mbalderson-1

22 May 2012

Not what I expected but very funny

I just came from a screening of this movie. I went in thinking totalchick flick and came away quite impressed. There is a love story but itdoesn't take up the whole movie and get heavy with it. The movie morecenters around an up and coming producer of a local TV morning showthat ends up at the lowest rated nationally syndicated morning show.what entails is a humorous tale of trying to get the shows ratings up.If I had not received screening tickets to this movie I probably wouldhave never have seen it in the theater but after watching this movie Iwould have gladly shelled out $10-15 for a ticket to this movie. Wellworth the time and even better I got to go for free.

Rene Rodriguez

21 May 2012

Ford was funnier in Extraordinary Measures than he is here, and that was a movie about terminally ill children.

FlashCallahan

19 May 2012

Your morning dump with Mike Pomeroy

Becky is a hard-working morning TV show producer, or at least she wasuntil she got fired.Desperate to get a job, she finally gets an interview for thestruggling show "Daybreak". Becky accepts the job and it proves to bemore difficult than even she might be able to handle.She has to fire the sexist co-host, then try to convince egotisticalnews reporter, Mike Pomeroy, to take the job, and then try and get himto actually do the job, properly.And she has to do this while falling for handsome Adam, and trying tosave the show from plummeting ratings.....Yes the film is from the writer of the devil wears prada, but don't letthat deter you, this is a completely different movie. It's refreshingbreezy,and most of all funny, in a happy way.McAdams is on top form here as the EP who is trying to save the show,and she wins over the staff quickly, but people still doubt her. Heronly problem is, Becky is obsessed with work, leaving little time forher personal life, so when the show gets threatened with the chop, it'sher whole life at stake.Enter one Harrison Ford, who steals the movie from an alreadyimpressive cast, as yes, the bitter man with the heart of gold. But thedifference from other movie grumps, is that Mike knows he is bitter,and does this because he can. We get a few glimpses of a human beingwith feelings, and when we see this, Ford really is a revaluation.It's schmaltzy at the end and predictable, but when a film is thisenjoyable, and funny, (the weather man challenges are laugh out loudfunny) you can forgive the predictability of it all. But with thesesort of movies, it's half the fun knowing that everything will turn outalright.See it for Ford, he is brilliant in this.

Erik Childress

19 May 2012

One of the most confused screenplays of the year makes it the morning show equivalent of Broadcast News; only with compromised standards encouraged.

16 May 2012

Cute and Funny

MORNING GLORY is a cute, witty, and fun movie. Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) receives the big break she's been looking for when she lands a job as a producer of a TV show in New York City. The only problem is that she needs to find a way to increase the ratings or they'll all be out of a job, along with her reputation. In an attempt to save the show, she hunts down the infamous Mike Pomeroy for the position of co-anchor (Harrison Ford). Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton) is not too keen on partnering with Mike, and sparks fly. Each character is well thought out and acted. Though romance is on the milder side, it does bloom between Becky and Adam Bennett (Patrick Wilson) as she learns to trust him, and he teaches her that a life with all work and no play is no life at all.

16 May 2012

Amazingly Funny and Clever Movie!!

I loved this movie so much! Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, and Diane Keaton are at their best in the film and really have great on screen chemistry together. We laughed the entire way through the movie at Harrison Ford and his snide remarks. I highly recommend not only seeing this movie but owning it!

Karen Krizanovich

16 May 2012

Michell's seamless, steady direction lets McAdams's energy shine through and allows Ford and his fellow news anchor Diane Keaton to craft beautifully timed comedic performances...

15 May 2012

Pleasant not hilarious

a cute little entertainment, with a plucky heroine and grumpy co-workers. All players do their part, none make you want to work with them at their last place news show/entertainment.

Tim Brayton

13 May 2012

A good, simple comedy for what ails you... it's not stupid, just content to be a blithe entertainment.

Stephen Whitty

12 May 2012

It's a good enough movie. But it came this close to being great.

