Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Nurse Betty (2000) - Zellweger's star rises in so-so crime comedy

9/03/2022

Nurse Betty (2000) - Zellweger's star rises in so-so crime comedy

♥♥♥

Bright colors and big stars attract on this poster for Neil LaBute's Nurse Betty

Betty is a waitress and is married to a rotten used car salesman. When she witnesses his violent murder, the shock messes with her brain, making her believe that she is having a relationship with her soap opera idol!

Nurse Betty is written by John C. Richards (Sahara (2005)) and James Flamberg (Midnight Heat (1983, composer)) and directed by Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men (1997)).

Betty travels to California with the two killers at her heels in this off-center story, which holds a warm and lovably performance by Renée Zellweger (8 Seconds (1994)) as well as fun supporting performances from Aaron Eckhart (Double Jeopardy (1992, TV movie)), Pruitt Taylor Vince (True Blood (2013, TV-series)) and Crispin Glover (My Tutor (1983)). Greg Kinnear (Feast of Love (2007)) is especially good in his soap opera scenes. Morgan Freeman (RED (2010)) is also good, but his scenes nevertheless become annoying, since it is hard to comprehend why his character puts up with Chris Rock's (The Longest Yard (2005)) character's filthy and insulting mouth. (SPOILER It turns out in the end that he is his father.)

Nurse Betty is a bit overlong, SPOILER and I also had a hard time buying that Kinnear's character even manages to get his psycho-fan Betty cast as an actress in his soap. Something is lacking for this Coen brothers reminiscent amusement to fully score, but its playtime with reality, dreams and soap reality is fine.

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 35 mil. $

Box office: 29.3 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.83 times its cost)

[Nurse Betty premiered 11 May (Cannes Film Festival, in the main competition) and runs 105 minutes. Shooting took place from December 1998 - March 1999 in Rome, Italy, Arizona, Colorado and California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release The Watcher, to a 7.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#4), grossing 25.1 mil. $ (85.7 % of the total gross). The film later made more than 33 mil. $ on the US rental video market. It won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes, a Golden Globe and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. LaBute returned with 4 short and TV credits prior to his theatrical return with Possession (2002). Zellweger returned in Me, Myself & Irene (2000); Freeman with narration in American Masters (TV documentary) and theatrically in Along Came a Spider (2001); Rock in DAG (2000, TV-series), Disappearing Acts (2000, TV movie) and theatrically in Down to Earth (2001); Kinnear in Loser (2000). Nurse Betty is certified fresh at 83 % with a 7.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Nurse Betty?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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9/03/2022

Nurse Betty (2000) - Zellweger's star rises in so-so crime comedy

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