MoviePalaver: Karen's Movies, or Which Women To Watch

Occasionally friends will tell me they've let their Netflix memberships lapse because they can't think of enough movies to rent.  As someone with 115 movies in my queue, I can't quite relate, but I do have a suggestion, at least for fans of old movies.  My friend Karen, a/k/a The Queen of All Media, started a blog highlighting movies everyone should see.

Karen's current post, on the 1939 film "The Women," is quite timely, because a much-promoted remake opens tomorrow.  The original starred Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, and Paulette Godard. The new one, as you know if you've turned on a television in the last two weeks, stars half the women working in Hollywood today (Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Bette Midler, Candice Bergan, Carrie Fisher, Cloris Leachman . . .).

Karen says:  "If the reviews for the new one are good, you may want to wait before you rent this. If they are bad, however, as most remakes are, I strongly recommend renting [the original] instead."  Given that the one opening tomorrow currently has a 34 on metacritic, you might want to look for the original.  (It doesn't appear to be available on Netflix at the moment, but you can find it at blockbuster.com if that's your thing.) Then again, Roger Ebert gave the remake a good review, so your mileage may vary.

To read Karen's review of "The Women, and for more classic movie recommendations, visit Karen's Movies.

Comments

[Donnajean]

The women was just on Turner tonight! It's been years since I've seen it - still good. I can't believe that Meg Ryan is cast in the Norma Shearer role...