Rating: 
Summary: Good Movie!
Review: I liked, this movie it was very interesting, Madonna did good in this movie you'll like this movie worth, watching.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, mediocre acting, wrecthed DVD transfer.
Review: What do you get when you cross a sucessful story with somewhat tolerable acting and a horrible DVD transfer? A big waste of money, That's what. The Next Best Thing stars Madonna and Rupert Everett as two best friends living in LA. Abbie (Madonna) is a yoga instructor with man problems, or lack thereof. Robert (Everett) is a gay male construction worker/garderner-on-the-side who has a wit and charm to match his sculpted body. On the 4th of July, they both have too many martinis, and find themselves in a compromising situation the next morning. Weeks later, Abbie discovers the truth: she's pregnant, and Robert is the father. After the birth, the film skips ahead six years, showing the happy family living it up. However, things get tossed into the wind when a dashing man comes into Abbie's life, and they find that their fragile family must come to terms with some shocking truths. The subject matter of this story is superb, with some excellent dialogue and brilliant scenes that would have people crying and laughing in various scenes of the movie. However, it is the acting, for the most part, that gives this film a lackluster look. While the actors come off as giving it their best shot at making the scenes and dialogue believable, it only comes out as sounding forced. And a good storyline is not sufficient enough to make up for the lack of emotion on the actors' parts. Also, I must say that the DVD transfer of this film is one of the worst I've ever seen. The image quality is somewhat lacking in color clarity, although the images do appear crisp and sharp. But the sound quality of the disc is utter and complete Dolby Digital blasphemy, exhibiting and overall low-volume output. Many viewers will be turning up their systems higher than usual. So anyway, now that you've read this review, I will leave it up to you to judge whether or not this movie is for you. It is for me, but only about once or twice a year.
Rating:
Summary: A fun movie to watch--if you adore Madonna
Review: I am one of the world's biggest Madonna fans (so I am biased, of course), and I think that this is a wonderful movie. My mother and I watched this video together and were quite touched by it. My mom is the kind of person that NEVER sits through an entire movie, so I was particularly shocked when she sat through every scene of this one with me. She even wanted to watch it a second time! The only flaw that I saw in the movie was some poorly written dialogue. There were parts that just didn't sound right somehow. A lot of people tried to blame Madonna and Rupert (and their alleged acting inabilities), but I think the script itself was the real problem. I think that Madonna did the best she could with this role. Madonna gets a lot of trash from people who say she can't act. I think that is crazy. She did a great job in Evita, Desperately Seeking Susan, Dick Tracy, A League of Their Own, Body of Evidence, and Who's that Girl...no matter what anyone else says! I just wish that she had a better sense of which scripts were good and which ones are duds. :-)
Rating:
Summary: An OK Movie Probably Worth Watching
Review: The Next Best Thing when it came out in the earlier part of the year 2000 was a movie that was torn by critics and that flopped at the box office maybe since it didn't seem "appealing enough" for some audiences who don't like Madonna or Rupert Everett. The movie basically begins with you getting to see the characters of Abbie Reynolds (Madonna) and Robert (Rupert Everett) and basically what they do for a living. Abbie is a yoga instructor who in the beginning you watch about how she believes she can't find a man that is good enough for her. Robert plays a gay architect who feels he has the same problem as Abbie. One night they basically get drunk and in the midst Robert "accidentally" impregnates Abbie. The rest is the second half of the film and you get to see the child growing up and how Abbie for the first time finds a guy who she feels is the right person for her. The rest of the movie is about how she and her new boyfriend Ben (Benjamin Bratt) fall in love and plan to move out of state while Robert is upset that his child is going to be away from him. I'll just leave it from there so not to give away what happens at the end of the film. The movie is in my opinion a lot better than the harsh reviews critics gave it. Madonna isn't one of our leading actresses but her performance isn't bad at all and neither is Rupert's. The movie does have scenes that may seem out of place and sometimes the screenplay can be wrong for some scenes but over all the movie wasn't excellent or bad, it was just plain good. The DVD has three or four goodies as well. For sound, you get the usual 2-channel Dolby surround or Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (the better one of the two). You also get French as well in Dolby 2-channel format. As usual, their are your subtitles in French and English. Lastly, here are the "real" special features. There first is the trailer which is around 3 mintues and shows the film on it's comedy side and is nice to watch for right before you watch the film itself. Then their is a featurette on the movie which shows John Schlesinger (the director), Madonna, Rupert Everret, and Benjamin Bratt talking about the film and their favorite scenes and what you'd typically see in a featurette. My advice for those like me who buy the DVD when never seeing the movie before is to wait to see the featurette once you already saw the movie cause at the end of the feature the end of the film is given away. It's enjoyable and lasts around 15 minutes. Lastly, for every Madonna fan with a DVD player, you get the music video for "American Pie". This was great for fans like me due to how I have previous collections of her music videos on DVD and also have her new "Music" DVD. If you liked the film then you should consider buying it and if you are a Madonna fan than you should.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Premise, Disappointing Execution
