Jersey Girl

Rating:
Summary: If you know what a guido is....
Review: This movie is great if you grew up knowing what a guido was, teased your hair, wore bright pink lipstick, and hung out w/ guys who drove Camaros. Jami Gertz is great, and Dylan McDermott is well...he just is. That's enough for me! Definitely a good movie if you grew up in NJ.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful,wacky and romantic.
Review: This movie is the best generic movie I have ever seen in my life!A love story about a sweet and beautiful loud mouth from New Jersey.The beautiful and tacky young woman purposely seeks a rich man with class and style from New York. The wonderfully handsome and stunning man is running from his past. He seeks a rich and classy lifestyle of money and status.The woman of his worst nightmares runs into his brand new Mercedes Benz. She falls in love with him instantly and stalks her way into his heart. The wonderfully dressed and groomed man is reminded of his past by dating the loud fun loving woman. He is caught between two worlds. Which world will he choose? Buy the movie and see. You will watch this campy movie over and over again. There is a special spark about it.The woman's fun loving wise cracking friends makes this movie a well beloved friend of your vhs collection. A great romantic saturday night flick.A winner!

Rating:
Summary: Kevin Smith Moves to Hollywood
Review: When Ollie Trinke's (Ben Affleck) wife dies during childbirth, his grief causes him to permanently lose his New York PR firm career, and to feel estrangement from his newborn daughter. Defeated by life, he moves in with his father (George Carlin), and quickly finds joy in raising his daughter and living a simple life working with his father as a blue collar municipal worker. But he never stops interviewing with PR firms, trying to recapture the high-powered life he once enjoyed. Things come to a head when, after meeting and falling for Liv Tyler, he is forced to choose between a job in the city and a life with his father and Liv in New Jersey.
This movie is so generic in its premise and resolution that the only interesting discussion comes from the fact that it is such a departure from the usual work of filmmaker Kevin Smith. After a series of quirky gag-driven surreal comedies filled with in-jokes and geeky comic book/Star Wars references, Smith tries his hand at a drama (albeit a light-hearted one). Some of the schmaltz is so schmaltzingly schmaltzy that I wondered if Smith is pulling some sort of ironic joke on us; at other times, an unobtrusive reference made me grin (as when Trinke's daughter hops into a vehicle and commands: Punch it, Chewie!). The obligatory casting of Jason Lee and Matt Damon in a bit part pays hilarious dividends, as the actors so clearly enjoy the opportunity to goof around with Smith and Affleck. The dialogue is only vaguely Kevin Smith-esque, with the odd sentence or situation ringing like an echo of his previous works.
I suppose Smith is in a little bit of a bind, in that he makes movies a certain way, and gets slammed for not being able to rise above his work. Now that he's made a more traditional Hollywood piece, he's getting slammed by his fans for abandoning his roots. Smith definitely has some talent, and I expect that he may have a couple of more misfires as he tries to recreate his most successful movies (probably Clerks and Chasing Amy). In the meantime, this movie can be classified as "harmless."
A final note: the last time we saw George Carlin in a Kevin Smith (or any other) film, he was giving head to truck drivers who gave him a ride. In this, what may be his first serious role, he really added a dimension to his image. His soulful, gravelly voice is so captivating that even a modicum of talent gives him a commanding screen presence, and Smith gave him lots of lines that made this talent shine through. In my opinion, Carlin deserves a shot at a legitimate acting career, and if he makes it, people will look to this film as an early indication that he has promise as a thespian.