No Reservations
With all my recent forays into the world of movie theater, I've chanced to see a trailer for a movie starring Catherine Zeta-Jones called "No Reservations." Halfway through the trailer, Chris and I were totally booing (inwardly), because it looks like a stupid Hollywood remake of a really great German movie "Mostly Martha." In No Reservations the heroine looks like a career-obsessed single woman. In Mostly Martha she has the determination and control of a head chef at a competitive restaurant. I don't know what it is about European movies and people dying in car accidents, but there is a death and a car accident, and a child left in her care. And they both deal with the grief, and in Mostly Martha, a sunny Italian brings sunshine back into their lives and in No Reservations? Uhh. It just looks sappy.
Here's my advice: skip Hollywood. Watch "Mostly martha".
(New Kid's post made me think of the rant I've been meaning to post against this remake.)
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I saw Aaron Eckhart on Rachael Ray and I think he mentioned Mostly Martha in the interview. Mostly Martha seemed a bit darker than this movie, which looks lighter and more "romantic comedy." I enjoyed hearing how he had to go to "chef school" so he could learn to chop and then there was a story about how he cut his finger during shooting and didn't notice. It was a scene where the little girl was there and when she looked down and saw all the blood she screamed.
Posted by: alli | July 20, 2007 10:40 AM
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Ha! Austina and I just had a similar conversation about seeing the trailer for the movie. Knowing German, she said that the new movie was even ripping off the dialogue of the new movie!
Posted by: Jo | July 20, 2007 11:00 AM
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mostly martha is such a nice little movie. they really didn't need to remake it. especially if they didn't get it, which they clearly didn't.
what is it with catherine zeta jones and bad remakes? because the haunting was pretty awful, too.
Posted by: Anastasia | July 20, 2007 11:12 AM
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I KNOW!!!
Posted by: Jeannette | July 20, 2007 11:30 AM
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I liked Mostly Martha. A tad predictable, what with the sunny Italian guy standing for joy in life and spontaneity and whatnot, but I liked the actress who played Martha and the way they didn't gloss over the little girl's grief. I had the same thoughts you did when I saw the No Reservations trailer: oh no, not another Hollywood remake!
Posted by: Amanda | July 20, 2007 12:49 PM
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Yeah, I saw this preview in May, I think, and I couldn't believe Hollywood could get away with TOTALLY copying Mostly Martha. We LOVE M.M. and didn't think it needed to be translated and remade into an American movie!!! Cheapens it for me. And of course the Italian brings joy and life...isn't that what Italy and her people are all about??? Viva Italia!
Posted by: sperlonga | July 20, 2007 09:33 PM