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Uptown Girls [VHS]
Additional VHS Tape options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
Watch Instantly with | Rent | Buy |
Format | Closed-captioned, NTSC, Color |
Contributor | Will Toale, Austin Pendleton, Jesse Spencer, Marceline Hugot, Donald Faison, Russell Steinberg, Heather Locklear, Brittany Murphy, Marley Shelton, Julia Dahl, Fisher Stevens, Lisa Davidowitz, Pell James, Quddus, Dakota Fanning, Boaz Yakin, Mo Ogrodnik, Allison Jacobs See more |
Language | English |
Runtime | 1 hour and 32 minutes |
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Editorial Reviews
Brittany Murphy (don't Say a Word) and Dakota Fanning (I Am Sam) shine brighter than all the lights of Manhattan in this delightful New York fairy tale. Co-starring Marley Shelton (Never Been Kissed), Donald Faison ("Scrubs") and Heather Locklear ("Spin City"), Uptown Girls will make you laugh, cry and laugh again! Molly (Murphy) is a partying rock 'n' roll princess whose money just ran out. Ray (Fanning) is a fussy nine-year-old girl whose last nanny just ran out. Only Ray's way-too-busy mom (Locklear) could think that hiring Molly would be the perfect setup for both girls. But as this unlikely pair faces everything from control issues (Ray's, of course) to temper tantrums (Molly's, of course), they discover that sometimes your best friend can come from the place you least expect!
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Language : English
- Package Dimensions : 7.32 x 4.19 x 1.12 inches; 6.13 ounces
- Director : Boaz Yakin
- Run time : 1 hour and 32 minutes
- Release date : June 8, 2004
- Date First Available : December 6, 2006
- Actors : Brittany Murphy, Dakota Fanning, Heather Locklear, Jesse Spencer, Marley Shelton
- Studio : MGM (Video & DVD)
- Producers : Allison Jacobs, Boaz Yakin, Fisher Stevens
- ASIN : B0000VJG5E
- Writers : Allison Jacobs, Julia Dahl, Lisa Davidowitz, Mo Ogrodnik
- Customer Reviews:
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MOVIE: I am not going to go into a lot of detail on the plot of the movie - the movie is now 13 years old, and I would assume that most people interested in this release have seen the movie. This was the first movie I ever saw that had Dakota Fanning in it - I walked into the movie because I was a Brittnay Murphy fan, walked out a Dakota Fanning fan.
Brief plot recap - Dakota Fanning plays Ray. He father is dying and on life support in the family's home, mom is a record producer or music promoter or something (as many times as I have seen it, I don't think I have ever picked up on exactly what it is, I think she says in the movie, but its background information). Her job is important to the movie, but the title isn't. Anyways, mom is gone a lot, which means she needs a nanny. And to cope with everything going on around her, Ray has had to grow up fast, and take on the role of parent.
Molly is a daughter of a rock star whose parents died tragicly when she was young. Her parents had a trust fund setup to pretty much let her live "as a princess". Until one day, her manager steals all of her money and disappears. Molly now must work for the first time in her life and deal with the real world. With zero experience and a carefree attitude, she has trouble coping with regular jobs, and becomes Nanny to Ray. Now, Ray must teach Molly how to act like an adult, and Molly must teach Ray how to act like a kid and have fun.
Oh, and there is a side story about a boyfriend musician.
Dakota Fanning and Brittnay Murphy were perfect for their roles, as Britney has kind of a carefree attitude, and Dakota has always been a professional, allowing her to play roles well beyond her age.
This is a feel good movie, and a guilty pleasure of mine (and I am a guy).
VIDEO: This is the first time this movie has been released on Blu-Ray. Before now, you had to settle with HDTV broadcasts and VOD. Both seemed to use an old transfer that, while decent, had issues with black crush and macroblocking (there are a lot of nighttime and dark interior shots in this film). While I am not sure, this DOES appear to be a new transfer, at least in my eyes, and I am watching on a 115" screen. Colors are natural, skin tones are correct, black levels are good, night scenes are detailed, contrast levels are good. The movie has a good layer of film grain and it does not appear that DNR has been applied. I did not see any halos around anything or compression artifacts, which suggest that no edge enhancement was used. Picture is nice and sharp. The reason I am not giving it a 5 is I would have liked it to have been just a tad sharper, and the film grain can be a bit distracting - In fact, the grain seems to be a bit high for a film from this era, and am not convinced it is artistic intent, and am wondering if they scanned a second or third generation copy rather than the negatives. Still, everything looks great.
