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

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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?

Epic Movie (2007) - Friedberg/Seltzer deliver the tasteless fun

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+ Most Under-appreciated Movie of the Year + Best Low-brow Movie of the Year

A simple and very silly-looking poster for Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer's Epic Movie

Four unrelated orphans find each other with four golden tickets and venture through a wardrobe that's really a trap into a cold world, which is ruled by a tyrannical white bitch!

- She is played with usual comical panache by Jennifer Coolidge (The Jack of Spades (2010)). Epic Movie distinguishes itself by having lovely comedians bring their chops to the spoof: Besides Coolidge there's Fred Willard (Max Rose (2013)), who is priceless as a randy half-lion; Kevin Hart (Little Fockers (2010)) is a blood-thirsty albino, and Crispin Glover (Dead Man (1995)) is Willy Wonka. Darrell Hammond (Agent Cody Banks (2003)) is really funny as 'Jack Swallows', the movie's take on Johnny Depp's Pirates of the Caribbean character, Jack Sparrow. There's also David Carradine (Karate Cop (1991)) and several other stars and wannabees.
Epic Movie is full of babes, piss, vomit, farts and crap. Its pace is high, and although it is undeniably lowbrow, it is fun lowbrow and good entertainment for all youthful laugh-oholics, - especially if approached with low expectations. It is written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Vampires Suck (2010), both).

Related post:

2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

 Watch a scene from the directors' previous film, Date Movie (2006) here, spoofing the legendary orgasm-faking scene from When Harry Met Sally... (1989). - If this makes you laugh, own it and go get Epic Movie as well, because it's for you

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 86.8 mil. $
= Big hit
[Epic Movie premiered 27 January (Australia and Malaysia) and runs 85 minutes. It was shot in California and New Jersey in and around July 2006. It opened #1 to an 18.6 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it fell to #3 in its second week and then out of the top 5, grossing 39.7 mil. $ (45.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 10.1 mil. $ (11.6 %) and Australia with 5.1 mil. $ (5.9 %). The film was axed by critics and today holds #42 on IMDb's user-generated Bottom 100 list, between Surf School (2006) and Alone in the Dark (2005). It sold in excess of 1 mil. DVDs in North America alone, adding another 16.8 mil. $ to its gross, (which, however, wouldn't change its big hit status if counted in.) Epic Movie is rotten at 2 % with a 2.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Epic Movie?

Charlie's Angels (2000) - McG's saucy Hollywood Entertainment winner

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The fiery poster for McG's Charlie's Angels

QUICK REVIEW:

Charlie's Angels is an update of a late-70s TV-series of three exquisite, young women, who work as spy agents for a millionaire named Charlie, who only speaks to them through an intercom.

In retrospect, this is a pretty bizarre film, and for a long stretch of the way it mostly looks like a grotesque sales exercise in all its rah-rah bling, colors, multiple music hits and star parade.
The three main stars, Cameron Diaz (There's Something About Mary (1998)), Drew Barrymore (Donnie Darko (2001)) and Lucy Liu (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)), are beautiful and giggling yet strong as the cool heroines. There are several neat, handsome scenes and good ideas, and the first class supporting cast elevates the film, especially Tim Curry (It (1990)), Bill Murray, (Groundhog Day (1993)), Crispin Glover (Back to the Future (1985)) and Tom Green (Freddy Got Fingered (2001)).
Charlie's Angels is a crisp and fun spy action-comedy from director McG (This Means War (2012)), who is doing a tiny TV comedy right now, entitled Kevin From Work (2015). He also directed the less successful sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003).

Stars Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz from McG's Charlie's Angels

It's not hard to see why audiences everywhere flocked to see Charlie's Angels. - It looks awesome! See its trailer here

Cost: 93 mil. $
Box office: 264.1 mil. $
= Box office success
[With the film's large budget, a slighter result than this might not have prompted a sequel, (although with booming DVD sales and TV, the film must have racked in plenty of dough.) ABC launched a new Charlie's Angels TV-series in 2011, which was canceled after its first season.]

What do you think of Charlie's Angels?
If you've seen the original series, or the newest attempt, please, tell us about it/them