Why so much hype?

Very best movie i ever watch

It is a performances centric movie

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

All the way through this one I kept expecting Doris Day to turn up on screen (as granny or some such). It sure did remind me of some of her 50s n' 60s shows. Good old fashioned fun, as predictable as snow in a Minnesota winter and, judging from the Big Box Office returns - just what some folk needed as relief from the misery and grunge of this tired old world (especially in movies). Renee Zellweger is always a joy to watch and the chemistry between her and Harry Connick Jr seemed evident throughout - in fact, everyone seemed to havin fun. OK, it's no great shakes but then, some things just don't need to be! If your lookin' for some ol time feel good, then this modern oldie could be just the tonic - why, it even looks well made for a change.

Your know where you're going with this film as soon Harry Connick's name appears on the cast list. It is an utterly predictable, formulaic little movies that plods along from one cliché to the next until it arrives at it's inevitable destination. High flying, city dwelling executive Zellweger is sent to a mid-America town to down size and modernize the local plant where Connick is the Union Rep. The town is populated by good hearted folk with eccentric accents who depend on the one factory for local prosperity. You'll never guess what happens next - indeed you don't really need to guess - just think of all the similar films you've watched. And yet it's a well made little film. The principles delivering the goods and are well supported by the rest of the cast. So I have to admit I did enjoy it even though I don't think I be watching it again any time soon.

At the time of its release, I had heard about and possibly seen a trailer for this film, so when I got the opportunity to see it I wanted to see whether or not I would agree with the low opinion rating given by the critics. Basically Lucy Hill (Renée Zellweger) is the high achieving high-powered company consultant who enjoys an upscale lifestyle in Miami, and she is sent to the almost middle of nowhere town of New Ulm, Minnesota. There it is her job to oversee the restructuring of a blue collar manufacturing plant, and one of her responsibilities is to lay off a few of the workers. Lucy takes an immediate irritation toward the woman she is staying with and who is the office secretary type, Blanche Gunderson (Men in Black's Siobhan Fallon Hogan), and slowly she works through the other changes that will be made in the plant. Being new in town and after all her slightly cold-hearted actions she is given a very icy reception by the locals, and she also has to put up with the freezing cod weather and icy roads that don't help her get places. Slowly though Lucy starts warming to the people of the town and their lifestyles, so much so that she is regretting more and more the actions she is taking for her work, especially as she is being accepted more and more. The big kick in the nuts is when she is told that the plant is going to be closed down, and she seems not to have the power to do anything about it, she is worried that the entire community will be out of work. In the end though, Lucy tastes Blanche's secret recipe for tapioca pudding, and she reignites a former yogurt production line which creates a lot of interest amongst buyers, the plant is saved, and Lucy gets a happy ending with her love interest Ted Mitchell (The Iron Giant's Harry Connick Jr.). Also starring Spider-Man's J.K. Simmons as Stu Kopenhafer, Mike O'Brien as Lars Ulstead, Frances Conroy as Trudy Van Uuden, Ferron Guerreiro as Bobbie Mitchell and Barbara James Smith as Joan. Even a sweet perky faced and lovable actress like Zellweger can't save this rather ridiculous story, she is in a pointless performance, well, the whole film is pointless, it did not make me laugh, it did not make me happy or sad with the love story, and almost none of engaged me, it is just a stupid and not worthwhile romantic comedy. Pretty poor!

Just as a Random Number Generator is put to use in statistics and cryptography, Hollywood seems to employ a Random Romantic-Comedy Generator to churn out fluff like New In Town. For this one, they set the generator to bland and pushed the "Minnesota people are funny" button to produce a shallow and erratic but marginally amusing film that is entirely supporting by the subjective charms of Renee Zelwegger. If you like her, you won't mind this. If Zelwegger grates on you, watching this movie will feel like being dragged at high speed over a gravel road.Lucy Hill is a corporate executive from Miami dispatched during winter to a plant in New Ulm, Minnesota to handle its retooling for a new product line and the elimination of half the workforce. She arrives to meet a colorful cast of small town characters, including a handsome and abrasive union leader (Harry Connick Jr.). In a development that won't surprise any living thing on Earth, including the bacteria living in my commode, Lucy falls in love with both the townspeople and the union rep and when her bosses announce they're shutting down the plant entirely, she has to find a way to salvage both the livelihood of the community and her budding relationship.Now, I like Zelwegger so I found New In Town to be Perfectly Acceptable Entertainment. Yes, it's predictable and obvious and unoriginal and stumbles from one rom-com cliché to another without any structure or direction. Lucy Hill is a cipher, her love interest is practically an absentee character and the only reason the two of them wind up together is because there's literally no one else in the story they could be with. But there's nothing jaw-droppingly stupid about any of the plot, none of the characters have to act like compete and total morons to keep the story going and there are persistent attempts at humor through the whole thing. As chick flicks go, this is not a pain to sit through.The Random Romantic-Comedy Generator did manage to spit out a couple of interesting concepts, but they go criminally underutilized. Early on it's established that the workforce at the plant has made a habit of running mangers out of town and there are moments when New In Town almost wanders into a more lively and unexpected story about the conflict between an ambitious executive who cares only about her career and the subversively devious employees who don't take kindly to outsiders telling them how to run "their" plant. There's also a second where it seems like the movie might use scrapbooking as a metaphor of the difference between small town permanence and the disposable world of on-the-go corporate existence. Neither of those opportunities are recognized or taken advantage of.If you hate rom-coms and/or Zelwegger with a passion, this motion picture is not for you. If you like either or both, New In Town will be an okay way to kill 97 minutes. You know which group you belong to.