Customer Reviews

The Loser

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Although "Loser" is a solid effort and is generally enjoyable, it was certainly not what director Amy Heckerling needed at that point in her career. After the great success of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Clueless" she pretty much went in the director dumper with this one. Ironically the problem was not her directing but her writing. Solid production could not entirely compensate for this flawed screenplay because the flaws are in the characters themselves, they are simply not believable.

This is usually fatal because it is hard for viewers to care about characters with whom they cannot identify. Fortunately for writer Heckerling, director Heckerling cast the best two actors in "American Pie", Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari, as her leads. They have such unexpectedly good chemistry together that you will yourself to believe in them, even if Paul is moronically nice and Dora is moronically moronic (her failure to connect the bad relationship dots for almost the entire film is not consistent with a character who is portrayed as extremely perceptive and self-aware). Suvari looks and even sounds like Jennifer Jason Leigh which may have you flashing back to "Fast Times".

Excellent performances by Biggs, Suvari, and Greg Kinnear (as Professor Alcott) save the day or at least salvage the film. They get little assistance from anyone else in Heckerling's cast (although Dan Ackroyd is decent in a small and very straight role) as the supporting players are either neutral or less than zero. Worst of all are they guys who play Paul's three roommates. They start out as typically "Party Hard" college students but overnight morph into date rape scum and academic blackmailers. Heckerling provides nothing to explain this transformation, which is especially strange because she includes early scenes intended to show that one of the roommates is sincerely trying to help Paul with his adjustment to college in the big city.

Heckerling based her "Clueless" screenplay on Jane Austin's "Emma". Franz Kafka is her reference point for "Loser"; a strange choice given Kafka famous line "women are traps which lie in wait for men everywhere, in order to drag them down into the finite". The choice of the Dora Diamond name is an obvious homage to Kafka's girlfriend Dora Dymant. The screenplay for "Loser" is not a total loss, it has good individual lines like: "I love self-loathing complaint rock you can dance to".

Perhaps the best scene is Heckerling's homage to the Berkeley fountain scene in "The Graduate" as the dejected Paul wonders around the city while the soundtrack plays Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair". The rest of the soundtrack is also good.

Apparently Heckerling could not resist shooting herself in the foot at the very end as she included on-screen notes documenting the comeuppance received by each of the bad characters. Not only is this tired and unoriginal ("American Graffiti" and "Animal House" made use of this along with a high school film I judged last spring) but the notes themselves are not even mildly amusing.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

I rented this movie on a snowy day along with several other films and was pleasantly surprised. I was looking for something light and fun and that is exactly what I got.

Jason Biggs, who played the charming but goofy lead in American Pie, is Paul a guy who moves from the mid-west to New York City to go to College and is immeadiately overwhelmed by "city" life. His roomates are horrible and only add to his inability to fit in.

In class Paul meets Dora, Mena Suvari - who was also in American Pie as well as American Beauty. As Paul gets to know Dora he begins to see that life in the big city is not all bad. Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari and Greg Kinnear were all good in this movie - the plot was not as strong as most of Amy Heckerling's past high school type comedy's such as Fast Time or Clueless but this film was still cute.

Loser would make a cute date film or would be good when you are looking for something light.

The plot of the movie starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine, and the plot of the movie starring Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari are one and the same. Hapless loser (Lemmon, Biggs) gets picked on by the guys at work/roommates in college, while carrying a torch for pretty girl (Maclaine, Suvari) who's enmeshed in an affair with boss/college professor (Greg Kinnear in LOSER). When girl nearly overdoses, loser comes to rescue.

Not that it's a bad movie; there are worse things that could be remade. And Suvari's hot; too bad she'd married. But it's a shame more people in Hollywood can't be original.

Amy Heckerling's latest teen comedy, 'Loser', is an old-fashioned charmer where nice guys finish first, sweet girls end up making the right choices, and pushy 'users' get their just desserts! Perhaps nobility is passe in films today, but 'Loser' makes a great case for working class heroes who succeed by 'doing the right thing'.

Paul Tannek (Jason Biggs) is a farm boy who wins a scholarship to a college in New York City. Bright, awkward, and shy, and possessing the worst haircut since Adam Sandler's in 'Little Nicky', he accepts his family's celebration of his success with embarrassment, and a fear of failure, but his father (Dan Aykroyd, who is wonderful in his brief scenes) offers simple advice: "Listen to people, look them in the eye. Be a friend, and you'll succeed."

Cut to New York City (which has never looked more beautiful), and Paul's worst fears are coming true. His dress is ridiculed, his roommates are 'too cool' jerks who take advantage of him while dissing him, and his instructors, particularly Professor Alcott (Greg Kinnear, at his smarmiest!) snub him imperiously. Paul is lonely and frustrated, which makes a simple act of kindness by fellow student Dora Diamond (Mena Suvari, in her best performance, to date) take on special significance to him. Diamond is a kindred spirit, although she has been manipulated into believing Professor Alcott loves her, and has become his clandestine lover.

As both of their lives take downward turns (he gets thrown out of his dorm, she loses her waitress job), they develop a platonic friendship (he is far too much a gentleman to attempt to break up a relationship!). He becomes her 'guardian angel', protecting her, and the film becomes a guessing game of when she will finally realize they belong together!

'Loser' features a lot of very funny cameos, by Andy Dick, David Spade, Andrea Martin, Colleen Camp, many others, and, to Heckerling's credit, these 'guests' never detract from the positive message of the film.