12 May 2012

Even My Husband Loved This Chick Flix

This review is from: Morning Glory (DVD) You can't lose with Harrison Ford! What makes this work is his quirky character in the movie. It is a perfect complement to the female lead's optimism.

11 May 2012

Morning Glory is a funny entertainment to begin with, and then Rachel McAdams transforms it

And Harrison Ford transforms himself. She plays as lovable a lead as anyone since Amy Adams in "Junebug," and he bestirs himself from his frequent morosity and creates with gusto a TV newsman who is described as a great man, but the third worst person of all time. Diane Keaton is pitch-perfect a Colleen Peck, a morning TV host who can, and must, smile through everything.Comedies open every week. This is the kind I like best. It grows from human nature and is about how people do their jobs and live their lives. It is wisely not about a May-October romance between McAdams and Ford. It's more about their love for their work. It isn't deep, and it doesn't approach "Broadcast News" in its examination of the TV producer mentality, but it's the kind of sitcom you can get happily carried along with.McAdams plays Becky Fuller, a little Energizer Bunny of a morning TV producer, who gets fired from her thankless job in New Jersey, and then has the good, or bad, luck to be hired to produce a last-place network morning show. Her boss is the dubious Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum), who possibly views himself as the hiring agent for the Titanic. Becky plunges with zeal into a show that is not merely stuck in its tracks, but congealed. At the first staff meeting, Becky comes across as a featherbrained lightweight until, in a nice burst of dialogue, she reveals she has heard everything, had strong opinions about it and fires Peck''s current co-anchor.Fuller's assignment: Turn the show around. The network has one of her heroes handing around, working off the end of his contract. This is Mike Pomeroy (Ford), who detests what has happened to network news. Becky discovers how much time he has left on his contract and forces him into taking her show's co-anchor gig. This involves precisely the kind of news he hates, and he'll have to do some of it, even though Colleen Peck's game enough to kiss a frog.I suppose the outcome of the story is preordained. And we can hardly stir ourselves to care about the story within the story, about Becky's affair with Paul Newmanish fellow producer Adam Bennett (Patrick Wilson), which forces her to choose between love and her BlackBerry. If you think teenagers are tethered to texting, you've never seen a TV producer.What the movie has is charm and a light-footed smartness. In its version of story meetings and problems with talent, it's not a million miles away from what I've seen taking place. Morning news have a certain caffeinated jollity that's comforting. I sit in grumpy sleepiness and allow myself to be kidded out of it with the on-air "family" and the goofy weatherman. I don't expect hard news and investigative reporting. Pomeroy does. He expects it all the time, which is perhaps why he's sitting out the rest of its contract."Morning Glory" could have been routine. It's Rachel McAdams' life force that illuminates it. She positions herself barely on the right side of manic. She's always on, always optimistic, always hoping. She loves her work. There's a scene where she runs from NBC at Rockefeller Center across town to her network, "IBS," and she does it like a hungry colt. She makes Becky impulsive, determined, frisky, and, yes, cute. She grinds away at Harrison Ford's stone face and carves a smile out of it.The film was directed by Roger Michel ("Notting Hill") and written by Aline Brosh McKenna, whose "The Devil Wears Prada" is also about a spunky young woman up against a living legend. They know how to handle this material. They're also fortunate in the casting.Ford is not a demonstrative actor. Sometimes he can barely rouse himself to growl. Here he's kind of inspired. When he's anchoring with Keaton, his double takes are flawless. When they get into a duel of who says "bye" last, they do it with impeccable timing. Ford doesn't venture beyond his usual acting range, but within it he creates a character with a reluctantly human inside.I mentioned goofy weathermen. Matt Malloy plays a funny one here. He lives for the weather. He collects weathervanes. He also loves being in TV. Becky is ruthless in how she uses him on outside locations, and those scenes remind us of all the hapless TV people doing absurd things at some risk to their bodies or souls, simply to produce a few minutes of anything to perk us up at home. Back in the studio, the producers like Becky aren't heartless, exactly. It's just that they'll gladly toss human beings on the bonfire of "good TV."

