Serendipity

Rating:
Summary: contrived, pretentious
Review: With its strained references to the ancient Greeks and its self-conscious, self-congratulatory ("listen to how smart this line is!") script (which may have read better on paper than it did out loud and on screen), this movie aspired to offer more depth than the typical romantic comedy. And in its overreaching lies the seeds of its tragedy.

Not that its insights, for all their fanfare, were even novel. Sleepless in Seattle has made a similarly sappy (but better written, better acted, and way funnier) pitch for destined love and soulmates, which at least steered clear of pretentious classical allusions and confined itself to appropriately shallow pop culture references. Tackling the same topic but doing a better job at sounding smart and educated is the Before Sunrise/Before Sunset series. Perhaps Serendipity was attempting a high-wire act by combining the commercial appeal of Sleepless in Seattle with the depth and intelligence of Before Sunrise/Before Sunset - to have its cake and eat it, too, in effect - but falls flat on its face. Miserably.

Rating:
Summary: candid reviews: serendipity
Review: i am a guy, and i bought this DVD for one line. i saw part of the film on HBO and thought Piven's line "You... are... a ja*k-a**" on the plane was qool. when i saw the rest of the film i kept thinking Cusack's character is such a wuss that would turn off any woman, especially one as beautiful as Kate Beckinsale. he is, from the start, needy, talkative, pushy, boring, etc. face it girls, if any guy tried that on you, you'd file a restraining order -- but no, because it happened in a movie its all ok. im more handsome than Cusack, much more witty, and ive never had anything even remotely similar happen to me.

Rating:
Summary: Serendipity
Review: Review 3: Movie "Serendipity"
Do you believe in love? Do you believe in Fate? That everything happens for a reason? This film brings out elements of all of these questions. The movie Serendipity is an exceptional picture. The irresistible casting of John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale highlights this predictable romantic comedy. It all started a few years ago, when New Yorker Jonathan meets the British beauty Sara. Cuscack & Beckinsale play a couple of New Yorkers who accidentally meet up one night. They share a few perfect hours together before parting ways, leaving future encounters to Sara's peculiar obsession with fate. Due to a sequence of unlikely events, they are separated and go their separate ways. A few years later, they are about to marry their respective fiancés and urgently hoping for destiny to bring them back together. Luckily fate brings back this insane duo, and suddenly it is love at first sight.
This movie is incredibly romantic. My boyfriend said that this movie reminded him of me. If people only knew how much fate and destiny truly had to do with our lives, maybe some would make smarter choices. This movie tends to make one long and hope for the type of love that these two people are looking and longing for. In the end they finally find each other and the type of love they both had been desperately searching for. If you are looking for a movie that is going to take you into a crazy unexpected spell with romantic twists this movie is for you. It is a laugh out loud comedy as well as the most romantic movie of the year. I would give the movie five stars. The acting is incredible by all. Believe me, it is worth seeing!
Reviews Like/Dislike...After reading all of the eighteen reviews I have much debated the idea if reviews do indeed help people. I have come to the conclusion that not all reviews are helpful or even a pleasure to read. Some reviews are distasteful as well as unwanted. However, I feel that many people do truly look at whether or not the more highly sought out give the movie/book/music two thumbs up. In other words they are important.
First of all for example, the book reviews were much more positively written. I found this to be very helpful. The book I sought out was The Lovely Bones. When looking for a book to read one may look at the simple things of how long it is or who the author is. But most often others look for the reviews on the piece of writing, whether the majority are good or bad and if bad if it was based solely on opinion or if the subject was rather drab. If one reads more reviews on how the book was bad than one will probably choose not to read this book. Thus, they will spend some more time trying to find a book that has more of a positive review. I think that book reviews are far more important than the music and movie reviews. The reason that I feel this way is primarily because listening to music or watching a movie is far easier and thus takes up significantly less time than reading a book. Therefore I find that most people will look at the book reviews far more closely than the movie and music reviews.
Second, the music reviews weren't very helpful. I studied reviews for Sara McLauchlan. These reviews were very broad and basically cynical as well as pessimistic. For this reason I did not enjoy reading the six of these. I was amazed. They were all short and critical of her as an artist. Only a select few had nice things to say about the artists. I was very surprised. I found myself wondering where all of the fans of these artists were. If the only critics reviewing these artists were negative, I couldn't quite grasp this concept. It just didn't seem right. I wondered how these critics could critique the world's musicians this way when they don't even know what it takes to be a musician. I was flabbergasted.
Lastly, the movie reviews tended to be about half and half, equal. I researched the movie "Serendipity." The reviews weren't all disagreements or arguing with the artists or authors. Some were very positive and others were negative. I thought that they balanced each other very well. This was what I had expected originally. I thought that the majority would have been responses/reviews going both ways. This was something that I thought to be a very good quality. It gives the reader a few reviews in like or dislike of the movie. I liked reading all of the different opinions of all of the critics. It was helpful and intriguing. One of the reviews was wonderful it described the movie just as I would have described it. It stated that it was a fun and romantic comedy that makes fate and destiny a huge part of our lives. It makes one wonder what life holds in store for us. This review was great mainly because it did its job; it made me want to watch the movie again. There were a few reviews that I found to be sort of surprising they were for the movie Serendipity. They stated that they movie was stupid and awful. This I found hard to believe because it is my favorite movie. Most of the reviews were good but some really second guessed the director and these reviewers hated the movie.


