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The Heartbreak Kid (2007)

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123 comments in total

89 out of 133 people found the following comment useful :-
It's no "Something about Mary", 7 octubre 2007

Author: Kristen Kallahan de Seattle WA USA

The horrible crude scenes leave a bad taste and overshadow any funny scenes. I think the Farrelly Brothers wanted to recapture the success of "There's Something About Mary" -- but they've flopped hard.

The universe of "Mary" was completely wacky and any naughty parts just fit into that universe. This one feels like there were too many screenwriters tinkering with it. (5 are listed). Someone wrote a mainstream romantic comedy script -- then someone else (The Brothers, I'm guessing) came along and just stuck in gross shocking bits.

It's very uneven. It loses steam in the third act. Has a very unsatisfying and unpleasant ending. Carlos Mencia is obnoxious. Ben is looking too old to be playing these parts. Meanwhile, the girls still look 25.

78 out of 123 people found the following comment useful :-
50% of marriages nowadays end in divorce...20% of this movie lacks laughs...100% of this movie lacks morality and heart, 7 octubre 2007

Author: diac228 (diac1987@netscape.net) de Orlando, Florida

The Farrelly brothers have had a successful history, but their best work was past them a long time ago. Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary are among the two funniest comedies of all-time, and put the brothers at the peak of stardom. However, their track record afterwards is a heavily mixed bag; you find your underrated gems (Osmosis Jones, Fever Pitch) and then your disasters (Shallow Hal, Stuck on You). The Heartbreak Kid is their attempt to reach back into grade-A stardom like back in the late 90s. Joining with old friend Ben Stiller, they attempt to successfully recreate an old Neil Simon story about a man who has second thoughts about his marriage during his honeymoon. What we get is a cruel, twisted, vulgar, outrageous, and bittersweet movie that tramples over morality and messes around with the typical romantic comedy formula. Unfortunately though, the cruelty in this movie prevents it from being anywhere near romantic. While the Farrelly brothers crafted their best work since Osmosis Jones, this is still nowhere near as good as their comedies of the previous decade.

Heartbreak Kid is about Eddie (Ben Stiller), a lonely man who meets a woman (Lila, played by Malin Akerman) during a random encounter, and after a few weeks believes that she is the perfect woman for him. However, right after the wedding, another side of his perfect woman is revealed, and is slowly but surely becoming a nightmare come true. Despite their honeymoon being in a beautiful portion of Mexico, the honeymoon is a disaster as Eddie struggles to survive being with his new wife. Worst of all, during the honeymoon he meets another woman, Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), who seems to be absolutely perfect for him. In this cruel script, nobody is the hero, and seemingly everybody is the victim in some way or another. Nobody is safe in the movie; which makes this story perfect for the Farrelly Brothers.

Ben Stiller seems to play the same kind of role multiple times, as he has a similar presence to that of his character in There's Something About Mary and Along Came Polly. The only difference is, he's a bit more sinister and a much bigger jerk. His new wife is portrayed perfectly by Malin Akerman, who isn't afraid of embarrassing herself or showing off her body. Their physical humor together creates the biggest laughs in the movie. The most desirable character by far comes from the best performance; Michelle Monaghan of Mission Impossible fame delivers this charming, sweet performance as the adorable and beautiful Miranda. Everyone else did a decent job, with Jerry Stiller in a throwaway role as Eddie's father and Carlos Mencia (surprisingly funny) as a manager of the hotel in Mexico.

This movie's biggest flaw is its obvious attempts to re-create the surprise vulgarity and bittersweet content of There's Something About Mary. It worked back then, but it has trouble now, simply because the characters are not as likable, and the movie lacks heart. In Dumb and Dumber, you knew that they weren't meant to get that dream girl, but their persistence and their kindness (hidden underneath their stupidity) allows for the audience to root for them regardless. In There's Something About Mary, the main character goes to great lengths to find Mary and attempt to be with her; it became a raunchy and bizarre hero's journey. In this movie, the main character selfishly marries, and tramples over other people (emotionally mind you) in order to find his actual soulmate; making him not a necessarily likable character.

In spite of the lack of heart, you will find the laughs, no denying that. The new wife from hell routine was spoiled far too much in the previews, yet was still enjoyable. Unfortunately, once again, misdirection keeps Heartbreak Kid from being funnier than it could have been. After a while, Lila practically disappears from the movie, focusing more on Eddie's budding romance with Miranda. The movie mellows down once Lila is out of the way, and then we see a train wreck waiting to happen for about half an hour. If you are a fan of There's Something About Mary, there will be plenty to laugh about, but none of the content is rich or deep; most of the funniest scenes happens to be gross-out and shock humor. One unique thing in Heartbreak Kid is pretty crappy special effects, which makes it worse for this kind of movie because these kinds of movies do not use much special effects, if any at all. Soundtrack also isn't as catchy or as fun as other Farrelly Brothers movies, especially Dumb and Dumber.

Bottom Line: Heartbreak Kid is funny, but its not an instant classic, nor is it a type of movie to take a date to. While it is not as painfully disastrous as Good Luck Chuck, it still pales in comparison to recent adult comedies and early Farrelly efforts. Ben Stiller still provides the laughs through his physical humor and his ability to perfectly portray a man mentally breaking down. However, this movie has major morality issues and then really slows down once the romance builds up, yet we aren't rooting for anybody because everyone is guilty of lying, deceiving, and worse (except for one character). The directors are somewhat on the right track back to their glory days, but still have a longs way to go. They also really need to grow up and try to fray away from the gross humor, something that Mike Myers suffers from. Looking for laughs? Look no further. Looking for an amazing film? Keep looking.