M. O.

10 May 2012

The right amount of everything

Rachel McAdams doesn't make movies very often, but she always knew howto choose good characters and movies. Morning Glory may not seems goodenough, but it's sweet, gentle and mild, something pleasant to watch.Rachel carries entire film easily and without effort, an excellentopportunity to demonstrate once again her great talent. As well asSandra Bullock's performance in The Blind Side (2009), Rachel McAdams'performance is subtle even though some moments seems exaggerated, andher comedy time is great, making her character human and charismatic.The film focuses the troubled life of Becky Fuller, a TV executiveproducer that's hired to revitalize a breakfast TV program that is onair for decades and now is losing its audience every day. In asuccession of mistakes she will discover what audience really wants intime to radically transforms the regular morning show into somethinginteresting, sensationalist and entertaining for the sake of the ratingnumbers and not because it is really informative or intelligent.There's a moment in the movie when Harrison Ford's character says thatpeople are smart and they want information and not junk, then Beckytells him that they have to get the ratings up or have a lot of highmighty ideas and not be on the air. This dialog resumes entire movie.The world has been debating news versus entertainment for years, that'swhat Becky also says, and that's the point of the movie. It's pureentertainment and it's not worried about being another Broadcast News(1987) - even some resemblance between both being inevitable - becausethe world has been debating substantial movies versus entertainmentmovies for years too, and the industry has space for both and both hasaudiences for it. No matter which category, the movie has to be goodenough in its purpose and there's when Morning Glory succeeds becauseit is pure entertainment, it's fresh, loose, have interesting dialogsand some hilarious moments in a genuine comedy feeling provided most bytheir brilliant cast.Harrison Ford is fabulous and for sure is one of his best roles inyears, showing that he stills in a amazing comedy shape, a zone hehasn't been exploring since a long time. Even being annoying in most ofher roles, Diane Keaton provides a great performance in right dosesbecause her appearance also happens in tolerable doses which is arelief, and when both Keaton and Ford are together, the chemistry issuperb.Who watched Laws Of Attraction (2004), The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and27 Dresses (2008) is already familiar to Aline Brosh McKenna's writingas well as her ability to fall for clichés which most of the timesdoesn't fit but lucky enough isn't a problem in this movie because shegives the right amount of everything and special moments for everysingle character without getting away of its central plot overshadowingits absence of consistence, and that's the difference between MorningGlory and current ordinary comedy flicks, making it watchable andjoyful.

Mike Stolyarov

09 May 2012

Better re-watch Broadcast News than waste your time on Morning Glory

The Verdict Looking for a witty romantic comedy-drama about an attractive youngwoman who is also a great television news producer? Rent "BroadcastNews" and do not waste your time on "Morning glory".The Positives In the beginning, "Morning glory" looks very promising.Its light and predictable, but energetic, well-paced, and solid feel-good story entertains the viewers and keeps them engaged. Rachel McAdams is fresh and charming, Harrison Ford is charismatic andirresistible, Diane Keaton is convincing and funny, the rest of thequirky "DayBreak" morning show team is hopeful and intriguing.The Negatives Then something bad starts happening.The predictable, but believable and witty story gradually morphs intoan incoherent, superficial, cheesy, banal, and boring preschool levelfairy tale. The good actors lose their spark; they seem to be ashamed ofparticipating in the unveiling mess of a screenplay. They also struggleto keep their characters believable and likable in the midst of ashallow and silly script (Aline Brosh McKenna) and a mediocre directing(Roger Michell). Enthusiastic and cheerful at the beginning of themovie, the cast looks somewhat tired, bored, confused, anddisillusioned by the end.The unique and charming behavior of Rachel Macadam's character, soadorable at the beginning, becomes repetitive, forced, and evensomewhat irritating by the end. Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton, asgreat professionals, try hard to make their characters presentable.However, in my opinion, even a genius of an actor would have had a veryhard time winning an uphill battle with the dumb, simplistic,derivative screenplay they had to work with. The Conclusion "Morning glory" suffers from the two problems very common for Hollywoodmovies. The first problem is having a good concept and great actors but failingto develop a concept into a solid, coherent story. The movie startsgreat and then gradually slips through a boring middle into adisastrous ending.The second problem is quickly and elegantly offering too easy to betrue, almost magical solutions for the real life complex problems themovie characters are facing. It might be acceptable for a very lightcomedy, or for a movie for kids, but not for a movie that positionsitself as a "comedy-drama".The way Becky Fuller solved the problem of the low ratings of the"DayBreak" morning show cannot be taken seriously and turns a promisingstory into a farce.knowyourmovie.blogspot.com

