[So So Def Bass All Stars Vol 2 1997
Julieann Rohde
My Best Friend's Wedding is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by P. J. Hogan from a screenplay by Ronald Bass who also produced. The film stars Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, and Rupert Everett.
My Best Friend's Wedding received positive reviews from critics upon release and emerged as a global box-office hit.[1] The soundtrack song "I Say a Little Prayer" was covered by singer Diana King and featured heavily in the film, making it a U.S. Billboard Hot 100 hit. The soundtrack featured a number of Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs.
Three weeks before her 28th birthday, New York City food critic Julianne "Jules" Potter receives a call from her lifelong friend Michael O'Neal, a Chicago sportswriter. Years earlier, the two agreed that if they were both unmarried by age 28, they would marry each other. Michael tells her that in four days, he will marry the beautiful Kimmy Wallace, a college student eight years his junior whose father owns the Chicago White Sox. Realizing that she is in love with him, Jules resolves to sabotage his wedding. Arriving in Chicago, she reunites with Michael and meets Kimmy, who asks her to be the maid of honor. Jules schemes to break up the couple, but her attempt to humiliate Kimmy at a karaoke bar backfires. She manipulates Kimmy into asking her father to offer Michael a job, which Jules knows will anger Michael, but this fails as well.
Frustrated, Jules begs her friend George Downes for help, and he flies to Chicago. On George's advice, Jules prepares to tell Michael how much she loves him, but instead tells him that she is engaged to George, hoping to make Michael jealous. George, who is gay, plays along but embarrasses Jules at lunch with the wedding party, singing "I Say a Little Prayer" as the whole restaurant joins in. George flies home, and Jules tells Michael that her "relationship" with George is over. Michael admits to feeling jealous and gives her the chance to confess her own feelings, but she lets the moment pass. They share a dance as Michael sings their song, "The Way You Look Tonight".
The day before the wedding, at Kimmy's father's office, Jules uses his email account to forge a message from him to Michael's boss, asking that Michael be fired to allow Kimmy's father to hire him at Kimmy's insistence. She saves the message rather than send it, but later realizes that Kimmy's father has unknowingly sent the email. Jules lies to enlist Michael's help, but they find the office locked. Returning to Jules' hotel, Michael receives a message from his boss notifying him of the email. Furious, he calls Kimmy, calling off the wedding.
The next morning, Jules discovers that neither Michael nor Kimmy have told anyone else that the wedding is off. She tries to manipulate the couple into breaking up for good, but Michael and Kimmy decide to get married after all. Jules finally confesses her love to Michael and passionately kisses him. Kimmy witnesses this and drives away distraught, pursued by Michael, who in turn is pursued by Jules in a caterer's truck. Jules calls George while driving and explains the situation, who assures her that Michael loves Kimmy and Jules has now a brief opportunity to ensure the couple are reconciled before the scheduled time of the wedding. Finding Michael at Chicago Union Station, Jules confesses to everything. He forgives her and tells her that here at the station is where he proposed to Kimmy and she accepted, and they split up to look for Kimmy.
Jules finds Kimmy in the bathroom of Comiskey Park. Amid a crowd of onlookers, Kimmy confronts Jules for interfering with Michael. Jules apologizes, assuring Kimmy that Michael truly loves her, and they reconcile. The wedding proceeds, and at the reception, Jules gives a heartfelt speech as Kimmy's maid of honor. Jules allows the newlyweds to temporarily have "The Way You Look Tonight" as their song until they find their own song. Jules and Michael share their goodbyes, both finally moving on. On the phone with George, Jules is surprised to see him at the reception, and they dance together.
