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The Worst Film Ever

hyped garbage

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Is this a remake of a similar title/plot? Sort of.Is this one better? Even though I'm a big fan of classic movies, I have to say (having seen both) that "The PREACHER'S Wife" IS a better movie than "The BISHOP'S Wife."Firstly, there's the music. Man! I wish they'd make a soundtrack CD of the whole movie's songs. You can find a FEW of them out there, but not all and not just altogether and on an audio CD.Obviously the late Whitney Houston's numbers are great, but there's also some group numbers, etc of other actors' music that I think is outstanding too.Secondly, Denzel Washington, Courtney B. Vance and Houston as well as Jenifer Lewis, Gregory Hines and Justin Pierre Edmund all just give A+++ performances in every scene. (Jennifer Lewis' character is just hilarious.)SPOILER ALERTAnd I love how the directors/writers dealt with the accidental attraction of Washington and Houston and yet took a moral of upholding Julia and Henry's marriage as his ultimate goal and avoided any sexual betrayal etc. Hence, it stays a good, uplifting, family Christmas movie.And it's a holiday favorite at our house. We watch it every year.

This is a weak remake of the Bishop's Wife, a wonderful film from the 40s with Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven creating the characters as they were really meant to be from the novel by Robert Nathan. There were some aspects of this movie that I liked. The children were uniformly good. The camera work and street scenes were well orchestrated. The singing was a joy. But the script has Denzel Washington basically lusting after Whitney Houston, which is not supposed to be what the movie is about. In one scene Dudley (Denzel) and Julia (Whitney Houston) are gazing into a store shop window. He is telling her in a tone that is obviously sexually oriented. . . that if she wears a certain negligee her husband would'nt want more of a present than that. But it is he that is practically drooling. C'mon, he is supposed to be an angel!? Everything that was sweet and wonderful about the original film is missing from this one. I have usually liked Penny Marshall movies in the past, but this one misses the boat.

'The Preacher's Wife' contains all of the ingredients that a good holiday film needs. The film is about a preacher who is struggling to find the romance with his wife, and he meets an angel who has come down to sort things out. The film also has an element of comedy to its touching story and the characters in it. The story is what makes this film a good one, and it is worth watching around the holiday season. It's generally a feel-good film, but it is not one that stands out completely with an original plot and stunning cinematography. It is simply a fun film, and it succeeds in that aspect. Just expect it to be another take on a romantic holiday film.

This remake of the Bishop's Wife had some good points, all in about the last third of the movie. Recalling that while I greatly enjoyed the original film, 1947 film "The Bishop's Wife", starring Carey Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young, when I happen to catch snatches of it on TV, it now seems slow paced. I think we have become accustomed to faster moving stories. But The Preachers Wife, if anything, is even more plodding than its original.Denzel is a terrific actor, but I'm guessing Penny Marshall (Laverne DeFazio in TV's "Laverne & Shirley" smash hit comedy series)directed him to play his part as someone who wanted to be romantically involved with the Wife, but couldn't. In the original, as II recall. Cary Grant is, of course charming, as only Cary Grant could be, but he remains focused on what he was sent down to Earth to do.The actor playing the Preacher, was the one part I thought better than the original! Which is quite a compliment when you consider that I was very fond of David Niven, both as an actor and as a wit. (As I recall, Mr. Niven was on stage during a televised Acadamy Awards show when a buck naked streaker ran across the stage. I don't recall exactly what he said, but the always dapper and unflappable David watched the streaker with an amused grin on his face and then made an ad lib remark that had everyone laughing.) Courtney B. Vance played the part of Reverend Henry Biggs so well that I became convinced that Denzel Washington was playing a double role, just wearing make-up to change his appearance. (Denzel has the acting talent to alter his persona, even without makeup. Except perhaps for the same face, I would never confuse his Malcome X, his Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, his "Creasy" in "Man on Fire", or his Dr. Jerome Davenport in "Antwone Fisher" with each other. Even without makeup or props you can tell then apart.) Maybe Mr. Vance's talent is recognized within the entertainment industry (his filmography suggests he's been kept pretty busy), but the awards for which he has been nominated are not ones I follow.