It Could Happen To You
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.16 You Save: $5.83 (58%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.50 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of It Could Happen To You
Movie Review: ENTERTAINING, BUT NOT A COMPLETE WINNER!
Summary: 3 Stars
Nicolas Cage has always been hit of miss for me and in this film his quirky style works very well. Cage plays an all around good guy cop in this slightly uneven, but good natured comedy. Fonda is also very good and Rose Perez despite playing a very unlikable character does it so well you will cheer with glee when her fate is revealed at the end of the film.
The film does seem a bit dated as the sum of money involved although a nice score, would hardly be enough to do so much with these days. Even in 1994 when the film was released it seems a little low. 4 million dollars split between two people after taxes would leave around 1 million dollars a piece, hardly enough to quit your job on, but certainly enough to change your life.
My biggest gripe is that Cage and Perez seem so mismatched that you can't really figure out what brought these two together. It would have been nice to see Perez played a little more real and maybe get some insight about her. Was she always this greedy and ambitious(a very nice way to put it)? or did she become this way over time. They do talk about the relationship briefly, but it doesn't really give you much. If your husband is so upstanding it's hard to believe she would be the polar opposite. I'm not saying that she doesn't have a point, letting your husband give away 2 million dollars to a stranger would be a hard thing to do, but Cage seems to be this man with great character and I don't see the connection with him and his wife.
Regardless of these flaws, the film is entertaining and does have a nice inspiring ending. The DVD is pretty standard with nothing special on it other than a good DVD transfer.
Movie Review: From fact to flatline fiction
Summary: 3 Stars
The actual story behind the highly fictionalized movie script could have made a really good movie. According to the urban legend website SNOPES, the real events involved a not-so-young waitress and a not-so-young police detective who together select the winning numbers to a $6 million jackpot. There was no hint of romance between the two. But that would be too open-ended for the cookie cutter mentalities behind this movie. They must have went into a conference room -- or a lunch room -- or a diner -- and derived this formulaic romance between two unhappily married people.
Their result was this plot bringing together a Prince Charming, a Cinderella, a the Wicked Witch of New York. But they forget to include a nice dramatic flow of events. I just didn't experience any peaks and very little emotional depth. In the end, I wasn't satisfied.
At least Nicholas Cage makes the most of the opportunity to be normal and charming rather than quirky and charming (one of his first such efforts). He gives the movie whatever depth it attains. Pretty Bridge Fonda gives her usual quiet, unexciting performance. They're responsible for most of the positive rating I give this movie.
Rosie Perez, unfortunately, overwhelms the entire proceedings with nasally witchiness. And that's not the memory I want to take away from a movie.
So, I'm looking forward to the remake based on my own soon-to-be lottery success... Oooh, Briii-dget....
Movie Review: Perfect gift for a Jackpot Gift Basket
Summary: 3 Stars
I made my boyfriend a gift basket that include "It Could Happen To You" on DVD... The gift basket was "titled" I'm so lucky!! I hit the jackpot the day I met you!!! =) I included Hershey's Treasures, 100 Grand candy bars, chocolate and bubble gum coins, a piggy bank, lottery tickets and this movie. My boyfriend loved how creative I got, but best of all was snuggling together on the couch, eating chocolate, and watching this movie.Movie Review: A 4-Million Dollar Flop!
Summary: 2 Stars
Ok, try to follow along.Good-natured cop, Charlie(Nicolas Cage) doesn't have enough for a tip at a local NYC diner, so he promises his waitress that he will split the tip that he gets from a lottery ticket he has. You know he's gonna win, too, because Charlie's all nice n' all and the Waitress, (Bridget Fonda's "Chavonne", I think it is?) is down-on-her-luck and needs a big break. Charlie is married to racially stereo-typed Spanish lady(Rosie Perez...what happened to her?) who whines her way through the picture and insults him constantly. He loves her and stays with her, even though she's the Wicked Witch of the West looking like she was attacked by Dezi Arnaz's closet. Anyhow, Charlie wins the lottery and ends up splitting the tip with his Waitress. Oh, and of course, you get the obligitary love story when Charlie cheats on Rosie with his Waitress after both of them run off to the Plaza Hotel after Rosie finds out that they've been together doing "friend" things the entire afternoon. Still following? Good. Now, you know that Charlie and the Waitress are gonna end up together cuz he's reeallly, reeeeeally nice n' stuff and she's sooo sweet and gentle and kind. Oh, and then there's this trial thing thrown in for good measure wherein Charlie gets a slap on the hand for cheating on Rosie and she tries to take the money away from him in the process of divorcing. Charlie loses the bout as does the Waitress cuz an American courtroom judge was reaaaallly awfully touched by Rosie's story that SHE was the one who picked the winning numbers because her dead father told them to her in a dream(HUH?). And Charlie and the Waitress sorta fall outta love and go their separate ways for a bit until Charlie tells her that he hasn't been able to stop thinking about her for days, so, they fall back in love again. Oh, by the way, just because Charlie and the Waitress open the Waitress's restaurant after hours and give a supposed street-bum a bowl of soup in "Their Darkest Hour", the next day, people from around the country start to send cards(to her restaurant, no less) containing cash because they're realllyy good-hearted people. They get married and live happily ever after. The End. Oh, and I almost forgot, 90 percent of this "true-story" never happened in the first place.
Ta-da.
This has gotta be the most audience-manipulating movie of the decade.
--Matt
Movie Review: no title
Summary: 2 Stars
What a disappointment! I remember Siskel and Ebert raving over this romantic comedy. Romantic, maybe, but comedy - never. Very predictable plot from beginning to end. And Rosie Perez was truly offensive. A few times I couldn't understand what she was saying. There is no way I could buy that she and Cage's character were attracted to each other. Maybe critics liked this movie because it had no sex, violence, or rough language. Although Cage does get shot in one hold-up scene. It was just that you knew what was going to happen every step of the way. I am beginning to Like Cage more and more as he ages. [ spoiler] I was really disappointed at the end to find out that the real people whom this story is based on were always happily married to their original partners. Either they shouldn't have changed it so much or they shouldn't have let us know about the real story it was based on.[end of spoiler] But Fonda and Cage were very engaging together.