How to Lose Friends and Alienate People ..

So today in Reporting the Arts, we had a guest speaker named Toby Young, who is a journalist/writer.. He wrote the book-- his memoir-- How to Lose Friends and Alienate People .. which discusses how he went to the top and failed.. Well he was a very interesting speaker, but what I also learned was Paramount Pictures has made a film out of his book. (kirsten dunst is in it) It comes out October 3 in the US and UK.. So it was pretty cool to meet this guy that has a movie coming out about his book. He's from Britain, but spent 5 years in New York working at Vanity Fair.
http://www.paramountpictures.co.uk/howtolosefriends/

Mamma Mia-- oh we CAN resist you......

The following is a short bit of my reviewing techniques I have learned in my Reporting the Arts class. It's not a complete review at all. We had to go see the movie for class discusion.

Mamma mia... Oh I can let you go..

The lyrics, the musical, the dancing, but then.. there was the movie.

Mamma Mia follows Sophie, the girl who has been raised 20 years without a father. Then she finds out she may have 3 possible fathers. It's a comedy, it's supposed to be in Greece, and it has a lot of substantial actors.

But they weren't in this film.

With an all star cast like Meryl Streep, Pierce Bronsnan, and Colin Firth you would expect great things from this musical made film. The trouble was these actors had to act as if they were in musical theatre. They were expected to sing, which was their biggest flaw. Bronsnan needs to stick to playing James Bond. His voice made me cringe instantly. Then made me as well as the rest of the audience hysterically laugh. It was one of those moments where we were laughing at them, not with them.

Meryl Streep may be the only plus to the show-- errr film. She can play any part. She can be the villain like in Devil Wears Prada or the fun, spontaneous mother as she is in Mamma Mia. She was made to play any role thrown at her. Her vocal talents are much better than any other actor within the film.

The problem with the film was that it was over the top-- it was over dramatized. It had to be, you have to give them the benefit of the doubt.

If you want to laugh the entire 1 hour and 49 minutes, go see Mamma Mia. But if you're a true Mamma Mia fan and don't want to be offended, I would skip it and stick with the musical.