Shallow Hal

Rating:
Summary: Shallow Hal Had a Gal
Review: This has to be one of the funniest movies of all time. It is definately in my top ten. Jack Black really comes into his own in this sarcastic film about a man who just can't seem to find a someone, he is always is looking on the outward appearance and he thinks he is the 'cat's meow.'

There are so many funny scenes, Hal and his friend, played by Jason Alexander, are just two losers who are constantly rating the girls they talk with thinking they have something going on themselves.

Alexander does a great job as Hal's friend, Mauricio, who supports Hal throughout his escapades, then when Hal has been changed and is dating women that look good only to him, he, well, really comes to life. Alexander's one liners are really only things people think........'the giraffe or the rhino???'

Jack Black is very funny when he looks at Alexander strangely as Mauricio rejects his own very attractive girlfriend who has only a small defect.

There are so many great ironies and look at the trailers and added features.

This movie is really of a coming of age of someone with a twisted world view. If only all of us could be so changed.

You will definately have a good laugh and be touched with some of the situations that Hal comes into contact with.

This is one fun time of a movie.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly sensitive; feel-good DVD!
Review: Okay, I sheepishly confess that I watched this DVD expecting to see some patented Farrelly brothers humor: crude, insensitive, and in-your-face. WOW, was I surprised.

This movie is definitely humorous (we laughed out loud at times) but when it's over, you come away with a heightened sense of sensitivity for those people society categorizes as "ugly", "fat" or "undesirable." And if you're not careful, you may just approach life a bit differently once you've watched this excellent movie.

Hal (portrayed wonderfully by Jack Black), and his best friend Mauricio (Jason Alexander) are a couple of obnoxious, shallow guys who make no apologies for their fixation on dating ONLY young, beautiful women. This is tough for both of them, as neither one is particularly good-looking. But, they drive on doggedly in their pursuit of women who are consistently "out of their league."

Everything changes when Hal is stuck in an elevator with a self-motivational guru, who gives Hal a "gift". In fact, Hal is hypnotized; now, he sees a person's inner beauty, not their outward physical appearance. Unattractive or obese women look like supermodels to Hal; and when he approaches them, genuinely attracted to their true beauty, they respond. After years of being unable to connect with beautiful women, suddenly Hal has an unprecedented run of success...only, the women are really not physically attractive, and this is evident to Mauricio, and everyone else...except Hal. In short order, Hal hooks up with Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is smart, funny, caring, and to Hal, stunningly beautiful. One problem: to the rest of the world, Rosemary is a 350-pound behemoth who breaks restaurant furniture simply by sitting on it.

Rosemary and Hal fall madly in love, and it turns out that Rosemary's father is the CEO of Hal's investment company. Taken by Hal's sincerity, and his insightful ideas for improvements to the firm, Rosemary's father promotes Hal to his right-hand man. Everything is going wonderfully for Hal and Rosemary...that is, until Mauricio decides to "rescue" Hal by breaking the hypnosis. What will happen now that Hal can see the REAL Rosemary?

This is a great movie, and can even be watched and appreciated by preteen children. The sexual situations are mild, and there is little or no foul language or nudity. Gwyneth Paltrow, and especially Jack Black, give excellent acting performances. Make it a point to watch and enjoy this DVD. It just might change your life, and make you wish we could ALL see only the "inner beauty" of others. Our world today is much too preoccupied with physical appearance, and other shallow concepts that don't truly matter in the grand scheme of things.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I loved this movie because it challenged our perceptions of what was beautiful and how truly shallow society's perception of beauty is. Jack Black was a comedic genius in this and had a strangely loveable quality about him. Gwyneth Paltrow was wonderful as Rosemary. Definately a must watch.

Rating:
Summary: Let's go Swimming
Review: I happened to tape this one night and I was kind of wary to watch it. I heard the good reviews that it was a good, lighthearted film. However, I am a bigger girl and that just made me apprehensive.

