Customer Reviews

Meet Bill

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Meet Bill is the story of Bill (played by Aaron Eckhart), a man who is quickly realizing that his wife, weight, job and life are all out of control. His wife is cheating, his stomach is growing, his job is pointless, and he wants more out of life than what he has.

During a random encounter, Bill meets high school student known only as The Kid (played by Logan Lerman), and it is here that the story takes off.

Meet Bill starts off with a bang. We are instantly pulled into the life of Bill, can sympathize with him, and want the best for him. The movie shows great potential for the first 45 minutes as we meet the other cast of characters in Bill's life. We can sympathize with Bill, and ultimately feel good about cheering him on.

But then, somewhere halfway through this film, it unravels. Scenes start to feel pointless. The story meanders, and feels like the writers knew where it would take off, but not how it should land. The pacing becomes a slow, dull crawl. And at the end of the movie, in the last five minutes,
Bill completely falls out of character and decides to shirk everything the movie has built up to, and become a wandering nomad.

The actors do an amazing job with what they are given to work with, and I cannot fault any of them. Each actor threads the film together with great depth. Unfortunately the script doesn't give them much to hold together.

And ultimately, I felt empty as the credits rolled.

In `Meet Bill' Aaron Eckhart once again expands his career repertoire with a role we're accustomed to seeing Steve Carell play. As partial as I am to both actors, it's refreshing to see him play the fumbling underdog, closer to Carell's performance in `Dan in Real Life'. Too bad this sitcom worthy movie has little else to commend it. There are original, quirky elements, but the screwball execution is spotty for laughs and disjointed in parts.

Bill is in a middle-aged rut. Dependent on his wife Jess (Elizabeth Banks), he works as head of human relations at his father-in-law's bank. Jess looks healthy. She wears workout apparel and continually tries to prod Bill to adhere to his doctor's diet, one that eschews his coveted donut fix. At work he is like a dog on a leash. Not thrilled to begin with working under his father-in-law, Bill hates it when he's proposed to join their mentor program. He meets "the kid" (Logan Lerman) he's supposed to mentor in the bathroom, where Bill helps him hide the marijuana he flushes down the toilet before his school liaison catches him. Next, not only does he have to mentor "the kid," he has to go duck hunting with his in-laws and their sponsored teens. Being an animal lover, he becomes an awful shot, but provides some of the best laughs of the movie.

Getting chubby, the hubby suspects Jess is having an affair. Planting a camera beneath a translucent hat, he catches her in adultery with a local news reporter, Chip Johnson (Timothy Olyphant). Things go from bad to worse as Bill goes after Chip and the media gets a hold of the infidelity caught on tape. With nowhere to live, Bill turns to his gay brother, Sargeant (Craig Bierko*), a sporting goods store owner, and his partner Paul (Reed Diamond) to stay. A fitness buff, Paul tries to turn Bill's life around.

Bill wants to stay in his marriage while getting out of the bank. Jess hates the surveillance and doesn't say it, but Bill's slob appearance is indicative of his care for her as well. Forming a friendship "the kid" warms up to Bill before he can reciprocate. His friend and love interest, Lucy (Jessica Alba) seems much more mature than he, but she is a great resource for Bill. Both of them take an interest in getting Bill and Jess back together.

Although I don't condone illegal drug use, I have to admit it's a clever twist to have the mentor corrupted by his young apprentice. Eckhart plays a stoner scene like a pro as he and "the kid" go rock climbing in his brother's sports' store, easily one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

For all the oddball factors, 'Meet Bill' won't ruin your evening, but it won't provide the most compelling comedy, either.

(If 'Meet Bill' and 'The Forty Year Old Virgin' are any indication, most women don't favor men's body hair. So much for the old days when a hairy chest seemed to be coveted.)

A J.P.'s Pan 2.5 *'s= Mediocre-Good/Decent

(*uncredited according to IMDb)

Aaron Eckhart has been one of my favorite actors for years, he continually flies under the mainstream radar but makes every movie he is in, believable.

The first time directors (Bernie/Melissa) tackled a familiar topic in the mid-life crisis film, but since they had AE to carry it, everything came across beautifully. AE plays our married man Bill, as he unhappily fills an undeserved in-law position at a bank. His wife is played by Liz Banks, who I love from Scrubs, that helps lead an amazing supporting cast, including Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood), Jessica Alba, and Logan Lerman (3:10 to Yuma).

