Product Details

• Actors: Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: March 26, 2002
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (194 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003CY5F
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,811 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

America's Sweethearts is just the kind of romantic froth that makes for pleasant viewing on a lazy, rainy day. While Julia Roberts, John Cusack, and Catherine Zeta-Jones offer high-wattage marquee value, costar and cowriter Billy Crystal reworks Singin' in the Rain for latter-day Hollywood, where estranged superstars Gwen (Zeta-Jones) and Eddie (Cusack) reluctantly promote their latest movie by pretending their messily disputed relationship is still going strong. The studio chief (Stanley Tucci) is desperate for a hit, so he hires a seasoned publicist (Crystal) to orchestrate a press junket that will cast everyone in a profitable light. The catch: The director (Christopher Walken) has abducted his own film in an act of artistic extortion, and Gwen's sister and longtime assistant Kiki (Roberts) is the true object of Eddie's desire.

Chaos ensues at the luxury hotel where the junket is scheduled, and America's Sweethearts pokes easy fun at the cynical machinery that keeps Hollywood running. Quotable quips are delivered in abundance, and while Zeta-Jones is readily convincing as a bitchy narcissist, Roberts effortlessly steals the show with her trademark charms. All of which makes America's Sweethearts lightly entertaining, even though it never rises (like Roberts's earlier Notting Hill) to the level of classic romantic comedy, hampered by a script that too often substitutes easy laughs for ripe satirical invention, flashing a phony grin when it should be baring its fangs. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

Though set in the present, this movie-industry farce, written by Billy Crystal and Peter Tolan and directed by Joe Roth, comes off as a lamely nostalgic attempt at screwball comedy. It's puckish and remote: the filmmakers, lacking the heart to confront the Hollywood of today, never achieve any kind of vital satirical tone. John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones play a married couple who have starred in picture after picture together but have fallen out of love. Julia Roberts is a Cinderella figure who loses weight and blooms after years of servitude. As ersatz as the role is, Roberts fires up that smile and becomes the best thing in the movie. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars America's Sweethearts, April 4, 2008

By	Kelly "Reviewer for The Sinfully Sensuous" (Littleton, Colorado) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: America's Sweethearts (DVD)

Many people have given this movie horrible reviews, but I really enjoyed it. The cast is what made this movie wonderful. Catherine Zeta-Jones played the prima dona over the top, and it really worked. Billy Crystal is as always delightful. Christopher Walken always seems to play some kind of dark character, but maybe that is because he is so good at it. I was surprised how much I liked Julia Roberts and John Cusack together. They had great chemistry, and were just so natural together.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Crystal Comedy Sparkles, July 21, 2001

By A Customer

Billy Crystal writes, produces and stars in a "boy-loses-girl", "boy-gets-girl" tale with a twist or two along the way. Crystal plays Lee the publicist sent to placate the media with a "junket" and get separated "American Sweethearts" Gwen Harrison (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Eddie Thomas (John Cusack) back together again. Gwen is the self-centered movie star sister with a Spanish live-in lover with a lisp, Hector, played by Hank Azaria. Eddie is the soon to be ex-husband who has spent the last six months with his East Indian guru, Alan Arkin, getting over being betrayed. Julia Roberts as sweet sister Kiki is Gwen's personal assistant who also happens to be in love with her brother-in-law. Can you imagine a fat Julia Roberts? Flashbacks show us Kiki before she slimmed down. A great cast that also includes Christopher Walken in a pivotal bit part and a cameo appearance by Larry King. Great fun!!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars America's hottest couple just got hotter, May 1, 2005

By	Danielle Muller "Shulamith" (Sailing, sailing o'er the deep blue sea :)) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: America's Sweethearts (DVD)

I'm afraid I don't understand all the bad reviews this movie has gotten. America's Sweethearts is not your everday romance. Where John Cusack is trying to get over the infidility of his ex wife and coworker, while realizing that he has been harboring feelings for her sister. Who has loved him all her life, but was left in the shadow and wake of her star sister.

Its a movie of finding your true self, and that love if looked for can heal even the most despairing of hearts. In a comical way, having Billy Crystal as Cupid, the man who only wanted to make the couple famous, and ended up giving John Cusack the world.

This was a wonderful movie, romantic, sweet and comical. If you love Billy Crystal, John Cusack or Julia Roberts this will be sure to please.