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Having seen "Matlock" as the last vestige of "corn-fed" must-see TV in its original form, I didn't have high hopes for the re-incarnation. If Hollywood executives ever want to come to my house for dinner, I'm serving leftovers and hash, because if it's one thing Hollywood likes to do, it's to repeat itself.

Here, they've 1) borrowed the "Matlock" name, 2) gender-flipped the titular character, 3) borrowed NYC locations from the "Law and Order" franchise, 4) created a generic courtroom, and 5) cast a seemingly-younger version of an L&O judge.

Need I continue?

Well, I'm going to.

I watched part of the "pilot" episode and decided I'd seen too much of this before. I wish you success, but I won't be watching.

I saw this last night courtesy of Netflix. We've seen the cranky old Irish women characters before (Maureen O'Hara as Rose Muldoon in "Only the Lonely"), and they're no less unpleasant. This movie had promise, but it can't decide whether it's a Lifetime Channel "Men are useless movie of the week" or a commentary on life-long friendships. As a result, it drags along from one scene to another without very good transitions, either in script or visual editing. The ending reminded me a little bit of that Roma Downey schlockfest "touched by an angel" and as a whole just left me wanting less. Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates are two fine actors but this movie just didn't work.

I was getting ready for work this morning, but almost didn't come in thanks to this movie being on TCM. This was a totally silly, frothy, fun movie to watch, and was reminiscent of "Bye Bye Birdie" (at least in the opening) and a thousand other movies that involve a small-town girl moving to the Big Apple to pursue her dreams of being a Broadway star.

Tony Martin was a revelation to me; I don't think I'd ever heard of him or heard his singing, but I thoroughly enjoyed his performances, solo and with "his girlfriends". Janet Leigh was a solid choice for the ingenue. Bob Crosby looked and sounded like a slightly more famous man with the same last name, and even did a song poking fun at that.

:LIke I said in the title, you'll never mistake this movie for "Citizen Kane", but it's a funny take on the girl-makes-good genre.