AUDIO: This comes with a DTS soundtrack (that is what is on the case - I will need to double check if its MA). The audio is good, and handles the soundtrack of the movie well, and I have no complaints. It should be pointed out that like most movies of this style, the movie does not have that aggressive of a sound field. The 3 for audio is because this is an average soundtrack for this movie. It does not appear to have any additional languages, at least none that can be accessed via a menu. I will have to sit down with it and see if any other audio tracks or subtitle tracks can be accessed via the remote buttons.
Special Features: Pretty bland - a music video, trailer, deleted scenes, and some bonus feature that all look like they were shot in SD. The quality on all of these was poor, so I really did not watch much of any of them.
Overall - Considering this is a catalogue, non-anniversary Blu-Ray release of a movie that has previously not been available, I am pretty impressed - the video quality is excellent, the sound is good, and there are some bonus features (although nothing to really be impressed about). Overall, it is a good release, and a great price at $14
MOVIE: I am not going to go into a lot of detail on the plot of the movie - the movie is now 13 years old, and I would assume that most people interested in this release have seen the movie. This was the first movie I ever saw that had Dakota Fanning in it - I walked into the movie because I was a Brittnay Murphy fan, walked out a Dakota Fanning fan.
Brief plot recap - Dakota Fanning plays Ray. He father is dying and on life support in the family's home, mom is a record producer or music promoter or something (as many times as I have seen it, I don't think I have ever picked up on exactly what it is, I think she says in the movie, but its background information). Her job is important to the movie, but the title isn't. Anyways, mom is gone a lot, which means she needs a nanny. And to cope with everything going on around her, Ray has had to grow up fast, and take on the role of parent.
Molly is a daughter of a rock star whose parents died tragicly when she was young. Her parents had a trust fund setup to pretty much let her live "as a princess". Until one day, her manager steals all of her money and disappears. Molly now must work for the first time in her life and deal with the real world. With zero experience and a carefree attitude, she has trouble coping with regular jobs, and becomes Nanny to Ray. Now, Ray must teach Molly how to act like an adult, and Molly must teach Ray how to act like a kid and have fun.
Oh, and there is a side story about a boyfriend musician.
Dakota Fanning and Brittnay Murphy were perfect for their roles, as Britney has kind of a carefree attitude, and Dakota has always been a professional, allowing her to play roles well beyond her age.
This is a feel good movie, and a guilty pleasure of mine (and I am a guy).
VIDEO: This is the first time this movie has been released on Blu-Ray. Before now, you had to settle with HDTV broadcasts and VOD. Both seemed to use an old transfer that, while decent, had issues with black crush and macroblocking (there are a lot of nighttime and dark interior shots in this film). While I am not sure, this DOES appear to be a new transfer, at least in my eyes, and I am watching on a 115" screen. Colors are natural, skin tones are correct, black levels are good, night scenes are detailed, contrast levels are good. The movie has a good layer of film grain and it does not appear that DNR has been applied. I did not see any halos around anything or compression artifacts, which suggest that no edge enhancement was used. Picture is nice and sharp. The reason I am not giving it a 5 is I would have liked it to have been just a tad sharper, and the film grain can be a bit distracting - In fact, the grain seems to be a bit high for a film from this era, and am not convinced it is artistic intent, and am wondering if they scanned a second or third generation copy rather than the negatives. Still, everything looks great.
AUDIO: This comes with a DTS soundtrack (that is what is on the case - I will need to double check if its MA). The audio is good, and handles the soundtrack of the movie well, and I have no complaints. It should be pointed out that like most movies of this style, the movie does not have that aggressive of a sound field. The 3 for audio is because this is an average soundtrack for this movie. It does not appear to have any additional languages, at least none that can be accessed via a menu. I will have to sit down with it and see if any other audio tracks or subtitle tracks can be accessed via the remote buttons.
Special Features: Pretty bland - a music video, trailer, deleted scenes, and some bonus feature that all look like they were shot in SD. The quality on all of these was poor, so I really did not watch much of any of them.
Overall - Considering this is a catalogue, non-anniversary Blu-Ray release of a movie that has previously not been available, I am pretty impressed - the video quality is excellent, the sound is good, and there are some bonus features (although nothing to really be impressed about). Overall, it is a good release, and a great price at $14
I would also just state straight away that this is not to be compared to the classic Material Girls. These are two completely different movies that are based off the same basic principle – rich girls lose their privilege and are forced to adapt and figure out a way to live. But while Hilary and Hailey Duff have each other to rely on, Brittany Murphy’s character (the troubled daughter of a rock star), has to rely purely on her own instincts and wit. What could possibly go wrong with this combination?
