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Get Real

Get Real

List Price: $29.95
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best coming out film ever...
Review: This is a film and a half. When I sat down to watch it, it was by advice of a friend of mine, and he was not mistaken. This film is a must to own simply for the fact that you will want to watch it over and over again (I know I did). The actors play their parts perfectly. As someone from the UK I can most definately identify with the issues that are covered in this film and over coming out. The supporting characters are hillariously funny, especially the best friend and the general feel of the film is one of realism.

This one gets a definate Thumbs up :)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love affair, deja vu
Review: I fell in love with this movie and the lead characters. I now live in Los Angeles but grew up in the British culture of New Zealand. I attended a very similar grammar school and my suburb could have been a clone of Basingstoke. Having said that, they film was totally real to me, the contradictions of living in a British culture that can be include supportive teachers and friends on one level but be so homophobic on another. I also had an affair with the school jock and it pained me that I was shunned by him in public. This film transported me back twenty five years, it was compelling. I feel some of the nuances of the film will be missed this side of the Atlantic and the acting seems subdued by American standards but reflects the reserved culture of the British. I felt the characters realistic and compelling. Watch the film with a good friend. Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best moive I have seen in a long time
Review: Very touching.The acting is very good particularly by Ben Silverstone and Brad Gordon. characters were likeable (well not Kevin and Dave)but most importantly believable.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Been there, Seen that
Review: Typical "coming out" movie about disappointing gay first love affair, sort of "Romeo and Juliet" but with a couple of (high school) guys. Guy one is gay and fine with it, guy two is a closeted athlete with uptight parents. They have sex, guy one falls in love with guy two who can't commit because he's too uptight, got too much to lose, and therefore a jerk. Guy one gets in trouble when word gets around his student body that he's gay, then he starts getting ostracized and everybody's just MEAN about it. They have a "tell-all" climax, where guy one declares his love for guy two in front of the whole student body (kinda like that other really believable scene in "In and Out.") Guy two tries to get back together with guy one, but it's too late, guy one has regained his self-worth and isn't going back to hang with some guy who betrayed him. I guess it's a milestone of some kind that this movie, which would have been really tedious and trite with straight characters, was made at all, but folks, if we're going to try to break new ground, couldn't we have a less predictable plot? And maybe cuter actors, especially the athlete guy who's supposed to be such an irresistable hunk but is actually kind of a toad?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's only Love
Review: I love this film. The script, soundtrack and casting are all wonderful. Many automatically compare this to the wonderful Beautiful Thing (also 5 Stars). Both are set in England and involve stories of first love. However they are the same but different. Get Real doesn't have the same fairytale quality as Beautiful Thing but is equally touching.

This story is Steven Carter's but it could so easily be John Dixon's. The film tells the story of how they try to build a relationship. Neither boy is openly out at school but Steven is the quieter of the two and people assume. John is head boy and on the athletics team. He has a much more macho image to protect.

John fears being outed and this is highlighted extremely well. There are several instances in the film where John is scared and Brad Gorton conveys this brilliantly. The fear that people have to endure because of society's assumptions that everyone is straight until proven otherwise is a burden that both John and Steven struggle with. I think the story is very believable and the performances of Ben Silverstone (Steven) and Brad Gorton (John) are superb. Stacy Hart as Jessica and Charlotte Brittan as Linda also give memorable performances.

I thought all the characters were likeable (well not Kevin and Dave) but most importantly real. We would all be lucky to have a friend like Linda that we can turn to.

The most comic moment is Linda telling Kevin she doesn't want to dance and the most touching is when Steven asks John not to see Christina anymore. Small comedy highlight is Kevin's reaction to John and Steven swimming. That confused look on his face was priceless.

I like the fact that although homophobia is present it does not dominate what is essentially a love story. I found myself hoping for happy ever after but life isn't a fairytale. I originally reviewed this a year ago and have come to love the film even more.