Rating:
Summary: A Completely Enchanting Romantic Comedy
Review: I've watched a lot of movies billed as Romantic Comedy over the years,but found relatively few of them to be romantic and even fewer to be funny. "Serendipity" is one of the exceptions, succeeding very well as a comedy and succeeding with all the brilliance of the sun as a beautiful, sensuous, fairy-tale romance. A chance meeting, enchatment at first sight, a chance on fate, a twist of bad luck followed by love's refusal to drift off into the sunset despite all odds and all rationality add up to a spellbinding movie that, all by itself, makes up for every single romantic comedy that's tried to be this good and fell far short. Starring the beautiful Kate Beckinsale (in probably the best performance of her accomplished career) and John Cusack, with a small but brilliant role played to perfection by Eugene Levy.

Rating:
Summary: "Destiny"
Review: Do you believe in fate? How about destiny or the fact that everything happens for a reason, and there are no coincidences in life? In the romantic comedy Serendipity, it is a story of two New Yorkers, Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) and Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) who meet by fate in a Bloomingdale's department store over a pair of black cashmere gloves, and spend an odd yet nice night together, then leave it all to chance as they write their phone numbers on a five dollar bill and a used book. If the bill or book is found then they know that they were meant to be and that fate has brought them together. Years later, after neither have found each others phone numbers, the two are close to getting married to different people, basically on the same date. While both are having second thoughts about their current situation and can't get the other off their minds, try one more time to find each other. This hopeful romantic film is a great date movie and highly recommended. If you don't believe in fate now, you will once you have watched this movie.

Serendipity means a fortunate accident. I personally think that everything happens for a reason and that there are no accidents or coincidences in life. So this movie was right up my ally. A little frustrating at first though to see a couple hit it off so well and then leave everything to chance, but if it was meant to be then it will happen, right? The two go through some pretty suspenseful twists and your left thinking if they're going to end up finding each other. The lengths that they both endure are so sweet you just want them to find each other and fall madly in love again.

