Customer Reviews

Say It Isn't So

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I guess I'm admitting to a guilty pleasure, but I liked this quirky little romance. It was a veritable roller-coaster ride of plot twists to delight any connosieur of zany ribald irreverent comedy. And the romantic mix is a plus. To say much more would give crucial twists away, so I won't. All I'll add, is isn't Heather Graham a marvel? She makes me wonder if she was cryogenically frozen for a decade or more. Until recently I'd known of her only from LICENSE TO DRIVE back in the late eighties or so. She was or looked like a teenager then. Nowadays she reappears in this and AUSTIN POWERS THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME, still looking like a teenager and never loosing a beat with her acting ability and charm. As for her looks, I've heard of Oil of Olay, but this is ridiculous. Where has she been all this time? I hope she keeps up her good work and I see her in more movies soon.

My gosh, what is wrong with the people giving this movie 1 star! It is a funny movie. The movie is about incest, but it is funny. It's weird, but the plot is kind of like marrying his sister.

Anyways, the movie is funny. That dude from American Pie is in it, and he gets into trouble. The cow, the plane, and even the entire movie had me laughing hysterically.

The movie is great. It's good comedy, I don't know why others say differnetly.

Gilly, a dog-catcher, meets Jo, a ditzy hairdresser, the girl of his dreams. Everything seems to be going right until we find out that the lovebirds share the same parents. (!)

There are some great actors here and some really funny scenes (kudos to Orlando Jones), but too much gross slapstick and incest jokes for this audience member. If seeing Heather Graham cut Chris Klein's ear off and stab him with scissors doesn't bother you, then maybe seeing Chris Klein with his arm stuck inside a cow's rear end will. All in all, it was too gross to be good.

Easy to watch. Chris Klein and Orlando Jones are excellent, Heather Graham OK, Sally Field annoying.

The good: some really funny moments and clever puns.
The bad: weak plot, and a bit slow.

Say It Isn't So is one of my favourite comedy's and makes me more interested in this genre I often overlook (I enjoyed it more than EDTV). Chris Klein bares a remarkable resemblance to Keanua Reeves. He also offers an mature and highly intelligent commenatry on the DVD (especially considering his young tender age of 22), even outshining the director. I expect huge things for Klein - he could even back up Reeves in the Matrix!
What appealed to me about this movie is how such a likeable character can have so many things go wrong against the film's lead charactefr in Klien. Of note and warning , it does offer a contriversial and taboo subect with incest so it's bound to shock many people. But deep down this is a well crafted, highly spirited film with a intelligent insight voice over at the start, done by who else? Klein the man! Orlando Jones is amazing in this movie - the first time I have seen him. He provides a versatile, varied and welcome comic relief. What puzzled me about this movie was why the millionare would pick such an ordinary girl in Heather Graham to marry, I mean she doesen't come from a rich family or anything, more dysfunctional if you ask me, but aren't we all to some extent? So that part of the film wasn't clear or developed, but who cares!? This is a movie I wouldn't mind buying 2 copies of to give as a gift. Plus the subtitles were right on track in the DVD. The only complaints I have about the film is how the Australian Region 4 version is missing the Comedy Central feature. That again shows how lucky you US DVD collectors are - you get everything. One other minor gripe. The film does get a bit silly during the middle so it ain't perfect, but more than worth your money, never the less. There was a time I was about to turn it off at the beginning in how Graham could hold a job as a totally incompetent hair dresser, but stick with it and you will be rewarded enough to guarantee the film to your friends and family. A true romance film that even Klein describes as being Romeo And Juliet in the DVD commentary.

It is a great sentimental story, with a great plot and numerous events and surprises, filled with lots of good ideas, great dialogues, beautiful pictures, superb houses, great music from the Corrs etc. The movie does not skirt the Tourette Syndrome, and gives an excellent, although partial, description of it. Also the movie gives a hint about how various opposites can alter the meaning of the same concept, cf. the scene with the plane pulling a streamer saying "I am [not] yout brother, marry me!". Altogether it is an extremely entertaining movie.

