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Along Came Polly (Widescreen Edition)

Along Came Polly (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $14.99
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Decent Romantic Comedy
Review: While there isn't much new about this movie, Along Came Polly was still a fun romantic comedy and I really enjoyed it. It's light-hearted and cute, not meant to be a thought-provoking drama or Oscar picture. For what it's worth, I thought it accomplished what it set out to do - make you laugh.

The basic idea of the story is Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller) is an uptight risk-analyst who marries a beautiful real-estate agent named Lisa (Debra Messing). On the first day of their honeymoon, he catches her sleeping with the scuba instructor (played by the hilarious Hank Azaria of the Simpsons). He goes home in despair and mopes around until his best friend, Sandy (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) - who was a child star in one 80's flick and now is getting ready to do a community theater version of Jesus Christ Superstar - encourages him to go to a wacky art opening/party where he meets Polly (Jennifer Aniston).

Polly is different than the women Reuben normally goes for - she is a free-spirit who loves spicy food (which is bad for Reuben who has Irritable Bowel Syndrome), has a pet ferret and hates commitment. The two seem as if they're total opposites, but they're attracted to each other and decide to have fun and see what happens. The two of them have decent on-screen chemistry, and a lot of the scenes are truly funny.

There is some obnoxious potty humor in this movie though, which I was disappointed to see. How many times is it funny to watch someone sit on a toilet and fart? Then of course there is no toilet paper. And of course the toilet backs up. And in another scene, it's just so funny (not!) to see Reuben standing next to his boss (Alec Baldwin) at a urinal and have the boss fart, wave his member around, touch Reuben on the ear and slap him on the rear. Honestly, I think most of the actors in this film are above the lame potty humor and was disappointed to see several scenes like that. Many audience members laughed, so maybe it was just me.

Besides that one complaint, I thought it was a funny movie and I did enjoy most of it. I am only giving it 4 stars, because it lacked originality and because of the potty humor. I still recommend seeing it, it was enjoyable and fun - just don't take it too seriously!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nothing Great !!
Review: It's the typical story of guy meet girl !! I was expecting it to have something different, however the movie failed to deliver anything exceptional.

I somehow find it amazing to see how some people still continue make movies on the same story lines, and to cap it off, such movies still manage to rake in good revenue at the box office.

It's okay to watch just once.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nothing Great !!
Review: It's the typical story of a guy meet girl !! I was expecting it to have something different, however the movie failed to deliver anything exceptional.

I somehow find it amazing to see how some people still continue make movies on the same story lines, and to cap it off, such movies still manage to rake in good revenue at the box office.

It's okay to watch just once.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Couldn't decide what it wanted to be
Review: Someone on this movie wanted to do a sweet little Woody Allen type movie, that examines two apparently unsuited characters and then sees if they can work together. Unfortunately someone else, perhaps the producers with an eye to profit, wanted to rip-off the politically incorrect moves of the Farrelly brothers and others. So we get sweetness next to jokes about needing to get to a toilet and not being able to, about - yawn - blind ferrets who bash into things, about messing one's pants (a different character) and a few other utterly dismal and unoriginal gross out humor scenes. It works to the movie's detriment, especially during a storm scene where you're more worried the director will find it funny to squash the ferret than you are amused or moved by what's actually going on.

It's also not a well written script. It took way to long to get to the point of Stiller's disastrous honeymoon. And you're kind of surprised when it ends as the main two characters simply don't seem to have spent enough time together. Still I give it two points because it does offer a few laughs.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Along Came Polly- Jolly Good Fun!
Review: Along Came Polly, the new comedy from John Hamburg, the co-writer of Meet the Parents is one funny movie. Ben Stiller is one funny guy, and Jennifer Aniston has a good comic moments herself.
Though the film's plot is nothing original, it does get quite a few laughs and entertains for the most part. Ben Stiller plays a risk consultant who always is worried about taking risks, he soon marries a woman who he loves (Debra Messing) and soon is sad to find her cheating on him on their honeymoon. After he is emotionally scarred he travels back to the Big Apple and finds Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston) a friend of his from junior high. Soon they become more acquainted and fall in love. Other comic actors include Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Ben Stiller's best pal and Alec Baldwin as his hysterical boss.
I must say though that most of the humor involves some crude gags, including vomiting, farting, and a rather extraodinary thing called "sharting" which I'll let you figure out on your own (or just see the movie). The movie is consistently funny and is worth a look. Hamburg has definetly proved himself as a great comic writer/director and I'm waiting to see more from him in the future.
Along Came Polly is rated PG-13 for Language, Sexual Content, Crude Humor and Some Drug References. The language is moderate and not very strong, the sexual content includes innuendo as well as comic sex scenes, which aren't explicit or graphic. The crude humor, well that's probably the best part of the film, hehe. All in all, worth seeing in theatres and not a bad pick for owning on Video or DVD.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Positively painful
Review: This was a horrible movie and after a while, I just couldn't force myself to watch anymore. Unconvincing acting, weak story line and worst of all, unending junior-high humor, prominently featuring bodily functions. Not worth the time or the money to watch.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great...no..EXCELLENT!
Review: If u r lookin' 2 sit down and watch a great movie, this is it 4 all u romantic-comedy people. The writer and star of Meet the Parents reunite in this much tamer comedy about a risk-averse guy who meets a free spirit.

Reuben (Ben Stiller) evaluates risk for a living. When he marries Lisa (Debra Messing), he thinks he has a sure thing. But on the first day of their honeymoon she falls for a scuba instructor, and he returns home alone to an apartment filled with unopened wedding gifts.

