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Shallow Hal

Shallow Hal

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A MOVIE WITH A LESSON
Review: I really don't know how anyone could not love this movie.
Hal, the star of our show, is obsessed with beautiful women.
He puts down those who do not measure up to his high standards, which would be 90% of the world. Through a chance encounter with
a self-help guru, he is given a gift that he would see people
as they truly are, on the inside, their inner beauty.
Meeting a young woman named Rosemary, Hal only sees her as
beautiful while the rest of the world sees her as an obese
woman. Through the movie you are allowed to see people through
Hal's eyes, their inner self and how the rest of the world
sees them, which is never what they truly are.
I thought this movie was great. It's comedy with a good dose
of moral fiber and certainly gives you something to think
about after it has ended. This is one of the best movies I
have seen in a long time. I highly recommend it!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gwyneth Paltrow's best performance is a Farrelly Bros. film?
Review: What is the world coming to when a movie by the Farrelly Brothers makes me cry? I knew I was being set up for something Hal (Jack Black) goes with his new girlfriend Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow) to the Children's Hospital where she volunteers and has a great time with the kids. I knew that Hal was missing something and I could not figure out what it was either (except that it was not contagious), and when the revelation came it floored me almost as much as it did Hal. We live in interesting times, to say the least.

You all know the basic premise of "Shallow Hal." Our hero is only interested in what women look like. There is an unnecessary prologue in which Hal's dying father imparts some drug-induced wisdom that supposedly programs Hal to be shallow. However, he apparently learned how to be inept with women all on his own. Then he has a chance encounter with self-help guru Tony Robbins (played by self-help guru Tony Robbins in a brilliant bit of casting). Now when he goes off into the world, Hal will see the inner beauty of women. Actually he is told it will apply to any "person" he sees, but it does not work on Hal's best friend, Mauricio (Jason Alexander), which would have been interesting, and apparently only works once in "reverse" over the course of the film. Hal is suddenly having great success with a bevy of beautiful women, but it is Rosemary with whom he is completely smitten.

Granted, there is an inherent flaw in turning inner beauty into outer beauty for a man who has been totally obsessed with the latter, because on the intellectual level that defeats the whole purpose of the fable being told here. In a sense, Hal now gets to have his cake and eat it too. I wonder if this film would have worked the other way around, where we always see the truth and get only brief glimpses of what Hal sees. But then Gwyneth Paltrow is not going to be playing the lead, and that would have been a shame.

As long as I am making outrageous comments about this film I might as well say that Paltrow's performance in "Shallow Hal" is better than her Oscar winning performance in "Shakespeare in Love." Forget about the scenes where she wears the "fat suit," it is the rest of the film where she does a marvelous job of acting like an overweight person. Usually Paltrow's character is like fine porcelain china, but this time around her character has some weight (sorry, you knew that was coming), and in this film she is the most attractive she has ever been as far as I am concerned. For most of the film Black tries too hard, clearly aware he is in a Farrelly brothers film, but in the key scenes (including the one that made me cry) he is on target and when it comes to playing an annoying sidekick Jason Alexander is in a league by himself. But everybody's favorite supporting character is Walt (Rene Kirby), who has spina bifida and establishes the standard by which we judge Hal and the rest of the males in this film (Why doesn't the "inner beauty" charm work on him? Because he is male? These things bother me). Remember that this is one of those films where you have to watch the credits because there is something at the end.

