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Happy, Texas

Happy, Texas

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Happy I saw it
Review: Good fun movie. Kept me laughing, while not always vocally. I particularly enjoyed the character of the sheriff, "Chippy" and the situations he put the other characters in the movie in.

A highlight of the DVD was the extra footage and the deleted footage that did not make the movie. Along with these two features is the directors reasoning for cutting the footage. Yet another interesting feature was watching the film with the director talking throughout it. The extra features made me feel like a college student taking a film class.

I would recommend watching the movie in its entirety first and then checking out the extra DVD features at the conclusion of the film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Get Happy!
Review: This film is excellent. I laughed out loud. Best line "The light is green!" The premise sounds like a stretch, but it works because it's so out to lunch. William H Macey is stunning as the Sheriff, Steve Zhan is phenomenal and all the acting is excellent. The characters are all well drawn; this is no Hollywood movie. Definite must see.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Funny from the beginning to the end
Review: This is a movie that not too many people know about but should take a look at it. The cast in this film is wonderful, especially Steve Zahn and William H. Macy. Also, the little pagnent girls were cute and added more fun to the movie. I laughed from beginning to end and I believe you will enjoy it as well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fun-Filled, Heart-Warming Laugh Fest....
Review: I'm always amazed when I read reviews of films - ESPECIALLY COMEDY - how irrate and seemingly angry people are that don't like the film!! Humor is so incredibly PERSONAL!! How can one possibly PURCHASE a film based entirely on someone else's opinion? It's beyond me! We are all "critics" - merely giving our "opinions" - and 99% of us do not get paid for this act!! Anyway, since very, very few comedies make me throw my head back and laugh from my "gut," I was so surprised and pleased when this little "feel-good" gem did just that! Steve Zahn's performance is the "glue" that holds this film together! He is zany, sweet, silly, and "eats up the scenery" in a somewhat understated way - if that's possible!! I was surprised to see the accomplished actor Jeremy Northam ("Emma," "An Ideal Husband") in this small, underrated bit of confection! But he is the perfect foil for Zahn's craziness! As has been previously mentioned, Bill Macy is his usual excellent self! And Illeana Douglas is marvelous (as always)as the frustrated kiddie beauty pageant director and the object of Zahn's repressed affections! The scene when these two FINALLY "connect" is a stitch, and bears comedic resemblence to the steamy love scene in "The Postmas Always Rings Twice" - but without the flour!! So fellow movie lovers, don't BUY this because I loved it!! Rent it or watch it on cable, and make up your own minds!! But if the scene where Steve Zahn attempts to teach the tiny would-be beauty queens to dance doesn't at least bring a smile to your face, I suggest you hold a mirror under your nose to check if you're still breathing!! (That's sarcasm, folks, and intended for humor purposes only!) Enjoy!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun little movie.
Review: If you don't go into this movie expecting a masterpiece, you will enjoy it. It's no "Raising Arizona"-- the dialogue isn't extremely witty and the characters aren't well-sketched-- but it's still worth $3 for a rental. There isn't one character in it that I didn't like (except, possibly, the murderer...), and even the dumbest, coarsest people are able to redeem themselves. A good comedy if you're looking for something light.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Josephine &Daphne return
Review: The best movie on unwished transvetism theme since Some Like It Hot! Good plot and lots of laughs. If the dialogues were just a bit sharper it would have deserved 5 stars.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A BIG Waste Of Money And Time!
Review: I like a big dummy purchased this dvd because of the reviews it received in Amazon and the Sundance Film Festival. Also, because I'm a huge fan of Bill Macy, since I enjoyed him so much in Fargo. Do not buy or rent this movie under any circumstance. I could not empathize with any of the characters. For example, the blonde chick who played the banker reminded me so much of Holly Hunter, who I cannot stand whatsoever. The two guys who played the pageant directors were so dumb and ignorant, that it insulted me beyond belief. I had no compassion or feeling for them either way. I didn't even bother to read their names listed on the DVD. Macy did a good job in his portrayal, but I'm amazed that he would be involved in this piece of .....! The first thing I'm going to do tomorrow, is to try and sell this "CLASSIC" to one of those places that buy Used DVDs.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A fun little movie, a slightly flawed DVD
Review: OK, so it was a little predictable in places; but it made me laugh. The acting is good, the humor doesn't pander too much.

