Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
Royalty:
The Princess Diaries 2, The Princess Special Edition DVD, Alien vs. Predator
8-18-04 Knight at the Movies column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Director Garry Marshall has two mega hits on his resume, ironically, the super gay Bette Midler weepie Beaches
and the super straight Julia Roberts-Richard Gere sex comedy Pretty Woman. The creative balancing triumph of
the same man directing both these movies dissipates, however, when one looks over the rest of his dreary
catalog: everything from the low S&M flop comedy Exit to Eden to the dreadful parody Young Doctors In Love.
In between there has been the treacle of The Other Sister, a re-teaming with Roberts and Gere in the dud farce
Runaway Bride and the worst of the worst earlier this year, the execrable Raising Helen.
Marshall, it has become clear, is not a director who makes movies with much personality – they are serviceable
and formulaic and get the job done. The hits seem to be the ones that start off with the proper wattage of star
power molded into the traditional star vehicles. Snagging Julie Andrews for 2001’s Princess Diaries, therefore,
ensured the director of his first hit in the 11 years since Pretty Woman. And if Julie Andrews wasn’t born to
play a queen on screen then neither was Nathan Lane in The Birdcage.
The first Princess Diaries told the story of teenage klutz Mia (Anne Hathaway) who finds out she's royalty and is
transformed from gawky, frizzy-haired schlump into brunette swan by her grandmother-fairy godmother and
current queen of tiny Genovia, the regal but kindly Queen Clarisse (Andrews). Hathaway was discovered for the
film and signed by Marshall after doing a short audition tape. Marshall overstates it when he compares her to a
young Audrey Hepburn during a making of featurette on the just released Special Edition DVD of the movie but
he has shown good casting instincts by putting her in the role.
The special features on the DVD also include a batch of deleted scenes set up by Marshall, a glimpse of a healthy
looking producer Whitney Houston posing for photos with Andrews, and lots of other stuff. The extras are sure
to appeal to the movie’s core audience of young teenage girls and gay men of a certain proclivity. Here I offer
the anecdotal evidence of my 13 year-old niece and my partner, who both grabbed their copies and headed
straight for the DVD player where they sat entranced for hours. Later, my niece complained that there weren’t
more CD-Rom interactive games and my partner that there wasn’t a feature on the costume designer. There’s
the rub!
As for the sequel, Princes Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Marshall has wisely done his research and
added lots more screen time for Andrews (whose elegance and good humor seem effortless – she even gamely
tosses off a silly nod to Mary Poppins with aplomb). Marshall also spends less time on the klutz thing with
Hathaway – a decided plus. We are now in sunny picturesque Genovia (aka the Disney back lot), where the
citizens/tourists all speak perfect American accented English and are ready at a moment’s notice to line up for a
royal parade (not unlike at the Magic Kingdom). Mia has 30 days to wed before losing the throne. She must
choose between the impeccably bred but boring Andrew (Callum Blue) and the scheming, swarthy, helmet-
haired Sir Nicholas (Chris Pine) who makes her heart hot, and is a dead ringer for 1970s hunk Andrew Stevens
in The Fury.
There is also a slumber party in which Andrews says, “Queens rarely do karaoke” before she sort of raps/sings
along with Raven as a visiting princess, after which everybody takes a ride on a mattress sled. There is a
dressing room for the princess that Joan Crawford would envy – with closets and closets of shoes, dresses and
purses, an early scene where Mia and the rest of the royal clan look over her royal potentials (including real life
English Prince William and a fictional candidate disqualified because he’s gay). And there are lots of nice comic
visual bits and strangely enough, endless “I Love Lucy” in-jokes.
All in all, this is really the movie equivalent of a Love Boat cruise with Marshall an apt but benign Captain Stubing
earnestly doing his best to bring the ship into port. While it lasts – Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement – shot
in shades of deep purple, gold, yellow and pink – will once again appeal to its previous passengers. That it might
not find a lot of new ones could be a problem for future cruises of this ilk and prevent a Happily Ever After tag
that if nothing else, is Marshall’s stock in trade.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Alien vs. Predator was not made available for press screenings, never a good sign. As a fan of both sci-fi
franchises (and the game’s pretty cool, too), I’m hoping 20th has a surprise hit after the black hole that was
Chronicles of Riddick earlier this summer. By the time you read this, the all important opening weekend will
have come and gone and the tag line of the movie will – or will not – have come true for its audience: “Whoever
Wins…We Lose.”
