Posted on 12/21/2005 8:37:47 AM PST by moviewatcher
Pot-smoking, gay adoption, and mothers gleefully discussing how their daughters lost their virginity. Ahh, just what the Christmas season is all about. What? Not in your family?
Then you must not work in the film industry. Because apparently there, like doorbells and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodle, these things add up to a heartwarming holiday.
The Family Stone is yet another case of movie marketing bait-and-switch. Playing on Christmas nostalgia, which most Americans share, the trailer promised a rollicking, good-natured comedy about family foibles and the frustrating moments that eventually become our favorite memories.
What the film delivers is a ham-fisted primer on blue-state values.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
later maybe pingout.
You're most welcome - Merry Christmas!
Rarely have I seen a review so far off the mark. The movie isn't your fakey fake Rockwell version of the American family for sure. However, except for the gay themes, the Stones were more like families I've known throughout the years than most sugarcoated Christmas pap. Luke Wilson's character hit home especially. I've known that guy in a couple dozen different incarnations.
I thought the trailers were pretty funny but some of these comments make me think it's a must-miss.
I'll be on the lookout for it. I agree that many films are so rich in content that some flaws do not subtract from an overall sense of value. But it's a shame when the eagerness to push a movie product onto the market so overlooks the authenticity of language, especially when, as you earlier noted, great care is taken with visuals, like costumes.
If you've never seen Tom Hulce in Amadeus, you might enjoy this very light-hearted (but ultimately tragic) life of Mozart. I think F. Murray Abraham in the role of Salieri garnered an Oscar, or at least a nomination.
LOL! HDTV has not been kind to many actresses.
I has to be a chick thing, because I don't think any man could stomach this movie. Wife drug me to see Pride and Prejudice and I spent the entire time secretly wishing that the theater would catch fire so I could be trampled to death beneath an exit sign.
I can assure that there are no shots of the normally stunningly hot Kiera Knightly worth recounting from this movie. She's much more alluring in a host of other films. She was even more comely in "Bend it like Beckam" which likewise sucked as a movie.
I don't find the Ringer incredibly offensive, although I won't see it. Lowbrow comedy never appealed to me. The movie that I find incredibly offensive is "Wolf Creek", because it's debuting not in the Christmas season, but on Christmas day. I have a major problem with a slasher flick (which I enjoy) being launched on Christmas day. I could let the season the go, but a Christmas Day launch? That's just a slap in the face.
I would also recommend seeing Keira in "Bend It Like Beckham", a marvelous and clean love comedy starring Parminder Nagra, an Indian woman who is one of the cast regulars on ER. It did, however, contain the obligatory plug for misunderstood and downtrodden homosexuality, but it was minor.
I've learned to take some things with a grain of salt on the internet. I don't believe half of the nonwatchers. My all time favorite internet posturer however goes to the guy who posted, "I don't even like apple pie, but we have it at every meal because we're a patriotic family." on some thread that I've long since forgotten.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think SJP is hot. Not that it should matter. I would expect adults to rise above petty insults over looks.
Then they'll be gratified to know that they made their point.
Think Mel Brooks.
I'd rather not.
Were you offended by 'The Producers'?
No, I was bored to tears.
You won't find your idealized conservative family in the movie, but I'll bet if you go see the movie, you'll come back to this thread and report that I'm right: You've known these characters your whole life. You'll be able to point right to people they remind you of.
That means you can scratch any movies that feature Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, (Heaven knows)Pauley Shore, Jim Carrey, and just about any other flavor-of-the-week Hollywood "comedian."
I'm with you. Toilet jokes and giggling freshman boys making farting noises in their armpits isn't my definition of "funny."
Jack Black has done some good stuff, and I liked Eddy Murphy in his Beverly Hills Cop days. As for Sandler, Ferrell, Rock, etc etc. No real use for them. However, I'd rank them all above Carey who I simply cannot stand. I'll conceed a slight understanding as to how he appeals to 7 year old boys.
That's what I was thinking when I saw the trailers. I remember seeing the Big Chill (one of my all time favorites) and having someone tell me, "But I don't know anyone like them."
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