| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
C- |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
B- |
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It's not really good, but it ain't that bad.
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Jul 30, 2007
11
of
13 people found this review helpful
For those who expected to see some slapstick, Michael Keaton humor, you will be surprised. Michael J. Fox grows up in this slow but effective fish-out-of-water comedy that will linger in your mind long after you leave the theater.
A big city surgeon on his way to big plastic surgery mad money gets sidetracked when his car veers off the road and destroys a small town judge's fence (which the judge built himself). So the judge sentences Fox to community service at this hick of most hick town where he must wait to have his car fixed. This town doesn't take credit cards, so basically Fox has to "earn" his money as if he went on a backpacking trip through the country without any money.
Of course Fox meets a girl he likes (Julie Warner) and that's where his heart contemplates. So what happens when he finishes his community service and his car is all fixed? Does he stay or does he bolt?
I think we need a new word to replace "cliche", because after more than 100 years of movie making, there really isn't another variation that is completely original. Maybe we should use the word "clichette" as something semi-cliche, but taken into consideration that this is 100 years of originality already in the can.
So this clichette worked for me because this town doesn't feel like a Hollywood, temporary town. The people here seems like they truly live there, and that's really their lives. I mean Uncle Jethro really can't read and sometimes jams his foot with the rake.
I don't know how real the chemistry is between Fox and Warner, but I do end up pulling for them. I guess that's all it matters. Woody Harrelson and Bridgette Fonda make memorable performances here that at times elevated the hick-ness. But when the credit rolls and we're leaving this town of Grady, I really was thinking, hey, would I have lived there and be happy?
Perhaps it's the message that in some way, if every town can be just as peaceful as Grady, we wouldn't have wars and everybody will get along with everybody. Maybe that's why I liked this movie so much. Wait, is this the hangover talking, or am I reaching here? |
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