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About a Boy (Full Screen Edition)

About a Boy (Full Screen Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: so good, knockout performances!
Review: Hugh Grant is so much better playing a self-centered boor like in "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "About a Boy" than anything before. Here, he plays Will, an independently wealthy London urbanite who doesn't need a job because he lives off the royalties of a Christmas song his late father once wrote. Will doesn't really like people, although he does love the ladies -- as long as he doesn't have to have the same one hanging around very long. It is hilarious how selfish he is: he goes to volunteer at a soup kitchen, gets all the way to the front door, looks at the great unwashed he has to serve and, without missing a beat, just walks away. So much for community service!! He has a cappuccino to drink!

Marcus also lives in London with Fiona, his depressed mum. Marcus is deemed "weird" at school and has no friends, and even he knows how awful his life is. In his first line, he says is he was "Haley Joel Osment" this wouldn't happen to him (a Hollywood joke as Toni Collette plays his mom, and was also Osment's mom in "The Sixth Sense".)

Marcus and Will's lives unexpectedly become enmeshed when Will decides he should meet single mothers by making up that he has a son and going to support groups. There he meets Susie, a good friend of Fiona, and they go on a picnic, Marcus in tow. When they return to the house, Fiona has attempted suicide.

Marcus decides that if he gets on better at school, his mum will be happy and won't try to kill herself again. Needing to be taught how to be cool, and lacking a father figure, he enlists Will against his, um, will, to be a mentor.

Some of the best scenes involve the stand-out Nicholas Hoult as Marcus, especially when he sings along to the song "Shake your ...in his proper Home Counties accent, dancing down the halls at school. Will is also hilarious in how selfish he is and doesn't care who knows it. When someone asks him about Ned, his made-up child, he says "Oh, him. He's a load of ..." It's great!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unexpectedly wonderful
Review: Ok I admit I was forced to watch this the first time but I was floored by how good it is! It's rare to find a movie with so many unexpected plot twists and all aspects are top notch. It really is a new classic as mentioned in other reviews. I watched it 20 nights in a row before tiring of it =)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: About a What?
Review: First of all Hugh Grant? Why?
This is a film that makes absolutely no sense and has abosolutely nothing of value in it. It quite frankly put me to sleep faster than Moulon Rouge, and that didn't take long. This is what seems to be a british attempt at comedy which failed miserably. I can't handle Hugh Grant any more than I can handle watching someone vomit. And for someone to pay him to actually put him on the big screen is absoulutly absurd to me. If you seriously want to walk away from a movie being less intelligent than when it started, then watch this moive.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Amazing Movie
Review: About three people recommended this movie to me when it came out, but I only just saw it, and it's one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. The movie is told from two boys' point of view; first, there's Will, a lazy, self-centered 38-year-old man who "does nothing" except live off the revenue from a hit Christmas song his father wrote. Then there's Marcus, an unusual 12-year old boy who's the outcast at school and who's only family is his depressed mother.

When Will decides that single mothers are the perfect people to date, he goes to a SPAT (Single Parents Alone Together) meeting and pretends to have a 2-year-old son. This results in a date with one of the single moms from the group, but after their first date - where they're babysitting Marcus - they find Marcus's mom attempting to commit suicide. Although she lives, it scares Marcus to think that she might try to kill herself again. Marcus decides that two isn't enough (you need backup), and tries to set up his mom and Will. This doesn't work at all, but Marcus ends up coming over to Will's house every day after school. His mom isn't happy when she finds out, but can see that Will is important to Marcus, so their unusual relationship continues to grow.

Then after Christmas (which Will unwillingly spends at Marcus's) both boys develope crushes. Marcus falls for the bad girl at school, Ellie, with her dreds and nose ring, and although they are complete opposites, she excepts him as a friend so the rest of the school does as well. Then Will meets an interesting woman, Rachel, at a New Year's Eve party, and is forced to admit that he's "taking time off from taking time off." The only thing he can think to do to keep from loosing Rachel is pretend that he has a son again, only this time Marcus is forced to play the part. Other than Rachel's son Ali being a little troubled about his mom dating, everything seems to be going well, although Will realizes that the whole lieing thing isn't exactly good idea, but he doesn't want to give up Rachel.

