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Nurse Betty

Nurse Betty

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

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I spent how much to see this...?
Review: What a waste of a good evening. Unfortuneately one star is the lowest I could give it. I guess it's true every director needs a bad film to write off. I find it extremely unsettling that an acclaimed actor like Morgan Freeman would waste his talent on a role like this. Were the Wayan's busy? Now I can't believe I'm wasting my time writing a review for this...I can only hope you don't waste your time and money to see this film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Traumatic and Charming
Review: Reading these reviews on Amazon for this movie I am pleased to see my opinion borne out. But let me explain it in my own way, nonetheless.

This is a movie that I liked and found quite charming but that I did not expect most people to like very much, simply because it is movie for a certain taste. The disturbing violence early in the movie really harms the ability to enjoy the characters played by Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock. I accept the director's justification for this violence as found in the DVD commentary during the scene. It does indeed, as he argues, make the traumatic effect upon Betty believable. Unfortunately it simultaneously traumatizes most of the audience. It is perplexing to figure how the movie could've been shot differently to both convey as effectively and believably a sense of trauma and a resulting dissociative transformation, and yet remain a comedy.

With that said, I found the adventures of Nurse Betty from that point on to be really charming and surreal. She really won me over.

The value of Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock's performances was not really comedy but character. For the most part they are not funny, but their performances are interesting, as are their characters' developments. Chris Rock is a brilliant comedian, possibly the best famous comedian performing right now, yet in this movie he transforms himself into a positively chilling figure. On rare occassions he is wonderfully funny, but for the most part he is cold and disturbing. Quite an impressive acting job to depart so clearly from his stage persona. It may be that he was too good of a murderer that some comedy was lost. This may be signs of some broader acting abilities to showcase in the future. Yet that would be a mixed blessing for then his comedy would be missed, as it was for the most part in this film. Morgan Freeman's character is bizarre and complex and becomes humorous only through time, and still is likable in only a reserved way. Comedy requires villains that are less truly frigthening, with weaknesses to make them laughable and endearing. Freeman's work better than Rock's, but neither are enough to keep the movie consistently funny to balance the fright factor.

Renee Zellwegger on the other hand is simultaneously a comic and dramatic revelation in this film. What a marvelous actress she is proving to be, completely departing from her Jerry Maguire role here and showing herself in Bridgette Jones's Diary and Me, Myself and Irene to be capable of yet more radically distinct personalities. Although all of her characters are lovably flawed and vulnerable, she plays each of them uniquely. I agree that she was snubbed for an Oscar with this performance. As with her ex-boyfriend Jim Carrey, we must look to the Golden Globe awards to give due acknowledgement once again. Finally Greg Kinnear and Allison Janney are both as excellent as one would expect. Even Crispin Glover and Betty's husband and Betty's roommate are perfect castings.

This movie is saved from its contradictory offering to the audience of both trauma and comedy by all these terrific performances and by some really inventive and clever writing. However, I fully understand why some people will not be able to find the charm of the performances and the writing enough to overcome the trauma of the early visuals.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sick Humor
Review: This movie tried to be funny, but the beginning with a scalping, it's just aweful and not funny at all.. I'm not even sorry i ruined this part of the movie for you, cuz you don't want to see this anyway...

The trailer was good, and it seemed like it could be funny, but its a very sick and disgusting movie, with a black comedy that i find revolting.

