Customer Reviews

America's Sweethearts

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

Many people have given this movie horrible reviews, but I really enjoyed it. The cast is what made this movie wonderful. Catherine Zeta-Jones played the prima dona over the top, and it really worked. Billy Crystal is as always delightful. Christopher Walken always seems to play some kind of dark character, but maybe that is because he is so good at it. I was surprised how much I liked Julia Roberts and John Cusack together. They had great chemistry, and were just so natural together.

I'm afraid I don't understand all the bad reviews this movie has gotten. America's Sweethearts is not your everday romance. Where John Cusack is trying to get over the infidility of his ex wife and coworker, while realizing that he has been harboring feelings for her sister. Who has loved him all her life, but was left in the shadow and wake of her star sister.

Its a movie of finding your true self, and that love if looked for can heal even the most despairing of hearts. In a comical way, having Billy Crystal as Cupid, the man who only wanted to make the couple famous, and ended up giving John Cusack the world.

This was a wonderful movie, romantic, sweet and comical. If you love Billy Crystal, John Cusack or Julia Roberts this will be sure to please.

With every romantic comedy that Julia Roberts comes out with, you
pretty much already know what it's going to be like and how it's going to end. Well, surprise ! surprise!, this one is no different than any of the others. We've seen this movie done a hundred million times before, and better, but it is still a decent, pleasant little film. Billy Crystal(who also wrote), stars as a publicist who tries to bring a seperated superstar Hollywood couple back together again for the premiere of their new movie. Catherine Zeta Jones and John Cusack are the bickering exes. Julia Roberts is Catherine's once overweight(Ha!) sister. Naturally, Roberts and Cusack begin eyeing each other and realize what was there in front of them this whole time. Are you shocked?. Uh, no. The movie isn't as over the top and screwball as it could've(and should've)been. There a number of good scenes and solid laughs. But, sadly, they don't come often enough. Crystal himself gets many of the best jokes. If you were the writer, wouldn't you write yourself some good doozies?. Seth(I'm Everywhere)Green also shows up as Crystal's assistant. The best part of the whole cast is Christopher Walken, who plays the new film's eccentric, oddball character. Chris Walken playing an eccentric oddball?. Get outta here!. He also has one of the film's best gags involving the unabomber's old wood shack. All in all, this is a nice, slickly produced film. It's been done before, but, if you like these kinds of movies, then it's pretty nice. Not bad, but not great. Julia Roberts would be wise to steer clear of romantic comedies for a while. Cusack is a stand out. I gave it three stars, but it's more like two and a half stars.

You would think that a movie with such a star studded cast would have some redeeming qualities but this one does not. The characters are flat and provide no reason for the audience to become emotionally attached. Zeta-Jones self centered starlet character is terrible and drab, John Cusacks depressed and lonely character is unbelievable and impossible to become attached to, Billy Crystal's press agent who tries to please everyone character is not funny nore engaging and Julia Robert's character seems to only be present because she has a big smile. The high point, if you can call it that is Hank Azaria's foreign lover character. His character is horribly stereotypical yet at least he does a bit of acting by talking in an accent (even if the accent is overdone). Even Christopher Walken, who is good in just about anything is lost in this movie. His small role of movie maker doesn't even make any sense - there is nothing at all in the movie that gives hints to the ending in which Walken's character plays a large role.

The main point of the movie - will Zeta-Jone's character and John Cusack's character get back together? - is completely lost because they simply have no amount of chemistry together on screen. Their acting is completely flat.

This movie is disappointing even when compared to all the other bad romantic comedies out there.

One last note - the running Doberman gag would maybe be funny and appropriate to third graders if it weren't for the fact that Crystal's character appears to enjoy being licked in the crotch by a dog. He even tells the dog where to lick. That's not funny - it's just disturbing.

Billy Crystal proves that he is at least as good a writer as he is an actor with Americc's sweethearts.

The casting is well done, although you can almost claim Zeta Jones is typecasting considering what happened with Michael Douglas only without the kids involved.

Crystal's character is the perfect cynical foil. You love to both love and hate this guy. Cusack is a lot of fun. Hank Azara as always is a hoot, I think he is the most underrated comic actor in the country. Alan Arkan shines in his small role as does Christopher Walken who is the funniest character in the whole movie, I would love to see the picture he made. It is a great plot twist. (Why does he always play nuts?)

Julia Roberts is ok but nothing to write home about. Am I the only one who thought Julia Roberts looks better with the phoney weight?

The writing makes this movie, the acting complements it.

Watch this movie, you will complement it too.

You'd think Hollywood would have no problem making a movie about Hollywood. Think again. True, there have been some great pictures in which Hollywood looks at itself. The oldest one I can think of is 1937's A Star is Born, which was remade as an even better movie in 1954. 1950's Sunset Boulevard is one of the greatest movies ever made, and a few years later came Singin' in the Rain, a classic musical. Yet, over the years, the industry has produced more bad movies about itself than good ones. America's Sweethearts falls somewhere in-between. Its beginning is quite promising, but it falters and goes downhill after that.