The story centers on Bill going through the motions of discovering marital infidelity, becoming a mentor for a smarter than his age school kid, while coming to terms with finding himself through some unorthodox avenues. Jessica Alba finally found a role that she was obviously relaxed with. Her entire presence was believable and she didn't have to wear a swimsuit, a tight blue suit or act scared - to do it. She does not play the love-interest as advertised, she just fills a role of helping out a new friend. I hope she does more films like this. Tim Olyphant has proven himself repeatedly, and I think even these slightly corny roles don't diminish his ability to be the hated character, yet still fun to watch.

This film will not appeal to the teens or older crowds, but probably along the same customer lines as Thank You for Smoking, another great Eckhart film. Good for a low-key movie night for that guy that might be in that similar "mid-life" stage. The laugh out loud moments and open ending make for a believable self-discovery film.

On this DVD release - the deleted scenes were all they included. No other ANYTHING to speak of, except for lots of additional First Look Studio previews, was disappointed on that.

The screenplay is not God awful, just really bad, and not even a great cast can do much with it. A couple of laughs, though, and that's basically it. TV rerun quality but definitely not worth paying for to watch, sorry.

Not quite what I expected but I liked it. Good show for someone that can relate with the main character being stuck with a life they don't like. Bill and his "kid" take on a strange friendship through a mentoring program through the school but who is mentoring whom? Good story line and acting.

This movie is clearly missing a beat. It tries to move slow and real and then degenerates into high school level humor too often. (Funny how all the high school kids in the movie celebrate the weak points...) It's not a particularly good movie. It tries hard to have that Euro simple minimalist feel to it but American directors that try to do this are basically always missing a beat. It's a high school play at best. The fireworks gimmick is pretty inane. Yes, it moves along like an extended Saturday Night Live skit. The attempts at profound observations are well, silly and predictable. Okay, let's call it like it is: Another American waste of a movie. It says much about the movie that the best performance is by Jessica Alba. Don't pay to watch this movie.

Jim Harris
Author
A Bottle of Rain
Nowhere Near the Sea of Cortez

"We are all illegal immigrants once in awhile."
Bob Slick, Texas Border Guard

In the first minutes while watching the movie I thought: Why am I even watching it''? It looked so uninteresting and boring, and then it all changed. It got better and better with every minute. It's interesting how a boy changed the grown up man's life. It was fun and yet it describes most of people having such a miserable life, like Bill does. His wife is cheating, life and job , sucks, he is fat and unattractive always eats candies and so on. But there is the boy who without a reason helps him. They both starting to like each other even when they don't say anything, you can well see it. The teen kid teaches Bill how to have fun, change the life in a fun way, less caring about job or business or police, way. They get high and the kid teaches Bill something else. Something he didn't have in his life. I liked it and u'll laugh too.

When I first watched Meet Bill, I had my reservations about the film, because I had never heard of it through friends, family, advertising, etc.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the movie through, and have now seen it several times because I liked it so much.

Aaron Eckhart plays, basically, a very accurate depiction of a disgruntled male: his marriage is going down the tubes, he hates his job, has no idea how to have fun, and has no idea where he wants to be in life, yet knows he wants something more, something better. Throughout the movie, we learn about the tough situations in his life and how he deals with them (i.e. cheating wife, in-laws that only care about themselves), and feel badly for him, because his life just sucks.

Then, our main character undergoes a sort of personality transformation: he stands up for himself, finally, and acts out against the man that his wife is cheating with, gets himself involved in a program to assist high school students with banking and during this, meets an outgoing student that helps him come out of his shell and learn how to have fun and not take any trash from anybody. Along the way, Eckhart continuously does a great job of acting the role of a nice guy that realizes it is time he put himself first, for the first time in his life, and go out to get what makes him happy. Plenty of drama and chaos ensues, all of which is very realistic and does not ever feel overblown or too coincidental to actually happen to a real person.

The supporting cast includes Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Alba, both of whom perform well for the roles they were given. I have to say that this movie has quickly made its way into my Top 10, and this movie is definitely worth the money.

Its a funny movie, saw it first on HBO so I bought the dvd for $5 bucks. Good story very original would recommend. If you like "Thank you for smoking" another great movie by Aaron, this is the movie for you. I dunno about those other guys who voted 1 or 2 stars, maybe dumb and dumber would be a better comedy suited for them.

I received my DVD in just a few days, and it was in perfect condition.
The price was right too!!! Thank you!!!