Anne Fletcher
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Dirty Dancing (1987)
Directed by Emile Ardolino
influenced Step Up (2006), Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)
Plot Themes
Sadly, the concept of the hip, tough guy with a troubled past who picked up his moves from the street teaching the pristine, prissy girl to loosen up and feel the music is such a tired premise, it's a drag to even have to mention other, better films like 2001's Save the Last Dance, wherein Julia Stiles used streets beats to dance her way into a Julliard audition, or even Dirty Dancing, which had way more memorable lines (“Nobody puts baby in the corner!”).
As far as “Save the Last Dance” / “Center Stage” / “Dirty Dancing”/”Fame”/ “Footloose”/etc.
Skip it: "Step Up" is so derivative of films like "Dirty Dancing," "Save the Last Dance" and more that it essentially comes pre-choreographed by other movies.
"Step Up" lacks the passion for dance found in the great films of the genre (the entire Astaire-Rogers canon), the kinda-great ("Dirty Dancing," "Footloose") and even the guiltily enjoyable ("Flashdance").
We've seen all this before in Dirty Dancing , Take the Lead , and a zillion other dance movies.
And so, it’s not surprising that in the nearly 30 years since its 1993 release, Hocus Pocus has become a movie that exists outside of objective context, in much the same vein as Grease or Dirty Dancing, the kind of bibbidi-bobbidi entertainment that renders any attempt at qualitative assessment a bootless endeavor, particularly each October.
From an outsider’s perspective, the adoration is in the same vein as The Goonies (1985), where its resonance can be directly tied to the age in which we first saw it.
The Story In a scene reminiscent of Meryl Streep's grand entry in In a scene reminiscent of Meryl Streep's grand entry in The Devil Wears Prada , the witchy, bitchy Margaret (Bullock) makes her way through the office as her employees cower in terror.
Bullock plays Margaret Tate, a hard-as-nails book editor in the vein of Meryl Streep's iconic Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada .
She's the poor man's Meryl Streep in her role as Margaret Tate, a New York book editor whose introduction tracks that of Streep's in The Devil Wears Prada, right down to the ridiculously complicated Starbucks order delivered by her servile assistant.
As Margaret gets to know Andrew's energetic clan -- especially his mother (the always affable Mary Steenburgen) and grandmother (White) -- she begins to shed her icy exterior and look at Andrew as much more than just a latte-fetching flunky.Bullock initially channels a bit of Meryl Streep's vicious boss in "The Devil Wears Prada" before breaking out of her shell in the film's second act.
"The Proposal" The first sighting of Sandra Bullock as forty-something Margaret Tate, book editor for a major publishing house in New York, is going to make the same impression on anyone who saw "The Devil Wears Prada" as Meryl Streep did.
She�s not in the league of bosses from hell Kevin Spacey in Swimming With Sharks or his female counterpart, Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.
And look for a character named Ramone (Oscar Nunez), who will remind you of an element in "Local Hero."
There's exactly one (running) gag that is actually laugh worthy, embodied by "The Office's" Oscar Nuñez as Siska, Alaska's chief cook and bottle washer, but even that bit's ripped off from "Local Hero" (the film that keeps on giving).
If that sounds way too familiar, it’s because writer Duane Adler has barely waited five years to recycle his screenplay for Save the Last Dance, already an ersatz knockoff of Fame (1980).
The odd-couple flick “Hot Pursuit” casts Reese Witherspoon in the timeless role of uptight, butch female cop — she’s the love child of Sandra Bullock’s “Miss Congeniality” and Holly Hunter’s Ed in “Raising Arizona.”
The drawl and cop uniform make you think about Holly Hunter in Raising Arizona.
The way John Travolta moves like silver mercury in "Saturday Night Fever," with the sparkly-eyed confidence that he owns the disco floor.
Return to Oz (1985) and Labyrinth (1986) didn’t hold back from being dark and scary – it left an impression on youngsters.