Review: The basic story line of a gay man and his best (female) friend raising a child and then what happens when the woman falls in love with another man was intriguing and certainly had my husband and I discussing the various sides after the movie was over. However, the thought-provoking premise is marred by Madonna's atrocious acting (what IS it with the phony pseudo-British accent she has developed over the past few years! ) poor editing, abrubt jumps in time and a choppy story. In addition, the character of Abby is so blah (and in the end, deceitful) that one wonders how the kind-hearted, loving character of Robert could consider this weak vessel to be his best friend! Stupid mistakes further get in the way of the movie (The little boy, Sam, is supposed to be six? The actor is definitely too old to play six! Further, the timing of the insipid "well how are we going to explain it all to Sam" was unrealistic. Surely these characters would have talked about how to handle that issue earlier...)In conclusion, it is always a shame when a clever storyline is marred by amateurish acting and writing.
Rating:
Summary: Next best choice? I think not!
Review: Being a fan of Rupert Everett and impressed by Madonna's performance in "Evita" I was curious to see how this movie fared. I must say that this film was a real disappointment! Madonna's acting was less than satisfactory. She just looked bored to me...I guess because there was no singing or dancing like in "Evita". Rupert seems to play the gay guy very well. He's always amusing to watch but not even Rupert could save this one.
A compelling reason to watch though was Benjamin Pratt. Having never really seen him in anything before he was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise slow-moving film. I especially liked his clumsy yoga sytle. He certainly has that special star quality with a generous helping of charasma.
This is one for the rental list, if anything...
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty bad
Review: So... I certainly respect everyone's right to have their own opinion, but it boggles my mind how so many of the reviewers seemed to love this film! It was pretty darned bad. While Madonna's "I'm british, no I'm not" accent was somewhat entertaining, her character's complete personality shift 2/3 of the way through made no sense and totally pushed the rest of this already mediocre film downhill. If you think this plot was a good idea, but you want to experience *some* entertainment from it, go rent "The Object Of My Affection."
Rating: 
Summary: The next best father.
Review: This is a dramatic-farce of a common actual family problem, a single mother. The frustrating not correspondence love makes a 40's late age mother (Madonna as Abbie) use a gay friend as the father of the child whose real father is her pervious lover. The relation between them assumes the role of a family; turn over of friendship in a miscarriage of new conflicts, as a new groom of the mother enters in their home. It is censurable the way she disclosure Robert(Everett) is not the father of the boy, and uses blood tests as a weapon for dissolute the family relation between them. Robert has other problems, the homophobia is evident in Rupert's parents. It is extreme cruel the mother confession about the acceptance of Rupert's inclinations, it sounds more her resigns about him as a "manufacture defect" than her son's alternative of a way of life. These wrong beliefs is transmitted equally to the family children as they mention it and define in different ways what is a "fag" as they perceive it. Moreover, Rupert timid answers to this matter about the inquiries of the boy he is rising and Madonna shame face about his child curious questions saves the situation as Rupert introduces human respects belief in his answer. The question in all this situation: Is a "father love" a learned behavior or an instinct in the male without respect of his sexual preference? To be a heterosexual man does not mean will fulfill the role of a good father. Rupert try to be as good as his real father, even when he has all against him, his love does not change and the legal barriers can be fooled to adopt Sam as his son.
Rating:
Summary: Bad - Really Bad
Review: I tried so hard to like this movie, but after about 20 mins I found it impossiable. Madonna delivers simply the worst acting performance of her career. Many of her lines are Re-Dubbed and sound both fake and strange. The story is barely there and seems to go no where. I kept asking myself why I kept watching this movie and the answer was because I really did want it to turn out better... it didn't. If I had seen this at the movie theater I would have walked out. SKIP IT!
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: If you've ever thought once about trying to make it big, you have to see this movie. If you have not ever thought about it, you still have to see this movie. It's Awesome!
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