Rating: 
Summary: Dark, eccentric comedy not for everyone
Review: Nurse Betty is a smart, satirical and dark comedy that threatens at times to veer off track. Each time it does so, it winds up redeeming itself, but the result is a movie that does not manage to entertain consistently throughout. It also has an odd way of both repelling and engaging the viewer. Its strongest point is its originality, and that's saying something in a year [2000] that was pretty predictable at the movies.Renee Zellweger is Betty Sizemore, a small town waitress whose husband, Del [Aaron Eckhart] is a crass, petty man. He owns a used car lot, and when Betty asks if she can borrow a 1997 Buick LeSabre off the lot so she can celebrate her birthday with a girlfriend, he tells her a cheaper car should do her just fine. Betty sneaks off with the Buick anyway, but her friend is unable to go out with her. She returns home, planning to return the car the next day, and begins to watch a videotape of her favorite soap opera. It's clear that in Betty's drab and uneventful life, this program is almost the center of her existence. When Del comes home, Betty, who is in the den, turns the TV down but continues to watch. Unbeknownst to her, the two men Del has brought to the house turn out to be there to collect on a big drug deal Del screwed some folks on. The guys are Charlie and his son Wesley [Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock], and in a miscommunication between father and son, Del winds up dead in the living room. Hearing the shots, Betty peeks through a doorway. She sees them. They don't see her. Betty goes into a post traumatic shock in which the world completely alters for her. After the sheriff and the local newspaper reporter [Pruitt Taylor Vane and Crispin Glover] have been in the house awhile investigating the murder, Betty suddenly smiles, thanks them for dropping by and leaves. In her mind there has been no crime. Suddenly, she believes that she was once engaged to Dr. David Ravell, a lead character on her beloved soap opera. Betty takes off in the Buick for Los Angeles in search of David and begins a series of very strange adventures. Charlie and Wesley are soon in hot pursuit because they know something she doesn't... Zellweger was a wonderful choice to play Bette. With her wispy but raspy voice and her little girl lost looks, she is ideal in a movie that is liberally laced with references to The Wizard of Oz. Greg Kinnear gives some nice touches to George McCord, the actor who play Dr. Ravell. He's a man whose ego has caused him to lose sight of what's important. Freeman, master that he is, manages to bring empathy to a character that really doesn't deserve any. I say he doesn't deserve any because I have never been able to buy into the Hollywood cliche in which a guy who makes a living as a hit man is, underneath it all, just a regular guy trying to get by in life. I also have a difficult time finding such a character amusing. It is hard to peg Nurse Betty, and that's okay. If it's a family comedy you're after, forget it. If you like your comedy on the fresh and quirky side, by all means give Betty a try.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Romp from Kans, thru the Bagdad Cafe...
Review: ....to La La Land. Zellweger will have you astounded. Freeman plays a mobster with a sentimental side. Rock rocks (although the writers could have let on that he dug the same soap opera much earlier in the game). Kinear shows that he can be as smarmy as the two after the girl in the Buick. Note to La Bute followers who have not seen this: it ain't "In the Company of Men". But a nice film, nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: How many ideas can you patch together from other movies?
Review: Starting with Purple Rose of Cairo & Fargo & lots of others. The acting is good, I'll say that much, Zellweger in particular. Freeman is always great, he's a giant & tragically under-utilized. But this movie cops out about 3/4 of the way thru & the endings (there are 2 because the 2 hit men & Betty have virtually separate story lines almost till the end) must have been written by a committee of studio junior execs. Pathetic. Oh, Allison Janney was great as usual, but Greg Kinnear should fire his agent for always getting him the same ... part to play.