After finally being able to watch this, I give the Farrelly Bros. two thumbs up, along with Jack Black. Paltrow I thought did a good job at being kind of shy, yet accepting of how her character was.

Only thing that did not fit with this film were Rosemary's clothes. No way would a bigger girl wear a bikini, a skirt that went above her knees, high heels ALL the time, and tank tops. We know what to wear to make us look good and those certainly wouldn't work.

All in all, I recommend this film to all bigger people, ugly people, people with outrageously curly hair and braces. It'll make you not care about your physical appearance as much. Maybe you'll be less hard on yourself. I am now a die hard fan of Jack Black and the Farrelly Bros.

Rating:
Summary: "You gotta wonder, where does she put it all?"
Review: Jack Black makes this film a success. A short, pudgy, Pillsbury doughboy with an arsenal of maniacal facial expressions, Black is absolutely perfect as "Shallow Hal" Larson, an average guy looking for love in all the wrong places (namely, gorgeous women out of his league). And when Hal is "tricked" by motivational icon Tony Robbins to only see the "inner beauty" of people, the stage is set for a hilarious romp, courtesy of the Farrelly brothers.

And indeed, Hal's new perspective does bring romance, a heart-pounding love with blonde knockout Rosemary Shanahan (a stunning Gwyneth Paltrow). Problem is, Hal sees a supermodel--everyone else sees the "real" Rosemary, a profoundly obese woman. Oblivious to the incredulity of those around him--including Rosemary--Hal falls even more in love, treating his lady like a goddess. Only when the "spell" is broken does Hal realize it's time to do some soul searching, to challenge his built-in bias for physical beauty. His subsequent epiphany is funny; it's also quite poignant.

Jason Alexander as Hal's equally shallow best friend Mauricio is hysterical; and be sure to keep watching through the closing credits for an extra treat from Rene Kirby, a physically disabled actor who puts a whole new dimension into snow skiing. No, SHALLOW HAL will not be revered as a cinematic masterpiece generations from now. . .or will it? You never know: the "Jack Black" look may come in vogue.
--D. Mikels

Rating:
Summary: That new thing called sarcasm
Review: Men being shallow? That's unheard of! This movie breaks the barriers and covers a subject that no one was ever aware of until now. On a more serious note, if you're going to talk about an issue like the superficiality of judging people strictly by looks, you might as well put a hilarious twist on it. Jack Black superbly portrays a man who is caught up in the physical beauty of women and has a spell put on him so that he will only see women's inner beauty. This obviously leads to side-splitting endeavors as Hal encounters true love for the first time. Gwenyth Paltrow turns in a fabulous performance that is very different from her past roles and George Costanza, wait...I mean Jason Alexander does a great job of playing the concerned "What are you doing with these horrible women??" friend. The first time I watched this movie, I was in an awful mood, but I was soon transformed into a fit of laughter with movie quotes that stuck in my head for days.

Rating:
Summary: AMUSING, BUT AN INSULT TO BEAUTIFUL WOMEN
Review: When this movie was first released there was some hype about how offensive it supposedly was to unattractive and/or overweight women. I'm not a plain-looking or heavy-set gal (or a woman, period, for that matter) so I can't say for sure if it is, and I won't dispute their word about it either, but having seen it a number of times it seems odd that the ones who should be insulted by this movie aren't really saying what they should about it. (Hmmm, makes me wonder if maybe some of the stuff that's said about pretty ladies here ARE true. Kidding.) Anyways, I just really wanna set the record straight here for anyone who thinks that the hogwash that's spewed in this movie about pretty women is true. Here it goes: my bro is a professional photographer, and a very damn good one, too. He's worked with Playboy Playmates, fashion models, actresses and dancers. In all the 12 years in his illustrious job he has NEVER had any problems or conflicts with any of them because of their personalities. There's never been any reason for that happening, either. They've all been some of the nicest and funniest people we've ever met. Yes, I know, I'm his assistant.

