'MO - November 2008 - (Page 26)

p/reviews Click the image of Jennifer Holliday to buy tickets online. LIVE CONCERT EVENT Broadway Powerhouse Jennifer Holliday Performs with Seattle Men’s Chorus Opening 2008 Holiday Concert Series December 7 & 8 at Benaroya Hall at 8:00 PM Flying House Productions is thrilled to announce that Jennifer Holliday, a self-proclaimed “Broadway Baby,” will perform with the Seattle Men’s Chorus for two very special holiday concerts on December 7th and 8th at Benaroya Hall. Enjoy Holliday for the Holidays—to witness her vocal power live in concert is truly an unforgettable experience. Jennifer Holliday’s show-stopping, heart-wrenching performance of the torch ballad “And I’m Telling You, I’m Not Going” in the smash hit Broadway musical, Dreamgirls, made her a household name and introduced her big soulful voice to the world. It also garnered her both a Tony and Grammy Award. For the 2008 holiday season, the legendary Miss Holliday will join Seattle Men’s Chorus in their festive holiday concert, titled Fruitcake. The run includes seven Seattle performances from December 7–22, an additional concert in Everett on December 6th, and in Tacoma on December 13th. Ms. Holliday will perform select numbers with the Chorus during the first two Seattle concerts on December 7 and 8 only at 8:00 PM. Tickets are on sale now for subscribers. Individual tickets go on sale November 3, 2008. Buy tickets at www.ﬂyinghouse.org, or call 206. 388.1400. COMING SOON TO DVD Click the image to watch a trailer of this ﬁlm. Kiss the Bride Reviewed by Matthew McQuilkin Directing: BActing: B Writing: CCinematography: C+ Editing: BOverall: C+ Kiss the Bride is yet another low-budget gay movie about a couple of impossibly hunky guys trying to navigate a patently unrealistic relationship—and starring Tori Spelling. Director C. Jay Cox (who directed the barely superior Latter Days in 2003) has taken the tritest parts of 1999’s Trick and ﬂeshed it out into his own movie, with a backward, gay My Best Friend’s Wedding twist added to the mix. The token lesbian character even acknowledges this: When Matt (Philipp Karner) learns that his high school boyfriend (James O’Shea) is now getting married to a woman (Spelling, of course), his assistant (Jane Cho, one of the few consistently witty characters in the film) says, “You are so Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding right now!” To call Kiss the Bride derivative would be far too easy. It’s a patently unoriginal story that only gets within spitting distance of fresh ideas by presenting incredibly laughable situations that would never happen in the real world. When Matt first meets bride-to-be Alex (Spelling), he crashes her bachelorette party and is mistaken for the stripper—so he actually plays the part, giving Alex a truly cringeworthy approximation of a lap dance while pumping her for information about her sex life with her fiancé. Believe it or not, the singularly unintentional awkwardness of that scene is actually surpassed by the climactic “wedding scene,” in which characters literally spew out the lessons they’ve learned, as though we just finished watching an after-school special targeting middle school kids. The lapses in logic by director C. Jay Cox are actually pretty amazing. Why he thought anyone would just accept Karner and O’Shea playing themselves as teenagers is anyone’s guess. Jason Priestly was more believable as a high school student in Beverly Hills, 90210. (Oh wait; Tori Spelling was in that too!) Admittedly, Kiss the Bride has its moments, ﬂickering bright spots of hope accompanying 26 intermittently witty dialog, due in large part to the earnestness of the delivery. The movie may not be very good when it comes down to it, but the people who made it clearly really cared about what they were doing. As a result, the performances are actually decent, all things considered, and it’s almost enough to draw you in. Almost. The script, by first-timer Tyler Lieberman, ratchets up the triteness with every scene, moving from blatant pandering to lusty gay men with scenes featuring shirtless hunks (not that I’m complaining about that in particular, mind you) to cornball relationship moralizing. Once you get to that inevitable point where you’re asking yourself, “In what world would this ever happen?” the film has crumbled under the weight of its own ludicrousness. On the plus side, the leads are certainly easy on the eyes—some of them far more gorgeous than they are talented—and for some people that’s all it takes. More power to them. Me, I prefer a story I can actually believe in. Kiss the Bride is available on DVD beginning on November 19, 2008. Read more of Matthew’s reviews of current and past ﬁlms on the Web at http://cinema-holic. livejournal.com. celebrating seattle’s gay community http://www.flyinghouse.org http://www.flyinghouse.org http://www.kissthebridemovie.com/ http://cinema-holic.livejournal.com http://cinema-holic.livejournal.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of 'MO - November 2008

'MO - November 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor Voices Elections '08: What Really Happened Instant Activist Pet Project Legally Speaking: Estate Planning 'mo-BIZ: Thinking Cap Communications & Design, Inc. Whistler-Blackcomb's Peak 2 Peak Gondola Form & Function: Stay Up on the Downhill: Glutes & Legs Gay City Health Project: 10 Tips for Safe and Healthy Travel Head for the Hills: The Top 4 Gay Ski Weeks in North America Book Review: Waiter Rant Book Review: The Transgender Child Capitol Hill Guide Live Event Preview: Teatro ZinZanni's A Rosa de Rio Live Event Preview: Jennifer Holliday and the Seattle Men's Chorus DVD Review: Kiss the Bride SceneOut: People@Places 'mo-Single Q&A

'MO - November 2008

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