So I walked into the local theater to see at the 5: 30 pm showing. The film started and the basic story is this, Molly Gunn (Brittany Murphy), the daughter of a dead rock star, who lives off her inheritance and has never worked a day in her life. When her father's estate is swindled away from her, Molly suddenly finds her life of luxury and excess pulled out from under her. Begrudgingly, she decides that she has to get a job and is hired as a nanny for Ray Schliene (Dakota Fanning), the daughter of record executive Roma Schliene (Heather Locklear). At first Molly can't shake her spoiled-brat personality, but eventually she and Ray discover that they have a lot in common and strong bond is formed. Jesse Spencer plays Molly's boyfriend, and Donald Faison, who previously worked with Murphy in Clueless, plays another record executive who offers Molly a place to live until she gets on her feet. This is were the fun is supposed to start. To me the film seemed more like a sweet comedy than anything else.
Well Brittany Murphy is back at it again, same role in some movies, playing the immature girl who then all of a sudden grows up because she finds true love.Well Brittany does the best she can and by now if you like Brittany Murphy you see her do the same thing over and over again and still go home happy. Dakota Fanning was pretty good in the film, although I liked her better in other movies such as I Am Sam, Taken and Trapped. She has a very likable character in the film and the way they write her character you feel very compassionate for her. I also think that Fanning and Murphy both have great on screen chemistry. The supporting cast in this film is what really drove me nuts and which caused me to not like the film as much I probably would if they haven't been in it. I normally like Jesse Spencer but in this film he was intolerable. I wanted him to go away. He annoyed me. His role was so dumb. He played this guy named Neal who was a rock star in love with Brittany Murphy's character. Then we have Donald Faison, who offers Molly a place to stay. I didn't get the joke in his character. He had a lisp and looked like he took steroids.. To me the character was very annoying. Well then they had this perfect clean girl Ingrid, which seems to be the new latest joke in the Murphy films, again another badly written character that I would have been more than happy to do without.
Newcomer Julia Dahl wrote Uptown Girls. I didn't think a lot of the jokes in the film worked. It was like they were first making fun of the spoiled brat character and then all of a sudden they want us to feel bad for the character. Granted it worked for some people but it didn't really work for me. Rosy thought the film was sad and I thought of it more as a sappy way to get you to feel bad for the character. Either way is fine but I didn't care for them trying to mix my emotions. I didn't want to laugh at the character and then feel bad about it, which is basically what the film aimed to do. The Molly Gunn character was decently scripted and so was Ray's character. All the rest of the characters should have been thrown away. It was a so/so script some of it worked, some of it didn't. This film is like a version of About a Boy if it was turned into a romantic comedy and the two leads were females.
The film was directed by Boaz Yakin, who directed a total of four feature films,Uptown Girls being 4th. The first two films he directed I really enjoyed those being Remember the Titans and A Price Above Rubies. But the first film he directed was the awful Fresh. So with a director who's first three films out of four I really enjoyed and one I didn't really like at all its hard to judge him. Boaz Yakin did a great job of capturing the emotions of Ray and Molly in the film. I also think he did a really good job with filming on location. I can't really blame the director for the things I didn't like about the film. Well I guess I can because in the end, he probably could have reviewed the film and taken some of the pointless and unfunny characters out.
So in conclusion, I wasn't thrilled with Uptown Girls but it was all right. I must admit it's a hard film to hate. You really start to feel for the Molly character in the film. The movie was passable at best in my opinion. Rosy, on the other hand, was happy with the film and stated that she will be purchasing the DVD for our collection. I can't say anything more than it was a so/so movie. A few jokes worked, many didn't. I actually laughed 2 or 3 times throughout the film and I smiled a few times. I guess that's the best way to judge what I thought of it. So my final thoughts if you like Murphy give this movie a shot I am sure you will enjoy it. If your not a huge Murphy fan or aren't a fan of her at all there are better films to see. This film would be best at a rental level at the local video store when it hit shelves sometime in the future. My final rating for Uptown Girls is a 5/10.