35 out of 54 people found the following comment useful :-
The Farrelly's Return to Form...Not!, 25 diciembre 2007

Author: asalem182 de Egypt

After 3 watered-down, toothless flicks (Shallow Hal, Stuck on You, and Fever Pitch), The Heartbreak Kid was The Farrelly Brothers' return to raunchy comedy. Trying to recapture the greatness of their biggest hit, There's Something about Mary, they hired Ben Stiller and a Cameron Diaz look-alike. The end result is heartbreakingly mediocre. The film, which tells the story of a newlywed (Stiller), whose bride (Akerman) goes loco only a couple of hours after their wedding, just isn't funny. In fact, all the good jokes were in the trailer. The remaining jokes either missed the mark (anything that has to do with Monaghan's Miranda), or were removed altogether from the Egyptian theatrical version (apparently, there's a hilarious love sequence). In addition, due to sloppy writing, I found myself rooting for the bad "guy" (Akerman's Lila), and thought Stiller's Eddie was a jerk, as he cheated on his wife during their honeymoon. If that wasn't enough, the film is far too long (over 2 hours) and the last 30 minutes are so dark for a "comedy" that they're painful to watch. The film's only redeeming factor is Akerman, who gives a charming performance. But even Akerman's charm can't save this trainwreck.

48 out of 81 people found the following comment useful :-
After the marriage, boredom kicks in!, 11 octubre 2007

Author: Simon Parker de United Kingdom

How the mighty have fallen! The Farrely Brothers once upon a time were the kings of comedy, with a string of hits under their belts and some laugh out loud movies that included Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary, they were truly unstoppable. Then something happened, they suddenly made flops, or at least disappointments. Stuck On You in my mind is where this all began, uneven comedies that while having some good moments were just so unmemorable it was unbelievable. I never saw The Ringer, I didn't agree with the subject matter hence why I didn't watch it, but I was actually really looking forward to The Heartbreak Kid. The trailer made me laugh and it looked like a return to Mary territory. I went into this movie expecting a short, light hearted comedy with some hilarious moments. I came out bored to tears, having only laughed a few times and feeling really cheated and also very disappointed. The Heartbreak Kidis unfortunately a big flop and is definitely the Brothers weakest movie to date in my mind. This wouldn't bother me if everything about the movie was unbelievably awful, but the most frustrating thing is that there are moments in this movie that are genuinely brilliant. The storyline itself is great, the characters are great, the tone is right, so where the hell did it go some damn wrong? My guess is that studio interference has a large part to play. The gross out Farrely humour just does not gel with the sweet romance story at the centre of it all. Also the movie is way too long and the script way too uneven for this to be a good movie. This may not be the worst movie of the year in my eyes but its certainly one of the most frustrating. Ben Stiller is great, Malin Akerman is superb, there are scenes and ideas that are brilliant, the ending is pitch perfect, yet everything else is just so poorly executed!

So lets start with the cast which admittedly is the most consistently decent thing in the movie. Ben Stiller is on a return to form in this movie, after a few cameos here and there and a phoned in performance in Night in the Museum he finally seems at ease. In fact this is arguably his best work in my eyes since Dodgeball, not hard when you see his recent line of work. His natural easy going charm works in this movie and makes a potentially unlikable character, and actually at times his character remains very unlikable, just a bit more tolerable. A shame then the script gives him little comedy to work with, that is until a priceless psychotic breakdown over a Mexican band, which is one of the few highlights of the movie. The true star of the movie however is Malin Akerman as the psychotic Lila. Akerman seems to have a blast as the mad, former junkie, in debt, clingy, neurotic wife from hell. However I found something very strange while watching this movie, I actually felt sorry for Lila for a lot of the film. Sure when she's having sex and beating the hell out of her husband its hard to feel sorry for her, but when Ben Stiller is cheating on her its kind of sad. Whether or not this is intentional or not is debatable however. Michelle Monaghan definitely drew the short straw of the group in a role that is pretty pointless and just too unoriginal for me to give a damn about.

The humour of the movie and the unevenness of pace is definitely where the Heartbreak Kid literally breaks. The movie does start off quite well, sure its not classic but its amusing. In fact the start of the honeymoon is relatively funny, but then about the halfway mark the movie just gives up all hope and dies. The jokes dry up, the romance and sentimentality factor kick in and the eyes start to droop. Despite some decent one liners the movie just doesn't make an effort any more. You find yourself not caring anymore, you couldn't care if Eddie stays with Lila or not, you just want the movie to end. And then the film drones on and on and on. And then when you think you have an ending it suddenly does something else. Thankfuly the unexpected ending lifts things up slightly, but the standard beforehand is so low it doesn't redeem the movie. In fact take out the brilliant Mexican band running joke, the amusing sunburn bit, the few sex scenes and a couple of one liners this would struggle its already low 5/10 rating.

The Heartbreak Kid is really a movie I cannot recommend as it is way too disappointing. The cast do an admirable job with little material and the idea is there. A better movie is probably underneath this wretched turd somewhere, but unfortunately for now this movie remains just another lame addition to the Farrely brothers already struggling CV. The Farrely brother may have once been the kings of gross out comedy, but in an age when we have Knocked Up and Superbad, maybe its time they gave up and tried something else.

21 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
Stuff it up your nose, 10 octubre 2007

Author: middleburg