The Accidental Tourist
|
Our Price: $19.45 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.23 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Accidental Tourist
Movie Review: GREAT DIALOGUE & ACTING, BUT A SAPPY WANNABE FILM OVERALL
Summary: 3 Stars
Somewhat like "Ordinary People", and made around the same time, this film is about dealing with a great loss, starting over, finding happiness...yada yada. Starts off well enough, but you soon realize that the story is not really going places. Instead of having music in the background all the time as in most films, Lawrence Kasdan thought it wise to let the silence speak and describe the life of the characters. The performances and the dialog however are what make it worth a watch. Bill Hurt is his normal bumbling self (which makes one wonder why the jovial character of Geena Davis pursues him so aggressively) and Kate Turner is the same drug she always has been. Despite an occasional stunning line or two, the theme seemed too drawn out and contrived to me.
I especially did not like the denouement, where the man has to make a choice between two possibly equally unattractive options (unattractive for different reasons -- one a pestulent wife and the other a nagging girlfriend) but I guess it does bring out the ordinary in us. At the end of the day, we pick whatever makes us happy.
A word about the name of the film. The thinly disguised metaphor that Bill Hurt's character is a tourist in his own journey through life, becomes instead a bad practical joke. The joke is that the real accidental tourist in the film is in fact the viewer.
Movie Review: His mind is on vacation
Summary: 3 Stars
William Hurt is Macon, a travel book writer for those who'd rather stay home; he is a creature of habit and repressed feelings. His wife (Kathleen Turner) leaves him (their son has died), and Hurt mopes around, settling nicely into the void that's been created. Then he meets Muriel (Geena Davis), the single mother dog trainer/groomer, who falls for him and tries to shake him out of the doldrums. He resists, even takes up with his wife again, but Davis follows him to Europe and finally wins him there.
The major problem is with Hurt: he acts as if he's in a comatose state all the time; in the novel that this was based on (same name), he was quirky and humorously obsessive - none of that is in the movie. And it's a great loss; one wants more from him than this single dimmension only. In fact, the whole picture could do with a little messing up: it's all so refined and calculated. [Love that ending, though.]
Movie Review: Tramatic
Summary: 1 Stars
What a tragic waste of talent. When I ordered this I thought it was a comedy. A comedy about a guy who travels the world and has two beautiful wmen after him. There is not way that it could possibly be boring,right? Except it is. It's slow and pointless. Everyone, including the dog, is clinically depressed and is in desperate need of therapy with the possible exception of Geena's character who is very unbalanced and stalks the male lead like Pepe la Pew throughout the entire movie. I suppose that she was supposed to be the breath of fresh air, but I found her delusions terrifying. The ending was unsatisfying, there was a strong clue that he was ready to change his mind again within minutes. I did get one really good belly laugh from this DVD when I went to the deleted scenes and saw that there were three screens of them. I'd been betting that they hadn't cut a frame. On this theme of traveling disfunctionals in love I vastly prefer the newer film "The Very Thought of You."
Movie Review: WAKE ME UP WHEN IT GETS GOOD!
Summary: 1 Stars
a tip for mommies: If you want your child to have a good nap, put this on low volume in the background. its guarenteed to work.