peachmahoney

07 May 2012

Has Nothing You Loved About Broadcast News Working Girl But Everything You Hated About Devil Wears Prada

Somewhere buried in the miles and miles of footage shot for MorningGlory, there has to be a good movie in there. Too bad we never get tosee it.Soggy underdeveloped romance? Check. Diane Keaton making the most offlimsy role? Check. Horrible Natasha Beddingfield music montages?Check. The only things missing here are great editing, snappy dialog,decent pacing, and a director that isn't in need of ADD medication.There are so many story lines and little nuggets in Morning Glory yetnearly none of them develops into anything interesting. "From thewriter of the Devil Wears Prada" the commercials for this film proudlyboasted and you can tell. Every plot device and suppressed workingwoman cliché that did not work in that film really don't work hear.Sadly, Ford is no Meryl Streep and his constipated news anchor with aheart of gold never really blossoms into anything tangible.Gripes aside there are some good bits in here. The weatherman, playedgamely by Matt Malloy, for example is comedy gold. Some of the othermorning show scenes illicit chuckles too. But it all happens in thetail end of the film when you've already been pummeled by bad melodramaand a frenetic performance by Rachel McAdams that makes Liza Minnelliseem subdued. If you want to see Harrison Ford in a great work placecomedy, rent Working Girl and witness the man at his most charming.Keaton fares better in 1987's Baby Boom doing the power suit 80's execwith comedic finesse. And James L Brooks' Broadcast News is one of thebest comedies about television ever. If however you want to see anexample of top notch talented wasted by a script and a director thatdoesn't know what the heck their doing, rent Morning Glory.

07 May 2012

Waste of Talent

This review is from: Morning Glory (Amazon Instant Video) Save your money, not worth the $4 I paid to stream. This movie lacks as a comedy and in my opinion it had no real heart. Harrison Ford just walks through his performance as the old news curmudgeon. Rachel McAdams is very cute, but has no chemistry between any of the co-stars. The movie never get going, at the half-way point I was ready to ready to fall asleep. I made a mistake and powered through to the end. The film remained a complete disappointment.

07 May 2012

I Wonder If This is What The Today Show Is Like?

With the sheer volume of movies being released to theaters every year and the average lifespan of a theatrical movie being 2-3 weeks, it's easy to miss out on some gems. Morning Glory is one of those. Great performances by the entire cast, but Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton really stand out. In fact, this is Ford's best movie in a long, long time. This was a very enjoyable 2 hours.

futuremoviewriter

06 May 2012

Whats the Story? (Is Morning a Glory?)

