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Directed by: Kevin Smith Starring: Ben Affleck, George Carlin, Jenifer Lopez , Liv Tyler Plot: Ben Affleck plays a hotshot publicist for a New York firm. He meets up with Jenifer Lopez, who he falls inlove with, marries and has a kid with. She dies in child birth, and Ben Affleck looses his job at the PR frim for lashing out at a client. He is forced to move back in with his father, George Carlin, in New Jersey, accept his fate and take care of his daughter, while working as a street sweeper. He eventually meets Liv Tyler, a video store clerk, while trying to rent porn. Awkard situations occur, they fall in love, Ben is offered his old job back, and must choose between life with his daughter or his job. They go for the cutsey pie ending with Ben running through the streets to make it to his daughter's school play intime, to prove that he loves her more than his job. Review: Ok, where do I start? I went into this movie knowing virtually nothing about it, I haven't watched television or been to any other movies for awhile, so I haven't seen the previews or comercials. My friend and I decided to see a movie on a whim, and said "Well its by Kevin Smith and has George Carlin, the poster says its a comedy, how could it be bad?" (yes we literally said this) How wrong we were. The movie is a chick flick complete with the pathetic emotional music and sappy situations, and it dosen't even do a good job of that. Jersey Girl, was the most predictable, unfunny, unentertaining film I have seen in a long time. I understand that Kevin Smith was trying to branch out and make a serious movie but this was just too sappy. Now I'm not trying to be a Kevin Smith purist or anything but this movie was everything they made fun of about Hollywood in JASBSB. The acting is shallow, the plot is old and rehashed and it lacks depth. Just utter unfilted crap. Some scenes seem to drag on forever, and some that seem like they may become intresting are just cut short (the scene where Liv Tyler is interviewing Ben about is porn watching habbits could have been entertaining if they didn't cut to a totally unexplained sex scene). The characters seem to have no depth to them, Ben changes from being celebate and devoted to his dead wife for years, to having sex with Liv in the bat of an eye. Aparently, George's wife/Bens Mother is dead, and that affects George's character somewhat but it is never explained for some unknown reason. They skip over stuff they shouldn't have and drag on scenes that are unneeded. Ok, here is another thing I just don't get. When Ben Affleck looses his job, his carrear in the PR world is gone so he moves back to NJ so his father can help him take care of the baby. He ends up getting a street sweepign job with the city, and keeps this job for 7 years. Now if he was actually so successful, why didn't he just get another office job or something. It just dosen't make any sence. Now surely, George Carlin must have had a few good redeming lines, you say? Nope. We don't see a single funny line out of him the whole movie. I really don't understand why they even cast him for that part. Thank god we were the only people in the theatre, because I don't know how the eaither of us could have kept from bitching about the film. We sat through it, even though we both guessed the ending about half way through. 0/5 Sorry if I'm being comic book guy here, but I was really displeased with this movie. RATING: 0 PROS: ummmm.... CONS: They actually made this movie ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
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May 5, 2004 06:33
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 04:43 |
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It's the best of the "A father first hates his family then he realizes that he loves them in an epiphany then runs to be with them" movies. It's not saying much, but it is.
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May 5, 2004 07:48
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Having rented this one recently (was going to buy it and then found out that a special edition DVD is on the way), I can say that this movie is a disappointment in an American frame of mind? I say American frame of mind because as a people, we typically like to know what we're getting before we actually get it. That's why chain restaurants do so very well - because people like a consistant product. This film is definately NOT what I expected in a Kevin Smith film. But that doesn't make it a completely terrible film in and of itself. Unfortunately, once you remove the style of Kevin Smith from this film, all you have left is an overly sentimental film with a mediocre story, mediocre dialogue, and mediocre dialogue. This film was defeated from pretty much frame one not by the appearance of Jennifer Lopez (whom I actually liked in this film. She reminded me of Judy Reyes' character on Scrubs (Carla) - a very good thing to be reminded of), but by the fact that it seemed like Kevin Smith was simply trying to do something he's not good at: making Hollywood films. I respect Kevin for trying to branch out, and I even think that this film will be a growing experience for him. However, I recently read an interview with him where he implied that the reason that Jersey Girl "failed" is because he cast Jennifer Lopez in it which was overshadowed by Gili, and that people didn't see this movie just because of that. I felt a little insulted by this interview, as if he was trying to say that it was my fault his movie didn't do well as opposed to the movie simply being not very good. 2.5 overall. Not a good movie, but the musical portion near the end was probably the best portion of the movie. P.s. I think that in the wake of Jersey Girl's lack of success, Kevin Smith's return to Clerks is a PHENOMENALLY bad idea. Especially since he himself said that he closed the book (metaphorically, and literally in JSBSB).
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Sep 10, 2004 03:20
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Taking it as a movie on it's own, it's a funny, cliched, entertaining piece of fluff, the problem is nobody can take it on it's own because it's a Kevin Smith movie. True, it's not brilliant, but give the guy a break. At least he's making Clerks 2, right? 3.5/5
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Sep 12, 2004 22:48
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______l\___\o/____ AAH! SHARK
Somebody fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Sep 22, 2004 |
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Sep 22, 2004 14:13
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 04:43 |
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Christ, it wasn't THAT bad. It was Cute. It wasn't great, I don't know if I'd recommend it to people who don't like this type of movie, but as chick flicks go this is towards the top of the pile. The kid was kind of annoying and I'm REALLY sick of the old "lol precocious kid is smarter than the adults!" gimmick, but it was forgivable. What wasn't forgivable was the absolutely groan-inducing finale, complete with a school play that the dad has to get to by a certain time to prove his love for his daughter. Kevin Smith's a smart guy who's seen a lot of movies, he KNEW this was one of the most tired and stupid film cliches of them all, and he went ahead and indulged in it anyway. And then the film grinds to a halt while the cast sings a song from Sweeny Todd. Did we need to see the whole song? Really, did we? 3/5
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Sep 27, 2004 05:52
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