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Wonder Boys

Wonder Boys

List Price: $14.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful
Review: 'Wonder Boys' offers the kind of simple perfection which can restore your faith in Hollywood. Everyone's great here, everything works - from the gorgeous cinematography, right down to the inspired soundtrack. Douglas, in particular, is masterful as the writer hovering on the edge of personal and professional oblivion. But it's Steve Kloves' screenplay which really shines. It's laugh-out-loud funny without needing even one joke, and manages to chart the territory of middle-aged angst and redemption without ever descending into sappiness. It's a crying shame he missed out on the Oscar for this - but his obvious skill as an adapter did score him the ongoing 'Harry Potter' gig, for which the pay cheque will be some compensation.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best movies of all time!
Review: This movie makes you think, yet it's entertaining. I think this is Michael Douglas's best role. Robert Downey Jr. & Tobey Maguire also star. They are both wonderful.

The movie takes place in current time in Pittsburgh, PA. Michael Douglas plays Grady, an aging creative writing professor with one famous novel to his name. Ever since this novel came out, there has been pressure to write something better. Grady has been writing but you get the idea that he will never be done with this new book. Especially since it's over 1000 pages.

Tobey Maguire's character is a quiet college student who idolizes Grady. He gets some life lessons from Grady over the course of this one weekend and Grady learns some things from him too.

Frances McDormand and Katie Holmes also star.

Definitely watch this if you get a chance!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: wonder boys!
Review: this has to be one of my absolute favorite movies...and i watch a lot of movies... i think that michael and tobey were just perfect for their parts...every character just seem to fit exactly right. this movie is hilarious and witty and everyone should see it...the only small downside is the fact that katie holmes is in it...but it really doesnt make much difference because she only plays a small role. i have to say that throwing robert downey in there among everyone else was absolute genius. the cast is incredible and the story is great

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a pure classic about literature.
Review: ...this movie is surely a good film. mainly because it is like no other movies out there today. it doesn't deal with the normalcies of hollywood and the film industry, it just takes what a REAL writer would create and twisted it into a film.
Tobey maguire is surely a brilliant actor. He plays his character as though he actually is James Leer...i seriously thought he was him, that's how real he seemed to me...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Wonder Boys
Review: This movie goes along with Almost Famous as basically a movie that I destroy millions of brain cells trying to figure out why people liked it so much. I did not like this movie for several reasons. And that number one reason that I didn't like it was that Michael Douglas was in it. I love Michael Douglas' acting and think he was beyond terrific in Traffic and The American President but he was just the wrong actor for this role. He was completely unbelievable in this role and I just didn't by him being a grump. He's a family guy in his best roles and that's what he should stick with. And my number two reason for this being a bad movie would have to be that Tobey Maguire, this generation's WORST actor, is in it. I can't stand watching a movie that Tobey Maguire is in. And, like Almost Famous, they put a horrible actor in the center of things (or in this case almost center, next to Douglas) like they did with Patrick Fugit in Almost Famous. Maguire is never believable in any role and ruins the whole movie for everybody. And also like Almost Famous, the only good part of the movie was Frances McDormand. She provided a solid part of the movie, mixed in with some comedy. But unfortunately, she couldn't save the movie. The script is so-so and it's good that it didn't win at the Oscars. Instead, it went to Douglas' other movie, Traffic. The plot was kind of interesting, but not enough to drag you in. And I don't think that I even need to mention Katie Holmes, since I already talked about bad acting. But the best part of the movie had to be hearing Bob Dylan sing his Oscar winning song, 'Things Have Changed', at the beginning and at the end of the movie. That's the only award that this movie deserved to win for.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful 'Boys', Indeed!
Review: Wonder Boys is one of the quirkiest, funniest and most enjoyable movies around. It is the best movie about campus life I can ever remember seeing because it's about the people who live and work at a college as much as it is about the students. Being quite literate and intelligent, it moves at a pace slower than what some viewers require. I'm not saying it is sluggish. It is a movie about people's actions, or the lack of them, rather than about action itself.

Middle-aged English professor Grady Tripp [Michael Douglas] is a wonder boy, which is the same thing as a one-hit wonder. This is someone who has enormous success with something but is unable to repeat the process. Grady wrote a best-selling and highly acclaimed novel seven years ago and still has not finished his second book. We watch him over the course of a fateful weekend that changes his life and those around him. His wife has just walked out on him. His affair with the head of the college, Sara Gaskell [Frances McDormand], is about to be hit by a big problem. His agent, Terry Crabtree [Robert Downey, Jr.], is coming to town for an important literary festival and will naturally ask about the book. Hannah Green [Katie Holmes], a student who rents a room from Grady, has fallen in love with him. And, for better or worse, another student. the strange and brilliant James Leer [Tobey Maguire], turns out to be the catalyst that brings all the weekend's incredible events together. In the end Grady will have finally learned that you can't succeed by just letting life happen. You have to make some choices.

Wonder Boys was a real treat for me. It stars four of my favorite actors. Douglas has always been a competent performer, but in the last few years, he has stretched his range to good effect. This is his best role ever. Maguire, McDormand and Downey are top of the line. Downey is perhaps the best actor of his generation, and Maguire may turn out to be the best of his. McDormand can do no wrong. She simply isn't capable of a bad performance.

Wonder Boys is one of a trio of movies released on DVD within a week of each other. They have much in common. Each was not a boxoffice success, but all of them are among the top five best American films of 2000. Each has acting that is as good as it gets. Each has a message, which it conveys well without forgetting the entertainment factor. Each is blessed with gifted script writing. The others are Almost Famous and The Contender. I hope each one finds the success it deserves in the home entertainment market.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Oscar must have slept when this movie came out.
Review: Intelligent, dialogue-driven, low-key comedy about an aging professor who struggles to write the followup to his last novel which he published seven years ago. In addition, his third wife just dumped him; he's now having an affair with his boss's wife, and he becomes mentor to an odd student who is actually a very good writer. There's also a subplot concerning a dead dog (don't ask; just watch the film and it'll all makes sense). Paramount picked the wrong time to release this underrated gem of a movie; in 2000, they dumped "Wonder Boys" in February, which is typically a month when Hollywood releases its weaker films. But "weak" isn't the word to describe "Wonder Boys." It's an original, thoughtful comedy that doesn't scream for your attention. This film is perfect for a Saturday night or a Sunday afternoon. This one gets the green light from me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: incredible...
Review: this is one of those films where you can relate to at least one of the characters, if not in personality then in situation. every single character in this film is also memorable which is hard to say of most modern films. douglas is incredible, perhaps one of his best recent performances (traffic wasnt as great as everyone made it out to be). toby mcguire (always able to impress in some way in every film he's in), gives another spotless performance, not to mention frances mcdormand who fails to fall under any categories, simply creating her own.
i can't say enough good things about this film, it's touching, funny, and most of all has meaning. the meaning of what's important in our lives, of what should be put first. 5 stars all the way...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Movie of 2000
Review: When I think about the year 2000, I then I think about movies, (I often follow this train of thought while staring out of my office window doing nothing productive) and after all of that thought, I think of Wonder Boys. I like Micheal Douglas and this is him at his finest. If you have ever liked him in anything, see this... By far the best performance of his career. Frances McDormand is, as usual, superb in every aspect. The script is above and beyond what normally comes out of Hollywood, Steve Kloves did a great job. Curtis Hanson also did a killer job of directing this allstar cast to perfection. If I had one complaint about the whole thing, it would be that I wish the movie lasted 24 hours... I could watch this cast forever... SO entertaining. Simply Put: rent it or buy it, just get you hands on it today!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The coziest of movies
Review: This movie is like a blanket out of the drier; warm, fuzzy, and very very comfortable. It is expertly crafted and seamlessly told. It was custom made to appeal to the writer in all of us, and it does just that.


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