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Mystic Pizza

Mystic Pizza

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Julia Roberts in her first starring role
Review: "Mystic Pizza" is a light-hearted, engaging look at the lives of three girls who work in a restaurant in the Connecticut fishing port town. Julia Roberts shines in her starring role, and (don't blink!) you can catch an early Matt Damon appearance. There are some strong supporting performances, especially the heart-of-gold restaurant owner (who uses special spices from Portugal in her secret pizza recipe), and the fus-fop food critic who pays them a visit.

The movie is dated in some respects: a yuppie couple drive a Volvo station wagon but load their four-year-old daughter on her mother's lap in the front seat instead of belting her safely in the back. Yes, this may be to show us the unity of their family and its affect on one of the three waitresses, but it also seems to demonstrate a misguided casual approach to child safety which I doubt would be filmed today. This couple, both Yalies, are 30 years old, married with a four-year-old, a scenario which although plausible is far less likely in 2002 due to much later marriages.

There are some other anachronistic attitudes which date this movie, but over all, it's a charming story and women especially will find it enchanting.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Must-have for Julia fans
Review: If you love Julia Roberts, you will LOVE "Mystic Pizza". If you're a fairly new Julia fan, you may have never even heard of this film becuase it's pre-"Pretty Woman" and "Steel Magnolias", which in itself is fun. Julia is at the ripe old age of about 20 in this flick, and it's great to see her talents at a raw, fresh stage. She also plays a sort of complex charachter in this film - Daisy, a young girl who is stuck at a turning point in life and isn't sure which way to turn. While both of the other girls seem to have something to live for (Jo-Jo has Bill, and Kat has her future career at Yale studying Astronomy), Daisy, as she points out in a rather touching scene, only has her six-pack of beer and her smile. (Which, as everyone knows, turned out to be the most loved smile in Hollywood). It's a fun movie for not just Julia fans, but young women in general. It's a must-see for any Julia fan and a great flick for a night with your girlfriends and some popcorn.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Can't quite identify some of the ingredients...
Review: Leona, who manages the Mystic Pizza, keeps her pizza recipes a secret. The recipe for friendship that the 3 young women who work for Leona has is also a mystery. There is no doubt that there is bond between the 3 young women, as well as a bond between those women and Leona, who cares for the girls as if they were her daughters. But what keeps the friendship going between the 3 young women? The not being able to identify the exact ingredients that make up the friendships, (like the Mystic Pizza secret recipes), makes the movie more fun but also entices more hunger for viewers - eating a pizza with secret ingredients is more filling than absorbing a friendship that refuses to tell what went into its making. Daisy and Kat are sisters, but being sisters doesn't guarantee a friendship. The two fight like cats and dogs, but when it comes right down to it, the two do things that prove their love for one another. Where did JoJo come from? Did the two sisters meet her at Mystic Pizza, or have they been friends before that? JoJo gives and gets support from the sisters, as well, but her "story" has the most satisfying ending, whereas the sisters are still unsure of their futures. Both sisters, however, do learn more about who they are and what they want; both grow through their experiences and find hope for tomorrow. But for those who like loose ends tied up more neatly by the end of the movie (as well as being included in what secret ingredients went into at least the friendship, if not the pizza, for Pete's sake) - it just doesn't happen. For those who like to use their imaginations and draw their own conclusions - this is a good movie for you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Annabeth Gish is Amazing in this
Review: I fell instantly in love with Annabeth Gish in this movie, she's without a doubt the best part of Mystic Pizza, it's a great story full of heart and soul, a very romantic movie to see on a date. (but DON'T make the mistake of telling your date that you're in love with Annabeth Gish like I did!)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Mystic Pizza is a good movie.
Review: Good but by no means great. I am not really a Julia Roberts Fan and it was the fact that this is one of Vincent D'Onofrio's first films that made me watch it. Early on the film drags but about halfway through I began to find it absorbing. My plroblem in the early part was that the three women characters seemed like such airheads that I really did not care what happened to them. I give all three actresses credit for giving performances that kept me fairly interested until the mid-part of the film. There are two surprises at the end of the film that really made me glad I stuck with it. This really is a "Girl Movie" and the men in it are mostly wasted. Especially Mr. D'Onofrio. None the less it is worth watching.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: BORING
Review: This film was just stupid. Several friends work in a pizza parlor together, and their lives go in different directions. Julia Roberts in one of her earliest roles, and MY MY MY has she changed. She played a loose, temperamental "town ..." who gets involved with a rich guy and has to figure out how to play on his turf (preparation for Pretty Woman, maybe?), Lili Taylor plays a girl who is soon going to marry her long-time boyfriend. She has doubts, but in the end does marry him. Another character (Annabeth Gish, I think) is saving money to go to Harvard (or some Ivy league school) and finds a job as a nanny. The man who hires her is married, his wife is in England or somewhere, and they have an affair. And when the wife arrives, he tries to pretend nothing ever happened. Nothing new about that story. The film tries to show the womens' enduring friendship, but it is all... dull and contrived.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Julia shines
Review: Mystic Pizza and Pretty Woman are the best films featuring Julia Roberts.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Boring
Review: Boring movie, that I mainly remember from when I saw it years ago, because I consciously thought, "Who is that actress with the long wavy hair? She is so bland and boring, I'm amazed she got cast in this movie. Gosh she is really bland." Julia Roberts has since become a huge star. But neither my opinion of her--nor this film--has changed a whit.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: So much more than a Julia Roberts movie
Review: While I am a fan of Julia Roberts, I liked this film before she was a star. I own the old edition with the original cover art. I see that recently the film is being sold with a big photo of Julia but don't be misled, this is an ensemble film, not a star turn. This is a great story of three young women on the verge of adulthood.They may play teenagers but this is not a teen movie. I liked the setting and the character actors here, Vincent Donofrio is really good as is Lili Taylor. Give it a try if you like good, character driven drama with a little humor thrown in.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Julia At Her Best
Review: I first saw this movie after seeing Pretty Woman in the theater back in 1990, I instantly became a Julia fan. This is great movie with a great cast, the only thing I don't like about the DVD is it doesn't have the original cover/poster that has most of the cast on it. I think it's a better cover because this isn't just a Julia movie, and I know she would say the same.

