Customer Reviews

Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! (Widescreen Edition)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This romantic comedy may be predictable, but it's also utterly charming, cleverly written, and wonderfully acted. All the young actors in the cast are terrific, and helped by the good script, are always believable; there are no lame lapses of dialogue that come off as insincere.
Kate Bosworth (seen recently as Sandra Dee in "Beyond the Sea"), is beautiful and sweet as Rosalee, a cashier at the Piggly Wiggly supermarket, who wins a date with movie star Tad Hamilton; Tad's hilarious management team (Nathan Lane as Richard Levy the Driven, and Sean Hayes as Richard Levy the Shameless), in order to rehabilitate their client's shoddy image invent a "charity date" scheme, never thinking that Tad will actually fall for the girl, which he does, creating a love triangle with Piggly Wiggly's store manager, who is madly but secretly in love with Rosalee.

Topher Grace shines as Pete the supermarket manager, as he tries to compete with the smile and abs of movie hunk Tad (perfectly played by Josh Duhamel). His comedic timing is marvelous, and he has a "lovability factor" that reminds me of John Cusack's Lloyd Dobler in that other romantic gem, "Say Anything".
Also good in the cast is the very funny Ginnifer Goodwin as Rosalee's best friend, and Kathryn Hahn as Angelica the Bartender.

The above average script was written by Victor Levin, Robert Luketic did the well paced direction, and it has a pleasant (meaning nothing overtly annoyed me) contemporary soundtrack with songs like Liz Phair's "Why Can't I ?" and John Mayer's "Back to You". There are scenes that have laugh-out-loud humor, and a lovely sappy ending that will bring tears to the eyes of those with sentimental hearts.
Total running time is 95 minutes.

That's what Kate Bosworth is made of. Though I rarely go for flicks like this, every once in awhile one of them comes along and pulls at that little lovestring in my cold, cold heart. Kate Bosworth was born to play Frasier's Bottom, WV native Rosalee Futch. She has that all-American, good girl look. Topher Grace was perfect in the role of her idiot/best friend/secret love interest Pete. Josh Duhamel plays teenage girl heart-throb Tad Hamilton with flair. The rest of the cast, especially Gary Cole, who comes very close to Eugene Levy-esque father-figure status, is superb. Sean Hayes and Nathan Lane play Hamilton's agent and manager, Richard Levy. Yeah, that's right, they have the same name but play separate characters. Kathryn Hahn turns in a great performance as the local wild bartender with the hots for Pete.

The story is typical of puppy love flicks. The girl is in love with an untouchable man who, by amazing circumstances, falls into her world and quickly falls in love with her. Of course, there's an average joe who has loved her forever but can't seem to let her know. You probably know the rest from here.

In short, this flick is a standard little love story that is sure to find its way onto the DVD player of every teenage girl sleepover party. Its got a hunk, a loveable nobody, and a non-threatening lead actress who is easy to like. It's rather standard, but it is worthy of a couple of viewings.

Though I wouldn't recommend it as a definite buy, if you like these kind of sappy love stories you might want to rent it. Probably more deserving of three-and-a-half stars than four, but still pretty good.

Rosalee, a grocery clerk in West Virginia, enters an Internet contest and wins a date with handsome movie star, Tad Hamilton. Tad falls hard for Rosalee and shows up in West Virginia in pursuit of her. This doesn't sit well with her friend, Pete, who's been secretly in love with Rosalee for years. When Tad wins a part in a new movie and wants Rosalee to be with him during filming, Pete needs to reveal his feelings or lose her forever.

This is a good, but at times weak, movie. The romance is the weak part, there's no real chemistry between Rosalee and Tad on their date, so it's hard to believe he'd follow her to West Virginia. And it's also hard to believe that Pete hasn't acted on his feelings for Rosalee in all the years he's known her. The comedy parts of the movie work much better, with some of the funniest scenes taking place at a farm Tad buys.

The actors are really what make this film work. Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace, and Josh Duhamel shine in the lead roles, especially Duhamel, who has the perfect good looks to play a movie star, which he does to perfection. The supporting actors are equally good, including Ginnifer Goodwin, Gary Cole, Nathan Lane, and Sean Hayes (in two roles). Kathryn Hahn is especially good as the bartender with a not so secret crush on Pete.

This is a good movie to watch when you're in the mood for a nice, sweet, light, romantic comedy.

This is one of the movies me and my friend turn to when we want a movie that gives you a bubbly warm feeling inside. In the movie, Rosalee (bosworth) is totally in love with big-screen movie star tad Hamilton. tad has a bit of,well,a bad image, and as a hope to clean his image up a bit he teams up with save the children so that with an applicatio and $100 donation, some lucky girl get to go on a date with tad. That girl is rosalee.

Tad falls an love with her after the date, and trackes her down in frasier bottom west virginia, meanwhile rosalee's friend pete is madly in love with her. It has one of those feel good ending where rosalee and tad realize that they are not right for eacher other, and after a small chase rosalee and pete end up together. Now they need a sequel for pete and rosalee!