So I walked into the local theater to see at the 5: 30 pm showing. The film started and the basic story is this, Molly Gunn (Brittany Murphy), the daughter of a dead rock star, who lives off her inheritance and has never worked a day in her life. When her father's estate is swindled away from her, Molly suddenly finds her life of luxury and excess pulled out from under her. Begrudgingly, she decides that she has to get a job and is hired as a nanny for Ray Schliene (Dakota Fanning), the daughter of record executive Roma Schliene (Heather Locklear). At first Molly can't shake her spoiled-brat personality, but eventually she and Ray discover that they have a lot in common and strong bond is formed. Jesse Spencer plays Molly's boyfriend, and Donald Faison, who previously worked with Murphy in Clueless, plays another record executive who offers Molly a place to live until she gets on her feet. This is were the fun is supposed to start. To me the film seemed more like a sweet comedy than anything else.
Well Brittany Murphy is back at it again, same role in some movies, playing the immature girl who then all of a sudden grows up because she finds true love.Well Brittany does the best she can and by now if you like Brittany Murphy you see her do the same thing over and over again and still go home happy. Dakota Fanning was pretty good in the film, although I liked her better in other movies such as I Am Sam, Taken and Trapped. She has a very likable character in the film and the way they write her character you feel very compassionate for her. I also think that Fanning and Murphy both have great on screen chemistry. The supporting cast in this film is what really drove me nuts and which caused me to not like the film as much I probably would if they haven't been in it. I normally like Jesse Spencer but in this film he was intolerable. I wanted him to go away. He annoyed me. His role was so dumb. He played this guy named Neal who was a rock star in love with Brittany Murphy's character. Then we have Donald Faison, who offers Molly a place to stay. I didn't get the joke in his character. He had a lisp and looked like he took steroids.. To me the character was very annoying. Well then they had this perfect clean girl Ingrid, which seems to be the new latest joke in the Murphy films, again another badly written character that I would have been more than happy to do without.
Newcomer Julia Dahl wrote Uptown Girls. I didn't think a lot of the jokes in the film worked. It was like they were first making fun of the spoiled brat character and then all of a sudden they want us to feel bad for the character. Granted it worked for some people but it didn't really work for me. Rosy thought the film was sad and I thought of it more as a sappy way to get you to feel bad for the character. Either way is fine but I didn't care for them trying to mix my emotions. I didn't want to laugh at the character and then feel bad about it, which is basically what the film aimed to do. The Molly Gunn character was decently scripted and so was Ray's character. All the rest of the characters should have been thrown away. It was a so/so script some of it worked, some of it didn't. This film is like a version of About a Boy if it was turned into a romantic comedy and the two leads were females.
The film was directed by Boaz Yakin, who directed a total of four feature films,Uptown Girls being 4th. The first two films he directed I really enjoyed those being Remember the Titans and A Price Above Rubies. But the first film he directed was the awful Fresh. So with a director who's first three films out of four I really enjoyed and one I didn't really like at all its hard to judge him. Boaz Yakin did a great job of capturing the emotions of Ray and Molly in the film. I also think he did a really good job with filming on location. I can't really blame the director for the things I didn't like about the film. Well I guess I can because in the end, he probably could have reviewed the film and taken some of the pointless and unfunny characters out.
So in conclusion, I wasn't thrilled with Uptown Girls but it was all right. I must admit it's a hard film to hate. You really start to feel for the Molly character in the film. The movie was passable at best in my opinion. Rosy, on the other hand, was happy with the film and stated that she will be purchasing the DVD for our collection. I can't say anything more than it was a so/so movie. A few jokes worked, many didn't. I actually laughed 2 or 3 times throughout the film and I smiled a few times. I guess that's the best way to judge what I thought of it. So my final thoughts if you like Murphy give this movie a shot I am sure you will enjoy it. If your not a huge Murphy fan or aren't a fan of her at all there are better films to see. This film would be best at a rental level at the local video store when it hit shelves sometime in the future. My final rating for Uptown Girls is a 5/10.