John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale have amazing on- screen chemistry, and when put together they make the perfect pair. John Cusack is a very witty guy in this film and is always there for a good laugh. His character, Jonathan Trager is your typical hopeless romantic that you end up rooting for in the end to find the girl and sweep her off her feet. He is a very talented actor and is nothing short of in this flick. His character is also paired with best friend Dean Kansky (Jeremy Piven), an obituary writer for the New York Times. Together these two are the dynamic duo. Jeremy Piven with his one-liners and comedic timing is a perfect side kick for the uneasy and confused Jonathan Trager. Both are in the race to find the girl of Jonathan's dream, running all around New York, pulled in a million directions, and fighting over obstacles in order to have one last chance with "the one" that got away, two days before his wedding. Opposite John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale is also an amazing actress to watch. She sparkles on screen with her beauty and grace, playing the perfect girl for Jonathan to chase. She too is linked with a best friend, Eve (Molly Shannon) who is by her side the whole time tearing through New York to try and find Jonathan. Molly Shannon's character owns a new-age store in San Francisco, and has just the quirky style and comedic support to balance out Kate Beckinsale. They are the perfect best bud match and are fun to watch interact with each other. With the wonderful setting of the beautiful New York and these four talented actors this movie was sure to attract all those hopeless romantics out there.

Serendipity overall is a fantastic movie, with an interesting storyline, talented and well known actors all to a backdrop of the beautiful New York skyline. This is a great romantic comedy that will keep you in a pleasant suspense until the very end, and left wondering if there is a certain person out there that you are meant to spend the rest of your life with. Will you meet by fate, by chance; is it your long time best friend, or the person sitting next to you on the subway? This movie leaves you questioning your every move, and second guessing your life choices. Give fate and destiny a chance; you never know what they will bring to you.


Rating:
Summary: Amazing movie
Review: Do you believe in love at first sight? This is the love story of Jonathan Trager (played by John Cusack) and Sara Thomas (played by Kate Beckinsale). They met at a department store right around Christmas time when they both picked up the same pair of black, cashmere gloves. Somehow, they have an instant connection and end up going around to a series of places in New York together that night- from a coffee shop called "Serendipity" to an ice skating rink. They have a great chemistry between them, and when Jonathan tries to get Sara's number, a semi truck drives by and the paper with her number on it flies into the air. Sara believes in fate, so when the paper is lost, she sees that as a sign that fate is telling them to step back. The rest of the night is spent looking for clues to see if they are meant to be together and if fate does exist.
In the end, though, Jonathan writes his name and phone number on a five-dollar bill, and Sara writes her name and phone number on the inside of a book. If they find the other person's name and phone number, they are meant to be together. The rest of the movie is spent going through how similar their lives have been since they met, and a series of close encounters. When they are both just about to get married, they decide that in order to get on with their lives, they need to find their one-night love to see if they were really meant to be together. They go through extraordinary lengths in order to find who they thought would be their one true love.
I don't know how many times I have seen this movie, but it is one that I could watch again and again. This story is so heartwarming and makes me wonder if there really is such a thing as fate, and if I'm destined to be with someone. It would be great to have a guy like Jonathan that is willing to do anything to find who he thinks might be his one true love. The first time I saw this in the theater, my friend and I talked about the movie for days. There were so many things that happened, but it all seems to go by too quickly.
This is a great movie, if you are into the chick-flick, somewhat predictable, yet incredibly romantic love story. It is fun to watch the clues unfold, but there are some points where you just want to yell out at the actors and tell them what to do so Jonathan and Sara will be back together again. Jonathan Trager and Sara Thomas have a great chemistry between them on camera. Jonathan always knows what to say, and that is enough to make any love-sick woman's heart melt and think "I need to find a guy like that." I would recommend this movie to anyone that likes a good romantic comedy. Even though you can usually tell what will happen next, it is fun to see if you are right.


Rating:
Summary: Good premise but too laborious
Review: When I read the review I thought it would be a great story. Both my wife and I liked the idea of the story but we both thought there were too many twists and turns. For a short movie it took a long time to get there and my wife kept going to sleep during the movie. The acting was okay, especially the store salesman (I've seem him in a recent movie playing a similar character but can't remember where). This one was a free rental so I got my money's worth. I was not disappointed that the cubed scene was deleted but I thought the original opening was better than the one they used. If you are thinking of renting this movie, rent 'Sabrina' instead. This review was based on the DVD.