Rating: 
Summary: I'd suggest that you rent the video or DVD
Review: Some laughs, and is worth seeing once, I'd say. I bought it because it was so highly recommended by a friend. I'm going to erase the tape, and use it to record something else.
Rating: 
Summary: Ben Stiller Never Ceases to Amaze
Review: Sometimes, watching a Ben Stiller movie is like watching a car crash, you just can't look away or you might miss something. In this slightly chaotic film about a man trying to find the identity of his birth parents is a serious topic; but Stiller mananges to weave the characters carefully into a totally neurotic mis-adventure. You have to wonder what kind of daily experiences this man has had. How do you come up with a scene where a friend or is licking the underarm of his wife(Patricia Arquette). Does it happen in his circle of friends? I don't think this film was a big box office attraction, but I watch it over and over again just to see Mary Tyler Moore loose control because her daughter-in-law is nursing her baby and not wearing the right bra--warning her against the perils of an inadequate binding device. I highly recommend this movie just to rattle your cage a little.
Rating: 
Summary: Does anybody actually own a white Taurus...
Review: Split down the middle about this film, I thought that this second outing by David O. Russell did not capture his full potential, but instead demonstrated his budding capacity behind the camera. I will begin by agreeing with my wife when she commented that this was one of the best ensemble cast films she has ever seen. Russell manipulated and moved his characters into the right places at the right time that always felt even. He controlled the screen and moved the story to levels that I never saw coming. He continually kept fresh images in front of our eyes, and forced his actors, and us, out of their element to progress the story. It was obvious that Russell was a master behind the camera and was able to ensure that no zigzagging occurred that would cause us to falter or loose sight of our goal.
While there didn't seem to ever be a bubble in the movement of the characters and story, where I found most of the bubbles occurring were the actors that helmed the characters. While each have their own discreet method of acting, I somewhat felt that they all just didn't mesh well in this story. Stiller was humorous, but lacked the depth that his character needed for us to really understand his plight. Arquette was sympathetic, but again the depth factor was obvious and there were times where I felt that she just wasn't giving her full potential. She was in the scenes, but I knew that it was Patricia Arquette and not the character she was to be playing. I can honestly say "ditto" for Tea Leoni's character. There was just something missing. Maybe they needed more back story, perhaps we needed to spend more time with them, or perhaps it was the way that these actors pushed their characters that just didn't seem to mesh with the rest of the film for me. The only actors that really went above and beyond their call in this film were the secondary actors. Mary Tyler Moore was well out of her element and loving every minute of it (and so were we), Alan Alda and Liv Tyler were perfect together, and the best buddy-cop scene ever in a film could not have been done by anyone other than Josh Brolin and Richard Jenkins. They did not only provide some of the funniest moments in the film, but their scenes stole the film literally from everyone else. I could have watched an entire film on just these two and their idiosyncrasies. That would have been funny.
As I look back onto this film I try to think of why I was so conflicted about my feelings towards it. It had some elements that I just found hysterical and could see Russell's style, but then there were times where I felt the actors were just flubbing this film completely out of control. This was a family neurosis movie. What Stiller was trying to do was find a cure for his (and possibly his newborn son) neurosis. He thought that by finding his true parents he would be able to bring some closure to his life. This was the focus of the film, but as I watched him go through the motions around his psudo-parents, I felt we lost focus of this goal. Russell's direction accurately kept us moving along the path, but Stiller was no guide. His focus throughout this film was about as solid as ice on a spring day. There are parts where we know where he is going and he is doing great, but other times he falls through the cracks. Thankfully, he has the secondary characters to back him up and help him out of his pitfalls. This film was not a perfect fit for Stiller. I thought for everyone else (sans Arquette), they fit perfectly into their roles. Stiller just seemed out of place.
A "find-your-true-family" caper can be funny. Russell's "find-your-true-family" caper is funny, but not hysterically funny. The humor could have been more adult and articulate. I thought this was a decent film, but it didn't blow me away as the other Russell films have. It almost felt as if he had calmed himself down for this film. He didn't seem as eccentric as he does in his later outings. Russell goes through the motions and does very well, but his cast is what ultimately brings this film down a notch for me. Stiller is not a fit, Arquette character could have been played by a mannequin compared to her, and Tea Leoni needed to get some hot Duchovny action ... and soon! Again, I cannot thank the surrounding cast for their hard work and dedication because without them I don't think I could have survived this film. Russell's direction is ample, but Stiller's performance ruins.
Overall, this is definitely a "yheaah" film. Not quite a "yea" and not quite a "nea", but somewhere in-between. If you are a die-hard David O. Russell fan, I suggest checking this film out at least once to experience his power behind an ensemble cast (which again works well in I Heart Huckabees), but it doesn't deserve more than one viewing. Russell has made better films than this and I think you should stick to them instead of coming back to this one. Plenty will disagree, but that is how I feel about this film.