It's not every mindless Hollywood gross-out comedy that is inspired by Luis Bunuel, the Spanish Surrealist and one of the giants of world cinema. 'Say It Isn't So' - the heartwarming story of a young dog-catcher who finally finds the right woman, only for her to be his sister - contains at least two direct allusions to Bunuel's work - the upending of a disabled person ('L'Age D'Or'); and the use of female body hair as a male beard ('Un Chien Andalou') - but the film is imbued with his anarchic spirit, his satirical targets, his motifs and his procedures. Like 'L'Age D'Or' or 'That Obscure Object Of Desire', 'Say' is a tale of amour fou and frustrated love, in which a 'nice' or 'respectable' man, humiliated and degraded through his obsession with an unattainable woman, becomes crazed and violent - the scene where the former animal-rights sentimentalist starts abusing a cow is truly shocking. As in many Bunuel films, the uncontainable sexual energy derailing the characters is displaced onto the euphemistic imagery - most notably, images of castration abound (bad hair-cuts, ears being lopped off etc.), that suggest the infantaile sexuality or masculine crisis that afflicts the hero, whose downfall is orchestrated by his false mother. This undermining of masculinity is seen in the various violences done the male body throughout the film. Genre is invoked only to be brutally undercut - the road movie, the Western, but especially the romantic comedy, which is nauseatingly indulged in the first quarter hour only to be smashed by the shock revelation. As in 'Viridiana' and 'Los Olvidados', the 'normal', heterosexual narrative, with its attractive stars and conventional linearity, is mocked by the profusion of 'beggar'-type grotesques - in this film, they are the norm, the pretty people are the freaks and perverts. Teeming animal imagery bleakly undemines the human pretensions towards the Ideal and Progress, both hobbled by instinct. All this allows the filmmakers to indulge in hostile, anti-bourgeois sentiments, attacking marriage, the family (Paul Hammond suggests the affair in 'L'Age D'Or' is incestuous; see also the acronym of this movie), bourgeois greed and hypocrisy, and the complicit Law are all violently attacked. If the paralell sounds far-fetched, we must remember that Bunuel denigrated the European art film, and celebrated popular Hollywood modes such as slapstick comedy and melodrama.

On the other hand, we could see 'Say' as a crass attempt to ape producers the Farrelly Bros., retreading their most famous set-pieces, characters and plot developments (sticky stuff in hair; problems with cows; decent hero put through comic horrors in pursuit of svelte girl; the gathering of a community of the disabled). But that would be cynical.

...

I'm surprised to see the various reviews for this movie. Everyone must have a different sense of humour. I'm neither a racist nor a sexist but I like like comedy that's on the edge. That's why I can count on the Farelly Brothers to deliver something that'll make me roll on the floor each time. So far nothing tops the quality of "There's something about Mary," but there are alot of us out there craving for this type of humour so it's all welcome. If you like wacky, out of this world storylines, weird and raunchy characters, and enjoy a good laugh you'll like this. I gave it a four star because "...Mary" deserves the five star.

This film was made by the Farrely brother (Something about Mary, Kingpin, Shallow Hal ect.) So if you liked any of these features you will enjoy this one. There are some crude scenes, some flimsy acting and a cheesey plot. The right recipe for humor! I recommend this to comedy fans but not to 'Roger Moore' fans. =P

This film would get a bad review if you only focuses on it's gags; which though some are funny, overall it leaves a bad aftertaste, hint: the cow should definitely be left out of the movie. On the otherhand, this is a great film if you review it as a romantic comedy; it is a great film in this genre.

This movie is often typecasted as a gross-out comedy, which it isn't really, though the comedy is gross, the gags are to lighten up the atmosphere of the tragedy and should not be taken as the primary topic of the film; the comedy is the side dish, the love tragedy is the main course. Comparing the film to gross-out comedys is like comparing the Hannibal movies to the Slaughter House films.
Another misconception is that this film is about incest, well, it's not, it just isn't; anyone who says otherwise didn't watch the movie.
If I have to describe/categorize the movie, it would be as a sweet love story; it isn't about the comedic gags at all.

Though the acting isn't superb, it is enough to make you believe the characters are really in love with each other<-- which is in and of itself a rare accomplishment, this alone makes the film worth watching.
What I like most about the film is its atmosphere, a light quaint one that has romance in the air. Anyways, the movie is very Sweet, with just the right amount of sadness sprinkled; the comedy is a bit much, but otherwise, it is just so SWEET.