Maid In Manhatten is a charmer of a romantic comedy, made successful by its excellent cast. In lesser hands, actor-wise, this could have been a dud, but it's got such a talented troupe populating it that it comes out a winner on all fronts. Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes play the two lucky lovers, and as soon as one sees those two names attached to a title, one knows that we're in for something nice. Throw in Bob Hoskins, Stanley Tucci and the late Natasha Richardson and you've got yourself a stable full of actors who could be saddled with the worst script written and still be compelling. Thankfully they are given a wonderful little script here, and all own it. Lopez plays a maid at a swanky NYC hotel, and Fiennes is the carefree politician who drops in for a campaign stay. The two hit it off in a rumpus of accidentally mistaken identity, blossoming love from both sides of the tracks and the kind of slight, laid back charm that makes these flicks what they are. Lopez is a fierce and feminine presence in any film and I've always thought she should have focused primarily on acting, she's terrific at it. Fiennes is.. well he's superb in anything and the chemistry between the two isn't a pairing you'd expect, but works pretty well. Stanley Tucci could play a tree and still steal every moment, and is pure magic as Fiennes's harried assistant. Bob Hoskins is usually a pissy tornado, but seems incredibly reserved here, as the hotel's head butler who has a lesson of nobility and humility to teach Lopez. Natasha Richardson is the ditzy British blonde and plays it in pure 1960's mode, delightful and a reminder of the pure anguish that is still felt upon losing her presence in film. The film has just enough fluff and romance, and just enough solidly grounded writing to hold you through til the end, whilst Lopez and Fiennes, an unlikely pair, keep it real.

Not terribly impressed with Whisper for reasons that follow. The trailer pretty much gives everything away. What you see is what you get, except that the film does have a few twists and turns. The child actor who, as we know from the trailer, is abducted, is almost nauseatingly conceited and OVER ACTS in his role. There are some interesting parts of the storyline which could have been better developed, not to mention a deeper character development wouldn't have hurt. There are times it seems the film drags on and then "BOO", a scary moment appears. I read some other reviews of this title and someone compared this film to The Ring and The Omen. The Ring? No, The Ring was very well done and Whisper is nothing like The Ring, which did have genuine creepy moments. As for The Omen, well, we know (again just by viewing the trailer) that there is something wrong with this boy but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is as good as The Omen. Similar behaviour, perhaps, but nowhere near as good. Finally, I did enjoy the kidnapping aspects and how that unfolded, which made the film more of a Thriller.This film is great for the average individual or group looking for a scary thrill but will not hold up to the standards of big Horror fans.

After being released from prison, Max and his fiancé Roxanne wish to have a fresh start of their lives running a small diner of their own.However, the bank refuses to loan them and without alternatives, Max accepts the invitation of his former partner Sydney and his associate Vince to participate in the kidnapping of the son of a wealthy woman in New England, under the command of a mysterious leader.The quartet drives with the boy to a camping area in Maine, closed in the cold winter, where they are individually disturbed by whispers that affects their behaviours until Max discloses the dark secret about David and his mother....The Omen, meets Orphan, meets any movie that features an evil child, although this rips off the first two Omen movies with two identical kills from the two movies (the hammer is reminiscent of the church spire, and the ice drowning is identical to Damian).There are dogs in it, and Micheal Rooker, who gets fed up of the whole thing half way through and has a heart attack.The acting isn't the best, and the kid is annoying, not evil, and becomes more unbearable as the film reaches it's unsurprising climax.The sets are good, and there is an eerie feeling to the film, but it's been done before, and doesn't offer anything new.

Its very surprising to see a top studio like Universal let a rookie writer and rookie director make a complete hash of a movie. This movie had so many plot holes I don't know where to begin. Most importantly though, we never find out what David was, an angel, a demon, a child with amazing powers, were the others just having visions etc. At least in a movie like the Omen, you knew what the child stood for. And like many other poorly written and contrived movies, the ending was very weak, the kid was made out to be invincible so he shouldn't have died and I don't think anybody got anything out of max giving away the money. The alternate ending was better but this movie was so poorly put together, nothing could really save it. In the making of on the DVD, a lot was made of the fact that Dean Cundey was the director of photography (when do they ever get top billing) and it transpired that he was helping the director do most of the shoots which goes back to my original point. At least the beautiful sarah wayne callies was worth looking at.