The trailer for "Shallow Hal" gives away virtually every major sight gag in the film, which is actually good because you gloss over those while you watch it and keep your focus on the relationship between Jack and Rosemary. One of the other surprises of this film is that most of the jokes are at Hal's expense and not Rosemary's. But once you get past Paltrow's performance and a tearjerker scene, this ends up being a relatively minor surprise. In the end, "Shallow Hall" is the least funny Farrelly Brothers movie, which is actually appropriate.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Has its moments, but loaded with holes and contradictions
Review: Shallow Hal is a moderately funny movie that has some funny moments that will definitely make you crack up. However, the more I watched the movie and the more I thought about what the film's message, the more I realized that the entire premise was totally hypocritical and just plain stupid. I mean just think about it. The main character, Hal, is criticized for only going after good-looking women...we say that he's so shallow. One of his co-workers tells him that every woman he pursues is completely out of his league because he himself isn't that good-looking. Well, then aren't the women who reject Hal just as bad as him, only rejecting him because of how he looks? Who's the real victim here, Hal or Rosemary? It's okay for everyone else to be shallow, but not Hal? Everyone else has a right to go out with someone they're attracted to, but not Hal. Unacceptable hypocrisy. Plus, I hate the fact that every good-looking person in the film is portrayed as truly "ugly" on the inside...and the exact opposite for fat, ugly, people...they're always sweet and caring on the inside. Unless you live in a cave, you know that in real life this is far from the case. I know tons of good-looking people that also have amazing personalities and will do anything for you...I also know many fat, ugly people who are obnoxious and total jerks...hell just watch an episode of Jerry Springer. There are good and bad in every type of person, and the movie did a real bad job with this. Finally, here's another problem. I agree that it would be great if people were less shallow and stopped insulting people just because of how they look...but as far as people ceasing to look at physical apperance when looking for a mate. Well what do you expect? How can you expect someone to have a physically intimate relationship with a person they're not attracted to. This is just human nature, biology and people should not be criticized for wanting to go out with people they're attracted to physically. Otherwise, how can you be anything more than friends? Sorry but this movie had too many contradictions and holes for me...the funny parts got it the two stars I gave it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I loved it!
Review: Cute and funny, with a few serious overtones. It's done just right, good mix of everything, doesn't drag. I really have grown to like Paltrow over the years, she can really do good comedy, as you can see in Shallow Hal. The deleted scenes are good and there is some good commentary.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Lame - why is there no "zero stars"?
Review: This is the worst movie I have ever had the misfortune of paying theatre price to see. It's all about this fat, ugly, psychotic-looking guy (who can't act, by the way) who only wants the prettiest girls. If the character was played by somebody cute, like Mario Lopez, I could understand that - but THIS guy??? For him, that's like going into a fancy restaurant and asking for filet mignon, but he's only got 2 pennies. Don't ask for something you can't afford is the moral of this story. And poor Hal gets hypnotized and basically spends his movie with a sweet, yet obese girl - but he sees her as the beautiful trim girl played by Miss Paltrow. I fell asleep way before the movie was over - it has no charm, no values, nothing. However, this could have been a great gay-themed movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A lot better than I expected
Review: I personally consider the all idea of beauty being synonimus of stupidity completely wrong, and the same goes with fat being ok and somehow "cool".
But this movie is brilliant, it is fun, intelligent, and much more intriguing than I expected.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Some funny degrading scenes, otherwise ho-hum!
Review: This movie will probably manage to offend someone in someway, therefore I most give it an extra star for that. Otherwise, it wasn't near as funny as it could be, way too much of a love story "do the right thing" movie, and was slow in spots. Very predictable movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: contrived
Review: This is the most contrived movie I've ever seen. It's about as funny as death.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not hypnotized...but de-hypnotized!
Review: Everyone probably knows the plot by now: Hal (played by Jack Black) is as shallow as any typical young heterosexual male who prefers only the best-looking females, as opposed to going for females with good-natured personalities (with physically undesirable aspects.) All of this changes when a twist of fate brings him into contact with a motivational speaker (Tony Robbins.) He then gets hypnotized into seeing the inner beauty of people (which comes off as gorgeous physical appearances), as opposed to seeing their so-called "undesirable" physical attributes. He meets a gorgeous gal named Rosemary (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), and falls for her. Little does he know that she's a grossly overweight female, as opposed to the tall, thin, blonde-haired bombshell that he sees (as the result of the hypnosis he's undergone.) Meanwhile, his close friend (played by Jason Alexander) notices the change in Hal's perceptions, and tries to figure out the cause of this.

While many people note the change in approach from The Farrelly Brothers' normally immature, gross-out comedies, I have to venture to say that this change isn't as large as some note, but nevertheless, it can be spotted. Although There's Something About Mary featured many immature gags revolving around bodily fluids and such other seemingly taboo subjects, underneath it all, I found it to be a poignant (although kooky) love story with heart and a message. However, what makes this change more relevant, is that the gross-outs are toned down considerably, and the poignant aspects are not camouflaged. While the movie does have it's humorous moments (Jason Alexander's character in general was the funniest thing about the movie for me), I hesitate to call it a non-stop laugh fest, and is not in the same league as other typical comedies. Jack Black in particular didn't crack me up as much as he did in say Orange County. This isn't a bad thing, as his character is mostly the central focus in the film, and it does not represent anything as remotely silly as what was featured in the aforementioned film. Instead, he takes on a more ambiguous role - one of which exhibits a balance of subtle humor and good-hearted thoughtfulness.

I rate this 4 stars out of personal preference, but this film is quite clever with it's ingenious use of dialogue, as well as exhibiting a nice balance between subtle humor and thought-provoking attributes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Shallow Hal Wants A Gal"
Review: This is the funniest movie since true grit with john wayne.
I love this dvd and recommend it to anybody.


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