Rating: Summary: Worth seeing Review: Serving Sara (2002) is a love story with many comic/tragic interludes.Joe (Matthew Perry) is a process server who delivers legal papers and has a clueless life (makes wine at home but never seems to get it right for once). One day he serves elusive Sara (Elizabeth Hurley). But he has no idea what that was about and going to change his life and his Vineyard dream. It's unquestionable there are some vulgar, absurd, "sad" moments in the movie; yet these numerous "tragic" events are there only to push the theme even further. Some direction here too may only be so much arduous as its succinctness and directness approaches the near "ancient" tragedy in the sense of Romans and Greeks. Much of it has to be sour, salty, melancholy in order to remove in the process some. As far as screen play goes there are some moments of pause and poetic inter-weavings do connect some loose moments and recovers for the audience some sense of momentum in the direction. Such scene as Joe pursuing Sara in the mid-town Manhattan, the plot-factoring by a "painting" (or life-size "canvas") which divides Joe and Sara, the secondary "key-tossing" between Joe and Sara, the inflection point of Sara's English accent, Elizabeth Hurley's sensitive character-to-real-life juxtaposition, no longer get the same disinterested response from me (so as the scenes involving the romance between Sara and Joe). Everything in this movie somehow coalesces into a well-posed juxtaposition of characters. Some ambitious raillery such as scene involving "Bull's Hind" is a recapitulation against the salt and sour humor and perhaps a reconfiguration of figures (many vulgar scenes with buffoons or "comedians": now the ersatz version, "bull") in the context. If early English/Roman/Greek theaters had not been accused of its comic folly it has now been redeemed somewhat by such carefree and modern association. A vindication of comedy can go a long way. Likewise the tragedy, its comic errors and sadness, many trivial interludes, the intermixing of judiciousness and absurdity, a modern screen play might want to extend itself further into an abandonment and perhaps the very absurdity itself. But this movie, Serving Sara, is a classy one with "classic" (sensitive, caring, vulnerable) actors (Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley). Its supporting casts too are great. Every detail in this movie is weighed and measured with great care. The chain of events that are led to the final getting-together of Joe and Sara in the Vineyard are portrayed with rationale good enough to be called a poetic justice (the fact Joe's dream has come true). Even to the very ending, there is a tight grip of humanity in the material. This movie is a questionable masterpiece with good workmanship and artistry.
Rating: Summary: Could have been so much better! Review: Serving Sara was quite a disappointment, considering the makeup of the cast: Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley, among others!
The two of them are gorgeous (as ALWAYS), but the acting is not great, the humor is very poor, and the plot is below average.
Though the potential for a good movie was definitely there it fails to take off. A shame really...
In a nutshell, it's just an ok movie, and that's about it; it lacks that extra something to put it over the top. No masterpiece here.
Rating: Summary: Not Great, but a fun movie. Review: Serving sarah is a silly comedy in the tradition of "There's something about marie." Using crude humor as an object for laughs. I went into this movie expection romantic comedy, which it wasn't. It was a gross-out comedy diguised as a romantic film. Funny and stupid, but alot of fun. Some well-written scenes and funny jokes.
Rating: Summary: Matthew Perry has better movies Review: So far I was surprised with Matthew Perry's movies. They were better than the newspapers wrote. This movie isn't that great unfortunately. It's a romantic comedy but you don't really recognize anything going on between the two main protagonists. Also the storyline is not particularly funny either. You can see as well that Matthew Perry had a hard time while this was shot
Rating: Summary: Oh no, Chandler!!!! Review: Taking aside the fact the critics are usually wating to humiliate any movie starring any of the six FRIENDS stars, I must agree that htis movie was deservedly bashed. It's simply bad. It's not funny AT ALL. Perry is in good shape, but there is no history. I mean, there is a plot, but it is so uninspired, directe so robotically, without any real "grip" by the director. Hurley's acting is atrocious (but she is more beautiful than ever!)
This movie will be forgotten forever.
