Please stop! (Heartbreakers (DVD))

Member Name: missbrowneyedgirl

Product:	Heartbreakers (DVD)
Date:	16/04/02 (120 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hackman, Liotta

Disadvantages: the plot, the acting, the length

I was wondering how to write this without sounding bitter and twisted. You see I made a mistake at the weekend. I let mrblueeyedboyfriend go to the video shop (By the way, why do we still call them video shops when the mainly rent DVDs?) with his male friends to choose our viewing pleasure. They came back with Heartbreakers.

I had never heard of it so I enquired as to the nature of the film. After much umm-ing and ahh-ing it came to light that no-one really knew what the movie was about but that a certain Ms Love Hewitt had been cheekily (or more accurately scantily) adorning the cover and that alone had sold it to them! I should also imagine the film's Tagline 'Caution: Dangerous Curves Ahead' had something to do with it!

Now I don't really have anything against Jennifer, in fact I thought she was brilliant as Sarah in Party of Five. I'd even say I admired her ability to turn most of the males I know to jelly at merely the mention of her name, never mind a glimpse of her self! However, I wouldn't have picked an almost unheard of, bad looking comedy from the shelf for the sake of watching her form for the evening. I guess that's just the kind of girl I am!

However, the presence of Sigourney Weaver (looking very fetching and most unlike an alien hunter) an Gene Hackman tipped me in the favour of suffering the boys' appreciative moans and trying to watch the film! Now I'll try and explain the plot to you without spoiling things, but what exactly there is to spoil I'm not sure. In case you haven't realised yet, my advice is to avoid this one at all costs!

David Mirkin who also directed the appalling Romy and Michele's High School Reunion directed the film. Be warned this is no coincidence! The basic plot goes like this. Weaver and Love Hewitt are a mother and daughter team that live the high life by scamming half of a man's riches in a divorce. Weaver marries them then 'catches
' them in compromising, and wholly set-up, positions with Love Hewitt, divorces them and the girls split the cash!

The reason I am using the actresses real name is because they change their names throughout the movie in order to pull of their scams. Weaver is Angela and some fake Russian monstrosity called Ulga whereas Love Hewitt plays Wendy, Paige and Jane. Confused? Oh you haven't heard the half of it!

I assume the film would fall under the category of Romantic Comedy and f you place an 'American' in front of that you have just about reached my worst nightmare in film genres! Why ever Sigourney Weaver agreed to this one is beyond me. I have a theory it was because she doesn't often get offered 'sexy' roles and she has to take what she can get!

So back to the wafer thin plot, Love Hewitt has decided she is old and wise enough to go it alone whereas mum (Weaver) really isn't so sure so pulls a scam whereby she pretends they owe money to the IRS. They decide on pulling off one last scam together to pay off their debts and then going their separate ways which is where Gene Hackman comes into it.

Hackman plays the eccentric chain smoking William B. Tensy who is, you've guessed it, a rich old man and the latest object of Weavers hidden agenda. Hackman does his best to pull this film back as does Ray Liotta but to no avail. It's far to far down the toilet!

Now don't get me wrong, there are funny bits to this film. It is peppered with the odd bits of toilet humour and slapstick. Unfortunately the main body of the film is badly acted romantic drivel and predictable story progressions. I can truly say it is the worst film I have seen in years and to add insult to injury, it is so long! It must have been on for nearly two and a half hours, by which point even the boys that chose it in the first place were fed up of it. Whether this says anything about Jennifer Love Hewitt's limite
d appeal remains to be seen!

The most interesting part of the film for me was when Patricia Belcher appeared as the hotel maid and I spent a good twenty minutes trying to remember where I had seen her before until I recalled that she played Giselle (the psychic) in Jeepers Creepers.

The DVD Extras had an interview of Love Hewitt looking bizarrely like Ally McBeal, some stills of the film and some other uninteresting looking items that we didn't even bother with! The boys did manage to pause the film on Jennifer's fall (down the roadside embankment) and then we all argued for several minutes as to whether they were her pants or those of a stunt man or woman!

Americans have billed this as 'One of the funniest comedies of the year.' but that's the American sense of humour for you! In all seriousness give this one a VERY wide berth. Even if you are a Love Hewitt fan it's appalling!

(2 ops in a day- that hasn't happened for ages!)

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