Made of Honor (2008)
Directed by Paul Weiland
Tom and Hannah have been platonic friends for 10 years. He's a serial dater, while she wants marriage but hasn't found Mr. Right. Just as Tom is starting to think that he is relationship material after all, Hannah gets engaged. When she asks Tom to be her 'maid' of honor, he reluctantly agrees just so he can attempt to stop the wedding and woo her.
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What critics compared Made of Honor to
A quintessential “chick flick”/date film targeted squarely at twentysomethings too young to realize the shameless re-treading of 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding, the picture ends up being far better than it has any right to be thanks largely to a fine cast, solid direction and an unusually effective rewriting effort by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan.
At least 1997's very similar "My Best Friend's Wedding" had a final trick up its sleeve and ended on a less obvious and more bittersweet note; this sex-reversal knockoff doesn't have the courage to do anything nearly as drastic.
Let's hope not, or the folks behind "Made of Honor" -- essentially the same plot as 1997's "My Best Friend's Wedding," but with a gender twist -- will have to do some serious reimbursement.
Having just finished watching the NFL draft this past weekend I completely understand the logic of the ‘‘Made of Honor” filmmakers — trade one Julia Roberts’ character in ‘‘My Best Friend’s Wedding” for one Patrick Dempsey and viola — brand new movie.
Swap the girls for the boys and you've got "My Best Friend's Wedding" all over again.
Julia Roberts scored a hit in My Best Friend's Wedding, where she tried to stop said friend's wedding and grab him for herself.
We’ve seen elements of this tale as old as time in The Notebook, Sweet Home Alabama, Made of Honor, and more.
Unlike unbridled bores such as Made of Honor and last week's Something Borrowed, this tale of wedding woes is actually funny.
The supporting ensemble have scant material to work with, though newcomer Emily Nelson (reminding of Melissa McCarthy) makes for bright comic relief as Hilary, one of Hannah's bridesmaids, and Selma Stern (2003's " Bruce Almighty ") is adorable as Hannah's daffy Grandma Pearl.
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It is instead a perfect template for rom-com mediocrity, from its cookie-cutter script (courtesy of Made of Honor's Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan) to the stupendously absent electricity between Adams and her coy Irish rover boy (Goode).
Director Anand Tucker (2005's " Shopgirl ") and screenwriters Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (2008's " Made of Honor ") achieve this finite goal, albeit through story contrivances, while leaving a far more provocative conclusion in the dust.
Written by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan (Made of Honor), and directed by Anand Tucker (Shopgirl), the movie seems a rehash of 1930s conventions—It Happened One Night in Ireland.
The all-around carelessness of the project extends to the by-the-numbers script credited to Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (the team behind the immortal "Made of Honor" and "Surviving Christmas"), reportedly with an anonymous assist from Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire," "The Full Monty").
Adams' sweetness just can't sink to the level of stupidity called for in the script by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, who also knocked women back a few decades in "Made of Honor."
Written by the dread team of Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (authors of such classics as “Made of Honor,” “Josie and the Pussycats” and “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas”), “Leap Year” stars Amy Adams as Anna, a control freak from Boston who, in the early scenes, is disappointed when her drippy doctor boyfriend (Adam Scott) fails to propose marriage at a ripe moment.