I'm not gonna be hypocritical, though. I did like this movie and I did laugh a lot, but all the characterizations are completely inaccurate. Who says that all unattractive women are particularly nice??? And as for Hal's pretty but shallow neighbor, do you really think she'd be chasing him after watching him dance with "a pack of stampeding buffalos"? Being equally superficial as Hal was I would think she'd be curious to know him if the ladies at the night club really did look as good as Hal imagined them to be in his mind. Oh, well. Perhaps the makers of this movie should get out more. Nevertheless, a pretty funny movie. Peace.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: Shallow Hal is a movie with guts. It pokes fun at the social inclinations that beauty is everything. It also gives us a story that is more surprisingly touching coming from the Farrelly brothers. Jack Black plays Hal, who is good guy, but has the shallowness seed planted at an early age by his father. He tends to only go after gorgeous women who he doesn't have a chance with, who also tend to be snobbish or too into their own looks. After getting stuck in an elevator with Tony Robbins, he is given the gift of only seeing 'inner beauty' of people. This not only lets him see homley or overweight women (with good hearts and intentions) as gorgeous but to see golddiggers and manipulative woman as ugly hags. Not realizing his gift, he gets into a relationship with an obese girl, Rosemary (Gweneth Paltrow, who of course looks as good as she ever has) who can't understand why he thinks she's so pretty. The morality play that pans out is simple, but teaches Hal a lesson. The looks didn't matter once he realizes his true feelings for her. The movie is sweet and sensitive but hits the subject matter with the grace of a drunk elephant. Nothing is left sacred and the result is funny, touching and sometimes brutally honest story about how we have set rules in society about looks.

Rating:
Summary: A hilarious comedy with a deep meaning included
Review: Hal (Jack Black), follows his dad's advice on trying to find a stunning-looking woman. Little does he know that he will soon run into somebody that will hypnotize him after hearing of how Hal has an obsession of only wanting physically attractive women. Once he's hypnotized, Hal will only see the inner beauty of people, which means it might be possible that he sees a gorgeous woman when everybody else sees that woman as being overweight, ugly, old, etc.

"Shallow Hal" was like I was expecting it to be from the previews, but then again it wasn't. I'll start off by saying that all the main characters (Jack Black, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jason Alexander) do a good job of acting. Ok, from the previews, I could tell that "Shallow Hal" was going to be hilarious, and luckily my first notion was correct, it is a hilarious film. Unlike the previews you've probably seen by now on television, there are a few funny parts that were not shown in the previews, they're waiting for you to see them yourself when you watch the movie.

On another note, believe it or not, "Shallow Hal" actually has a deep meaning to it. Like your parents or whoever have told you all your life, it is what's on the inside that counts the most, not the outside, and "Shallow Hal" is a prime illustration of that point. But don't get me wrong, this movie is not a tear-jerker or overly dramatic film, it's mostly based on laughs.

If you feel like taking some time out and watching a hilarious and good movie at the theatres, go see "Shallow Hal."

Rating:
Summary: If I'd known it was a Farrelly movie...
Review: I would have never got it.
It's a mix-mash of a movie.
You may still enjoy it, but it's almost like 3 movies in 1:
1. The comedy - Shallow Hal
2. The tasteless comedy - complete with Rhino and Water Buffalo jokes, breaking chairs, and other insults
3. The social commentary and heartwarming feel-good romance.

Mostly, it's #'s 1 & 2 that don't jive with each other. This isn't a 'straight' comedy, because it's marred with insensitive jokes that COULD have been used just to enhance the feelings at the beginning, but even at the end of the movie they're still throwing them around. It's just a mess of a movie. They add some feel-good commentary, but *other characters* don't act consistently, and when they do stir up more responsible feelings, they let them die under the next rhino joke.
Pathetic. If I want low-brow humor, I'll watch a Kevin Smith flick and love it. This was a stinker.