Rating: 
Summary: Drew Barrymore can ACT!
Review: I was so impressed with Drew Barrymore, Brittany Murphy and Lorraine Bracco that I decided I had to buy this DVD. The story is an excellent one, bad girl makes good. I have not read the book, but it's definitely on my reading list! Drew Barrymore playes Beverly D'Onofrio, a teenage girl with a flair for writing who, after a night of drunken partying, gets pregnant. Unfortunately, the father of her baby is not at all someone she ever pictured herself being with. In the course of one day, she sees all the potential she ever had--college, being a writer, living a normal teenage life, etc--evaporate when she chooses to marry Raymond to placate her distraught parents. Her parents are less than supportive and each time she makes a bad decision, she pays dearly. The story flashes back and forth between Beverly's story from the time she got pregnant and present day Beverly riding in the car with her 20 year-old son. I won't tell you where they are going, it spoils some of the movie. Inevitably, Raymond lets her and her son down and Beverly is left with making the hardest choice of all--to raise her son alone. This movie doesn't idealize single parenting, but rather shows how warped a mother-son relationship can be when the mother is but a child herself. It's at times tender, funny, and heart-breaking. A definite necessity to everyone's movie colleciton.
Rating: 
Summary: Straight to the junkyard.
Review: What's irritating about *Riding in Cars with Boys* is that it has a relatively fresh, important story to tell, and then proceeds to irremediably muck it up. Based on the life story of someone called Beverly Donofrio, the movie involves the trials and tribulations of a young New Jersey woman hijacked by teen pregnancy. Ms. Donofrio's life, from the evidence presented here, should not be played for laughs, but that's precisely what "crowd-pleasing" director Penny Marshall attempts. Marshall fails. Miserably. We watch in sadness as Donofrio attempts to better herself and fail due to her shackled circumstances . . . we watch in disgust as her husband becomes, quite out of the blue, a full-blown heroin addict . . . we watch as her son at the age of 4 or so develops the presumably life-long resentment at his mother's resentment of HIM . . . no laughs, folks. And yet we're continually subjected to a dim sort of slapstick (Donofrio's attempt to abort her child by sliding down the stairs while her parents watch TV in the living room is fairly representative). Doubtless, Marshall hasn't figured out that the elements that make a "crowd-pleasing" movie are usually the very elements that make a bad movie. If nothing else, the "big finish" ending, with Mom and Son finding dramatic "closure" after Big Speeches, testify to Marshall's lack of art. By the way, neither the washed-out photography or the unconvincing performances help. There's a true story here, but it was hijacked by Hollywood, in much the same way its subject was hijacked by the proverbial bun in the oven.
Rating: 
Summary: Drew Grows Up
Review: I never really thought of Drew Barrymore as a gifted actress, despite her famous name. After watching this movie, however, I stand happily corrected. With pathos, humor, sadness and rage--all without the histrionics of a lesser actress--Drew plays a brainy teenager with high aspirations who becomes accidentally pregnant by a boy she doesn't love in 1963. Since "free love" had not yet entered America's consciousness as an option, let alone a catch phrase, Drew's character has only one decent option: Marry the baby's father. In a comic scene laced with tears, Drew is brilliant as the unwilling bride, 15 years old, but already wise beyond her years as she faces a future of motherhood and a loveless marriage. Things get better when her dearest friend Fay gets accidentally pregnant as well, and for 9 months, at least, the two can be giggly teenagers again, sure they will each have girls who in turn will grow up as best friends. The fantasy ends when Drew's character gives birth to a boy--and real life begins. During the hellish years of her marriage, as the young woman struggles to raise her son and keep her head above water while her husband becomes addicted to heroin and alcohol, she never loses sight of her ultimate goal: to finish high school and go to college. The scene where she interviews for a scholarship while her young son slowly but surely spoils her chances, is a masterpiece. The film ends when Drew's character is 35, and her son (Andy Garcia, just wonderful) is 20. Will either of them ever be happy? Will Mom be able to let go and let her son live his life without guilt? Will she live up to her own high aspirations? The answer may be pat, but very, very pleasing. As always, Penny Marshall does a superb job of directing a story that could easily have fallen into a mushy tearjerker--but didn't. I recommend the film highly, and I applaud Drew Barrymore for a truly magnificent effort.
