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The Banger Sisters

The Banger Sisters

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: And the point is????
Review: In "The Banger Sisters", fifty-somethings Hawn and Sarandon prove that Spandex should only be worn by twenty-somethings. Beyond that, it's a sad film peopled with caricatures rather than characters. The message seems to be that life as an upstanding citizen is a bad and deadly boring thing but reliving a former life in the fast lane can keep you "true". Savoring the past is fine, but try to keep on living it and you just might end up - like Hawn's character - broke and out of gas somewhere in the desert.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A SCREAMIN' GOOD TIME!!!
Review: This movie tickled me to my toes. My husband and I opened a bottle of wine and settled in for a ride that shook us both with laughter. With Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon-two of the classiest acts in the business-starring as 2 former hell-raisers, how could you go wrong?
Two former groupies (with a list of "conquests" that would make Heidi Fleiss blush) are reunited after Hawn's smoking, drinking, fast-living character-in need of some money-hunts down Sarandon, who is in the midst of living her "perfect" life, her wild past buried forever (or so she thinks.)

Sarandon's real-life daughter plays one of her daughters in the movie and the resemblance between the two is striking.
Geoffrey Rush was a clever side-dish in this hysterical story and added his own element to the mix.

This is a perfect show for baby-boomers who did most of their partying in the late 60s-mid 70s. Not for the prim and proper or the uptight, this just might bring back some great memories and might make you reach for the phone to call that "best girlfriend" from high school.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: funny stuff!!
Review: When my mother rented this movie, I was not at all expecting to like it. I figured it would be another one of those drab Hollywood movies, but lord was I wrong. I got the biggest kick out of the all the women, younger and older in this flick. I was laughing at all of them and entertained till the end! Let me just say that my favorite scene that I kept rewinding was Goldie Hawn's reaction to the sight of the banana hammock! Too funny!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Sister, Sister
Review: A post-feminist fable of growing up and getting your groove back, and more importantly, a showcase for the mature charms of Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn.

Once upon a reckless youth, best friends Vinnie (Sarandon) and Suzette (Hawn) were the wildest groupies on Sunset Strip. A generation (or two) of appreciative musicians dubbed the inseparable pals the "Banger Sisters" for their full-bodied embrace of the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

Thirty years later, brassy Suzette is still at Whiskey a Go-Go, until she gets fired for dissing her much-younger boss. Broke, jobless and depressed, Suzette heads for the Phoenix, Ariz., suburbs into which Vinnie vanished years earlier, only to find her old partner in crime transformed into the uptight, beige-on-taupe clad wife of a politically ambitious lawyer and mother of two snotty and closely watched teenagers.

It's a foregone conclusion that Suzette will loosen Vinnie up and Vinnie will teach Suzette that "mature" and "sell out" aren't necessarily synonymous, but watching Sarandon and Hawn sashay through their paces is its own reward.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sound and Song
Review: Okay- overall the DVD and movie were pretty good. I liked the pairing of Goldie and Susan...

Here's the real reason for my review- on the DVD- as you are looking at the main screen there is a song playing...I'm desperately seeking someone who knows what that song is...

