INFO
REVIEWS
MAP
OPEN FORUM
PHOTO ALBUM
 "Fever Pitch" Chris' Review: As someone who never really gets the Farrelly brothers' movies, and is unabashedly unashamed about knowing practially nothing about sports, I can still say Fever Pitch was worth the money. I'd have even paid full price. The Farrelly's are known for their big gross out humor movies, like, There's Something About Mary, Dumb & Dumber, and Kingpin. All movies that I thought had some pretty good laughs, but nothing that I wanted to see more than once. In Fever Pitch they took it down a notch. There is still a wonderful gross out scene with Barrymore in which she is quite ill and throwing up, but the gross stuff is mostly left to dialogue and sound effects. For the most part, it's toned down, possibly out of respect for the sideline subject matter, the Red Sox. By now you all know that the Sox won the 2004 season. I hate organized sports and even I knew that. What you may not know is that the Farrelly's had to re-write the movie because they expected the Sox to lose. In my opinion, this actually damaged the movie. It was a movie about how true love, whether for a man/woman or a baseball team, can weather any storm. It's about loving through adversity. The Sox winning after not being able to win in almost a century, kind of negated that. It put in a "Hollywood" ending where one certainly didn't need to be. It diminished the movie. The original idea that the Farrelly's had was much more meaningful. Hear me when I say that this does NOT mean that I didn't like the movie. This is a small portion of subtext that could have been improved in the original script. As a whole, the movie still works... it just becomes more fluff than allusion. Jimmy Fallon crashed and burned in the box-office flop (and critically slammed) Taxi. I've never been that impressed with Fallon. I'm not a huge SNL follower and Taxi made him look like he had no talent. Then again, Queen Latifah was slumming it with that movie, too.... Fever Pitch gave me a little more insight into what he's really about, though. Apparently, in Taxi he was just getting his feet wet. Fever Pitch he starts to really get moving. He plays an endearingly nerdy Sox fan with more nuances to his performance than many of the big box office names. Antsy, depressed, furious, in-love, nervous, manic... all while admirably maintaining the same persona. Drew Barrymore on the other hand played the same tired charactcer that she always plays. This time she was an executive in a big company. Other than that, you've seen her play this part before, in exactly the same way. Hey, it worked for Goldie Hawn and Meg Ryan. I just wonder how long it's going to be before Barrymore can't play "cute" anymore. Other than that, the supporting cast was mostly caracatures of people. Not a real performance among them... which is fine, Fallon and Barrymore together have some great comedic moments, but their love affair is pretty dry. You never get the feeling that they have any deep feelings for each other... so the caracatures of people around them, make them look realistic in comparison. So it all works out in the end. I really did enjoy this movie. It's a great date movie and something fun to pass the time for those of you that are already in love. I give it 5 thumbs up. The sports take a back seat to the love story, so all you nerds and geeks out there will still be able to follow.   Jim's Review: BackHome - Info - Reviews - Map - Message Board - Photo Album |
|
IMDB.com answer all your movie questions! RottenTomatoes.com Get more reviews here! Hollywood.com Find showtimes at your local theatre, order tickets online! |