The most interesting thing about this movie is how much the box art on the vhs copies changed in just one year. The 1993 version featured Tate Donovan and a lineup of hot women in mini dresses with no Sandra Bullock anywhere. A year later Bullock takes up about 80% of the cover with a tiny Donovan peeking up from a lower corner. Also the order of billing for the two leads was switched. Obviously the success of Speed had something to do with this...
The movie itself is a trifle and a guilty pleasure. Donovan and Bullock play two nerdy scientists (and for once Hollywood writers scripted reasonably authentic sounding laboratory banter) who obtain a gypsy love potion and begin to experiment with it. He, despite his rumpled appearance, finds himself irresistible to women when before he could not have picked one up with a forklift. She is now being showered with gifts by suitors who previously would have passed her without a glance. How does the potion work and where will it all end? A viewer's first guess regarding the latter is likely right - this is a paint by numbers ugly duckling romance after all.
There are few surprises here and little novelty in the way of narrative, but rom-coms are so generally contrived and formulaic that this is hardly a unique failing. On the plus side, the two leads are awkwardly charming geeks, Bullock especially in a comic turn that presages a similar character in Demolition Man a few years later. The audience cannot help but root for these coolness-challenged underdogs. There a few genuine laughs, too, and some wry observations about how status conscious the modern dating scene can be. The script is surprisingly sharp. In fact, most of the movie's component parts are a shade better than what is typically seen in such an exercise. The result is a pleasant way to waste an hour and a half that falls short of being outright special.
Recommended, but keep expectations modest.
The movie itself is a trifle and a guilty pleasure. Donovan and Bullock play two nerdy scientists (and for once Hollywood writers scripted reasonably authentic sounding laboratory banter) who obtain a gypsy love potion and begin to experiment with it. He, despite his rumpled appearance, finds himself irresistible to women when before he could not have picked one up with a forklift. She is now being showered with gifts by suitors who previously would have passed her without a glance. How does the potion work and where will it all end? A viewer's first guess regarding the latter is likely right - this is a paint by numbers ugly duckling romance after all.
There are few surprises here and little novelty in the way of narrative, but rom-coms are so generally contrived and formulaic that this is hardly a unique failing. On the plus side, the two leads are awkwardly charming geeks, Bullock especially in a comic turn that presages a similar character in Demolition Man a few years later. The audience cannot help but root for these coolness-challenged underdogs. There a few genuine laughs, too, and some wry observations about how status conscious the modern dating scene can be. The script is surprisingly sharp. In fact, most of the movie's component parts are a shade better than what is typically seen in such an exercise. The result is a pleasant way to waste an hour and a half that falls short of being outright special.
Recommended, but keep expectations modest.