Home Fries

Beautiful film!! I have just seen it on the Dutch-speaking TV-channel KanaalTwee from Belgium! (Saturday 14 August 2004) With Dutch subtitles (although I can understand English very well!!).

Drew Barrymore is a very nice actress; I've seen her in "E.T.", "Never been kissed" and "The Wedding Singer"; all with Dutch subtitles in cinema in Brussels or at home in front of the TV. She looks great in all these movies!!

Luke Wilson (didn't know he was brother of Owen!) is handsome and has much potential for an actor!! He plays very nice!!

The story about pregnant Sally who falls in love with the stepson is not ridiculous to me! I am romantic myself; and can be very touched when seeing love romances on TV or in cinemas!

In "Never been kissed" Drew played a role which is somewhat similar to my real life; I am not handsome (beautiful)and I have been ridiculed a lot in my school period; I also fell in love with a teacher; I have been teased a lot... In most teenage movies there is also a guy who is a nerd; I feel like a nerd often but my high IQ (124) is not my handicap!!

Smart but ugly doesn't mean one should lock oneself up all the time! I have friends who take me as I am; who can laugh with my sense of humour and my language knowledge has lead me through difficult holiday travels (this year I go to Warsaw in Poland; I can easily understand English and speak German at a good level; Polish not!!)!!

"Home Fries" is a splendid movie to me!!!

How does that work? Well. . .it does, and it doesn't. It's kind of strange, because this movie wasn't terribly complicated, but I'm still not sure what to make of it. So here's my tentative review: it's weird in a weird way. I mean, there are funny weird movies, and fun weird movies, and disgusting weird movies, and experimental weird movies, and mindless weird movies- and "Home Fries" is somehow none of those, either by an inch or by a mile. It's worth watching, don't get me wrong, but my feelings on this movie are uncharacteristically ambiguous. Drew is great, of course- she almost always is. I grew up in a tiny, Southern town, so I can vouch that the atmosphere seemed authentic. Luke Wilson is a charmingly unusual hero. Catherine O'Hara is funny as his psycho mother, and the Busey kid chews the scenery with both gusto and some amazing choppers, each obviously inherited from his dad. Some of the dialogue was really good, and there was a lot about this flick that was nicely understated. But overall...well, I occasionally get the urge to watch it again (because I like strange movies, and "Home Fries" is possessed of a strangeness I've never quite seen before,) but it certainly won't wear out before most of my other tapes. That, I guess, is the simplest and most honest review I can give it.

This movie with Luke Wilson (brother of Owen Wilson) & Drew Barrymore is very enjoyable. While it was promoted as a Romantic Comedy, it should be noted that this has a darker comedic theme with some action sequences. If you were looking for a Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks movie, reset your expectations and rent this one anyways. It is a very enjoyable, fun movie.

Telling you the plot would kinda take away some of the suprising charm of this movie. Basically, the Drew Barrymore character is supposed to be killed by the son of the dead man she was sleeping with. But the guy starts to like her. There are several other twists thrown into the story. The screenplay by Vince Gilligan of the X-Files is unpredictable and the dialogue isn't stale like in so many other Hollywood films. Great performances by all.

This looks like a case of a classic schizophrenic Hollywood movie--too dark-humored for fans of romantic comedy, not nearly outrageous enough for those looking for that quality. (You may get a little nervous, though, when a shotgun-wielding character walks into a fast-food restaurant full of kids.) Consequently it will end up alienating a lot of viewers looking for the one type of film or the other. Most of the characters aren't very enjoyable to watch, with the noted exception of Drew Barrymore in the lead. I was disappointed that Catherine O'Hara's part wasn't any better--she could have really livened the movie up if her character had been a little more forceful.

Despite all the problems, there was still something left to like here, and I would give it a positive recommendation, but just barely. On second thought, recommending this movie to someone would be a risky proposition, but I thought that overall it was marginally successful.