23 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
23 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
a fully loaded entertainment review - website coming in july !
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i didn't really expect very much when i rented stuart saves his family .
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the movie bombed at the box office , and i had never really liked the saturday night live sketch on which the movie was based .
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my real concern , though , was the general reputation of snl-related movies translating to the big screen with less-than-stellar results ( half-baked , anyone ? )
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i was surprised to discover a truly entertaining , often hilarious yet also touching little film .
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it is an al franken production through-and-through , who not only created the title character but also wrote and starred in the picture .
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for those of you who don't know , al franken plays a guy named stuart smalley , who has a really annoying show on a public-access station about increasing your self-esteem , etc . although not a licensed therapist , stuart smalley is , as the program proudly boasts , " a graduate of several 12-step programs . "
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stuart is doing well enough with his tv show , but he keeps getting distracted by family troubles .
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stuart's relatives are a mess : his dad and brother ( harris yulin and vincent d'onofrio , respectively ) are alcoholics , his sister is overweight and getting over another divorce , and his mom is in constant self-denial and solves all perceived problems by baking .
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then , disaster strikes .
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stuart accidentally insults the manager of the station and gets his show revoked .
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he is forced to move back in with his family after he can no longer support himself , and there the comedy truly picks up .
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franken wrote all of the characters not just as cliches or stereotypes , but as sharply-drawn , real people .
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although smalley's dad has always imbibed too much , stuart can still recall times when his father seemed like an okay guy .
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also , after an accident towards the end of the movie , both stuart and the audience learn that there is more to his mother than previously thought .
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although filled with small , very funny scenes , stuart saves his family also has its share of dramatic moments , especially towards the conclusion .
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for a lightweight comedy , it handles these scenes especially well , often better than many so-called " serious dramas " of today .
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all the more amazing is that such a movie comes from a saturday night live sketch that is essentially a one-joke bit .
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if you feel like renting a comedy , and you haven't seen this film , i definitely recommend you try this one out .
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you'll laugh . . . you'll
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cry . . . . it's
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all there .
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