The Princess Diaries 2, The Princess Special Edition DVD, Alien vs. Predator
8-18-04 Knight at the Movies column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Director Garry Marshall has two mega hits on his resume, ironically, the super gay Bette Midler weepie Beaches
and the super straight Julia Roberts-Richard Gere sex comedy Pretty Woman. The creative balancing triumph of
the same man directing both these movies dissipates, however, when one looks over the rest of his dreary
catalog: everything from the low S&M flop comedy Exit to Eden to the dreadful parody Young Doctors In Love.
In between there has been the treacle of The Other Sister, a re-teaming with Roberts and Gere in the dud farce
Runaway Bride and the worst of the worst earlier this year, the execrable Raising Helen.
Marshall, it has become clear, is not a director who makes movies with much personality – they are serviceable
and formulaic and get the job done. The hits seem to be the ones that start off with the proper wattage of star
power molded into the traditional star vehicles. Snagging Julie Andrews for 2001’s Princess Diaries, therefore,
ensured the director of his first hit in the 11 years since Pretty Woman. And if Julie Andrews wasn’t born to
play a queen on screen then neither was Nathan Lane in The Birdcage.
The first Princess Diaries told the story of teenage klutz Mia (Anne Hathaway) who finds out she's royalty and is
transformed from gawky, frizzy-haired schlump into brunette swan by her grandmother-fairy godmother and
current queen of tiny Genovia, the regal but kindly Queen Clarisse (Andrews). Hathaway was discovered for the
film and signed by Marshall after doing a short audition tape. Marshall overstates it when he compares her to a
young Audrey Hepburn during a making of featurette on the just released Special Edition DVD of the movie but
he has shown good casting instincts by putting her in the role.
The special features on the DVD also include a batch of deleted scenes set up by Marshall, a glimpse of a healthy
looking producer Whitney Houston posing for photos with Andrews, and lots of other stuff. The extras are sure
to appeal to the movie’s core audience of young teenage girls and gay men of a certain proclivity. Here I offer
the anecdotal evidence of my 13 year-old niece and my partner, who both grabbed their copies and headed
straight for the DVD player where they sat entranced for hours. Later, my niece complained that there weren’t
more CD-Rom interactive games and my partner that there wasn’t a feature on the costume designer. There’s
the rub!
As for the sequel, Princes Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Marshall has wisely done his research and
added lots more screen time for Andrews (whose elegance and good humor seem effortless – she even gamely
tosses off a silly nod to Mary Poppins with aplomb). Marshall also spends less time on the klutz thing with
Hathaway – a decided plus. We are now in sunny picturesque Genovia (aka the Disney back lot), where the
citizens/tourists all speak perfect American accented English and are ready at a moment’s notice to line up for a
royal parade (not unlike at the Magic Kingdom). Mia has 30 days to wed before losing the throne. She must
choose between the impeccably bred but boring Andrew (Callum Blue) and the scheming, swarthy, helmet-
haired Sir Nicholas (Chris Pine) who makes her heart hot, and is a dead ringer for 1970s hunk Andrew Stevens
in The Fury.
There is also a slumber party in which Andrews says, “Queens rarely do karaoke” before she sort of raps/sings
along with Raven as a visiting princess, after which everybody takes a ride on a mattress sled. There is a
dressing room for the princess that Joan Crawford would envy – with closets and closets of shoes, dresses and
purses, an early scene where Mia and the rest of the royal clan look over her royal potentials (including real life
English Prince William and a fictional candidate disqualified because he’s gay). And there are lots of nice comic
visual bits and strangely enough, endless “I Love Lucy” in-jokes.
All in all, this is really the movie equivalent of a Love Boat cruise with Marshall an apt but benign Captain Stubing
earnestly doing his best to bring the ship into port. While it lasts – Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement – shot
in shades of deep purple, gold, yellow and pink – will once again appeal to its previous passengers. That it might
not find a lot of new ones could be a problem for future cruises of this ilk and prevent a Happily Ever After tag
that if nothing else, is Marshall’s stock in trade.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Alien vs. Predator was not made available for press screenings, never a good sign. As a fan of both sci-fi
franchises (and the game’s pretty cool, too), I’m hoping 20th has a surprise hit after the black hole that was
Chronicles of Riddick earlier this summer. By the time you read this, the all important opening weekend will
have come and gone and the tag line of the movie will – or will not – have come true for its audience: “Whoever
Wins…We Lose.”
Give Julie Andrews that Throne Already, and your guess is as good as mine
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