Meanwhile, Marcus's mom seems to be losing it again, and he's desparate to find a way to make her happy. Although he's warned by Ellie that "it's suicide" and he'll be teased by everyone again, Marcus signs up to sing in a show at school, because his mom told him that her heart was filled with joy when he sang. Of course I'm not going to tell you what happens, but I will say that this there's a great ending (it's actually my favorite part). I would recommend About a Boy to anyone who can appreciate a movie right on the edge between seriousness and humor.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not bad at all.
Review: You've got to have a regular job to melt into your society, otherwise you'd only become an romote and isolated island. The guy in this movie lived a peaceful life, a kind and gentle man, but still a loner and loser in other standards. This a man who could afford a not-so-bad living by not doing a job is actually everybody's day dream. I just wish I could be that kind of guy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I love this movie!
Review: This is such a great film. This movie is to Hugh Grant what 'Jerry Maguire' is to Tom Cruise (assuming you thought Jerry Maguire was a groundbreaking role for Tom Cruise) The screenplay stays so true to the book, while still managing to update it to keep it current. For example, in the book Will introduces Marcus to Nirvana but in the movie, he gives him a Mystikal CD. I hate it when I read a great book only to see the film version not do it justice, but this film stays true to the book while still being funny and original. You'll laugh, you'll cry...see it!

The DVD has several extras that make it worth the price. It has director commentary, behinds the scenes special, and an 'English-to-English' dictionary. You can also see videos from the soundtrack done by Badly Drawn Boy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THIS IS GREAT!!!
Review: This movie is absolutely hysterical! About a Boy was a box-office smash in England, and went on to charm the world as another fine adaptation of a popular Nick Hornby novel. Hugh Grant is perfectly cast as Will, a self-absorbed trust-fund slacker who tries to improve his romantic odds by preying on desperate single mothers. His cynical strategy backfires when he recruits the misfit son of a suicidal mother to pose as his own son, (which I might add is quite humorous)and proving his parental prowess to his latest single-mom target (alos a classic moment). The kid has a warming effect on this ultimate cad, and what could have been a sappy tearjerker turns into a subtle, frequently hilarious portrait of familial quirks and elevated self-esteem. Heck the kid kills a duck with a loaf of bread, and I garantee your appendix will burst on that scene. All in all there is absolutely no reason that you shouldn't see this film, so BUY IT NOW!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It is never just about a boy .
Review: Excellent comedy from the directors of " American Pie " and " " Down to Earth ". Starring Hugh Grant . By it's speed and meaning reminds me " Four Weddings and a Funeral ". If you did like that one , you definitely going to love " About a Boy ".
Hugh Grant playing Will , some guy who is doing absolutely nothing . Just watching TV all day , picking up CDs in the store , eating lunch and picking up girls later at night . Will living on his fathers "one hit wonder " song's money and his principle in life is very simple - one man is an island . He needs nothing , he wants nothing and he cares about nothing . But one day Marcus ( Nicholas Hoult ) walks in his life and things beginning to change . Marcus is a 6-7 grade kid , growing up with his single and depressed "hippie" mom . He is bullied at school and has no friends . He just started stopping by at Will's place and " hang around ", anyway Will doing nothing all day .
This relationship changed both their lives for better . And finally Will realized the real life he was missing . One man is never an island after all - you change other people lives , same as they change yours .

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Grants Best Role Ever
Review: Wow, Hugh Grant is great! Really great! I say this because, before watching this movie, I would have been the last person to say that. Grant seemed to me to be a one trick pony, stuck forever in romantic comedy or derived drama. Just a good actor, nothing dynamic. He really changed my mind with this movie. In it, he brings all his talents to the table, and delivers by far his best performance.

Grant?s character in the movie is a total loser. Determined to live his life as alone as possible, Grant has created a kind of bachelor fancy land. In it, he can waste day after day on his couch, watching movie after movie, and chase boring women at night. His income is derived from his father's music rights, and it provides him a comfortable lifestyle. This self-imposed separation from normal society is broken when he seizes upon a new way to meet women. Sensing that the most vulnerable members of the opposite sex are single mothers, he begins to troll for these unhappy women. He takes some very amusing steps to meet these ladies, including a multitude of lies and constant deceit. He finally succeeds in seducing one of these forsaken women, but it blows up in his face in ways he never could imagine.

So, throughout the rest of the movie, Grant interacts with a young boy whom he meets through the story named Marcus, who pulls of the role of a confused little kid brilliantly. The building relationship between the horrible slacker and the precocious young boy is so charming and funny. The cast is round out by a group of great English actresses, who guide the conflicted pair through a stormy time in both their relationships. The unlikely duo manages to help each other in getting through some of life's challenges. All of the cast is great, the story is humorous, it's just a fun little endearing movie.

Singles comedy with a family bent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Maybe the best HG movie since 4 Weddings and a Funeral.
Review: Hugh Grant shines in this movie. Don't pass and watch it if you're over 30.


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