Don't waste your time.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not at all what you are lead to believe.
Review: The painfully graphic violence carried out by the Chris Rock character throughout the show ruins an otherwise good (not great)movie. It is out of place and way over the top. Disturbing that they would bill this as a comedy. Don't let the advertising fool you.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: More DiStUrBiNg than FuNnY!
Review: Not exactly what I would call a "feel-good" movie. The violence was a huge surprise - a gory huge surprise. I thought it was a comedy - c'mon Greg Kinnear, Chris Rock, Morgan Freeman & Renee Zellweger - how could it miss? It does. The only reason I kept watching was because I spent $$$ on the DVD and I am an eternal optimist and hoped it would get better. It didn't. This one is going on E-Bay....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: after reading amazon's customer reviews.....
Review: I was suprised to see that there are a lot of mixed opinions on this movie. First off, i'd like to address the violence in this movie. It is not for the timid. But what the movie is really about is following your dreams. It's a lesson of life, told in a subtle comedic way. No matter what other people say, renee did a great job. I felt her every emotion and i could easily sympathize with her at every moment. I was glued to the screen to find out what would happen to her next. It was what made this movie so wonderful to watch.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Mismatch.
Review: Neil LaBute didn't write *Nurse Betty*, he only directed it. The director and the material are a mismatch. LaBute has a rather sadistic sensibility, which doesn't jibe with the ostensibly wacky scenarios of the movie. The movie has a funny premise: soap-opera fan thinks her soap is Real Life, and that she's the real love interest of a smarmy "doctor" on the show. It's a funny idea, but a rather thin one, which is made evident as the plot unrolls. The problems arise quickly: our heroine's mullet-head husband is SCALPED 15 minutes in. This might have seemed funny on paper, but LaBute's sadism makes the scene horrific, and really pushes this "comedy" off balance. In "black comedy", things like gore are campily done -- here, it's deadly serious. And it's a bad way to get the plot-device going: is there anything "funny" about traumatic-stress-syndrome? Not really, and it's not really the best way to maneuver the heroine into her fantasyland. Finally, the photography is ugly, and the slow pace doesn't help the movie generate a lighter tone after its Guignol-like intro.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Definately NOT a comedy, but disappointing nonetheless
Review: I rented this movie expecting a very funny, entertaining movie with great comedic acting and a good story line. Well....needless to say I was very disappointed.

Let me start by saying I expected to laugh at this movie...a lot. After it ended, I laughed because I wasted 4 bucks. I may have laughed 10 times through the whole movie. It just wasn't very funny.

The acting of Renee Zellweger is the only reason this film gets a 3 star rating. She was very convincing as the emotionally and mentally challenged waitress turned nurse turned actress. She portrays "Nurse Betty" in a very convincing manner. As for the rest of the cast, they pretty much stunk. Let me say I love Morgan Freeman, and I think Chris Rock is hilarious. However, they both turn in horrible performances in this film. There is absolutely nothing funny about either of their characters, unless you find excessive (and I do mean EXCESSIVE) use of the F word and G Damn funny. Their characters were shallow at best, and they looked incredibley uncomfortable on screen together. And I should add that I just can't seem to see Crispin Glover as anyone but George McFly(Back to the Future). I can't help it!

As for the movie, it moves very slowly. The comedy is very sporadic at best, and there are a few very violent and somewhat gorey episodes thrown in the mix. Why? I have no idea. It did not help. Like I said, this movie is not a comedy!

I can now see why this film did not garner much box office acclaim. It did not deserve it! Do not rent this movie if you are looking for a good laugh. Go rent Clerks or Chasing Amy instead.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: a godawful mess
Review: This movie by Neil LeBute is a total waste of talent. It is a uselessly meanspirited movie. It's so unfunny and vicious that you can feel the great Morgan Freeman cringing through his lines. The premise, about a woman whose life is so bleak she creates a soap opera fantasy world, is much better served by Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, which handles a similar topic but with depth, originality and intelligence.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Fun, involving movie, but not really a comedy
Review: I don't know about you, but I went into this expecting a comedy. It's certainly not the movie's fault, of course, but I wouldn't really define Nurse Betty as a comedy exactly. There are lots of funny moments, but there's more of an adventure movie feel in the getting there. There are moments of surprisingly graphic violence (especially in the outtakes on the DVD) and a kind of dark undertone to the scenes with Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock. Zellweger is inspired as Betty, as is Freeman in his role. Rock doesn't bring much new. If that's never been a problem, it won't be now (and vice versa, of course). Kind of quirky, unique story makes the film very engaging, though there are many moments that are kind of hard to believe. Overall, not bad, not great.


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