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Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Fergus Salder Once again i ventured into the world of Mrs Madrigal's 'Family' and for the first time during my time in this brave new world, i felt burnt.FTOTC benefits from the return of Dukakis, Linney and Hopkins as Mrs Madrigal, Mary Ann Singleton and Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver. This time it is 1981 and all of the characters have grown and not all for the better, the descent of Mouse into a typical gay stereotype is a disturbing fact, and seeing this former hopeless romantic flit from one meaningless sexual encounter to another is a disturbing thing to see. However Hopkins manages to show how destructive this behaviour is to Mouse and how with the the support of friends manages to regain his romantic heart.Linney has the most work with Mary Ann, as she out of all the characters has changed the most. Now with aspirations to become a hard hitting journalist she has to show strength and guts that she would never have dreamt of before in order to obtain her dreams. As Linney is one of the best working actresses of the last 10 years she manages to do all this without breaking a sweat, she even manages to make her relationship with Brian believable, which given his history and Mary Ann's is something g very difficult to do.The ever reliable Dukakis plays Anna Madrigal with her trademark spectacular heart but feel's sidelined in all the adventure.However the thing that lets this particular instalment down is giving too much focus and screen time on DeDe Halcyon Day, who despite going on a horrendous journey with her children in south America remains to be infuriatingly unsympathetic and irritating.The story here is unfortunately over the top, however it is the same in the book, and we should all be grateful that Mona has moved to save us all from Nina Siemaszko (who i have seen being wonderful in many other things) bringing her drab and unforgiving performance from MTOTC back to plague us all.Unfotunatly it is obvious that Tales of the City has suffered the same fate as many other series and movie franchises and gotten weaker with each instalment, and is now a shadow of its former self. I should state that inferior as it is to the original it is still far better than most things currently on TV.

adamspector Many people said that this time around, it was much darker and downright dreary. Yes, it was darker, but the times were darker, too. Yes, AIDS was starting to rear its very ugly head (with an even uglier president freshly elected who practically promoted AIDS as something beneficial to the population at large...but I digress). But other things were happening, too.For instance, Mary Ann Singleton started to discover love in her own backyard. She's also found a hot story, that she holds (to good effect) onto, waiting to spring it upon the public, even if her GSR's (now called "Q" ratings) are miserable. Through a series of only-can- written-by-Armistead-Maupin twists and turns, she and her new-again friend DeDe Halcyon-Day go through a wrenching comedy of errors. That's not to say that Michael Mouse and Mrs. Madrigal don't have their own series of twists and turns to go through, which of course, only makes them grow even further as characters in the series, but this time around, they play second banana to Mary Ann.In the end, perhaps things turn out glib, but remember that this is merely a continuation in a long chain of stories. It's not meant to be the climax of the series. It is meant as entertainment, and that's precisely what it accomplishes: what can be more fun than a chase leading to the very borders of the Cold War, a kidnapping (not what you think!), and a gun- wielding born-again Christian blowing someone away! Altogether, a faithful rendition of the third installment of the Tales of the City saga.Let's hope Showtime (or HBO or someone in Canada...they've got such better programming!) makes the last three books into the well-depicted realities that Channel 4 and Showtime have already accomplished.

pamhoney I have previously seen both the Tales of the City and it's sequel Tales of the City 2.I did not expect to find a new or unique storyline, however, regardless of how far-fetched it may be, they came up with one, one that has twists and turns. I marvel at the entire series, including this part as to how the author has maintained an intertwined relationship between all of the characters, past and present.I realize that the author has not released any more stories related to these, but I would love to see another sequel, if only invented my Showtime.

tex-42 This third installment of "Tales" takes place four years after the original and continues following the story of Mary Ann Singleton (Linney) and the gang at 28 Barbary Lane into the Reagan era. The plot goes a little haywire with too much time spent on Jim Jones, Mary Ann trying to advance in her career, and other much sillier points. The series also suffers from too much focus on Garrick's DeDe Halcyon Day. The character, as she appears in the third movie, is not particularly sympathetic and her motivations are not well explained. Again, this series really is worth seeing because of Linney, she knows her character very well by now and does a great job. Campbell really only has about 15 minutes of screen time in this one and Dukakis is good, but her character is getting tiresome. Certainly watchable, but not up to the caliber of either of the first two installments.