Rating: Summary: Oh, Have Mercy Review: The Law of Averages dictates that at least ONE star from the over-the-hill TV show "Friends" will eventually land the lead in an inspired, genuinely laugh-inducing, cinematic Hollywood comedy film. And to my taste, Matthew Perry seems the most eligible candidate, considering the wheezers attempted by the other five "Friends"-ers. Unfortunately, this piece of juvenile sputum ain't it. One would think society has outgrown the "Hi-jinx" Comedy genre, but Hollywood knows better and helps ensure that sophmoric gratuities like the "cow" scene (not to mention all the infantile pabulum preceding and following it) waste celluloid whenever possible. That kind of thing might have worked in a Zucker Brothers spoof (and thank goodness those films are out of fashion), but in this pseudo-Romantic Comedy setting it only lowers an already inch-high bar further. And if anyone wonders why stereotypes perpetuate, just look no further than the latest Hollywood "comedy." Even the always-endearing Elizabeth Hurley in porn-flick costuming can't make up for the nausea induced by all the cringingly horrid buffoonery. Good thing I didn't see this dollop of puerile [material] in the theatre--I wasted enough money just on the rental fee.
Rating: Summary: A small "serving" of humor Review: The local video emporium was having a "two-fer" deal, so I picked this up as my "bonus" movie when renting "Bruce Almighty." And while I have to say that "Serving Sara" is nothing special, my wife and I both thought it was every bit as good as "Bruce." Of course, that's not much of a compliment; "Sara" is really pretty lightweight. The plot, such as it is, is just a contrivance to send the various characters ricocheting around the country in search of ... well, opportunities to fall down, get punched, and endure embarrassing encounters with livestock. The acting is adequate, but no more than that. Best in show goes to Cedric the Entertainer, who is on-screen perhaps 10% of the time. Elizabeth Hurley is quite the hottie, especially at age 37, but her acting skills are minimal. Matthew Perry is his usual slightly-snide self. And Bruce Campbell gives HIS usual deadpan performance. Overall I'd give "Serving Sara" a LOW three stars --- more like 2.5, actually. Worth renting if there's nothing better on the shelf.
Rating: Summary: A small "serving" of humor Review: The local video emporium was having a "two-fer" deal, so I picked this up as my "bonus" movie when renting "Bruce Almighty." And while I have to say that "Serving Sara" is nothing special, my wife and I both thought it was every bit as good as "Bruce." Of course, that's not much of a compliment; "Sara" is really pretty lightweight. The plot, such as it is, is just a contrivance to send the various characters ricocheting around the country in search of ... well, opportunities to fall down, get punched, and endure embarrassing encounters with livestock. The acting is adequate, but no more than that. Best in show goes to Cedric the Entertainer, who is on-screen perhaps 10% of the time. Elizabeth Hurley is quite the hottie, especially at age 37, but her acting skills are minimal. Matthew Perry is his usual slightly-snide self. And Bruce Campbell gives HIS usual deadpan performance. Overall I'd give "Serving Sara" a LOW three stars --- more like 2.5, actually. Worth renting if there's nothing better on the shelf.
Rating: Summary: Comedy, no romance ... Review: The term "romantic comedy" doesn't really fit for this very rewatchable flick. It isn't that romance between Hurley's and Perry's characters is unbelievable, only that the film never sets it up. There are no moments, no sparks, no intimacy, no true sexual tension. Suddenly, really without preamble, the two are together. That said, I thought it was hilarious. Perry's character has a certain enjoyable caustic bite that his character in Friends lacks. The dialogue is clever. Some sight humor and a bit of scatalogical comedy, without an overwhelming gross-factor. And Hurley is ... well, delicious. Most important, rewatchability. If you like the flick at all, you can definitely watch this one many times without boredom. Not a dust catcher.
Rating: Summary: Pretty funny Review: This is a fairly humorous movie starring Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley. Perry serves Hurley's character with divorce papers, not after his colleague warns her about it, so he will lose the deal. Hurley's character is in shock over the divorce, and learns that if her husband is served with papers first, he will have to come to New York rather than her going to Texas, and he will owe her money. In order to do this though, Perry's character would have to backtrack and ruin his reputation. She writes a contract that he will get 10% of her earnings if he serves the divorce papers to her husband. This works out to be about a million dollars, so he jumps at the chance. Hilarity ensures in a bunch of funny scenes. The only problem is Perry's colleague is on the case and trying to serve the papers to her first, so they constantly try to trick each other. It seems unethical and unrealistic, but in the spirit of the movie, it makes it more funny. Overall it was a funny movie, and the cast was well suited for these parts.
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