Rating:
Summary: Based on a true story
Review: This film takes you through Beverly Donfrio's life as she gets pregnant at 16, marries, and then tries to live her life with husband and child always in the way. Drew Barrymore does an excellent job as Beverly, though her accent sometimes gets in the way and distracts. Brittany Murpy is wonderful as her best friend Fay.....Murpy has been up to a lot lately and getting better and better as she goes. The child actors that play Beverly's sons, Jason, are absolutely terrific and a joy to watch. Steve Zahn plays her husband Ray, and he makes this character lovable, yet hateable at the same time, as Ray prevents Beverly from becoming what she truly wants at every turn. But Beverly's character isn't that lovable at times either, as you see her not being the best mother to Jason. It's fun to watch the time go by from the '60s to the '80s and how the characters change and grow with the passing years. James Woods and Lorraine Bracco support the film with their imense talent as Beverly's ever loving and ever present parents. It's a funny and touching movie at times, heartbreaking at others, but excellent acted throughout by such a fine cast.
Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Candidate for Abortion
Review: Beverly D'Onofrio, played by Drew Barrymore, had ambitions of going away to school and being a writer. Having a family was the last thing on her mind. She came from a working-class Catholic family that prided very much on family values. However, she crossed the line by having sex outside the marriage and got pregnant. The only thing to do was to marry the father of her child which wasn't a good idea. His heart was in the right place but his head was somewhere else. He was a doting father to his son but he was just too unstable to be a husband to his wife. He was on drugs and alcohol and barely keeping steady employment.
D'Onofrio would be a candidate for abortion rights because she was ill-prepared for being a parent at an early age. Because of her family backgroud, she was forced to marry a man with a good heart but not stable enough to hold his own. Not to mention, she wasn't prepared for being a parent. Determined to go to school and get a college degree, she worked for minimum wage, went to school at night, and raised her son. However, the one who took the brunt of her problems was her child. He was thrusted into early responsibility to support his mother's dream of being a writer. Much of her troubles were put on him. D'Onofrio felt that he was in the way.
As harsh the title may be, she is not a candidate for motherhood. It takes a great deal of responsibility and nurturing to be a parent and those abilities were not what she had. She was a dreamer who would have rather followed her ambitions than to be tied down to a husband and family.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: This movie was fabulous. I'm not surprised that the (insensitive) men who posted their reviews before me didn't get it - they're men, they'll never understand. One of them even says that he's no "novice when it comes to rearing kids...," so, um, yeah men have no clue what it's like being a mother. Let alone a YOUNG mother. Sure, Drew was a bit selfish and naive and childish but she was portraying a 15 year old, for crying out loud. She was nowhere near ready to become a mother or a wife and she had no clue whatsoever what being a mother truly entailed. She treated Jason (her son in the movie) more like a pesky sibling than her son. WHich was no surprise since most 15 year olds don't all of a sudden become mature and responsible adults once they have a child.
Anyway, I loved the movie and give it a whopping 5 stars. I was a young mother (pregnant at 19) and I was absolutely NOTHING like Drew's character in the movie. But I could totally relate to the putting-your-life-and-dreams-on-hold thing.
This movie is wonderfully hilarious and heart-warming.
Rating: 
Summary: No Role Models Here
Review: If you're selfish and self-absorbed (but don't know it), you'll probably love this colorful film about a single mother's 25-year climb to the best-seller list. If not, you'll probably just shake your head. The problem with "Riding in Cars with Boys" isn't that it lacks charm or humor; the problem is that it suggests that charm and humor in a person should supplant good judgment, character and sensitivity--even when that person is responsible for someone else. Drew Barrymore gives her standard perky performance as Beverly Donofrio, a headstrong girl who defies her blue-collar parents (James Woods and Lorraine Bracco in interesting bits) and quickly finds herself pregnant. Opting for marriage to a soon-to-be-junky loser (played effectively by Steve Zahn), Bev struggles to get to college but not before developing an angry Martyr Complex about her son and dabbling in the drug trade. The movie's flashback scenes between the now successful Bev and the brash young woman she once was are at times effective--she actually seems a bit smarter and more sensitive in her youth--but too often we're supposed to chuckle at her poor decisions rather than hold her responsible for them. In fact, the film seems to dodge the tougher question of why we should care about Bev in the first place, as she simply drifts from one crisis to the next, especially when her now-grown son points out all of the psychological trauma being her son has caused. I guess it's supposed to be all that nostalgic music and Bev's pluck or maybe that she's a single parent. It's nice that things work out for her in the end--the film is apparently based on an autobiography--but viewers may be left with little sense that the character deserves success so much as fell into it. In terms of drama, that seems pretty weak.