Lee [Billy Crystal] is a Hollywood press agent with big problems. His boss, Dave [Stanley Tucci], needs him to promote the newest move starring Gwen Harrison and Eddie Thomas [Catherine Zeta-Jones and John Cusack]. The pair used to be the hottest, most popular married couple in America, and the public flocked to see their movies. Now that they are on the verge of divorce and can't stand the sight of each other, they are boxoffice poison. Lee must figure out a way to convince the press that Gwen and Eddie are getting back together without letting the two stars know what he is up to. He enlists the aid of Gwen's sister, Kiki [Julia Roberts], who not only resents the way Gwen orders her around but is also secretly in love with Eddie. Then there is the problem of the movie itself. All the studio has seen of it is the opening credits. The director [Christopher Walken] doesn't want to show it until he's made some changes. These modifications will result in a movie quite unlike the one the studio paid 86 million dollars to make.

Reading the above synopsis makes me see how funny and insightful America's Sweethearts might have been. The plot leaves ample room for both farce and satire, but the writers didn't take advantage of the opportunity. Instead of being bright, brittle and insightful, the story is instead cute, cloying and tame. Most of the chances for Hollywood to laugh at itself are wasted. So is Julia Roberts. As much as I have finally come to respect her, I just don't think she's right in a plain-Jane role. Also, she has done the ugly duckling into a swan routine too many times before. The movie is primarily a vanity project for Billy Crystal, who also produced it, and for director Joe Roth, who used it to launch his new company, Revolution Studios. They probably were afraid to upset the Hollywood establishment, of which they are a part, too much.

If your mind wanders while watching a movie, it usually means it isn't grabbing you. There are several scenes in America's Sweethearts where a character says something and everyone in the room gasps. I started thinking about this. In my entire life, I have never known anyone ever to say anything that made all the listeners gasp, and I've known some pretty racy people. This is something that happens only in the movies. Then, I started to list in my head of other things you see only on celluloid. Before I knew it, the movie was over.

You know *America's Sweethearts* is a romantic FANTASY when it asks you to believe that John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones are the biggest stars in Hollywood with several gigantic blockbusters to their credit. Yeh yeh, I get it, the 2 actors are playing made-up people, but their mannerisms are real: Zeta-Jones is, let's face it, not much more than a really hot babe, and John Cusack, he of the endless camera-mugging, is getting more and more annoying with each passing romantic comedy. The movie is instantly bad, right from the start: we're shown scenes from the popular married actors' work which merely look like bad SNL sketches (not exactly *To Have and Have Not*, here). The plot is preposterous: Cusack and Z-J are now divorced, yet there remains one final collaboration that a "renowned" and eccentric Hollywood director (Christopher Walken) is trying to edit in a cabin somewhere (a swipe at Stanley Kubrick, I suppose). Meanwhile, Billy Crystal, playing a sleazy publicist (as opposed to the other kind of publicist?), is trying to get the two megastars back together so that the studio can make a killing off the mysterious unfinished movie. To do this, the publicist needs to get the stars to be civil to one another long enough to sit together for *E! Channel*-type "junkets" promoting the film. Oh by the way: Cusack is falling in love with Z-T's sister, who happens to be Julia Roberts. In one of the movie's presumed jokes, we're supposed to believe that Roberts is an ugly-duckling -- hey, in a flashback, Julia has fake "fat-padding" under her clothes, so that proves it, right? Of course, the supreme irony is that Julia Roberts does not look particularly ugly, or seem the least bit glamorous in comparison with Zeta-Jones . . . an example of the shallowness that *America Sweethearts* is presumably spoofing. (She is, after all, JULIA ROBERTS. The make-up is always spot-on, the "charm" is relentless.) Besides being a plot contrivance, Billy Crystal also gets to make lots of jokes involving the male anatomy. But that's no surprise -- after all, the director, Joe Roth, once directed *Revenge of the Nerds 2* a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.

Even Catherine Zeta-Jones' gorgeousness couldn't save this movie. Thank God I saw this on the plane & didn't waste money on a rental or theatre showing. Not only was the plotline thin and boring, but I couldn't stand how it was filmed - people's heads or bodies were constantly cut off. In short, excruciatingly bad.

If you want light fun, watch Legally Blonde!

If you can watch America's Sweethearts without getting too upset that the film dares to update and recycle Singing in the Rain by adding elements of Blake Edwards' S.O.B. and Carrie Fisher's and Mike Nichol's Postcards from the Edge, you'll find a enjoyable cast, some funny scenes and many missed opportunities that would have made a better film then the one you are watching. As in Singing in the Rain the plot of America's Sweethearts centers around a famous movie couple that splits up and for the sake of the studio and it's film gets them back together to at least act nice to each other for the benefit of the press and public. There's a somewhat mousey 'other' woman that blossoms and a key scene centers around the screening of the film.