Rating:
Summary: Fresh, original and funny
Review: Don't get too consumed with the farsical nature of this plot (a housewife losing the line between reality and the fantasy of a soap opera) or you'll miss the real beauty. Rene Zellweger's performance is endearing and completely believable. Morgan Freeman struggles trying to be comedic, but when he, too, becomes obsessed (with Betty), he shines. Chris Rock is believable and funny, but not hysterical as he was in Dogma. The bit players add up to some laugh-out-loud moments, but the characters and their lack of control over themselves is the gold here. Have an open mind and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: This is one of the oddest movies to come along in a while, but it's great. Funny and original. Neil LaBute is 3 for 3 so far, after directing In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors. Keep an eye on him and his favorite actor Aaron Eckhart, he's been in all three film. They've formed a Scorcese-DeNiro link. As for the dvd, great stuff: some importent deleted scenes, all the scenes from the soap opera within the movie uncut, and multiple commentary tracks. Well worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Has Potential But Doesn't Live Up to Expectations
Review: Not a "screwball comedy" as much as a dark comedy skewed tragically wrong. I did not find Renee Zellweger's character anything but annoying. Her general cluelessness was not endearing and she does not become "empowered" in the end. After witnessing a gruesome hit, soap-addicted waitress gets amnesia and thinks she's a character in "A Time to Love". She sets out to find her long-lost love, Dr. David Revell (Greg Kinnear). The two meet and hook up (most improbably!) Kinnear's soap-stud doctor finds her delusions "refreshing" while most would find her ramblings those of a creepy stalker. There were some great moments with Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock as two hit men who take to the road to find Nurse Betty and the secret she has unknowingly stashed in her trunk. Strange dream sequences that equate Betty with Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz are just plain weird and don't add the to story. I just can't find anything to like in this character; I want to give her a good shake. It's obvious this movie wanted to be "Fargo" but falls far short of its goal. Stay away!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent! So unexpectedly funny.... and dark comedy too!
Review: I loved this movie. I didn't know what to expect, but I rolled with laughter. It was an uplifting movie. The actors were all excellent. Rent it!
Rating:
Summary: Blechh, what a waste
Review: I had divined from press reviews and buzz that this was supposed to be a cute comedy. But what a total disappointment, a major waste of actors, crew, talent and money. I'll give credit to efforts of Renee, Morgan Freeman, et al. to do what they could to carry out a wretchedly implausible script. Freeman, especially, shines. He is truly a great, simpatico actor, for whose character in this non-epic one can almost feel sympathy. But the rest of it you can put back in the can. Chris Rock, especially, disappoints. He is a brilliant, pushing-the-edge comedian on HBO. But here he's just another street-foulmouthed punk, a la Eddie Murphy at Murphy's trashmouth best (worst), like Murphy another self-inflicted waste of talent. Hollywood hubris, again. How could anyone have thought that the premise and execution of this film were worth investing $ in? Don't waste YOUR money. Leave this one on the shelf in the store.
Rating:
Summary: A good example of dark comedy
Review: As a critical and analytical viewer of soap operas, I loved this movie. At first I thought that in order to enjoy and understand most of the film you would need to be an avid fan of soaps. This is simply not true. While there are a lot of subthemes throughout the film that lend themselves to "soap opera"-ology (i.e. the recurring Hispanic telenovela theme and the pathos of the actors of A Reason to Love), the movie has much for the most rabid soap-opera hater. Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Renee Zellweger, and many of the supporting cast members do a fine job. I was not a huge Chris Rock fan before seeing the movie, but it changed my opinion of him as an actor. The only reason this doesn't get five stars from me is that the language and nonseqiteur violence really catches you off guard. However, those are key criteria to a dark comedy. If you are a fan of soap operas, you will love this movie. If you detest soap operas, you will equally love this movie. If you like good, quirky, creative films, you will love this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Too bloody for me
Review: If I had known about the graphic violence in this movie I would have never wasted my time or money on it. Did they have to show the murder/scalping of the husband? It ruined whatever else of the movie there was which wasn't much. There are 2 more bloody scenes later in the movie, one of which I was able to forward through and the second well...I wish I had never seen horrid this movie. I wouldn't even classify it as a dark comedy.
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