Notting Hill (Ultimate Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Notting Hill - A Slow Cooking Turkey.
Review: Notting Hill has been hailed as one of the finest romantic comedies of the 90's, but in turn is just one of the slowest and most excruciating pieces of cinema "Entertainment" ever to grace the screen. Bumbling hero Hugh Grant stretches the viewers patience to well beyond breaking point as William Thacker, a Travel Book shop owner in Notting Hill, who has the amazing fortune to meet Hollywood actress Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) when she comes into his store looking for a book on Turkey, somewhere that she would have been better off scuttling off to in the early stages of the movie and sparred us all from what follows. What does follow is sort of a "Four Weddings and a Funeral" style run of heartache adventures for Grant, in-fact it's virtually a carbon-copy, I was expecting a reference to Andie McDowell to pop-up in Grants history of girlfriends. The movie is so slow at times with Grant and Roberts doing nothing but staring at each other, it makes you wonder if you are watching the out-takes of the actors forgetting their lines, and the makers are just having a laugh at us from behind the piles of dollars the movie made. There are some nice touches in the film though - notably Grants housemate Spike who adds some zip to the snail paced script, and the scenes of Grant masquerading as a journalist for the publication "Horses and Hounds." Apart from that there is very little here to get excited about, Grant and Roberts come together only to break apart, to eventually come together again and so on and so on until you wish they'd both just stay away from each other long enough for the film to end, and not have to suffer the Ronan Keating song one more time. Neither of the two central characters leaves you rooting for them in any way, Roberts is too selfish and confused, Grant is...well... just Hugh Grant-esque - confused and bumbling but I guess that's what people like about him. The characters you do feel sorry for are Grants friends, particularly his one-time girlfriend and now his friends wife who is confined to a wheelchair after a fall. In the scenes she has with Roberts she puts the Hollywood actress into the shade - as she is far prettier and you wish they had used her as a central character instead of the nonsense plot that lives in awe of an idea that went horribly wrong.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent movie!
Review: I have to admit that i have seen this movie about ten times, i can't get enough of the chemistry between Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. They really light up the screen.

Rating:
Summary: Roberts, the music and Portobello market..
Review: Sometimes movies are a huge success because of their plot, special effects or script. Not this time, this movie is based on sheer chemistry. The results of the mix of: a star playing a star (Julia Roberts looks prettier than ever), a great soundtrack and beautiful settings (Notting Hill, of course) lets us believe an unbelievable plot and gives this movie the aura of a fairytale. This is a movie that would have been a nice vehicle for Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT AND ROMANTIC
Review: NOTTING HILL IS ABSOLUTELY THE BEST FILM OF 1999. I HAD TO GO BACK TO WATCH IT TWICE. I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL IT IS AVAILABLE TO BUY IT. JULIA ROBERTS AND HUGH GRANT ARE EXCELLENT. THE FILM IS FULL OF SWEET ROMANTIC FEELINGS. IT IS A MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD KIND OF MOVIE.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, fun romantic comedy
Review: I enjoyed this movie thoroughly! Very well done. Throughout the movie, you can't help wondering if this was based on a true story. Very cute; but leave the little kids at home. Though it is somewhat predictible(almost all romantic comedies are), it is a WONDERFUL film that leaves you with a good, happy feeling.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie!
Review: This is a great movie. It's definitely not as funny as FWAAF (Four Weddings And A Funeral), but FWAAF seemed more liked an extended sitcom, whereas this feels just like a romantic comedy movie should. Okay, there are a few question marks hanging over elements of the movie and perhaps even the plot, but hey, it's a comedy, what do you expect! Buy this now and go and snuggle up with your partner.

Rating:
Summary: I just don't get it....
Review: I thought it was boring and predictable -- about asentertaining as skim milk -- with absolutely no chemistry between HughGrant and Julia Roberts. The evening I watched it, I was in the mood for something mindless and entertaining. This filled the bill on the first count but not on the second.

Rating:
Summary: It's a movie
Review: Movies are not real life, a movie is a form of entertainment. How many pieces of classical literature are realistic? Shakespeare? I think not. My girlfriend gave me this DVD for Christmas, and I've seen it 4 times since. It's a great movie. Definitely worth buying... it plays on the heartstrings quite a bit, a very well done love story that makes me smile everytime I see it.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific Film
Review: This film has two great things going for it at the outset. First, it has a compelling premise: that the most powerful, popular and famous movie actress in the World would fall in love with a very ordinary person -- if not a bumbling loser. Second, and perhaps more important, they then CAST the role of the most powerful, popular and famous movie actress in the World with the actress who is IN FACT that. I am not a huge Julia Roberts fan, but -- to me -- this movie doesn't work if you put some other actress in the starring role. Roberts in the role makes it a very special film because you actually believe (or want to believe) that she is playing herself. Add to that the fact that the movie is much better written than most romantic comedies thatcome out these days and has truly interesting and amusing secondary characters and this movie is just terrific. Moreover, it is not just a "chick" film -- the premise probably has as much or more appeal to men than women. Also, as a lot of other reviews here suggest, the movie takes a couple of viewings to fully appreciate, as there are a lot of subtleties here, especially facial expressions (and especially Julia Roberts' facial expressions) that are missed the first time through. One criticism: the DVD gives you deleted scenes and one of them needed to be left in. This would be the one in which -- after Anna throws a fit in Will's house and leaves through the mob of paparazzi -- she tries to call and Spike erroneously tells her that Will does not want to talk to her. That provides an explanation for what is otherwise a huge hole: if she felt the way she says she does in his shop at the end, why did it take six months to get there?

Rating:
Summary: YOU WILL FALL IN LOVE WITH THIS MOVIE
Review: Notting Hill is one of those movies that you sit on the edge of your chair watching in hope that ROBERTS and GRANT do fall in love, but at the same time you fall in love with the idea of love! It sounds cheesy but who cares, I could watch this one over and over again.