When the Party's Over

Rating:
Summary: Watch only for Sandra
Review: After long and tedious credits, this 1992 film starts with characters speaking in relative darkness. It eventually turns out that this film is a series of flashbacks, leading up to the present day, which helpfully links each scene together.

Sandra Bullock is instantly recognisable, playing Amanda. Her natural wavy hair was either done for the film, or she uses straightners now. She does a bit of narrating throughout the film, although not much. She still has the same laugh, which she perfected in "Miss Congeniality". None of the other characters seem to have found fame & fortune, unlike Sandra. Everyone says "Demolition Man" (1993), started her career, but if enough people had seen this film, it would have made her. She's always smiling & quirky - you just have to ignore the bright blue eyeshadow, left over from the 1980s.

Amanda's younger brother crops up during this film, peppering his speeches with "wack" and "dude", sounding like he should have appeared in "Bill & Ted" a few years earlier.

The film starts with MJ's 25th birthday; she gets found in bed by her roommates with a strange man, and then crashes into some guy's car, who she instantly proceeds to flirt with. This sets the story for her, as she seems to do nothing but flirt during the film. Her character totally annoys me (although you feel slightly sorry for her in the end), but the rest of the characters don't really have any effect on me. She is everything I hate about women today: their unsubtle flirting with any old guy, and then they ditch them. I'm also sure she was in "Devil's Advocate", and her character annoyed me then too.

The male characters are very hard to distinguish from each other, not helping by the far away shots, and the fact that two of them look remarkably similar. The female characters all have different characteristics and looks, but the guys just blend into each other.

This film jumps back and forth from ongoing storylines, different characters and curious situations, leaving you lost as to what's going on. Being 114 minutes, this film is too long. I got bored and it wasn't even halfway through. It doesn't really have that much of a plot, and I consider it to be how "Friends: The Movie" would be. Not good. Can take in small doses, but not in a movie. There are a couple of good bits where the characters learn from mistakes they've made and the bitterness shows obvious cracks in relationships. Plus, the ending is predictable. A lot more could have been done with this film, but parts were neglected, and too much was focused on the one character.

Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: First of all, the movie was made in 1991 ( I know because I rented it in 1991 ) so I don't know why it says 1993 by the title but, anyway...

This is one of those multi-storyline gems that focus on several characters with different love interests and storylines. The film is like a " St. Elmo's Fire " for the nineties. You get a lot of realistic issues as well as some great acting rolled into one. All of the actors are wonderful but Rae Dawn Chong ( M.J. ) rules the show. Usually Rae plays innocent sweet characters but she showed she has range with this one. In this film you cannot help but take her seriously.

I'd give this a try if you haven't seen it. Of course, it's a little dated in terms of the 90's banter but is still one of the better date films you'll see in a while. The actors have amazing chemistry with one another. Unfortunately Rae Dawn Chong, Fisher Stevens and Sandra Bullock seem to be the only ones still working. The others ( who were quite impressive ) seemed to fall off the face of the earth. I agree that there are too many subplots towards the end of the film and yes the end was predictable. But hey nothing's perfect. It may not be anything to scream about but this is one of few films that will keep you balling, laughing and joking until the end.

Rating:
Summary: Forgettable!
Review: Other than seeing a young Sandra Bullock looking cute in a film that was made before she was a star, there is not a lot of positive things I can say. Several young people share an apartment, joined together by Rae Dawn Chong's character, MJ (that in itself should be a tipoff because I cannot remember a Chong movie post-Commando). Tensions mount at the big party and MJ's self-destructive personality causes the friends to break up when the party ends including a couple that just got engaged during the party.

There are some uncomfortable scenes such as when Bullock's 16 year old brother jumps into bed with MJ and says that she will be the one to "deflower" him and then immediately falls asleep. Basically, the movie had the same effect on me!