I'd give it four stars, but once again Disney (Miramax) have botched the DVD mastering, so that the disc erroneously produces an annoying "multiple angles" icon throughout the opening sequence. (No, there are no multiple angles.) You can usually reconfigure your DVD player to get around the problem, but it's a pain to have to wade through two or three obscure menus just to watch a movie. I don't know what it is about Disney that they can't get it right; every other movie studio seems to manage.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: insufficiently funny comedy
Review: Like so many quirky independent comedies of recent years, `Happy, Texas' is a film that does everything but sit up and beg, then roll over and play dead to be loved. Yet, for all its scattered moments of whimsical charm, the film merely demonstrates that a cute premise and a genial tone are insufficient compensation for an underfed screenplay that fails to generate many substantial laughs.

Since even the premise itself lacks real freshness, the movie must finally be judged on the quality of its execution. This is the umpteenth version of that old chestnut in which two fugitives on the lam find safety by impersonating individuals with personalities completely antithetical to their own (we've seen them many times before - disguised as women, priests, nuns, cruise directors, choir directors, you name it ). Finally unmasked for all to see in their nakedness and shame, such characters inevitably find their redemption in the generous attitudes and forgiving hearts of the people they may have deceived it is true, but also touched in some deep emotional way.

Following slavishly in the footsteps of all these previous films, `Happy, Texas' fairs badly in comparison since, although it sets up a situation rife with farcical possibilities, it never really finds the manic energy or ingeniously convoluted and multi-layered plot structure necessary to the success of such a film. Steve Zahn and Jeremy Northam charmingly portray chain gang partners who, suddenly finding themselves escaped prisoners, stumble into a small Texas town where they are immediately mistaken for a gay couple hired to direct a little girl beauty pageant. The scene in which the two macho men discover the `truth' about the men they are impersonating is genuinely hilarious and betokens many more laughs to follow. Yet somehow, they never manage to develop. For one thing, the men essentially go their separate ways during the majority of the film's running time so the comic tension that exists between them simply dissipates. In addition, the beauty pageant concept is a dud since having these girls be of such a young age gives the men's forcibly repressed heterosexuality no room for comic play. Thus, the comic possibilities inherent in being a straight man trapped in a gay man's body seem strangely underplayed and unexploited. Moreover, both the conventional romances between the lead characters and their respective women and the `unconventional' one between Northam and the suddenly smitten gay sheriff (William H. Macy) fail to result in any real sparks or passion. In fact, the movie as a whole simply lacks energy and imagination.

As director and co-writer, Mark Illsley ruins many of his most promising comic moments by relying on overly emphatic reaction shots and routinely holding them for just a beat too long. More than anything else, movie comedy succeeds or fails based on the delicate rhythm that is established between the spoken word and the edited image. Perhaps, it is this lack of comic grace more than anything else that keeps `Happy, Texas,' likable as it is at times, from fulfilling the promise of its premise and really soaring into comic greatness.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Happy Texas, Happy Filmers, Happy Me
Review: The DVD version is a treasure - you get a funny movie by a team of first time movie makers, and you get an excellent commentary on the process of getting it made, complete with all the pitfalls, mistakes and kludges they had to use. Did you know that William H. Macy's dog Walter running around was the reason they had to focus high in the rabbit hunt? How you get a child with a flaming baton in a film and still keep your insurance? And do look in the mirrored sunglasses of those Texas Marshalls at the end. ;)

The movie was good fun, and the story behind the movie is even funnier. Get the DVD and enjoy - it will be one you'll share with your friends for a long time to come.


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