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Benny & Joon

Benny & Joon

List Price: $14.95
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Movie
Review: This movie is wonderful. It is sooooo sweet, it made me cry. You have to see it

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Johnny Depp at his best
Review: This movie is very well done. All the actors-especially Johnny Depp are amazing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Movie In HISTORY
Review: I love this movie so much! Johnny Depp is the most incredible actor alive today not to mention the most gorgeous. This story shines, it's comical, dramatic, and classy. I think anyone can enjoy this movie and its characters quirky antics.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sweet and simple
Review: The great thing about this movie is that it's so simple. The characters mostly speak with their actions, and it never dwells long on Joon's disorder, avoiding long, drawn-out emotional scenes. Another endearing thing about this movie is its creative little quirks, like Sam making grilled cheeses with an iron. I've heard Benny & Joon being referred to as a "chick flick". But, call it what you will. I call it "a great movie."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: classic
Review: i love this movie. it's an classic to every extent of greatness.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A very serious movie about very funny people
Review: The back of the box at one time included a review that said this was a delightfully quirky and offbeat romantic comedy. Not entirely true. You see, "Benny & Joon" is not a comedy, although the strange characters in this film are at many times very funny. It's a very serious movie about some very strange individuals. Mostly two very strange individuals, and one everyman caught in the middle.

Benny Pearl (Aidan Quinn) is the everyman. He's a mechanic with a heart of gold, but when he's not working on cars at his garage or participating in one of the most bizarre poker nights on record, he's taking care of baby sister Juniper (Mary Stuart Masterson), aka Joon, same as he's been doing ever since their parents were killed in a car wreck.

Most of the time, Joon comes across as a healthy, normal girl, but every so often, especially when agitated, she is prone to fits, pyromania and voices in her head. Some critics were hard on this movie for never clearly identifying Joon's mental illness by name, although it really isn't that critical to the success of this movie. She is aware of her sickness, but still requires constant supervision, evidenced by some of the strange antics she ends up involved in during the course of the film. And although Joon's doctor insists a special home is a better place for Joon, Benny insists on taking care of his sister, and as such, sacrifices the bulk of his life to ensure she's cared for.

As strange as Joon can be, though, Sam (Johnny Depp) is actually weirder - although he's actually sane. Sam simply likes to be different; he can't read or write very well, but he can quote lines from the most obscure movies, and loves to dress like and mimic the antics of his idols, Charlie Chaplain and Buster Keaton. Whether he's chasing his hat through the park or using the rayon setting on the iron to make grilled cheese sandwiches, Sam is a hoot to behold through most of the movie.

The fun of the movie begins when Joon sits in for Benny at one of his oddball poker nights - where instead of chips or cash, the ante is services rendered or a chance to clean out the closets of old junk. Joon loses her hand, and as such, the Pearls inherit Sam from his cousin who'd rather not have to be caring for and feeding him. As such, Sam signs on to be Joon's fulltime caretaker - housekeeper, they call him - but he and Joon quickly find kinship in their looniness and fall in love, much to Benny's chagrin.

The movie also features smaller roles by Oliver Platt, Dan Hedaya and William H. Macy as some of Benny's friends, along with Julianne Moore as a potential love interest for Benny, provided Benny ever allows himself the time away from Joon. But the real gem of the movie is and always shall be the various antics of Sam; they keep an otherwise dark and depressing movie very light and fluffy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Magical drama
Review: This is a romantic movie. It is comical at times, but never slapstick, just whimsical. Great acting from Aidan Quinn. Johnny Depp's acting is excellent as well. You get the impression that he is a clown in a circus that no one else can see. Everything he does expresses playfullness.

I would call this movie a decent drama, but it is elevated immeasurably beyond that status by the magical drama of Johnny Depp's Chaplan-like antics. This is directed by the same Jeremiah Chechik who gave you National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. This is quite a departure for him, but it is in my opinion an endearing comedy/drama/romance.

Good movie for lonely sunday afternoons.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Johnny Depp Classic
Review: Forget Don Juan DeMarco, forget Sleepy Hollow, forget any other Johnny Depp film (except Cry Baby *drool*). This is THE Johnny Depp film. You have to see it. It's Johnny Depp at his best. I've had this film recorded from the TV for ages, and typical, my tape ran out, and I missed only the last 15 minutes (and what a disappointment they were!)

Johnny Depp plays the loveable Sam, who's cheese seems to have come off his cracker. His whole character, moves, voice, and his funny comedic moments are a total take-off of Charlie Chaplin & all those actors from the "good old days". He is taken in by Benny & Joon. The lovely Aidan Quinn plays Benny, looking after his sister, Joon, played by Mary Stuart Masterson (who I still say was in Little House On The Prarie, but no one believes me!). Joon is "mentally ill" or "sick" - the film never actually says what's wrong with her. I think she's either autistic or schizophrenic - sorry if that's wrong, or she's not one or the other, but I always get them muddled up! She lives to a routine (that makes me think autistic), but she switches personalities (schizophrenic?). I love watching this little routine, watching her make breakfast, or the way she goes to sleep at night, or the way she paints - she gets more of it on her than she does on the canvas! Enter Benny. Who she instantly falls in love with. The music behind the love scene is brilliant, and well played by Johnny & Mary.

There's a few classic moments in this film - mainly thanks to Johnny Depp. Just wait til you see him do his whole performance in the park, or his little dance with the bread in the restaurant. Or making a toasted cheese sandwich by ironing it, and making mashed potatoes by hitting them with a tennis racket. If that doesn't make you want to see this film, nothing will. And the classic line? "Raisins are just humiliated grapes". I love this film. It doesn't show much about the mentally ill, and at the end, there's too many things left in the open. Like what happens to Benny & the woman he fancies, Ruthie (played by Julianne Moore)? We see Joon getting her own apartment, but how is it decorated? Are there paintings everywhere? And does Sam move in with her? All will be discovered in the sequel ... I wish.

Bring on the soundtrack!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE 1 THAT INTRODUCED ME 2 JOHNNY
Review: Benny and Joon is a charming piece of filmmaking.... It is outstanding because it`s warm, funny and first rate handled by cast and crew. Surprises stand in line - jepp - it`s a little masterpiece:)(:

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Funny and touching
Review: Benny and Joon was a light-hearted story of two misfits in a world that doesn't quite accept them. I think we all feel like that at times. I love how innocent the relationship stayed between them. It really kept the movie on a higher level. What woman wouldn't want to be romanced the way Jonny Depp's character did for June?

This movie is a definite keeper for the collector!


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