Rating: 
Summary: A Touching, Sensitive, Yet Very Funny Movie
Review: Shallow Hal is one of my favorite movies of all time. It is about a not-so-good-looking guy who only wants to date beautiful women. Then he is hypnotized by guru Tony Robbins so that he only sees people's inner beauty when he looks at them. Fat and ugly girls who are beautiful inside look beautiful on the outside to Hal. Soon he meets Rosemary, a sweet but extra large woman whom he thinks is thin and gorgeous. What results is hilarious but touching at the same time. Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow deliver stunning performances. Gwyneth is especially effective playing both the skinny Rosemary and the fat Rosemary. Surprisingly, we don't feel surprised when we see the fat Rosemary after being used to the skinny Rosemary, because she's still the same person. If I had to pick a weakness to this movie, it would be Jason Alexander as Hal's best friend. His character is so obnoxious.The story has a very happy and satisfying ending. In addition to being a very funny movie, there is also a valuable lesson to be learned from it--don't judge people by the way they look. That is unfortunately something people tend to do in real life, so we could all take a lesson from this movie. I give it thumbs up!
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to the Farrellys' usual standard
Review: Hal (Jack Black) is a very shallow man who, after being hypnotized into seeing only the inner beauty of the people he encounters, begins to have what seems to him to be incredible luck dating beautiful women. In reality, however, they are actually physically unattractive women who are grateful and/or surprised by his attentions. Hal's romance with the obese Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow) has him in ecstacy while his equally shallow buddy Mauricio (Jason Alexander) reels in disbelief. As usual, the Farrellys manage to remain just this side of the good taste barrier by presenting potentially offensive material with a sweetness and empathy that allows us to laugh at the situation without laughing at the characters themselves. For example, Hal and Mauricio's dismissive attitudes and shameful comments about women would have been unforgiveable had they been uttered by, say, Ben Affleck or Tom Cruise or even Jim Carrey. However, by placing them in the mouths of Black and Alexander, who are themselves far from being the epitome of male physical beauty, the focus remains on the ridiculousness of the standard to which they hold other people. My problem with the film is that it just doesn't have the laughs I have come to expect from a Farrelly brothers movie, particularly one that teams them with the hilarious Jack Black. It is, however, enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Mostly a useless, very shallow movie
Review: This movie is just full of clichés, and poses "obvious" questions in a supposedly funny way, but withtout bringing much reflexion. Some scenes and some characters are mildly interesting though. Take Walt for instance; his character is great in that it shows the problems associated with some handicaps in a positive way: Walt can only recognize panties, he needs gloves to go to pee in a truck-stop men's room etc. There is no reason to laugh about that. As for the rest of the movie, it is all focussed on obesity, and tries to demonstrate that obese persons can have an inner beauty, which is completely true anyway. The problem however is not beauty, because obese does not mean ugly!!! It means different. Of course if you despise obese people or laugh at them (in front of them or even worse behind their backs), then you make these people unhappy. This being said, a person who is not obese will generally not be attracted by an obese person as a girlfriend or boyfriend. That is just the way things are!! More generally, what is beauty ? Similar people want to assemble, which is just a fact of life. There is nothing wrong with that, so why create trouble and misunderstanding ??? This movie is not good in that it actually creates a problem where there is none, and may possibly make some people unhappy. Also it is a shame and it is ridiculous that the three directors feeled the need to appear on the stool (at the end during the credits).
Rating: 
Summary: A Nice Heartwarmer of a Movie
Review: I guess I am with the majority of the other viewers--I truly enjoyed this to the utmost. I thought it was clever and definetly funny, but mainly the outcome of it all. I mean, even though he was focused on the "inner beauty" of the girlfriend and after finding out, once the spell was broken that instead she was obese and unattractive, he STILL did not let that change, (and the end, of course). So it DOES go to show that "Beauty IS in the eye of the beholder!!"
Rating:
Summary: The Best Farrelli Bros. Movie Yet
Review: This movie is so funny and slightly warped, but still warm and sweet. It has a great message. I have not talked to one person who did not love this movie from my parents to my son. They all love it.
Rating:
Summary: Other reviews Miss the point.
