Cyrano de Bergerac

Last night, PBS' Great Performances showed Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner's performance of Cyrano de Bergerac from the Broadway run in late 2007/early 2008. I thought Kline was magnificent as Cyrano. However, Garner overacted everything about Roxanne. I wanted to like her and perhaps the problem is that I went in expecting an amazing performance from her. She's lucky that she was paired with Kline. If it was a lesser actor, the show would have been toast.

Jdorama review: Hana Yori Dango Final

Title: Hana Yori Dango Final Release date: June 28, 2008 Genre: romantic comedy Cast: Inoue Mao, Matsumoto Jun, Oguri Shun, Matsuda Shota, Abe Tsuyoshi Plot: After Domyouji Tsukasa (Matsumoto) publicly announces his engagement to Tsukushi Makino (Inoue), his mother gives the couple a rare tiara called "The Smile of Venus." Unfortunately, it is stolen from the Tsukushi hotel room that night! Tsukasa and Makino set off on a worldwide trip to retrieve the tiara. With the help of F4, will they be able to save their impending marriage? What is good: The on-screen chemistry between Matsumoto and Inoue is amazing. You'd think they were a real couple! What is bad: There are a couple of things that aren't fully explained, though it doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the movie very much. Letter rating: A Overall: Much like the two television seasons before the movie, the Japanese version of Hana Yori Dango has been amazing. All of the actors are immensely talented and, while the plot is a little wacky, it fits the show. It was interesting to see the rich boys actually traveling around the world and acting like adults. (Well, for the most part anyway.) I would have liked to have a little more closure with one of the F4 members but I suppose that mysterious aura is what made him so likeable in the first place. Also, I would have liked to have the head "bad guy" explained a little more explicitly. Though, perhaps if you have an intimate understanding of Japanese relationships, it doesn't need to be said. (It still would have been nice if they did say it.) Overall, this was an amazing series and an awesome ending to it. I even found myself crying toward the end of the movie. I'm not ready for it to end!