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Verrückt nach Clara (2007)
Horribly uptight, pseudo-hip nonsense!
Despite several newspaper articles and TV spots this series got horrible ratings right from the start and they even continued to get worse and worse from episode to episode, which resulted in its air date being pushed back twice from the initial prime time spot at 8:15pm. First to 10:15pm, then to past midnight. How come you may wonder? Well, first and foremost the storyline asks the viewer to sympathize with a young woman who without much of a setup ends up in one ridiculous situation after the other. It starts out with our oh so modern main protagonist having sex with her boss as well as her gay room mate (seperately, of course) and as a result ending up pregnant. I won't spoil anymore, you may as well see for yourself.
Advertised beforehand as a sexy romantic drama that is supposedly going to push boundaries, "Verrückt nach Clara" turned out to be anything but that: Clara obviously only has sex when she's either fully clothed or at least still wearing underwear. Now how modern is that? Even more unintentionally funny was the bathtub scene in the hopefully last episode which featured so much foam that it almost reached the ceiling (OK, slight exaggeration, I admit). That's probably the only situation in which this series actually pushed any boundaries: How much foam can we put into a bathtub without making it leak?!
Apart from that the acting is mostly OK. Nothing worth writing home about, but solid TV standard. It's actually a shame that they haven't been given better material to work with...
40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)
Shannyn shines...
This is a good movie but not a great one since it suffers from several weaknesses.
The most positive aspects of this movie are its two leading stars: Josh Hartnett manages to deliver a surprisingly flawless comic performance, which I didn't expect from him since he's not exactly known to be a comedy actor. Well, he has proven me to be wrong! Shannyn Sossamon was equally great as his beautiful (though slightly offbeat) love interest. She definitely steals every scene she's in!
Among the things I disliked about this movie was the totally unsympathetic character of Hartnett's roommate (`portrayed' by the unsympathetic Paolo Costanzo who also managed to be the only negative thing I can recall about `Road Trip'). Maybe I just don't like Costanzo
sorry!
`40 Days
' main problem though is that the romance between Hartnett and Sossamon loses credibility since it never really gets time to develop. They meet twice in this laundromat and suddenly they're in love. In my opinion the writers should have given their two leading characters more time (and scenes together) to connect. What's so bad about a teen-comedy that runs 105 instead of 90 minutes???
By the way: I will never be able to really understand the ridiculous American rating system. This movie is (at least by European standards) absolutely harmless. It has been rated "12" in Germany which is the right thing to do. I watched it with the son of a colleague (he's 12) and I'm not afraid of him suffering any damages caused by this movie!
Whatever: I definitely enjoyed "40 Days and 40 Nights" and went to the movies twice to see it!
First Love, Last Rites (1997)
Definitely not perfect, but close
I watched this one a couple of months ago on video while I spent some time in the USA. I especially liked the performances by Giovanni Ribisi (who is also great in "The Gift") and Natasha Wagner (one of my all-times favorites). Another positive effort is the nice soundtrack and the slick editing.
The main problem of "First Love, Last Rites" is that first-time director Jesse Peretz sometimes slows down the pace a bit too much so that you may need some patience to sit this one through. Nevertheless it´s still worth watching especially if you like Ribisi and Wagner.
By the way: ever since I watched this movie I tried to find out whether or not it has been released on DVD (no matter which country or regional encoding as long as there´s an English-language track on it). So, if anyone who reads this knows where, when or how to get "First Love, Last Rites" on DVD inform me about it, I´d be very pleased!!!
Glam (1997)
Do not under any circumstances buy this movie!
When I found out that this movie was going to be released on DVD I was very attracted to it because Natasha Gregson Wagner is one of my favorite actresses. The trouble starts with the fact that there was no chance to watch it before I bought the DVD since "Glam" isn´t available in Germany.
But nevertheless: I thought that a movie starring nice and underrated actors/actresses like Tony Danza, Valerie Kaprisky and (of course) especially Natasha Gregson Wagner couldn´t be that boring, senseless and simply bad.
Furthermore: don´t be misled by the NC-17 rating. As most American NC-17 ratings (like for example "Showgirls) this is nothing but a bad joke. The only scene which is supposed to be sexy includes two nameless strippers/dancers who fake some more or less harmless sexuality. But the most important thing about this scene is that it´s not even really sexy - so don´t count on the rating!!
Finally I just want to advise you not to make the same mistake I made: don´t buy this movie (even if you suppose yourself to be the biggest Natasha-Fan in the world)!!