Product Details

• Actors: Winona Ryder, Ben Stiller
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: February 27, 2007
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001O3YV2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,075 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Reality Bites (10th Anniversary Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Ben Stiller's directorial debut was this sporadically successful twentysomething comedy that tries too hard to codify the generational experience of its young adult characters. Winona Ryder plays a still-unformed woman struggling with career and relationship issues, Janeane Garofalo portrays her best friend, and Ethan Hawke and Stiller play the two lovers pursuing her. The story is as also about generation-X confusion over how to get by in a hand-me-down world with not much to get excited about, a world filled with a pop culture currency of bad music and poetry slams. The film's chief strength is its appealing cast, which is bolstered by appearances from David Spade, Renee Zellweger, Kevin Pollak, Jeanne Triplehorn, and Stiller's mother, Anne Meara. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

REALITY BITES 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITIO - DVD Movie

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This reality feels just right..., August 29, 2008

By 

Andrew Ellington (I'm kind of everywhere) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Reality Bites (10th Anniversary Edition) (DVD)

I think that `Reality Bites' has been unfairly labeled as thin and hollow. I actually feel as though the film tackles its issues with grace and delicacy, handling the subject in a way that feels complete when the credits begin to roll. The film was never meant to be a weighty message type film but more a relaxed look at real concerns of the youths of the 90's (or `Generation X'). For what it sets out to do, I think `Reality Bites' works very well. When you couple the finely crafted script with the exceptional cast and Ben Stiller's surprisingly attune direction you have a very entertaining and satisfying cinematic experience.

The film follows a group of friends after they graduate from college and struggle to decide what to do with their lives. Their lives in general are being documented by Lelaina, an aspiring filmmaker. She passes around her video camera asking her friends intimate questions and capturing their every moment on film in order to document the struggles of the average young adult. Her friends include the promiscuous Vickie (Garofalo in a sublime supporting performance), the slacker Troy and the closeted Sammy. Together they make for an interesting group, and when you add in Michael Grates, a video executive who takes a liking to Lelaina after a fender-bender causes them to meet.

The script allows the cast to really sink into the issues their breed of young adult faces in a world that is not ready to accept them despite the fact that they are finely crafted. They are over-educated and under-appreciated and cast into a world that doesn't `get' them. Each actor really grabs hold of their character and delivers a strong and passionate performance. Janeane Garofalo is wonderful as Vickie, really getting the sense of her characters fears and ambitions. Steve Zahn is good as Sammy, but he does take a backseat to the rest of the cast. Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller are both superbly cast as the two opposite ends of Lelaina's love life. Hawke creates a very believable mess inside of Troy, and Stiller finds new depths of sincerity in order to make Michael a likable and nearly lovable man. The real star is Winona Ryder though, who just illuminates each scene as Lelaina. She had such a wonderful year (with this and her Oscar nominated turn in `Little Women') that it is a shame to see that her star has faded to date.

In the end I must say that I was very impressed with `Reality Bites', and am pleasantly surprised to say that it is one of the hidden (or maybe more or less misunderstood) gems of the year that was 1994. Sure, the year in general was not overly impressive (aside from a few amazing films it was rather dull), but `Reality Bites' is one of the highlights of the year, and is definitely better than the film that ultimately won Best Picture (don't hate me because I'm right).

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic!, November 24, 2007

By 

Emcee Hamner (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reality Bites (10th Anniversary Edition) (DVD)

This movie changed my life. How? The books that the character 'Troy' (Ethan Hawke) either reads or references in the movie. Sure, it's a great movie but what meant the most for me was the director's or writer's (or whoever it was) choice to use or reference the following books: Martin Heidegger's "Being and Time", Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and John Steinbeck's "The Winter of Our Discontent". Read those books and you will be forever changed!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Reality" does not "Bite", July 23, 2007

By 

JC Good Time (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reality Bites (10th Anniversary Edition) (DVD)

I LOVE this movie. Its definitely one of my favorite go-to movies, although I don't think it was/is a very popular one. Maybe I like it because I'm a girl, (my husband doesn't really like it, but loves Ben Stiller so I made him watch it) but I think both sexes would be entertained by it. A perfect, early 90's-era flick about the lives of young 20-somethings. I think it has a really good cast of characters and is very entertaining!