Customer Reviews

Expired

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Starring: Samantha Morton,Jason Patric .
NOT your typical `love story',But perhaps that makes it more in line to our lives.
Jason Patric (Speed 2) absolutely steals this movie with an performance that is real and thought provoking as too "Alpha Male".
Samantha Morton is a good girl and worth more than what she has been given,And may finally coming into her skin.
This is a romance comedy about parking ticket officers and their prey,Unlawful car parkers.
The "Making Of " is amazing when you see what into this Sundance/Cannes favorite.

Contra other reviewers, this is not really a movie about an Alpha Alpha male. It is rather, a classic portrayal of a male with severe borderline personality disorder. The hostile view of life, the lack of any feelings of empathy fpr anyone including his lover and his son, his utterly defended stance toward the world, and his inner emptiness and fears of abandonment.

Ladies, this is what BPD looks like.. A very realistic portrayal.

Note especially the women these men attract. The rescuers, the helpers, the caretakers. If you see yourself here... Please learn from this and leave early.

Most BPD disorders actually express in women not men. You can see some of the women prototypes by watching Casino, Revolutionary Road, and other flicks.

Man or woman beware... These people are emotional vampires.. They will drain you dry.. They don't mean to.. But their childhood histories were tragic.. As was yours if you are drawn to them.

Beware.

This is one of those movies that should have been a cult classic with a dedicated following, but for whatever reason it never turned out that way. A shame, says I.

It's about a meter maid who apparently has no emotion whatsoever. Apparently her life (and her job) is so darn boring that she simply learned to go through her predictable daily routine feeling indifferent at every single turn. Indifferent towards people on the street, indifferent towards life itself.

Eventually she meets a guy who's inadvertently hilarious because he's actually a really mean, ignorant and (initially) selfishly close-minded person. Soon however, he really starts falling in love with the girl, and they then develop their own issues pertaining to the relationship.

Actually they both have that one attribute in common- being sheltered.

Samantha Morton nails her performance perfectly. She never gets upset, she never expresses concern during moments you most certainly *think* she will, and she never seems like an all-around normal person. In fact the best way to describe her character would be like this- the fact she has no personality whatsoever almost MAKES her have a personality. Make sense? Considering how abnormal and offbeat she is, yeah, it kinda does.

I think it's somewhat unfair Expired missed the opportunity to gain a fanbase. It really had the potential considering the storytelling has all the right ingredients going for it- a subtlety humorous and dramatized storyline, really interesting characters, and a twist on the whole romantic genre. I really liked it.

Just be warned there's some fairly sexually-related scenes that are most definitely strong and inappropriate for the youngsters. In fact that's another interesting thing about Expired- one minute it's a harmless romance, the next it's not suitable for kids. Keep this in mind.

Caught this on Time-Warner Cable late-night on 01/02/11. Managed to sit throught the whole thing and came to the following conclusion:

In this case, Love definitely (not) in the air. Jason Patric's character is an alpha-male to the nth degree! Even when he's romantically involved, he's insulting Samantha Morton's character about her weight. Talk about low blows. But, you learn early on, he HATES WOMEN. But, as a biological creature, he has his, uh....online pornographic outlet. Even when he tries to be nice, he just can't avoid being NASTY.

Samantha Morton's character is Patric's polar opposite. She simply wants to love and be loved, she, to the best of her abilites does what she can to please this man, with varying degrees of success and failure. Never mind that she has issues of her own!

What I took from this story is that sometimes, people meet and give relationships a go, when they should run the other way. You only end up more hurt, more withdrawn and more distrusting of people (and maybe society). You have to work at relationships.

But sometimes, you should just leave. It's for the best (for both of you).

I won't say but this DVD, but, I would recommend viewing it on cable if you get a chance!

I rate Expired: 4 stars (I credit the stars and supporting staff for trying to make the best out of a low-budget flick, a less than stellar script, etc. But, you know, I can actually imagine that there are people living this script as you read this. Sad...)

If you liked Jason Patric in Neil Labute's Friends and Neighbors and really really wish that character had his own movie, Expired will go along way to fulfilling your Jones. It's kind of hard to believe that Alpha Alpha Alpha would end up in this social pit but how else to see his fury in small ways. I would have pretended to be gay and given the target a makeover first because red lipstick is the bare minimum not bare faced, but that would have been too involved for a 90 minute movie that was never going to make any profit. Oh, well! Enjoy.

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"THIS IS SO SAD" is a line spoken by Samantah Morton after a failed attempt of love making. I couldn't help but think she was talking about the movie. Asylum, best known for its low budget, badly written, badly produced, and badly filmed horror movies have made an attempt at making a dark comedy. They went out and spent the bucks to get some name actors for a change, sadly they gave Teri Garr a nonspeaking role. The description on the back of the box "...as Claire must decide weather [sic] to engage or pull away." Sadly, they must have outsourced the creation of the insert to some country where English is not the first language. Jason Patric plays an unlikeable character who has a passion for giving out tickets, berating the people, belittling his date, and masturbating to on-line porn. He meets his opposite in the equally dysfunctional Samantha Morton, whose life is so pathetic, she falls in love with a guy everyone hates. The love-making scenes are equally pathetic as neither partner is able to achieve satisfaction. I have to wonder what kind of relationship writer-director Cecilia Miniucchi has been involved, in order to be able to write about two unlikeable characters in such a sad, border-line humorous situation (If you see Cecilia, give her a hug.). Illeana Douglas plays the neighbor of Claire and is our "voice of reason" during this movie until she suggests a pajama party. Most of the humor is recessed. For instance, Claire mentions that you can meet people on the Internet. Jay responds to her remark as if she is making fun of him. Jay takes offense because he masturbates to Internet porn (who does that?) unknown to Claire at the time, or Claire's inability to wear the proper undergarments for her fancy red dress. The scenes between Claire and Jay, at times, makes one feel uncomfortable. Well, maybe not at times, but all the time. Does LA really give out parking tickets at night and on Christmas? Or was that supposed to be a joke too? The movie contains bad language (Jay likes the f-bomb),sexual language, bad sex scenes, some minor Internet nudity flashes, and vanishing acting careers. Sadly, one of best films produced by Asylum.

Starring: Samantha Morton,Jason Patric .
NOT your typical `love story',But perhaps that makes it more in line to our lives.
Jason Patric (Speed 2) absolutely steals this movie with an performance that is real and thought provoking as too "Alpha Male".
Samantha Morton is a good girl and worth more than what she has been given,And may finally coming into her skin.
This is a romance comedy about parking ticket officers and their prey,Unlawful car parkers.
The "Making Of " is amazing when you see what into this Sundance/Cannes favorite.