Who knows what happened after those credits?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful adaption of 'What's Wrong With Angry'?
Review: Unfortunately, 'Get Real' did badly when it was released in this country in May 1999, due, I think to UIP poorly marketing and distributing the film. It's my opinion that 'Get Real' is one of the best British film of the 1990's - deeply moving, always plausible, and sometimes hilarious, I urge anyone reading this to hire it, if they haven't already done so. A flawless cast give indelible perfomances. Superb.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Points for trying
Review: I hate to be a dissenter here, and I realize that it may be a purely personal response, but I wasn't all that captivated with "Get Real." Possibly it was just that the characters were too young for me to identify with, but I think there's more. I think that no matter how hard everyone tried to convey the depths of emotion, the film remained flat. I can't imagine that's the fault of all the actors, though a few were only adequate to their task. What should have been a compelling film, which had all the right elements to be a compelling film, instead proved uninvolving. Only Charlotte Brittain, who played Linda, managed to convey a sense of who she was.

I would recommend "Trick" or "Bedrooms and Hallways" before "Get Real." Sorry.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good movie, but "Beautiful Thing" is much better
Review: Don't get me wrong, I did like this film. However, it has its problems. Based on the very well written "What's Wrong with this Play?", there are too many monologues and unlikely elements to translate to a sceen version smoothly (one in particular where one of the characters relates his first almost sexual experience, which goes on so long that you just want to fast forward thru it). The story centers around Steve, a 16 year old thoroughly accepting of his own homesexuality and sort of a "geek", and John, the "sex on legs" school track star. John has never had a real sexual experience with a man, and, though very uncomfortable with his sexuality, very confidently picks up Steve in a public toilet in the park famous for one-off gay sex(one of the unlikely elements). John freaks out, however, after kissing Steve in his bedroom (why a guy who is comfortable enough to cruise a toilet would, I don't know), and he and Steve never quite get anywhere during their first encounter. Steve has been having sex in the park with older (mostly married ) men for ages, but this is the first time he has met anyone he harbors real feelings for. The only one who is aware of Steve's proclivities is Linda, written as the quintessential fag-hag (fat, loud, and slightly over the top in fashion sense), who worries about his adventures in the park. John gets drunk one night at a party, follows Steve home, and the two develop things from there....

This film may have been better for me had I not seen "Beautiful Thing", another teen-coming out story. Unlike "Beautiful Thing", the characters in "Get Real" all seem written with heterosexual stereotypes of gay characters (and their friends) in mind. John, the "sex on legs" track star, Steve, the "pervert" who frequents toilets in the park, Linda, the stereotypical fag hag. As they are all charicatures, you don't really get too sympathetic for any of them, and therefore don't get engrossed in the story. Finally, the two monologues, one by John describing his first semi-sexual encounter with a man, and one by Steve in front of his school assembly, presumably the two scenes designed to have the greatest emotional impact, fall absolutely flat since the actors themselves don't seem to know how to emotionally handle their own parts.

I strongly recommend that you see "Beautiful Thing" instead, or at least see "Get Real" before you see the better of the two. While both deal with teen coming out issues, "Get Real" is a bit too clichéd, and might actually be more frightening than necessary, whereas "Beautiful Thing" deals with the subject in an almost realistic fashion, with more sensitivity expressed by characters with more than just two dimensions.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best movies ever!
Review: Get Real addresses the issue of homosexuality in such a creative way - though the movie is essentially serious, it does have a sense of humor. Furthermore, the movie aims (and does so successfully) to explain the plights of growing up gay to heterosexuals. This coming-of-age story is one of the best movies I've ever seen and, boy, will the ending surprise you! "Be happy!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just a all around great movie !!
Review: I just rented and watched 'Get Real' this week, and really loved it...I must admit I was suprised, and had no idea I would enjoy it as much as I did! So much I am buying it on DVD! It's got a charming yet very real story with great acting and even a few tears...I think it's a movie anyone (not just gay men) can relate to...about falling in love with someone very special, who you have secretly admired...this movie really does have it all. Watch it...get it...you'll love it !!


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