Julia stars as Daisy, a girl who's never been able to live up to her mothers expectations so she only lives for herself, and is happy with it, until a rich young boy named Charles shows up at the local pool hall. He instantly falls for her, but Daisy is afraid that he is just using her to get back at his snobbish parents. "Bring home your poor Portuguese girlfriend, shake up the family a little bit." But Charlie isn't like that, and it isn't until Daisy discovers more about herself that she realizes this. Then there's her younger sister Kat(Annabeth Gish), whom her mother is so proud of because she will be attending Yale. Kat has never been in love and ends up falling for the married father of the young girl she babysits for; in this short time she gets to expierience the joys of love and the pain of being heartbroken when his wife returns.

Their friend Jo (Lili Taylor) is another story altogether. She loves her boyfriend Bill (Vincent Denofrio), a local fisherman, but every time she tries to walk down the isle she pictures herself fat and ugly with all these kids hanging around and ends up passing out.
In the end they all pass major milestones that come with life, and the movie ends with the girls looking into the stars. This wasn't a starting point for Annabeth Gish whom had already appeared in many movies, but was a bit of a launching pad for Julia who dyed her hair black with mouse just to audition for the role (and walked home in the rain ruining her blouse). This was only her third feature film, and she seems to grow in this role. It's no surprise she received an Oscar nomination for her next role in "Steel Magnolias."

Since Matt Damon has become a household name, I've seen this movie mentioned some places as starring him as well as the main actors, but I must advise that if you're renting it JUST for Matt, you're in for a big disappointment. Matt is only in one scene and only utters the lines "Mom, do you want my green stuff." So, it really isn't HIS film, but he is in it.

What makes the DVD special is being able to see the film's actual trailer and watch the movie in widescreen.

Julia has a line at the beginning of the film that kind of makes me smile:
"Don't worry about me, I'm not going to be slinging pizza for the rest of my life." Words that ring so true, if only she knew then the big star she would be.


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