Total Film praised the film, giving it four stars out of five and stating "[h]ere [Roberts] banishes all memories of Mary Reilly (1996) and I Love Trouble (1994) with a lively, nay sparkling, performance. Smiling that killer smile, shedding those winning tears, delivering great lines with effortless charm, Roberts is back where she rightly belongs - not in grey period costume, but as the sexy queen of laughs." The review also called the film "a perfect date movie" that "proves Roberts isn't as crap as we all thought she was."[12]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praises Roberts as "riper, more dexterous with a comic line, slyer with modulation," concluding that "Roberts puts her heart into this one."[13] Joanna Berry of Radio Times gave it four stars out of five, observing that this "sparkling comedy" proved to be a career-resurrecting film for Julia Roberts.[14]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars and said, "One of the pleasures of Ronald Bass' screenplay is the way it subverts the usual comic formulas that would fuel a plot like this."[15] CNN movie reviewer Carol Buckland said Roberts "lights up the screen", calling the film "fluffy fun".[16]
Andrew Johnston, writing in Time Out New York, observed, "The best scene occurs when Julianne's gay editor and confidant George (Everett) turns up in Chicago and poses as her fianc, seizing control of the film for five delicious minutes. His devilish impersonation of a straight guy is priceless, and things only get better when he leads a sing-along at the rehearsal dinner. At times like this, when the film spins into pop culture overdrive that it stops being a star vehicle and flirts with genuine comic brilliance."[17]
The soundtrack was released on June 17, 1997, and contains covers of familiar songs. It was praised by AllMusic for working "better than it should, since most of the vocalists... concentrate on the songs".[19]
A stage musical adaptation of the film featuring songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and a book by screenplay writer Ronald Bass and Jonathan Harvey was announced to open in September 2021 (originally due to open September 2020 but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic) on a UK and Ireland tour, and was due to be directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and star Alexandra Burke as Julianne Potter.[37] However on June 30, 2021, it was announced that the production was cancelled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the producers revealing they hope to revisit the show at a later date.[38]
For Dale Watson, the reigning alt-country trend doesn't amount to a hill of beans. It's just a convenient way to snag well-deserved attention for his first two pure-heart albums, Cheatin' Heart Attack and Blessed or Damned. But last summer, Watson set out on a marathon tour of truckstops across America and that experience has forever given his songwriting and singing a patina that barely shone on the first recordings. Not surprisingly, his newest, I Hate These Songs, reflects that throwback to the halcyon days of country music on truckstop jukeboxes, the kind of steel guitar-driven heartbreak of Sixties-era Merle Haggard, George Jones, and Ray Price. It was music so evocative that it still commands classic status on jukeboxes, and should be recognized for its unselfconscious Nashville influence. That's precisely the balance Watson achieves on I Hate These Songs, where he evokes the traditional country themes of home and family ("Count on You"), broken hearts ("Wine Don't Lie"), a little drinking here and there ("Hair of the Dog"), and some sure-fire dance-floor ditties ("That's Pride"). Watson gets a tad preachy ("Take a Look at Your Neighbor"), but isn't without humor, as the wry title track attests, conjuring up titles and references to some of country's most loved tunes. I Hate These Songs is a living, loving tribute to the heartland and Watson oughtta be real damn proud. And so should his mama.
3.5 Stars
-- Margaret Moser
I-35 is ideal for militia trainees (Killeen, Waco, Dallas, and Oklahoma City!), but by linking Austin and Minneapolis, Conspiracy Corridor is becoming Highway 61 revisited for the No Depression set. No other two cities are so culturally attuned yet geographically far apart; shoot, even our Prince tribute nights do well, and everybody knows what big Mats fans we are down here. Plus, we're the ones with the hockey team. So when Mike Nicolai relocated here from Gopherland, it couldn't have been that much of a switch. Judging by his album, it wasn't. He recorded most of the songs in Minnesota, but that doesn't stop the Gourds from showing up behind Nicolai on "Half Right" and "Rattling My Cage" (the Damnations' Deborah Kelly also pops up on "Rattling"). Otherwise, Nicolai focuses his keen eye and nasal Midwestern drawl on spectacle ("The Last Great Balloon Race"), happiness ("Too Damn Good"), penny-arcade religion ("Dreams of Christ"), co-dependency ("There's a Hole in You"), and bureaucracy ("Heartache Trust Local #40"), but his shining moment is "Awkward Love," a bit of wordplay that would make fellow Man From the North Country, Bob Dylan -- and probably postmodern hip-hop lyric freak Dr. Octagon -- proud: "I missed you at the party/All the boys and girls were swingin'/Cupid got so loaded that he barfed all over the kitchen/These glasses couldn't be thicker/'Cause this love can't hold its liquor/It's like a drunken headless chicken wearing two left-handed gloves/This is all very awkward, love." Encore. And, uh, go Twins!
3.5 Stars
-- Christopher Gray
The ultimate testament to Pat MacDonald's songwriting skills lies in how sparsely he's arranged this album's 16 tracks. Other writers with half the talent would slave over any one of these nuggets, endlessly tinkering with bells, whistles, and attitude. But MacDonald just seems more concerned with getting these dark theories, laments, and tales off his chest, onto record, and out of his mind, which makes Pat MacDonald Sleeps With His Guitar feel like a day in the life despite its obvious density. As such, "Hey man it's only love/ A stupid simple song/ but you could make it complicated/ if you wanted to... / You could really fuck up my life" not just a smart lyrical run, but an invitation to accept this set as is -- or dig deeper and unearth MacDonald's subtler displays of rage and angst. Either approach is satisfying, with both visions hinging on percussionist Wally Ingram (often MacDonald's only collaborator), who becomes each song's spiritual and musical soul. Ingram is the album's cohesive center, and the man behind the gloom, quirk, and rhythm that makes repeat listens so painless -- even as MacDonald's personal pains seem to multiply exponentially. Forget the guitar, these are songs worth sleeping with.
3.5 Stars
-- Andy Langer