This is overall an opposites attract romcom along the lines of The Proposal (2009), Along Came Polly (2004), or Bringing up Baby (1934). Changing Tatum plays an inflexible individual whose uptight nature gradually melts in the company of Scarlett Johansson’s free-spirited marketeer.
The Danish thriller Just Another Love Story, directed by Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch), has a style like play-school Ingmar Bergman.
She�s not in the league of bosses from hell Kevin Spacey in Swimming With Sharks or his female counterpart, Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.
This is basically "Green Card" crossed with "The Devil Wears Prada," and don't think it wasn't pitched precisely that way at the studio meeting.
Margaret, who needs to avoid being deported to her native Canada because of one of those technicalities so beloved by screenwriters (see “Green Card”), blackmails the unwilling Andrew into marrying her so she can stay in the country.
And to screenwriter Pete Chiarelli, who hasn’t written anything before (at least not that’s been produced), but clearly, he has seen Green Card and Northern Exposure and figured that those two great tastes would go great together.
Think of the way Gene Kelly clearly loves pirouetting through puddles as he's "Singin' in the Rain" about being in love-love-love.
The premise is as old as The Taming of the Shrew--a sharp-tongued woman falls for a resourceful suitor who's gotten past her defenses--but it works just fine in this buoyant vehicle for Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, whose chemistry is a happy surprise.
Ramis, who has Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day and Caddyshack in his "win" column, co-wrote the screenplay with Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg of TV's The Office.
Ramis, who has Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day and Caddyshack in his "win" column, co-wrote the screenplay with Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg of TV's The Office.
There’s a bit of a twist a la the Ryan Reynolds/Sandra Bullock rom-com “The Proposal,” which sported the tagline “here comes the bribe.”
Duane Adler co-wrote Save the Last Dance, in which Julia Stiles learnt to dance like a black girl from her boyfriend, played by Sean Patrick Thomas.
Assisting her in that task is Duane Adler (“Save the Last Dance”) and Melissa Rosenberg, whose script is so rote, it's difficult not to watch this movie wondering how a film about taking risks could be so unwilling to take a few of its own.
Sadly, the concept of the hip, tough guy with a troubled past who picked up his moves from the street teaching the pristine, prissy girl to loosen up and feel the music is such a tired premise, it's a drag to even have to mention other, better films like 2001's Save the Last Dance, wherein Julia Stiles used streets beats to dance her way into a Julliard audition, or even Dirty Dancing, which had way more memorable lines (“Nobody puts baby in the corner!”).
It's no accident that the credits for the movie are a Who's Who of dance movie alumni: Director Anne Fletcher choreographed "Bring It On"; screenwriter Duane Adler penned "Save The Last Dance"; and the movie was photographed by Michael Seresin, who shot "Fame."
That’s more than we can say for the script, which was co-written by Duane Adler — who also wrote “Save the Last Dance,” yet another film that “Step Up” so obviously resembles — and Melissa Rosenberg.
If she does her due diligence in this regard, screenwriters Duane Adler (2001's " Save the Last Dance ") and Melissa Rosenberg (who would go on to adapt the " Twilight " series) are responsible for mucking things up with a script that couldn't be more predictable and derivative if it tried.
Dirty Grandpa is a worthless thing that flies its puny, tattered filth flag high when it’s pretty much just a replay of the Barbra Streisand-Seth Rogen movie The Guilt Trip, only this time with jokes about smegma.
Snatched (2017)
Directed by Jonathan Levine
influenced by Hot Pursuit (2015), The Guilt Trip (2012)
Themes Plot
While Snatched is (thankfully) more tolerable than the recent summer stinkers Tammy (Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon) and Hot Pursuit (Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara), it never really gets out of neutral.
The film itself is basically a notch above Hot Pursuit, that dreadful Reese Witherspoon/Sofia Vergara chase comedy from a thousand years ago (it was really like two years ago but it felt ancient) that you already forgot about.
Well, give the movie this: That twist certainly sets it apart from other mom-and-me comedies like "The Guilt Trip" and "Tammy."