First rule of comedy: Be funny.
But the makers of "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" don't bother with such trivial matters. Not when they've deluded themselves into believing that merely bringing back Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant and a few others would automatically make the sequel funny, too. They were wrong.
The 2001 original was funny and charming. It had verve and wit. Bridget (Zellweger) was normal, as were her dilemmas and crises. She was plucky, resilient, but never a fool. We identified with her. Daniel (Grant) was delightfully caddish, Darcy (Firth) properly funny.
The sequel squanders a tremendously talented cast, none of whom seems to have a clue what to do. I don't know if they're wholly to blame - they're stuck in a dud. Although again based on Helen Fielding's novel, this has none of the original's wit or zip.
Although the sequel begins only four weeks after the original ended, Bridget, Darcy and Daniel have become caricatures of themselves. Their behavior's cartoonish. You know this film's in trouble when Grant simply slums it as a rake and Firth sputters about as if he's wondering how on earth he wound up agreeing to make this horrible picture.
The film relies completely on Zellweger's star power. She's game, but gives quite possibly the worst performance of her career. Bridget's become a daft twit. She's lost any semblance of intelligence. With nothing genuinely funny to fall back on, director Beeban Kidron gets Zellweger to simply waddle about the place trying to eke laughs out of us. Unfortunately, Zellweger's shtick is barely amusing and gets tiresome very quickly.
The idea of laughing at a large, buxom lass while she pratfalls her way through a horrendous film must strike a chord with some women. At the screening I attended, I sat next to four women who did not laugh - heck, I didn't hear even a chuckle from them throughout the entire film. Yet, they applauded at the end, as if they'd just discovered their anthem film.
It took four writers - Fielding, Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis and Adam Brooks - to write the drivel for this movie. They never find the right tone even once. Every joke is telegraphed or straining to be funny. This utterly unnecessary movie seems, at times, like an extended music video. But even the songs are predictable. During two scenes - at the Bangkok airport and an idiotic fight scene in a fountain - the music was so loud, it completely drowned out the dialogue. I don't know if the theater was to blame for this problem, but I suppose it was a blessing in disguise given how insipid much of the dialogue is.
This film is devoid of any novelty or humor. By the time we get to an excruciatingly long and unfunny prison sequence featuring yet another sorry moment that tries desperately to be funny - a chorus of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" - this film has gone so way off the tracks, there's no hope of it ever getting back on. This is a great example of a film being made because of star power and the need to make money, regardless of whether it was good or funny.
The sad thing is some terrific independent films are struggling to be released wide right now. But tripe like Kidron's film gets widely released a week early. "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" is lousy storytelling, rotten acting and awful film-making.
But the makers of "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" don't bother with such trivial matters. Not when they've deluded themselves into believing that merely bringing back Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant and a few others would automatically make the sequel funny, too. They were wrong.
The 2001 original was funny and charming. It had verve and wit. Bridget (Zellweger) was normal, as were her dilemmas and crises. She was plucky, resilient, but never a fool. We identified with her. Daniel (Grant) was delightfully caddish, Darcy (Firth) properly funny.
The sequel squanders a tremendously talented cast, none of whom seems to have a clue what to do. I don't know if they're wholly to blame - they're stuck in a dud. Although again based on Helen Fielding's novel, this has none of the original's wit or zip.
Although the sequel begins only four weeks after the original ended, Bridget, Darcy and Daniel have become caricatures of themselves. Their behavior's cartoonish. You know this film's in trouble when Grant simply slums it as a rake and Firth sputters about as if he's wondering how on earth he wound up agreeing to make this horrible picture.
The film relies completely on Zellweger's star power. She's game, but gives quite possibly the worst performance of her career. Bridget's become a daft twit. She's lost any semblance of intelligence. With nothing genuinely funny to fall back on, director Beeban Kidron gets Zellweger to simply waddle about the place trying to eke laughs out of us. Unfortunately, Zellweger's shtick is barely amusing and gets tiresome very quickly.
The idea of laughing at a large, buxom lass while she pratfalls her way through a horrendous film must strike a chord with some women. At the screening I attended, I sat next to four women who did not laugh - heck, I didn't hear even a chuckle from them throughout the entire film. Yet, they applauded at the end, as if they'd just discovered their anthem film.
It took four writers - Fielding, Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis and Adam Brooks - to write the drivel for this movie. They never find the right tone even once. Every joke is telegraphed or straining to be funny. This utterly unnecessary movie seems, at times, like an extended music video. But even the songs are predictable. During two scenes - at the Bangkok airport and an idiotic fight scene in a fountain - the music was so loud, it completely drowned out the dialogue. I don't know if the theater was to blame for this problem, but I suppose it was a blessing in disguise given how insipid much of the dialogue is.
This film is devoid of any novelty or humor. By the time we get to an excruciatingly long and unfunny prison sequence featuring yet another sorry moment that tries desperately to be funny - a chorus of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" - this film has gone so way off the tracks, there's no hope of it ever getting back on. This is a great example of a film being made because of star power and the need to make money, regardless of whether it was good or funny.
The sad thing is some terrific independent films are struggling to be released wide right now. But tripe like Kidron's film gets widely released a week early. "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" is lousy storytelling, rotten acting and awful film-making.