Reviews

Finding Amanda, the story of a man who lies more than I can stand and the happiest hooker you will ever meet.

I'm going to put this right out here up front. This movie tried to make a point about addiction and enjoying two vices of society, gambling and prostitution. However, the point is so heavily veiled that it never comes across, there is no epiphany and the ending, while kinda happy, really just leaves you thinking that the time you invested in trying to like or relate to these people was wasted.

Taylor Mendon (Broderick) is a producer for the worst show on TV who has an addictive personality (sounds funny, but it really isn't). He is attending counseling to get over his addictions and while he has quit smoking and drinking, he cannot give up gambling, rationalizing his last quirk as acceptable. After all, he gave up smoking and drinking, two out of three is pretty good! Anyway, after he finds out his niece Amanda is living in Vegas and is a hooker who has a drug problem (and after his wife corners him in a lie) he decides to make it up to his wife by "proving that he can quit gambling" by going to Vegas and getting Amanda to rehab. Sounds noble, right? Wrong! You find out that he is so addicted to gambling that he steals a check from his wife BEFORE HE LEAVES. The first thing he does in Vegas is gamble (again, sounds funny, but it comes across as pathetic). You realize that you are not going to like this guy.

OK, so eventually he finds Amanda (Snow), who is really just as sweet and chipper as any other Brittany Snow character I've seen. She is thrilled to be a hooker since she can afford a nice house and a nice car. Oh, and if any of you guys out there are hoping to see her don a sexy outfit, she really doesn't. She does not put on either the outfit on the poster or the DVD cover (I admit that was some of the allure to renting it, sorry). She wears conservative clothing and does not look at all like a hooker.

So, over time, we realize that both Taylor and Amanda are so comfortable with what they feel is acceptable behavior, we discover that these characters are borderline delusional, making every pathetic excuse to justify that they are happy.

Eventually, cracks in there "perfect" lives form. We begin to not project ourselves on to a character and instead sympathize with the secondary, observer characters that are detached from the action. I found myself relating to Taylor's wife more than any other character, I even related to Steve Coogan a bit.

So, the story begins to follow an organic path near the end and you begin to realize that everything will fall into place, when at the last minute, things just go wrong and the ending is bass-ackwards.

Ultimately, this turned into a movie about observing people who don't realize that they are delusional and selfish. In fact, you will likely hate (and I don't mean love-to-hate) Taylor because he lies ALL THE TIME!!! Chances are anything that you can take away from this movie is realizing that you know at least one person like this.

I did not like this movie, but didn't hate it either. This movie does not have me fuming, it just makes me want to forget that I saw it, and unfortunately for everyone involved, I likely will very soon.

I don't think there are spoilers, but just in case, be cautious.

I read Watchmen 3 years ago. Great novel! I heard about the movie, got excited but also nervous. Not sure how I felt about "300" guy handling a not-so-violent graphic novel. My girlfriend was excited to see it. I showed her Watchmen: The Motion Comic a week before we both saw Watchmen in IMAX.

It's all true about weird music cues, hyper-violence, and borderline pornographic love scene. Please tell me that I'm not the only one starting to get nauseous at action/horror movies. Mr. Snyder, I loved what you did with 300, violence suits the story and borderline porno fits the feel of Frank Miller. But this is not Frank Miller. The violent scenes you added are unnecessary. The new ending was a strange choice but kinda worked, but you can tell early who the "bad guy" is. The first half was paced well but a lot of the second half was rushed. My favorite plot twist went from about thirty minutes to read to 2.5 minutes on screen.

Of course the book is better, I knew that going in. But my girlfriend and I feel this is a good homage, not an adaptation to the book.

She had a few choice words about it that I won't repeat. She didn't like it as much as me, I was a bit more forgiving.

Overall: Good: Rorschach, he looked and sounded the part, best aspect of the movie. Comedian was done very well, but deserved more screen time. The overall feel of the novel glimmers through, which I'm glad about. The ending, while altered, still seems to make the big point, and Nite Owl's reaction to the end was better than in the book (that always bugged me about Dan) Bad: Some music cues, but not all. Dr. Manhattan's high voice (didn't seem to be right). Weak acting by Carla Gugino, who usually is a good actor in my book. Hyper-violence and overly explicit sex scene (I "liked" it, but it took away from the seriousness of the story) Speeding up the ending.

Bottom line: Forgettable.

I give it a 7, girlfriend gives it a 6.

As a D&D DM, I found this movie to be a little dull. I chuckled at some of the game references, but to me, the cliché gathering of heroes just so they can "journey" is a bit old by now. I also didn't notice how this could be a sequel, when only one character returns and there is no reference to the previous movie.

This part is for all the DNDers, when does a white dragon look like that? And why is a black dragon spitting fireballs. 1) dragons don't spit balls 2) Black dragons breathe acid 3) no dragon can recharge their breath weapon that fast. OK, done being a nerd:-\

Overall, this movie is down right average. Worth a watch if you like DND, but this is no where near a fantasy Epic that it claims to be. Rent it, watch it, and move on.