The Heartbreak Kid (2007) or, The Seven Day Itch

7/18/2018

The Heartbreak Kid (2007) or, The Seven Day Itch

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Crazy-Comedy of the Year

Ben Stiller and his co-stars are highlighted in some funny moments from the film on this poster for Bobby and Peter Farrelly's The Heartbreak Kid

Eddie is our sympathetic protagonist here, who meets a sweet woman and gets pressured into a quick wedding to her by his encouraging father and friend. But on the following honeymoon she turns out to have been the completely wrong choice, a disaster, meanwhile he falls for someone else ...

The Heartbreak Kid is written by Scot Armstrong (Semi-Pro (2008)), Leslie Dixon (Freaky Friday (2003)), Kevin Barnett (Hall Pass (2011)) and co-writer/director brothers Bobby and Peter Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber (1994), both), remaking the Elaine May/Neil Simon-created The Heartbreak Kid (1972).
The film is an incredibly wacky round of Farrelly zaniness, led by a top-motivated Ben Stiller (Arrested Development (2005-18)). His real-life father Jerry Stiller (Cousins (2013)) and Rob Corddry (Childrens Hospital (2008-16)) are funny as Eddie's father and friend, respectively, who act as his dubious advisers. Michelle Monaghan (Blindsided (2013)) is sweet as the real romantic interest, and Malin Akerman (Catch .44 (2011)) is a nightmare as the bride. The Heartbreak Kid works as a loose romantic crazy-comedy that has a lot of laughs along the way, (Danny McBride (Alien: Covenant (2017)) also supplies his share of them.)
SPOILER The ending goes for one last, sardonic tail on Eddie's predicaments instead of that whiff of Hollywood romance that I for one was sighing for after watching Stiller's many unenviable situations throughout the movie. The Heartbreak Kid also has poor posters and a reused title that doesn't really fit the film. - But it's a gaga fun train nonetheless!

Related posts:

Peter & Bobby Farrelly: Dumb and Dumber To (2014) or, Harry and Lloyd: Still Dumb and Lovin' It!
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Hall Pass (2011) - The Farrelly brothers' probably worst film to date
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Dumb and Dumber/Dumb & Dumber (1994) - The Farrellys brothers and Carrey/Daniels' comedy classic

Watch a politically incorrect, early wedding scene from the film here, - and if this makes you laugh, you'll like the film

Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 127.7 mil. $
= Flop (2.12 times the cost)
[The Heartbreak Kid premiered 27 September (Westwood, Hollywood, Los Angeles) and runs 116 minutes. The Farrelly brothers wanted the film to have the title The Seven Day Itch, humorously riffing on the classic Marilyn Monroe-starring marriage comedy The Seven Year Itch (1955), but they lost a lawsuit (likely to Fox, the studio behind the film) and were pushed instead to reuse the Heartbreak Kid title. Shooting took place in Mexico and California, including San Francisco and Los Angeles from September 2006 - ?. Some nudity was reportedly cut from a sex scene in the film. It opened #2, behind holdover hot The Game Plan, to a weak 14 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#5) and grossed disappointing 36.7 mil. $ (28.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 11.6 mil. $ (9.1 %) and the UK with 9.9 mil. $ (7.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to two notches harder than this one. The Farrelly brothers returned with an episode of Unhitched (2008, TV-series) and theatrically with the awful Hall Pass (2011). Stiller returned in Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-07), Elmo's Christmas Countdown (2007, TV movie) and theatrically in Tropic Thunder (2008). The Heartbreak Kid is rotten at 29 % with a 4.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Heartbreak Kid?

No comments:

Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

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.

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

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

7/18/2018

The Heartbreak Kid (2007) or, The Seven Day Itch

No comments:

Post a Comment

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

My Blog List