This makes a great date movie (particularly if your date loves kittens!), and is a 'feel-good' flick you can enjoy again and again! I loved it, and I think you will, too!

I have been reading the reviews here, and I guess this movie was not received very well. I thought it was a cute, charming, comedy with romance thrown in. The film stars Jason Biggs as Paul, fresh from American Pie, and Mena Suvari as Dora, who was covered in rose petals in American Beauty. They are being portrayed as the "Losers" of the film, but after watching the roommates who tortured Paul for not being like them and for having a girl pay attention to him without help from a PILL slipped into her drink, we all find out who the real losers are.

Greg Kinnear plays the professor that Dora is having an affair with, just so she can have a residence. He doesn't end up being a very good guy in this film, which is what I was used to seeing him as, but he does a good job in his role.

While this isn't one of the best movies of the year, it had some charm to it and I recommend it for a romantic comedy rental..A good date movie.

There was just nothing outstanding about this movie. It was like every other teen movie out there, with Jason Biggs as the loveable loser, and Mena Suvari playing the vixen-like Dora, who has her own individual taste in clothes - and is sleeping with her college professor.

You feel sorry for the two main characters in this movie, including Jason's awful hair (is it a wig? is it extensions? is it about to fly away?), and Dora sleeping in an empty train station, because she missed the last bus home, or getting drugged, with what looks like suspiciously like a date-rape drug.

Most of the story is told in the trailer, and there's definitely not going to be any surprises, or twists at the end. The whole university/college stereotype is very OTT, with the drinking, drugs, and everything else, which probably goes on, just not as much as that.

The movie is also very nineties, with the 'Loser' sign (making your fingers into an L, and holding it against your forehead, as shown on cover) which just about everyone does at some point during the movie. The soundtrack is very typically nineties too, including the #1 hit from Wheatus (whatever happened to them?) "Teenage Dirtbag", being the main song. Some more of the more memorable songs include: "What's My Age Again" by Blink 182; "Blue" by Eiffel 65; "Bad Touch" by The Bloodhound Gang; "Pretty Fly For A White Guy" by Offspring; "Magna Cum Nada" by The Bloodhound Gang; "She's So High" by Tal Bachman (more recently done by Norway's Pop Idol winner, who I forget the name of, but he was damn ugly!); and "Scarborough Fair" by Simon & Garfunkel.

This is an average movie, written and directed by Amy Heckerling of Clueless fame. I just hope Clueless is better than this.

This movie is really great to go see on a date or to rent for a date, to stay in all night! I love the humor in this movie and the cast was well chosen! I recommend this to anyone who wants a good laugh!
***Check it out!!***

I will begin by saying that this movie by no means touches on a new plot. The 'geek' boy falls in love with the alternative girl, while she's already fallen for someone else, who is a complete jerk. Of course, they end up together in the end. However, most movies are bought for the newness, the originality, and are watched once or twice and forgotten on a dusty shelf. This movie captures attention through other avenues. The characters are charming, and everyone will relate to this movie, and say 'hey, that sounds like someone I know'. Ths soundtrack is fabulous, and the movie includes a segment of a live performance by Everclear, that, although short, is very impressive. My advice: Rent this. If you like it the first time you see it, then proceed to buy it, because you always will. If you're not keen on it, then don't bother.

A couple of years ago, Heckerling made critics stand up and take notice of teen movies once again with her fantastically witty, funny 'Clueless'. Her next movie, 'Loser', seemed to go by pretty much unnoticed, surprising really given the director's and actors' credentials. Basically this is a cute movie that is above average. It's about a smalltown guy named Paul (Jason Biggs) who goes to university and finds out that everything he feared about university was true; he doesn't have any friends, finds it difficult to cope with the work etc. Then he meets Dora (Mena Suvari), a grungy student that's carrying out an affair with one of her tutors (Greg Kinnear). And so it goes as Paul tries to get the unattainable girl.

First of all, there's much about this film to admire, and it's mostly cliché-free. First of all there are the actors: Jason Biggs plays basically the same guy as he did in 'American Pie' so well, the goofy but loveable geek. There's also Suvari, of 'American Beauty' fame, who is just fantastic in this role as an angst-ridden teen trying to make ends meet. The supporting cast are also impressive. It's also funny in several bits, and not in an obvious way - this is a movie whose characters almost seem to revel in their own oddities. We've got Dora funding her course through harvesting her eggs and Paul teaching her the finer points of catching food in your mouth.

However, the movie eventually goes for the easy option, straying into the territory of dreary teen movies like 'She's All That'. Dora is never really that unattainable, we're assured that her boyfriend is a bad person by his obvious affairs and at the end Paul has a sudden transformation - look what a haircut can do to a person, not only can it boost your confidence but it can also transform you into the leading-man within. Until the end though, it's a cute, witty little movie. Just miss off the last five minutes and you'll be fine.

I have to say this is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Not only is the script written well, but the actors are excellent.

Loser is all about a guy named Paul (Jason Biggs) who wins a scholarship to a fancy Manhattan school. He falls for the Dora (Mena Suvari), a girl from the Bronx, the only problem is she's having a secret relationship with her Lit teacher (Greg Kinnear).
Not only that, Paul is living in a dorm with 3 rich roomates who don't study, party 24/7, and use date rape on any girl they can.

This is an excellent movie and I recommend it to anyone who's in the mood for a good laugh.