He runs into Polly (Jennifer Anniston), a childhood friend, and he asks her out. Can a guy who spends eight minutes a day just putting away and taking out the decorative throw pillows for his bed find happiness with a non-planner, a risk-taker, an exotic-food-lover, and a key-loser?

More important, how many excrutiatingly embarrassing moments will we have to share with Reuben before we find out?

Oh yes, there are many, many (...)" moments ahead. Reuben's face collides with a hairy, sweaty torso. Polly drops a candy bar on the street, picks it up, plucks off a hair, and eats it. A man still standing at a urinal wipes his hand on Reuben's ear. On a first date, while trying to make a good impression, Reuben floods Polly's toilet by using her grandmother's embroidered hand-towel as toilet paper. Reuben is constantly struggling to hold in various bodily functions, from controlling his irritable bowel syndrome when he eats ethnic food to maintaining his sexual stamina when he becomes overexcited the first time he and Polly make love. And Polly's almost-blind ferret keeps slamming into walls. If all of this strikes you as funny, then you probably don't get out much and then this may be the movie for you when you do.

But you will still have to sit through a lot of dull filler subplots that waste the talents of the stars, including Reuben's self-centered and obnoxious childhood friend (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a has-been actor still clinging to his one sucessful appearance in a John Hughes-style teen movie, salsa lessons, and a client prospect (Bryan Brown) who likes to jump off buildings and swim with sharks. The characters are overly generic, especially Reuben's kvetching mother (Michelle Lee) and silent but deep father (Bob Dishy). Hank Azaria, newly Joe Piscopoed into a buff and muscular body that looks like a CGI effect, is wasted as a naked scuba instructor with a Pepe LePew accent. This movie has its flaws, but then again, one shouldn't over-evaluate a comedy because it is meant to bring joy, not problems. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Okay comedy.
Review: I was thinking that it was going to be a lot funnier. However, I did get some laughs out of it and I was interested the entire time. It's probably best if you rent instead of buying it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Surprisingly Charming Mess
Review: Along Came Polly is a movie that does so many things wrong it should be an utter failure. Through miracles of acting and pacing and some funny gags, the end result is a romantic comedy that although slight and flawed, is also charming, somewhat witty and very watch able.

Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller) is an uptight man who lives a perfectly planned life. A shock after he catches wife cheats on him in his honey moon with his scuba diving instructor ("They still had their flippers on" he later recounts) leads him to pursue a romance with free spirit Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston) who upsets his organized, yappy life.

The worst failure of the film is that it is entirely Stiller's movie. Romantic comedies should have two protagonists, each working on their own problems, with the romance as the solution to both of their problems. But we never get any insight into Aniston's character. Is she dissatisfied with her life? What does she find in Reuben's character? There are hints of a back-story (a one line reference to Polly's father having another family) suggesting that there might have been a plotline edited out, but as it is, we know nothing. I believe that short of two short-short scenes, Aniston never appears on screen without Stiller.

The interaction between Reuben and Polly is too limited, too. One moment they are on the verge of breaking up, the next one they (predictably) have sex for the first time. After that, we never see their relationship change of deepens. They never get closer together. The status quo remains till the very end.

Furthermore, when the inevitable complication rise (the return of Reuben's wife) it feels mandatory and not a natural part of the plot. It feels as if the scriptwriter put the complications in there, and did not know what to do about it.

Then there is a silly sub plot about Leland Van Lew (Bryan Brown), the man whom Reuben has to insure. Leland lives a dangerous life, and the joke is that he's uninsurable. So we get many scenes where Leland does crazy, dangerous things, while Reuben watches. Some of the gags are funny, but the subplot never goes anywhere - it could have ended in five minutes or continued indefinitely.

Finally, there are far too many gross jokes, which are only occasionally funny, and suit better a dumb-and-dumber style movie then a cute romantic comedy.

Nonetheless, the film has several advantages, which make it watch able despite the flaws.

Chief among them is Philip Seymour Hoffman, playing Stiller's best friend, a has-been actor trying to outlive his fame. His subplot get relatively a lot of attention, and is very amusing (climaxing in a scene when he insists on playing both Jesus and Judas in 'Jesus Christ Superstar').

Then there are several funny and cute jokes. Among them, everyone knows about Reuben's misfortune with his wife, funny scenes when Philip Hoffman replaces Stiller for a day in the office, and some really great gags about Polly Prince's blind ferret. There are also cute references to Friends - Like Rachel, Aniston's alter ego in the TV show, Polly is a terrible waitress, and like Ross, Aniston's love interest in that TV show, Reuben makes comparative lists of Polly and his ex-wife on his laptop.

Finally, the acting all around is solid. Stiller and Anniston have enough (...) tension and charisma to make good romantic comedy heroes.

For all the criticism, I did enjoy 'Along Came Polly', and that's what counts, right?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good surprise.
Review: Although bashed by critics, this film isn't that horrible, in fact it isn't horrible. Take friends Rachel Green, and pretend that she didn't run into Joey, Phoebe, Monica, Ross, and Channler, and take Ben Stiller's character from There's Something About Mary, and stick him in the middle of Manhattan and you have the characters for this comedy. The film was funny, and kept my attention. The film did not disappoint me, Jennifer Aniston is instantly likeable, and Ben Stiller, is instantly sympathetic. Another reason to check out this filck is to see Phillip Seymore Hoffman, in an impecable comedic performance. See it for a feel good time and a good laugh.


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