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Bride Wars
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MPAA RATING: PG for suggestive content, language and some rude behavior
Starring Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson, Candice Bergen, Kristen Johnston, Bryan Greenberg, Steve Howey, Chris Pratt, and Michael Arden
Liv and Emma are best friends who since childhood have planned every detail of their respective weddings. At the top of their bridal "must have" list: a ceremony at New York's ultimate bridal destination, the Plaza Hotel. Now, at age 26, they're both about to get married; they're about to realize their dreams; and they're about to live happily ever after. Or maybe not--when a clerical error causes a clash in wedding dates - they're now to be married on the same date! - Liv, Emma and their lifelong friendship are put to the ultimate test. Now, the two best friends who'd do anything for each other, find themselves in a no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners struggle that threatens to erupt into all-out war. (20th Century Fox)
| GENRE(S): | Comedy | Romance |
| WRITTEN BY: |
Greg Depaul
Casey Wilason June Raphael |
| DIRECTED BY: | Gary Winick |
| RELEASE DATE: | Theatrical: January 9, 2009 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 89 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: | USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The average user rating for this movie is 3.3 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Mircea C. gave it a2:
This is torture.Ever since Sex and the City the movie I haven't seen something more stupid, sensless, numb and unfunny.
Jack P. gave it a0:
For every other bad chick flick, this makes any of those formulaic films I despised look like a genius. There was not a second I was not cringing, and there was not a second I was laughing.
John F. gave it a7:
Good for the happy entertainment value.
Megan P. gave it a10:
I Absolutely Loved It!! It Was Funny And The Acting Is Great! The Other Reviews Are Too Harsh!
Mark B. gave it a2:
Regarding the three weddings I served as best man for, all three couples eschewed a big, elaborate, expensive wedding. Two of them had small, private ceremonies at home for family and a few close friends; the third opted for a justice of the peace. In all three cases the logic was that the money would be better spent on: a.) starting a new life together; b.) a great honeymoon, or c.) both. Smart people, they. Leaving aside obvious questions about the wisdom of paying for a gargantuan ceremony in today's economy (since, in all fairness, this movie probably sat on the shelf long before things started going seriously downhill), you have to ask whether the two "heroines" of this unbearable, laugh-free chick flick possess between them both the emotional maturity to cross the street unaided much less embark on an endeavor as difficult, challenging and all-consuming as a marriage if, although they're so-called best friends, they can't come up with a viable solution to having both their weddings accidentally scheduled on the same day other than pulling unceasingly despicable (and worse, unimaginative and unfunny) dirty tricks on each other? (Another of this toxic puffball's many inadvertent messages, grooms-to-be, is that if you dare to express an honest opinion to your fiancee, you do so at the risk of having the wedding called off. Lucky you!) It's a measure of how completely clueless Bride Wars is that the heartless screenwriters not only obviously don't care about the poor woman whose scheduling glitch gets her fired, but since she's neither wealthy nor a "hottie" like Kate Hudson or Anne Hathaway, we're not expected to care either, but what the heck is a good director like Gary Winick (the lovely remake of Charlotte's Web) doing here? One theory may be that his previous effort 13 Going on 30 depicted a driven businesswoman regressing to early adolescence and here Winick wanted to outdo himself by having TWO career gals behave like kindergarteners, but this would be an insult to kindergarteners everywhere. Anne Hathaway (God bless her) is a fine actress who has heretofore proven her ability to make unsympathetic characters at least understandable if not likable (as in Rachel Getting Married and Brokeback Mountain) so even this junk can't COMPLETELY defeat her, but Kate Hudson (God help her) is rapidly squandering the goodwill she built up seemingly an eternity ago in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. So which group of movies is easier to sit through, Kate's past year's output of Fool's Gold, My Best Friend's Girl and this...or her mom, Goldie Hawn's 1970s and 80s throwaway flicks Protocol, Overboard and The Girl From Petrovka? Simply put, mother knows best.
Chad S. gave it a1:
With a friend like Liv(Kate Hudson), who needs enemies? With a friend like Emma(Anne Hathaway), who needs enemies? Therein lies the fundamental problem of "Bride Wars". Since this idiom applies to both women, the audience has no rooting interest. In a galaxy far, far away, women act irrationally towards each other to such an absurd degree, it's equally irrational, equally absurd that they should kiss and make up, without even the stopgap measure of a truce before the ironclad reconciliation. That galaxy is the prefabricated world of "Bride Wars", where weddings are a rite of passage for women with late-blooming arrested development, and short, very short memories. Women like Emma and Liz don't exist; they're not recognizably human(blue hair is not something any woman would forget, not even temporarily), therefore, not the least bit funny(utilizing a blouse as some turban to hide the blue hair is not a choice any sensible woman would make). "Bride Wars" plays like a chick flick with the DNA of a black comedy. The moment Emma decides against moving her wedding date for the more successful friend(Liv is a lawyer), "Bride Wars" circuitously references "Beaches" with the schoolteacher's refusal to be the wind beneath the other bride's wings, and beaches "Beaches" by being the anti-"Beaches", with its feel-bad hijinks. The audience should be on Emma's side, but she loses them, with this ugly putdown: "Your wedding will be big, like your ass on prom night." In a mainstream comedy, it's probably a mistake that Emma should be this unsympathetic; the antithesis of the middle school teacher in Sarah Shun-lien Bynum's novel "Ms. Hempel Chronicles". When both women were adolescents, Liv probably started off as the smart one, while Emma was the pretty one; then Liz lost weight and the agency of their friendship switched hands. In the opening scene, the two girls play bride and groom, and Emma is the groom, the man in the relationship. Emma fattens Liv up with treats to reverse time, so the lawyer can be her fat wife again, and regain that long-lost agency in their adult selves. After all, this insulting, misogynistic film depicts both women as children, anyway.
Ed D gave it a9:
These reviews are far too harsh! I found the movie legitimately funny (Kristen Johnston was particularly hysterical) and definitely worth seeing. I left the theatre with a smile on my face.
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