Grade: *** out of *****
Rating: 
Summary: Superb sophistication
Review: Superb sophistication, folks. Don't watch it unless you consider yourself a member of the intelligentsia. Kansas natives, stay away. Otherwise, the funniest movie I have seen in a decade.
Rating:
Summary: Funny film although not perfect
Review: This film certainly had its moments and fine cast, although taken as a whole one gets a somewhat mixed feeling. I didn't think this was a bad film but it wasn't a great film either. I have to agree with an earlier reviewer who said that it was almost like watching a bunch of irritating people trapped in a room. Sometimes you feel like you are suffocating especially scenes with Mary Tyler Moore. I hope she's not like that in real life. Another thing I've noticed is that negative reviewers are almost always derided by positive reviewers. I don't understand why people won't just accept a film's weak or bad points.
Rating:
Summary: Side-splitting laughs
Review: This film has so many turns....you don't know where it will go next. Ben Stiller's subtle facial expressions are a killer, and Lily Tomlin and Alan Alda's scenes just steal the entire film! This is SICK humor at its best!
Rating:
Summary: Doctor, my brain hurts
Review: This film is so plot-driven and relentlessly acrobatic with it's schematics and motivations that each time the narrative threads are explained and advanced (SIMULTANEOUSLY) you have to juggle all the various strands so much that your mind freezes up with what's going on NOW. As a result the characters are hopelessly telegraphed, and even such talent as Alda and Tomlin (not to mention Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal as Mel's adopted parents) strain to do as much as they can with their roles, but the script is just so much smoke and mirrors to conjure up situations and confrontations that act as dramatizations of talk show themes that the film only really succeeds as a farce careening between an examination and commentary on as many different lifestyles as there are stories in the naked city, and an investigation of marriage. Every lifestyle trotted out is held in suspicion by one character or another, not to mention the ironic distance the audience is given. Only motherhood (if you can call that a "lifestyle," maybe in a passive/aggressive way it's a "lifestyle" choice) has the obvious sacrosanctity glowing around it like a halo. And how does marriage hold up? Underneath all the plot mechanizations, the basic temptations are A) will the father, who is not sexually interested in his wife because she's still getting her body back into shape after giving birth, fall for the randy, recently divorced adoption agent with the "dancer's legs" (some of us call them toothpicks, despite what Hollywood moguls deem erotic) who is trying her best to get into his pants and B) will the mother fall for the buff, caring 90s bisexual stud who is emotionally "there" for her and has much more time and understanding for her predicament and her child than the husband? Patricia Arquette does the best acting out of all of the cast members and displays the only real voice of sanity in this mess, despite the fact that the filmmakers deemed it necessary to show her boobs every chance they got. Why they didn't show her legs so we could compare them with the "dancer's" legs is beyond me. In the introductory scene when Arquette is lounging on her bed, you do get a slight glimpse of her shapely legs (as in SHAPE-ly, not shape-LESS like the "dancer's") and they looked a lot HEALTHIER and certainly more EROTIC than the TOOTHPICKS/ NEEDLES/STRING CHEESE legs of the "dancer." At root, this film is like an ideological challenge for males: Loving Wife and Caring Mother vs. Sexual Temptation. After it was done I felt like I'd been through some sort of whirlwind. My brain hurt.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible transfer to DVD
Review: This is a very funny movie and you should see it, but the transfer to DVD was just awful. I think it looked better on VHS tape (I'm not joking). The image is very, very grainy and poorly defined with pixelation becoming an issue especially in anything but bright light. Miramax really blundered with this release. Too bad, I was looking forward to it for a long time. And to top it off, there are absolutely no extras on the disc. Oh well. I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 1 because it really is a funny movie. Caveat emptor.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: This is certainly one of the funniest flims to come along in years and years. It is filled with memorable dialog and scenes that are so much fun you'll want to see them over and over. The cast is superb. Everyone is great. Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal as Stiller's adoptive parents are perfect. As he begins the search for his real parents he meets some hilarious characters and it all culminates in the meeting of Lily Tomlin and Alan Alda. Without giving too much away, let me just say that this movie is priceless! A must see. My highest compliments to the writers and director.
Rating:
Summary: No, that's the dogs pillow.
Review: This is one great movie. A comedy that gathers it's laughs from characterization and situation colliding in excellent harmony without the use of brainless fart jokes or prosthetic genetalia. The cast is top notch and the writing is dryly hilarious, something unexpected amidst the cookie-cutter comedy that lurks at your local multiplex/video store. Easily Ben Stiller's best movie and Tea Leoni's performance is bordering on comedic genius. For me to expain the plot would be futile, this film should be on every fan's list of funniest films, for it holds a place on my shelf and it is taken down to remind me what a good, funny movie is two to three times monthly. (...)
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