Brack

Daytripper, your reaction to "Dan" is very much in the same vein as my reaction to "Stardust" last year.

Daytripper

If I recall, you didn't hate "Stardust". Just didn't like the leads and thought the special effects were sub par. I agree with you on the latter. But thought the leads were fine. You and I are 100% in agreement on "The Golden Compass" though. Best fantasy film of the year IMO. Not to jump topics too much.

And I'm not stone cold. I'll take my warm and fuzzy movies in the form of "Waitress" or "Lars and the Real Girl". And if you really want to see Binoche shine and in a warm and little seen film, rent "Jet Lag".

Brack

well, I gave it a second chance, and found even more things I hated, lol.

I'll have to check out your recommendations.

JimRochester

Just saw this the other night. I was very underwhelmed. I like romantic comedies even predictable ones. This one just didn't connect for me. There were definately some humorous moments. Just most of it was pretty pedestrian. Steve Carell was not at his best. Binoche was a looker but not enough development for me to see what he saw in her. Dane Cook is a big stupid dufus. It was OK for the one viewing but I really doubt I'll ever see this one again. Glad it was a rental and not a $25 Blu Ray.

milo bloom

Rented this a few nights ago, and despite the DVD freezing a couple of times, the wife and I thought this was very enjoyable. I don't get the hate for Dane Cook, he is certainly not a heavyweight as far as screenpresence, but I think that actually helped his character.

And I'm not seeing much mention of the music. I thought the score was just mesmerizing and note-perfect from start to finish.

dick_grayson

watched this with a friend of mine last night. it was the worst movie I've seen in a long time, perhaps ever. every cliche in the book. I figured with Carrell in it, it couldn't be that bad but I had no idea. The talent show night? all the charades? that was the gayest shit I've ever seen. movie made me want to puke....over and over. for some reason, my friend wanted to watch the whole thing. anyway, that's that. I figured I'd share.

clappj

Thanks for sharing!

maingon

I had it for a while on Bluray finally got around to watch it a few weeks ago, I thought it was a very good movie, predicable but very funny and warm movie with a great cast.

8.5/10

Giantrobo

Judging by the all the films I've seen over the years that feature a "Behind the scenes of a White Family Get together" moment, I just a figured all White families did corny ass shit like this. Either that or play their Wii.

BTW, I disagree with you on this movie. I thought it was good.

Draven

I've said it before in this thread, but my family has done the talent show, the family games, our own parades, etc. It's not that far off for me anyway.

Brack

your family has fun and plays games? Disgusting!

Daytripper

Amen! I fucking hate this movie. And what a great cast (save for Cook).

dick_grayson

and how about that oldest daughter? She looked like a paper plate with eyes. The middle one was fun to look at. You could tell they weren't sisters. Half-sisters, maybe....

Charlie Goose

In MY day, a family parade meant my father chasing me down the street with a belt.

LorenzoL

I watched it last night and it was just okay.

Giles

aside from Binoche, there was so much from this movie that just made me cringe.

DJLinus

I got this from the library last weekend and wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised. It was much more of a drama with comedic moments than a straight-up comedy, as the trailer made it out to be.

Carell is one of the greats at playing the sad sack these days. I actually found his cover of "Let My Love Open the Door" to be quite touching (especially the slowed-down last verse). Maybe I'm just a big softie.

Count me in with those who found it refreshing that the family wasn't the typical Hollywood portrait of dysfunction. (Reminds me of a quote I read recently somewhere online: "What exactly did the suburbs do to hurt Sam Mendes?" ). Sure, the syrupy sweetness may have been laid on pretty thick, but at least it was a change of pace from what we normally get.

But my extended family all gets together at the beach every year and this movie's family does more in 3 days than we do in 2 weeks.

Count Dooku

Watched this over the weekend when it had its basic cable premiere, and I liked it quite a bit.

I remember when it came out in theaters and the commercials showed Dan telling the cop to put the ticket on his tab. They played it like "Put it on my tab" was this great line. And I thought, if that's the best joke in the movie then this must really suck.

I understand the criticisms lobbed in this thread. Dane Cook is Dane Cook, and the family is familial in manner outside my experience.
Whoever slammed the oldest daughter, played by Alison Pill, has not seen her on In Treatment. She's an excellent actress.

It's interesting that Dan In Real Life was written by the same person who wrote About A Boy.
About A Boy isn't a great movie in my estimation, but it is one I enjoy. And when I find it on TV, it's no problem for me to get drawn into it.

Dan In Real Life could be like that for me. Now that I have seen it all the way through, I can imagine running across it on cable and watching parts of it over again.

I wonder if About A Boy and Dan In Real Life are like chick flicks for guys. Male-centric romantic comedies that aren't so heavy on the fairy tale romance, but lighter on the comedy than a guy flick like Old School

Daytripper

Nice post. However, I couldn't disagree with you more. As I think I mentioned above when "Dan" first came out, and this thread first began, I think "About a Boy" is a terrific film. Great cast, great writing (Oscar nominated) and great direction. The only reason why I went to go see "Dan in Real Life" was because of director Peter Hedges. Who adapted the screenplay for "About a Boy" from Nick Hornby's great novel. And he also wrote and directed "Pieces of April". Which I thought was fantastic. "Dan" had a great cast. I don't even mind Dane Cook as an actor. But this film was torture for me to sit through. I'm not going to rehash everything I said before. I just hope Peter continues to work because I think he's a talented guy. As of now, he has nothing listed in his future, according to IMDB. Post "Dan" Which is too bad.

Count Dooku

I think one of the things that disappoints me about "About A Boy" is that Grant's relationship with Rachel Weisz comes along pretty late in the film and isn't developed enough (for me). Of course, I probably just feel that way because I really love Rachel Weisz, and just want to see more of her in any movie.

Mike86

So I realize this is a pretty old film by now and a bit of a random bump but I came across this on Starz tonight and really liked it a lot. I was genuinely surprised by how good I thought it was. I remember seeing trailers for it at the time it came out and had intended to watch it but forgot about it. I can honestly say that it's probably now a film that I'll revisit often. Really charming and poignant romantic comedy/drama and Carell was great as the lead. Sort of surprised that there seemed to have been a lot of mixed reactions at the time from this thread at least. Probably one of Carell's best films in my opinion.

Dan

This was one of the first Blu-rays I blind-bought. I remember really liking it a lot at the time but haven't watched it since.

Dane Cook is awful, though.

Mike86

I'm not a huge fan of Cook either but he's tolerable in this in my opinion. His role is pretty large but he's not too annoying or anything.