Other than that...I'd suggest this movie to someone looking for a fair amont of sensical whimsy girl power.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Banger Sisters
Review: The Banger Sisters is a funny, feel good movie about living with the past and being yourself. Goldie Hawn is hilarious and Susan Surandon is is brilliant as Lavinia, groupie turned mother and business woman. All around, the Banger Sisters is a very funny, well done movie. This film is not for children under 16. It contains sexuality,nudity,language,drug and sexual content.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Worth having for Susan Sarandon's performance
Review: The majority of the blame for what's wrong with The Banger Sisters goes to director Bob Dolman's screenplay. Any interesting concepts are destroyed by his need for "You see, Timmy" moments.
(In 1994's Speechless, Michael Keaton tells Geena Davis speeches should have a moral. He refers to the last minutes of the TV show Lassie, when the moral for all that came before in the episode would be recapped with a statement beginning, "You see, Timmy . . .")
Whatever happened to just being a funny film? Some Like It Hot holds up because it's funny. Tootsie, a variation on Some Like It Hot, holds up only in places due to the need to moralize and punish the audience for the enjoyment they've had prior to the conclusion. If Billy Wilder had written the script for Tootsie (or maybe if Elaine May had doctored the ending), following Dorothy Michaels unmasking we wouldn't suffer through scene after scene of Dustin Hoffman moping -- Jessica Lange would have chased Hoffman down, told him he was full of it in a humorous manner and then they could have walked off into the sunset (same ending, but without the moralizing).
The Banger Sisters' script could have used a Wilder or a May to save us from the l-o-n-g graduation speech that shows us, "Hey, like, what Goldie & Susan did was right, you see, 'coz, like, we all, like, need to stand up for ourselves, you know?" Yeah, we know.
We got that point long before the movie gets turned over to Sarandon's eldest daughter and her graduation. We don't need a speech, we need a laugh but once we hit the third act, there aren't many. Yet there are plenty of moral lessons -- the graduation speech of course, but also Goldie's grave yard lecture. This lecture is not only boring and laugh-free, but also shrill as well. While Goldie may be playing a jaded groupie/hippie love child, with emphasis on "jaded," the speech she makes has little to do with the sixties philosophies of live and let live -- it more of a "tough love" lecture.
The first two acts get by on the strength of anticipation. You keep waiting for the script to kick into gear, for the film to take off. It never does. It's a testament to Sarandon and, in spots, Goldie that you like as much of the film as you do.
The Banger Sisters is a comedy and the hopes of a funny Goldie Hawn film got me into the theater for this film. (The talent of Sarandon is the reason I bought the DVD.)
That said, print critics of the film referred to it as a "chic flick." How is this a "chick flick"?
Do women in the audience respond to the men in this film?
There's something zany, in a whimsical way, of Goldie and Geoffrey Rush's characters merging at the end, I suppose. But Sarandon's husband, played by Robin Thomas, does that character delight women in any way? And would women cast either Rush or Thomas in a fantasy of their own?
(And do they fantasize about wearing hideous clothes like the red jacket that dwarfs Goldie in the gas station scenes or Sarandon's big moment outfit that finds Sarandon shoved into tacky, unflattering clothes that no groupie would wear?)
"Chic flick" is a dismissive, sexist put down of any film that requires the female(s) to do anything more than root for the leading man from the sidelines. Let's all try to stop using that term.
Despite all that's wrong with the film, Sarandon really is excellent. It's good to see her step away from the "first lady of film" roles (Marmie in Little Women, the nun in Dead Man Walking, etc.) and play a character that's messy and doesn't have all the answers. The script isn't up to the quality of Thelma & Louise or Bull Durham, but as in Witches of Eastwick, she creates something out of nothing.
Goldie isn't so fortunate. Work in films like Death Becomes Her and First Wives Club made one think she really did have something to contribute, something to say, in further roles -- that Goldie Hawn was still needed in Hollywood. This film calls that belief into question. It's not that she's backsliding (if she achieved even a fraction of the zaniness of Protocol, that might have saved her performance), it's that she just doesn't seem to have the instincts.
She doesn't seem to know who her character Suzette is from one scene to the next. That's most obvious by the shrillness at the grave yard, but it's there throughout. Is Suzette a cold hearted manipulator, is she jaded, what is she! She's one thing in one scene, and something completely different in the other. If, for instance, Suzette sees nursing the drugged out elder daughter of Lavinna's as a way to get back into Lavinna's life, that's fine -- it could even be funny. But why play it that way one moment and the next act as though it never happened? I've never seen Goldie so erratic onscreen. It can't be blamed on the script, it's her performance. She's played con artists before (best in Housesitter) so if that's how she saw Suzette, that's fine -- just carry it through.
The audience wants to be on her side. It's hard not to love Goldie in anything. (She was the saving grace of Town & Country, for instance.) But in this film, instead of grinning with delight, you're left shaking your head in confusion -- wondering what exactly she's trying to do. (If it's not her worst performance, that's only because she's already made Lovers & Liars.)
The extras are worth noting only because so few DVDs seem to contain any extras lately. Check out Dolman's commentary which will make you appreciate the opening scenes more. The bloopers are okay and the HBO special makes the film seem better than it is.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Goldie Shines / Geoffrey Rush is Perfect
Review: I was pleasantly surprised at this film. There is a lot of fun and good solid laughs. Goldie is absolutley brilliant, I don't say that lightly. She is wonderful. Sarandon on the other hand, I was not so impressed with. Her acting seemed forced and phony.

Geoffrey Rush is simply perfect alongside Goldie. He is natural in his role and I respect his acting abilities tremendously.

The story line is not deep. (you can read about it in the other reviews) but as I said I was pleasantly surprised. The plot and jokes were not stupid, except when the daughters were involved. Oh, were they terrible.

Gorgeous Goldie is the reason to see this film, and Geoffrey Rush -- he compliments and enhances her performance like a professional supporting actor should.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of the cutest movies i've seen
Review: all in all, this movie was pretty good.. the first part was a bit slow, but as soon as goldie hawn and susan sarandon meet, it's a whole lot of fun.. the ending was the only part i didn't like.. and the cutest part is at the hospital.. they have good chemistry and play off each other well.. rent it and u won't regret it

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bang me if you can!!!
Review: Despite the predictability of the cliched script, "The Banger Sisters" is fun and enjoyable. Goldie Hawn and Susan Saradon are absolutely fabulous in the title roles--two women who lived it loud and large--over twenty years ago!!! Upon going their seperate ways, Suzette (Hawn) kept on partying, and now works as a bartender in Hollywood (Go Roxy!!!). Vinnie, however, has married money, and is living a proper upscale life, or so she thinks. Along comes Suzette to complicate her blissful life and make her realize how unhappy she actually is. There are some very fun moments I won't spoil, and the film is solid entertainment throughout, if nothing more. There is an undeniable energy sparked by two actresses in their 50s working at the peak of their powers. The fabulous supporting cast, including Sarandon's real life daughter as her on-screen offspring, have great chemistry, making the film so much better than it should be. It's all pretty standard stuff, but you can't help smile watching it.


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