Julia Roberts was reportedly paid 20 million dollars and she is good in a large supporting role. Jones really seems to enjoying herself, but unfortunately the script over-sells her spoiled actress character more than it has to.

The film is set up well, and the cast is willing and able to deliver what is necessary which consists of good comic timing and charismatic appeal. Unfortunately the film decides to spend too much time setting up it's premise and then goes after some rather crude and fairly obvious jokes. A vicious dog that absolutely insists on sniffing crotches is not something particularly original--but the film wants you to think it is. Several jokes about penis size culminate in a scene where the jokes become the focus of the film's biggest scene. Penis jokes aren't new, fresh, or that interesting even when they are as funny as they are here, and to make them the focus of the film's biggest scene, not only disappoints and makes the film impossible to think of as charming , but reeks of the worst kind of desperation. It's as if Howard Stern suddenly made an appearance as Buttman. Not what a romantic comedy or a satire on Hollywood needs. Even if you are amused you know the laughs were cheap and came at the expense of creating a fresher, better written scene. It's the kind of miscalculation that is all over this film. Some scenes work pretty well, others are funny but feel shoved awkwardly into the film and others waste some very capable talent. When Alan Arkin first briefly shows up as a Psychiatrist/self-help guru and then puts a nice spin on the character he is playing, it's fun. But he comes back for one more reprise that's over-done and ruins the joke completely by making sure everyone in the audience gets it - - as in poke you in the ribs and make sure you didn't miss it.... Get it... get it? Billy Crystal's affection for Catskill comic roots is over represented here. Billy we like you, and some of your jokes are funny--the first time.

Now if anyone on this planet can make Penis jokes funnier than Hank Azaria can, I am not aware of it. His supporting role as a Latino lover is laugh out loud funny. Never mind that he looks nothing like a Latino lover, his ridiculous accent and go for broke characterization are funny. Unfortunately, they are funny in the kind of outrageous, over-the top manner that is misused in the film. The film wants to be both a charming familiar romantic comedy at times and also an outrageous and sharp satire of Hollywood, spoiled stars and phony press junkets. Blake Edwards already tried to give us an outrageous farce of how phony Hollywood was with his too noisy and slapsticky S.O.B. and we also had Mike Nichol's deliver a better expose of bad Hollywood manners and star abuses in "Postcards from the Edge."

The pokes at spoiled stars, media whores and star fawners are not stunning inside revelations which haven't been explored before. Most people know how spoiled stars are and how phony the Hollywood media machine is. There's nothing daring in 'exposing' this stuff to the audience. What would have been daring is if they had concentrated more on the details that are less familiar to the audience but the film does not want to risk being too inside---not when they've bankrolled the film with expensive stars. What a glorious missed opportunity the press junket scenes were since just a few months ago some marketing folks at a major studio were exposed manufacturing phony critics and false quotes to sell movies with. Tsk tsk.

IMAGE AND SOUND

The film is presented in both a panned and scanned full screen presentation and an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen version. The print transfer is good but the film is not visually very exciting and some scenes are innocuously lit.

If you ever want a clear reason why widescreen versions of films are preferable to panned and scanned ones just take a look at the first few minutes of this film in the widescreen and then watch it in the panned and scan version. Characters are actually cropped out of shots and the whole mood created by a slo-mo shot is ruined in the pan and scan version.

Outside of three trailers there are 5 pretty entertaining deleted scenes from the film available with or without introductions and commentary from director Joe Roth. Most of these scenes would have just about guaranteed the film would have been slapped with an R rating.

FINAL WORD:

America's Sweethearts starts out with a great deal of promise and then catapults any charm and subtlety it captures with large steeping doses of crude humor and obvious satire. However because it's a PG-13 film (though probably should have been R) every element of where this film goes is compromised. And how vicious can a film about Hollywood really get when it's produced and made and stars Hollywood folks who want to keep working in the system anyway? Some of it is very funny, and the stars charisma though wasted is still enjoyable to watch. Lower your expectations, expect some crude humor and have fun with the film if you can. RATE THIS ONE 2 1/2 STARS.

Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller.

I'm one of those few people who actually outright adores this movie. Sure, it isn't as smart as it could have been (it leans toward mainstream comedy as opposed to intellectual satire) but it sure puts a giant smile on my face. I mean, with a cast that contains such delightful actors (Cusack, Zeta-Jones and Roberts are all accessible and easily likable actors who make up for limited range with an abundance of charisma) as well as a comedic legend (yes, Billy Crystal is a genius), how can you go wrong. You can't. In fact, `America's Sweethearts' just continues to draw me back for me (and OMG is this DVD a steal!). The plot is nicely thought out and elaborated on (I love that they add subplots that never take away from the central focus) and the chemistry between the entire cast, especially Roberts and Cusack, is phenomenal. It is sweet, charming and bitingly memorable; `America's Sweethearts' is kind of a homerun with me. I can't think of how it could have been better, mainly because there is always room for another rom/com if that said rom/com is done right. `America's Sweethearts' is done better than most; MUCH BETTER.