Tasted Sour (America's Sweethearts (DVD))

Member Name: fooyoo

Product:	America's Sweethearts (DVD)
Date:	21/07/04 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Better than a poke in the eye!

Disadvantages: Weak plot, Humour was lacking

After recently joining www.dvdsontap.co.uk, my wife has taken it upon herself to choose our latest viewing material. Now, this is not a choice I leave with her often, as it normally ends up with me watching some long drawn out chick flick, getting wrong at least 5 times in the first 15 minutes for mocking the cheesy plot, and telling her what will happen before the film ends! Annoying? Probably, but it is a sure fire way to let her choose what we watch, as then I admittedly have no grounds for criticising anything I choose.

Anyway back to the review. The DVD that landed on our doorstep yesterday was 'America's Sweethearts', and the first thing I noticed was that it certainly was an all star cast. Could my wife have finally picked something worth watching? Let me tell you.....

The lead characters are played by John Cusack and Catherine Zeta Jones. Eddie Taylor and Gwen Harris are both Hollywood stars, married to each other, seemingly with the world at their feet. They have the Midas touch, and thousands of adoring fans, but it all goes wrong when Gwen falls for Hector, a fellow actor, played by Hank Azaria. The spilt was very messy, and played out in public, until Eddie was sent off to rehab after trying to kill the pair by driving his car through the window of a restaurant they were eating in.

It seems like the pair will never exchange another word nevermind ever work together again, so Gwen decides to go it alone, but her films flop badly, and she has accusations hurled at her that she is nothing without Eddie. All of her problems could be over though, as the film that she was making with Eddie at the time of the split needs to be publicised in order to make it a success, but it all relies on Eddie agreeing, and the wayward director Hal Wideman played by
Christopher Walken actually turning up with the showreels so that the film can be shown to the press pack who are waiting with baited breath. Sounds confusing, but believe me it is not!

They are brought back together by failing publicist Lee Phillips, played by Billy Crystal. He claims to have the best interests of the stars at heart, but truthfully he is out for his own personal gain, and will exploit them in any way he can. He has been told by double crossing studio boss Dave Kingman, played by Stanley Tucci, that he can have his old job back if he gets the couple to publicise the film.

Now when I read reviews of the film, I was lead to believe that Julia Roberts role as Gwen's dowdy sister Kiki was going to be a huge change for Roberts. She was going to look totally unglamorous, and pale into insignificance when put next to Zeta Jones, but confusingly this was not the case. Admittedly, there are a couple of flashback scenes where she was heavier and wore glasses, but for the majority of the film she comes across as an attractive and confident woman, who is anything but in the shadows of her more famous sister.

Predictability is the name of the game with this film, and it did not let me down. The plot was so simple it could have been written by a child. I won't even tell you who ends up with who as that would be just too much of a spoiler, but I am sure you will manage to work it out pretty quickly.

I am a fan of some of the work John Cusack has done, and 'Grosse Pointe Blank' is one of my all time favourite films, but in this he has sold out completely, whereas in 'High Fidelity', he was only half way there. He has finally gone for what seemed like a guaranteed big pay day, but the film was just not up to scratch, and I think he needs to go back
to the drawing board if he think he is the perfect leading man in a romantic comedy, because believe me.....he is not. He does not have the looks, the charm, or the screen presence to carry it off.

Zeta Jones and Roberts were instantly forgettable in these roles, which is a shame, as we all know that they are capable of much much better. Hank Azaria brought one of the few smiles to my face during the film with his over acting in his portrayal of the Latin 'C' list actor with the unfortunate lisp, who hit lucky when Gwen fell for him, and the final scenes where he protests about the rumoured size of his equipment are genuinely amusing.

The whole thing was just stale, it has been done hundreds of times before, and much much better. There are a few humorous moments, but on a whole the film was lacking spontenaity and some good old belly laughs. It claims to expose the real goings on behind the scenes within the movie industry, but I am sure that this claim cannot be taken seriously, as it was just not tongue in cheek enough to be accurate, and Joe Roth must bear the brunt of this criticism, because as director he could have opened up the business a lot more, and created larger than life characters instead of the lifeless Gwen and Eddie.

Not really recommended, and even my wife said that it was ok, but she would not hurry to watch it again.

Summary: