Josh Small

Absolutely loved this film when I first watched it in middle school. I must have revisited it at least once since then because I remembered it quite well!  But this time it felt much more uneven. The first act is just so wonderful! The radio scene is absolute movie magic. But then the second act has A LOT of montages. Like too many. And the third act is a mish-mash of Guy following his jazz dream and the band falling apart.  I’ve always loved the final scenes with Faye - Liv Tyler is so cute - but this time it seemed a little corny!  But none of it was bad! I just don’t know if I would have included it on so many all-time favorites lists if I didn’t see it for the first time when I did!

My son had a sleepover with some friends on Friday and this was what one of his buddies recommended. Clark asked me specifically to watch it with them and I'm still meaning to ask him what he thought of it. His buddies were just laughing up a storm every time Jon Heder threw his bat and hit someone in the nuts. But Clark's reaction was at least a bit more tempered. Rob Schneider is perhaps my all-time least favorite actor, and here here's sporting a backwards cap and a fake tan as the cool one of the group. He's just so decidedly unlikeable! Both Jon Heder and David Spade have this kind of underdog energy that really saves the movie from being even worse than it is. I mean, Heder is just doing a slightly-modified Napoleon Dynamite impression, and Spade is being an effeminate version of his normal sarcastic schtick, but at least they each have a little charisma. Not a lot, but compared to Schneider they look like stars. And then two aspects that brought it down even further. I don't know why these 2000s comedies felt the need to be so mean-spirited? There is some real internalized hatred of people who are different - specifically people who are developmentally disabled and people with dwarfism. The scene where Rob Schneider visits the guy he used to bully in the guy's basement was particularly despicable. And then the guy suddenly loves Rob because he gave him his baseball cap. The second-worst aspect is the half-baked, third-act plot twist in which Rob is revealed to NOT have been a nerd in high school. I don't want to waste any more of my time talking about this movie.

It's been one of my favorite movies for years. Sure, it can be a little heavy-handed at times, but it's so sincere in its belief that hope sustains and that love is real and it's out there. Crash scene still rocks. Love the ending. I'll cry every about Wilson every rewatch. This is one of those movies that leaves me feeling it for hours after. On a related note, I also can't believe that Zemeckis made one of my favorite all-time movies and then 4 years later made one of my all-time least favorite movies. Pretty quick switch.

Pretty fun! You know what this reminded me of? ARACHNOPHOBIA. They are both corny, b-movie creature-feature action flicks that don't take themselves too seriously and employ great physical special effects. This was a fun flashback cinema event to go to with Millie. We both thought it was a lot of fun and it was well-paced enough to hold her interest for the entire length. On another note, it's been a while since I watched a movie with such bad acting all around. I mean, it's not meant to be a serious dramatic film, but there's just not really any quality acting being done here. That's okay though. Let me just talk for a minute about the practical special effects. This movie is nearly 40 years old and these effects really hold up. I mean, it's still corny at times, but the amount of work that must have been done to create these giant slimy worms and make them look realistic and tangible is just SO impressive to me. Easily the best part about this feature.