Duets (DVD)

About five minutes into watching Duets, I begin to feel a little bit... well... afraid. I had come to see Duets because, after seeing the trailer, I recognized that it had the potential to be a completely, horribly, earth-shatteringly bad movie. Here was a movie that had actors singing and singers acting. Here was a road movie about people who actually went out of their way to go to karaoke bars. Here was a movie, in short, that had unlimited opportunities to be cheesy and bad and awful in every way. And here was a movie that looked for all the world as though it were made solely for the purpose of providing cheap wisecrack material for critics. And there I was, ...  Read the complete review

A great idea for a film and a brilliant way it which it’s done as well. There are a few different stories going on in this film and it goes back and forth to them all during the film but they all have the same dream, going to the Karaoke final to win $5,000. The first story is about Huey Lewis who is a Karaoke hustler, this means he goes around various karaoke bars and looks kind of scruffy and goes to the bar and sort of hints that he can’t sing and tries to get people into betting him that he could beat the top singer of that bar. But one night after his triumph he gets a phone call saying his ex wife has just died and he has to go back for the ...  Read the complete review

'Duets' is a hotpotch film from Bruce Paltrow (Gywneth's father), indeed, a bit of a curate's egg, so to speak. It revolves around the 'world of karaoke', that is, those who by planning or accident, find themselves entering karaoke competitions for cash and qualifying for a 'grand final' in Omaha, Nebraska. The film follows three 'duets', or couples who end up making their way to Omaha for different motives and ends. It is, in a sense then, three road movies rather than one, and this led to a little disjointedness, especially at the beginning of the film when the film leapt from one couple to another ...  Read the complete review

If, like me, you find Gwyneth Paltrow all but unwatchable, her presence in 'Duets', a smart little comedy about Karaoke may put you off. But fear not, this is an ensemble movie and Paltrow can only pollute one segment. Her dreadfully smug rendition of the dismal MOR track 'Bette Davies Eyes' is enough to make you hurl, but just close your ears and it passes. Three couples head for a big money Karaoke contest: Paltrow and Huey Lewis, a Karaoke hustler and his long lost daughter; Andre Braugher and Paul Giamatti, an escaped killer and a businessman having a nervous breakdown; and Maria Bello and Scott Speedman, a ruthless singer and her driver, a ...  Read the complete review