Rating:
Summary: great movie
Review: Drew B. is my very favorite actress. When I heard that Drew was going to age in the film and have a son who was played by an actor not much older than her, I was skeptical. Even when I saw the adult scenes between them two I was still a little skeptical. After I watched their interaction with each other all my skepticism went out the window. lolRICWB is an very good movie. I loved it. Drew was excellent in the role of Beverly and with her character aging in the film she pulled off playing the different ages very well. Just about everyone did an great job. Although, Adam Garcia was playing an american I could hear a little bit of his australian accent, so I gave it 4 stars. He was good nevertheless. The boys who played Jason were all so cute and adorable. :)Sometimes I thought Beverly was too selfish or Ray just needed to get his act together, but everyone's human. I laughed. I cried. And I can't wait to watch it again. :)I highly recommend this film.
Rating:
Summary: ideal Drew Barrymore showcase
Review: Drew Barrymore shows off her amazing talents in the superb RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS, based on the autobiographical tome written by Beverly Donofrio and directed by Penny Marshall (TV's "Laverne and Shirley"). We first meet Beverly as a young girl, already worrying her parents (beautifully played by James Woods and Lorraine Bracco) with her grown-up ideas about boys and sex. When she is a headstrong 15-year-old, Beverly finds that there is a price to be paid for recklessness when she discovers she is pregnant after a one-night-stand with the dead-weight Ray (Steve Zahn). As per her parent's orders, she marries Ray, drops out of school and becomes a teen mother to young Justin. But Beverly will not settle for the simple life. Her childhood dreams of moving to New York and becoming a writer only intensify as she matures with her son. When Ray's drug habit spirals out of control, Beverly decides the only way that she will improve her life and Justin's is by going it alone... Helped along the way by her best friend Fay (Brittany Murphy in a scene-stealing performance), and the love of her son Justin, Beverly slowly achieves her goals. Drew Barrymore ages from 15 to 35 in this heart-warming story about the closeness of family and the realisation of your dreams. A perfectly-sublime supporting cast is headed by Adam Garcia as the adult Justin and Barrymore's POISON IVY co-star Sara Gilbert (TV's "Roseanne"). The DVD includes commentary by Drew Barrymore, featurettes, trailers and making-of documentary. (Single-sided, dual-layer disc).
Rating:
Summary: Inoffensive tearjerker
Review: With true life stories you pretty much always know that you're probably going to be in for something a little bit cloying (exceptions being 'Heavenly Creatures' and 'Hilary And Jackie'), and this is often the case with this movie. It stars Drew Barrymore as Beverly Donofrio, a woman who finds herself pregnant at fifteen by her good-for-nothing boyfriend Steve Zahn. Her hopes of a bright future at NYU are crushed as she finds herself babysitting and changing diapers rather than working her way out of the smalltown life that she despises. We're in soap territory here and little really sets it aside from any other such made-for-TV movies apart from the stars, all of whom are spot on. Barrymore again proves what a luminous actress she can be in a highly unsympathetic role where she plays someone who is not only self-obsessed but condescending of her very upbringing. In addition, Zahn is one of the best new actors to have made himself known in a long time, as he manages to bring laughs alongside his disturbing portrayal of drug addiction. There's also Brittany Murphy, an emerging young talent that should be given all the credit she deserves. However, if any movie is testament to the fact that the stars don't always make the film then this is it. Apart from good (some may say brave) characterisation, especially of Beverly herself, this is something that aims to get the hankies out before the credits roll up and doesn't hide it. There are several particularly cloying moments where we get a summary on love and the like and it is likely that some will find the lines given to Beverly's child completely unrealistic, bratty and irksome. This isn't a complete waste of time by any stretch of the imagination but it's overlong and is certainly nothing special or new.
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