This movie was made when Brittany Murphy was in her highest. And I’m not talking about her drug usage. I think she’s an excellent fit for this role. She lives life to the ultimate gluttonous extreme before losing it all. Totally nowhere near her real life. She turns in such a respectable job during this film that I’m sad we are deprived of her future artwork. I much prefer her alive than dead.
As Miss Murphy’s character loses her family fortune, she is forced to get a real job as she is in severe debt and can’t pay her bills. She’s just like every other millennial! So as she is battling the normal stressors of trying to find her Mr. Right, she takes the job of a nanny for an 8-year-old girl played by Dakota Fanning.
Their relationship results in hijinks. They have the chemistry of a pair of real-life sisters. I mean, not like the Duffs, but it’s pretty good. I credit most of it to a young Fanning’s acting and charm. You can see why she ended up blossoming into a fine actress.
The mom of this 8-year-old is played by the ageless Heather Locklear. She is very hot. I can’t believe she hasn’t aged at all. That is all.
Most of the hijinks caused through this movie are largely based of Miss Murphy’s own actions. While protagonists in other movies are largely reactionary to their surroundings, most of the incidents that involve Miss Murphy are through her own fault. It’s essentially a one-man Three Stooges routine. Sounds like just about every day of my life!
It’s a wonderful contrast to Ms. Fanning’s character, who is a tightwad pain-in-the-butt child. You see, almost all children are much simpler to care for. You either instill discipline in them from an early age to make them compliant, or you bribe the hell out of them to just make the headaches go away. Given Miss Murphy’s current financial state and gross ineptitude to break down a complex situation, she is forced to go along for Fanning’s organized, orderly ride as Fanning is clearly the dominant one in their forced relationship. Kind of like me and my mom’s old Chihuahua.
There are many bumps along that ride.
May favorite line is an early one.
Murphy asks, “Kid, have you ever been to a shrink?”
Fanning replies, “Since I was three.”
That elicited a hearty laugh. DID YOU CHUCKLE AS MUCH AS I DID?
Later, Murphy takes Fanning to an amusement park. She almost immediately loses track of her. How about that gross negligence!?!? Oh boy, you can’t help but laugh at her irresponsibility. Thank goodness New York is such a safe city where nothing bad ever happens. Just like Chicago.
So Murphy basically has the maturity of a child in a 22-year-old’s body while Fanning is anal and uptight beyond her 8 years. But if you’ve read this much of the review, I guess I can’t really talk.
Throughout the movie, Murphy also has a strange connection to Egyptian Cotton sheets. Her theory is that a man simply cannot resist a 900 thread-count pair of sheets. That one will essentially become a freak in the sheets because of the sheets.
I can tell you from my experience, the smoothness in the sheets is the least I’ve considered.
But you have to give her props for trying. These references to Egyptian cotton sheets often seem forced, but it is a fair way to think about late 90s and early 2000s music. I mean, remember how Creed’s Higher was a hit. But shoot, maybe that would have been a good song for Murphy as well.
In watching this movie, I quickly came to a few realizations. This is not a movie about plot. This is not meant to tell a story. The story that is told has been one that has been recited the last couple hundred years. It’s like trying to find a different way to make an apple pie. That’s a bad idea.
But a movie need not be about a plot. It can be about relationships. And I did enjoy the dynamic between Murphy and Fanning. This is when Fanning was at her cutest and Murphy at her clumsiest. But even with that being said, there is a greater purpose of this film.
What, is that, you ask?
This film was about Egyptian Cotton sheets. It’s plain and simple There references throughout were obvious. The real winners from this movie were not the ones that produced it or Murphy, but rather JC Penny’s and Macy’s. I have learned more about bed sheets from this movie than I have in all my nearly 28 years on earth. I immediately felt the urge to go on amazon after this movie to upgrade my king sheets.
Maybe I will one day be as lucky as her because of them….
Top reviews from other countries
Reviewed in Canada on May 24, 2019
Brithanny Murphy and Dakota Fanning both shines in this film, and their on screen chemestry is just magical.
"Uptown girls" is a moving film on many emotions.
I think everyone who watch it melts, because it is so heartfelt and sweet. It make you belive in the best in people.
I have watched this movie many times, but it never gets old.
It is so sad that B. Murphy is no longer with us.
She was a wonderful actress and human being that shines whenever She is on the Big screen.
I reccomend "Uptown girls" to every B.Murphy and D.Fanning fan.
I also reccomend it to those who like Romantic comedys with a strong main Story that is not Romantic, but rather dramatic and sad.
But of course: "Uptown girls" has a happy ending.