Review: I enjoyed this movie and I have to disagree with some of the negative reviews. Many of the *fat jokes* were soo over the top as to illustrate how stupid they were. I was not offended by them because they were totally silly, as all farley movies are. They were not *mean* but rather what stupid people think of fat people. Something that the rest of the movie shows is not the view of the filmakers. I thought the filmakers were brave and I was surprised that in the end, Hal realizes he loves the fat Gwenith. I was expecting her to lose weight or have Tony Robbins put the wammy back on him, or something in the end .. but no balloney short cuts here. The point, one that I think many people are missing, is that Hal has been brainwashed, as we all have, by living in our society for 30+ years. Unless Tony Robbins puts the "wammy"on us, we still will prefer the thin girl, but Hal was willing to try in the end dispite his attraction to thin girls. That can't be changed overnight. He is on his way to naturally being that person who can see the inner beauty. I loved Jack Black in this role. He was sincere and wonderful. I also enjoyed his constant display of his less than stellar body. As if to say how totally insane it is that he would be the leading man here and that men are not judged in the harsh manner that women are. I also loved the Jason Alexander character. Even if we wanted to see people for their inner beauty, could we survive the meddling of our friends trying to *save us* and in the end we learn that his saving Hal is just a cover for his own insecurities. But still it made the point, if you were not shallow, would you pay a price in the judgment and distain of a society which is just as brainwashed as Hal. I thought the story did hit the mark it was aiming for. Give it a chance with an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: Good Movie, Great Values
Review: This is a really cute movie. It teaches you that beauty is only skin deep, which is a lesson that everyone in today's society needs to figure out. The movie was really funny, and it wasn't sappy at all. I really surprised myself myself by renting this movie. The trailer for it looked funny, but I didn't think that I would like it as much. The ending turned out in a really good way. I thought it would be a bit different, but it was still a great ending. I really liked this movie. You should rent it, you'd really enjoy it. The only thing that bugs me is Jack Black's little "Cuckoo!" line, it's really annoying to me. Other than that, this movie is really really funny, cute, and has a really good lesson for all! Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder! This really teaches you that! Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: A good movie with a message
Review: What is Shallow Hal? To me it's a valid social commentary of our society. In a funny way, it shows us how we pay too much attention to looks and nothing else and how looks and personality DON'T go hand in hand. Hal is a person who after talking to a motivational speaker suddenly sees women in a different way. He sees the inner beauty as outer beauty and you can guess the rest. It's a good movie that sends a message and does it in a way that doesn't talk down to you.
Rating:
Summary: Good but...
Review: I saw Jack Black in Orange County and expected him to be like that in this movie. He was the complete opposite. In this movie he is charming, funny and sweet. The message in this movie was good because it was trying to get across, don't judge a book by it's cover. The way they had Gwyneth Paltrow look, however, was ridiculous. First of all who would believe that she weighed that much?! And people in the real world are not as rude as the people in the movie were towards her character. Overall it was a heartwarming movie with a wonderful message.
Rating:
Summary: A movie that is too shallow and misses the mark
Review: From seeing the movie Shallow Hal on DVD, I could tell that this movie had a good idea, and was supposed to be a film with good intentions. However, I got the feeling that the writers, directors and producers of this film decided to take the easy way out. Even after Hal's encounter with Tony Robbins, the direction of the movie via Hal's perception is that beauty and the ideal weight of a person is STILL important, which ran counter to the intent of the film to demonstrate the importance of the inner beauty of people. It would have been very challenging, and very rewarding to have seen a film where Hal had hooked up with a woman who wasn't an airbrushed supermodel, and he fell in love with her, and the audience did too. This would be the mark of a very good movie. Instead we get sight gags of chairs falling apart that Gwyneth Paltrow sits on in diners and restaurants. During the behind the scenes part of the DVD, we're told more than once that Gwyneth's character isn't freakishly obese, she just weighs between 250 and 300 pounds. So that means that if she sat on a chair, unless it was poorly constructed, it wouldn't break, right? These sight gags run contrary to the intended message of the film. The message of this film -- weight is important, and beauty is important, and character development, which this film didn't have, isn't.
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