What's the story? That is what one of the few draw-in lines and a fewof the posters for the new movie Morning Glory have been saying andalthough the story is a fairly simple one, it succeeds thanks to thehigh entertainment value that it gives to the audience. The moment thatI had finished viewing the movie tonight, I was debating with myselfabout what kind of grade to give it. I was stuck between either an A-or a B+ and I ultimately decided on the latter because even though I amreluctant to say that it was not a great movie, I had a lot of fun andI think that many other people would too. Don't get me wrong, I amstill giving it three stars. I am just trying to say that it does notmake a three and a half or four star rating because the approximatelyfive to six hysterical moments that we get in the movie (one of theminvolving the use of a rain stick as a euphemism and the othersrevolving around the physical and manic humor that a supporting actorprovides in his scenes) are all limited in the amount of time that theytake up in the movie's almost two hour running time, but do help tocarry the rest of the film since we enjoy watching the actors interactwith each other and the use of these ingenious occurrences that achieveperfect executions thanks to the smart writing that went into thescreenplay. Rachel McAdams plays Becky Fuller; a smart, butoverachieving TV News producer who is fired from her from job as doingso allows them to bring in a seemingly more suitable replacement.Looking for work, she sends her resume every appropriate place possibleuntil she persuades the skeptical IBS studio employer Jerry Barnes(Jeff Goldblum) to hire her as the executive producer for the fourthplace morning talk show, DayBreak. After Becky fires a creepy andsexually-charged co-anchor, (Ty Burrell, of Modern Family) she beginsto search for a reasonable and more-fitting replacement. She settles ona man who is a news idol in her eyes, Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford). Heis a very serious, over-the-top, and overly dramatic man that to afull-blown degree, he avoids light and whimsical stories at all costs,it comes to the point that he and his more flexible, but still negativeand demanding co-anchor Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton) are at each other'sthroats. Becky does find time, but very little, for romance withanother studio worker named Adam Bennett (Patrick Wilson), but it isnot really that well-developed or hugely delved into as the moviefocuses more on the professional relationship between Rachel McAdamsand Harrison Ford, which is actually a more intelligent decision in myopinion. Morning Glory could definitely be seen as a movie that hasmultiple flaws, but it is purely a harmless entertainment flick thatwith the radical and unorthodox, but generally effective changes thatBecky makes to the show, turns into a riotous, hugely entertaining, andtenderly heartwarming comedy that invests us in both the show and thecharacters who work at it. As to whether or not Harrison Ford will getan Academy Award nomination (his first in twenty-five years) is unclearat this time to me. From my perspective, I think he should since I didlike his performance more than the Academy Award winning performance ofSandra Bullock in The Blind Side. He also has two great bring down thehouse scenes at the end of this movie that will both thrill viewers andleave them satisfied as well. Morning Glory is a don't miss delightthat should definitely not be passed up for any reason at all.

clh-1

04 May 2012

Cookie Cutter, but Cute

In that time between summer blockbusters and the full-on Oscar blitz istime for Hollywood to take a breather. Sometimes the audience takes abreather too. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Here we meetBecky Fuller, trying to make the jump from local to network news showproducer. She is put in charge of an ailing morning program, and whentold that it is on its last leg, she takes the novel and bizarre stepof forcing well-respected television journalist Mike Pomeroy into theco-host position via a quirk of his contract. and thus they are offtoward saving the show... A plot like this doesn't really have much inthe way of surprises. What really matters is how well the charactersare written and how well the actors play their respective parts. Whilenone of the cast is terrible, standing out are a low-key Jeff Goldblum,playing a cynical network executive. While an over stated, loudperformance would have sufficed, Goldblum plays it a pragmatic workingguy. He gets in a few good zingers early on though. The other standoutis Harrison Ford. While he hasn't had much success in the field, he isactually very good at comedy usually playing the straight man to whatis going on around him. Here he plays the gruffly lovable curmudgeonpretty well. A significant part of the the plot is his character'spersonal growth. On the whole, Morning Glory isn't going to sweep anyof the major awards, but it's a gentle way to pass two hours and get afew good laughs in the process.

04 May 2012

Morning Glory is not the Today Show

This review is from: Morning Glory (DVD) I purchased this DVD because I love Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams. I thought with that list of stars it would be funny and entertaining.It was an ok movie, and probably will watch it again, but if asked probably would not recommend purchasing it to someone. The movie just never seemed to get started, the items you thought would be funny were not, just disapointed.