Being a fan of romantic comedies, I decided to watch "Win a date with Tad Hamilton!" and I was not disappointed with it in any way.

Tad Hamilton (played by Josh Duhamel) is the heartthrob of Hollywood. Girls love watching all his movies, including Rosalee (played by Kate Bosworth) and Cathy (played by Ginnifer Goodwin), two small-town girls from Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia. They drag Pete (played by Topher Grace), a close friend of theirs to watch all his movies, even though he detests them. Now, Tad is in a mess because of the paparazzi and therefore, his agent and manager invent a `Win a Date with Tad Hamilton' contest, for a charitable cause to clear his name. Rosalee enters the contest, and to her surprise, actually wins it. However, Pete is not as ecstatic as she is because he secretly loves Rosalee. What follows is a basic love triangle, ending withRosalee having to make the decision of choosing Tad or Pete.

Director Robert Luketic, who also directed the teen comedy "Legally Blonde", again did a good job in the movie, by smoothly taking us through the story. Kate Bosworth who looks adorable, acted really nicely as Rosalee Futch, and so did Topher Grace, and Josh Duhamel. I wish they had more scenes with Ginnifer Goodwin and Sean Hayes because they were really funny. The songs selected for the soundtrack for the movie also added well to the scenes!

Some of my favorite scenes include:

i. The scene where Pete is trying to compete with Tad in front of the girls at the farmhouse.
ii. Her date with Tad in the beginning
iii. The ending.

All in all, if you like watching light breezy romantic comedies, then you will definitely like this. If you liked this movie, other recommendations are: "13 going on 30", "Legally Blonde", and "Sweet Home Alabama".

Will Tad end up whisking Rosalee off to a glamorous new life in Hollywood, or will Pete, the Mr. hometown tongue-tied nice guy fight for his true love? There are other questions...but that's the central one...and raison d'etre of this effectively pleasant and charming classic date-movie.

This movie is really good, though a little vague in some parts. But thanks to the talents of three up-and-coming stars, perfect comic timing from the supporting actors, and a director like Robert Luketic of "Legally Blonde" fame, who reputedly (and wisely) turned down directing the sequel. This film should appeal to the pre-dating teens and middle aged romantics.

The movie sounds like from "Cinderella" though....with the fairy godmother being played by the internet ("Sure, Heaven's just a mouse click away"). Rosalee (Kate Bosworth), a grocery store checkout girl wins a trip to Hollywood, engineered by Tad's (Josh Duhamel) cynical agent (Nathan Lane) and sleezy manager (Sean Hayes who are both named Richard Levy). They set up a charity contest in order to create a more wholesome image for Tad, a hot young actor, when he lands in the tabloids after a wild night of carousing. ("Congratulations! You're actually drinking, driving, smoking, leering, and groping at the same time!") But how long has it been since a bad-boy image hurt anyone's career in Hollywood?

However, to the filmmakers' credit, they didn't portray Tad as a real-live Hollywood snake. He starts out essentially harmless, so we can believe that he's really a decent guy who is actually wishing for some honesty and integrity. We can then understand how he would, in turn, be pulled by Rosalee's unpretentious goodness.

After their first date, Tad flies in his private jet to Rosalee's hometown in West Virginia. He intends to profess his love and at the same time hang out with her so her wholesome goodness would sort of rub up on him. He unwittingly awakens Rosalee's longtime best friend Pete's (Topher Grace) dormant feelings for her, therefore putting Rosalee in the middle of an unexpected romantic triad. Who will she pick? The life-long best friend, or the guy whose face decorates the walls of millions of girls' bedrooms?

The romantic triangle however, was pleasantly almost overshadowed by the smaller roles who almost stole the movie. They include Ginnifer Goodwin as Rosalee's best gal pal, who makes lumpy wisecracks throughout; Kathryn Hahn as the tattooed bartender at the town tavern, who makes no secret of her crush on Pete; and Gary Cole as Rosalee's dad, one of the funniest supporting characters who becomes so film-obsessed after his daughter begins dating a movie star that he reads trade publications and sports a "Project Greenlight" T-shirt! And, of course, Lane and Hayes antics are always pleasantly funny.

The vagueness comes in the form of Tad's change of heart later. Was it just another play to score with an innocent girl? Similarly, what has prevented Pete from expressing his love for Rosalee after all these years? Pete has known Rosalee for twenty-some years and has never worked up the nerve even to kiss her? Even 11 year olds will shake their heads and wonder what's wrong with Pete?

The movie has a positive message about sexual values, as Rosalee's decision not to have sex with Tad...with the help of timely reminders from Pete ("Just guard your carnal treasure."), who in turn got the film's funniest moments. He voiced out the sarcastic cynicism of a romantic looser as Tad sweeps Rosalee off her feet. The movie raises questions why typically ordinary girls like Rosalee and Cathy would think it is easy to know a celebrity like Tad?..and why was it so difficult for Pete to tell Rosalie how he felt?

The movie is romantic fluff, but highly entertaining and irresistibly cute.

I saw WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON! in theatres twice - I liked it that much. I also bought it on the first day it came out, and I watch it every so often. Anyway.

WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON! is a cute story about a small-town girl (Kate Bosworth), who is pretty much in love with actor Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel). One day when she's at work at the Piggly Wiggly (with her two best friends Pete - Topher Grace - and Kathy - Ginnifer Goodwin), she sees an ad for this charity thing...and you can win a date with Tad Hamilton.

Obviously Rosalee (Bosworth) enters - and wins - the contest. She flies out to California to meet up with and date Tad, and they end up having a great time. They have such a great time that he actually flies out to Fraser's Bottom to see her. As Rosalee and Tad get more serious, Pete freaks out. The ending's pretty predictable, but its still great.

I'd have to say that the best things about WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON! are the performances by Topher Grade (he plays Pete) and Sean Hayes (who plays Richard Levy...one of Tad's managers). They both have very good comedic parts, and without them the movie wouldn't be as good. I recommend this if you liked How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days or 10 Things I Hate About You.

Overall grade - B

"Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" is a predictable fairy tale romance that skates by on the cleverness of its premise and the charm of its performances. Kate Bosworth stars as Rosalee Futch, a small town girl from West Virginia who has a mad crush on a hot Hollywood stud named Tad Hamilton. One day she enters a contest on the Internet, the prize being an all-expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles to spend an evening with her dreamboat. Rosalee, of course, wins the contest and has her magic fantasy moment, whereupon she flies back home, expecting to file the experience away in her heart as the high point of her life and then continue her humdrum existence working at the local Piggly Wiggly. What Rosalee doesn't anticipate is that Tad will be so smitten with her genuine goodness and unpretentious nature that he will wind up traveling to West Virginia in order to get to know her better. Complicating matters is the fact that Rosalee's long time friend and boss, Pete, is secretly, madly in love with her and isn't about to give her up without a fight to this fancy, flashy dude from Hollywood.

Given the premise, the makers of this film could, with a bit more self-confidence, have made a keen, hard-edged satire about the role celebrity-worship plays in the lives of ordinary folks. Instead, they've opted to take a softer, less abrasive approach, settling for a more conventional love triangle that still manages to win us over despite the formulaic nature of the story. The best part about "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" is that it doesn't turn Tad into a boorish, self-centered jerk, which would have been so easy to do. As played by Josh Duhamel, Tad is, instead, a decent, well-meaning, good-natured young man who basically just wants the same thing out of life that we all do, namely love and commitment from that one special person. Even though we know how this triangle will most likely be resolved, the film still generates a certain amount of emotional tension because we actually come to like all three of the characters who make it up. We know Rosalee can't end up with both men, but each, in his own way, appears to be a viable alternative. This spirit of equanimity is not always the case with these types of stories.

Bosworth exudes such a healthy, radiant glow that we don't question for a second why both Tad and Pete are drawn to her. Duhamel pours on the celebrity charm without becoming smarmy and unctuous in the process. And Topher Grace nicely underplays the role of Rosalee's erstwhile secret devotee who faces a rival no Ordinary Joe should ever have to go up against.

"Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" isn't as good as it might have been had it opted for a riskier, edgier tone. But it's not bad as romantic comedies go - and in these days of "Along Came Polly," "Alex and Emma," "Chasing Liberty" et al., that's saying quite a bit indeed.

In a nutshell, a film stars management team (played by the Birdcage's Nathan Lane and Will & Grace's Sean Hayes) creates a competition for someone to win a date with their star Tad Hamilton, in order to quash his bad press.

Kate Bosworth (from Blue Crush) wins, much to the jealousy of her best friends, played by Mona Lisa Smile's Ginnifer Goodwin, and Traffic's Topher Grace, which in turn creates a love triangle, when the film star (played by Josh Duhamel) falls for her, Topher's character having been in love with her for his whole life.

The film is charming, and well acted, especially by Bosworth and Duhamel who are both very believable. The film is a fun but predictable romantic comedy, but it is ultimately flawed.

Problem 1: Tad Hamilton is charming, rich, successful, famous and a nice guy.
Problem 2: Tophers character is geeky and annoying.

You know the film is rooting for Topher to finally win the girl - but in my opinion Tads character simply wasn't nasty enough. He makes a couple of mistakes, but ultimately I was left wanting her to stay with Tad.

You know how the film will end and you just want it to be different, leaving me unsatisfied.

However the film is fun, and I did enjoy it. It's well acted, charming and sweet.

Special mention should go to the music, which I was constantly aware of throughout the film, especially `Shining' by Kristian Leontiou (I have since learned).

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton is such an adorable movie. Certainly not one I'd recommend to the guys, but for all of us ladies, this movie's a treat. Bosworth is cute and refreshing in this romantic comedy. I love Topher Grace from That 70's Show, but his character in this is quite similar to his bumbling Eric Forman. Still, that didn't stop me from enjoying this film. I think every woman at some point in her life has dreamt of what it would be like to go out with the celebrity of their dreams. If you're a fan of romantic comedies, you'll absolutely adore this little movie that claimed a big chunk of my heart. Very rewatchable and very recommended.