America's Sweethearts (2001)

[nthurkettle 148]

Surprised no one has introduced this one yet - much as I love it when HDTGM does the thrillers and sci-fi stuff, you really need the occasional "chick flick" to diversify things, and I think people forget just how goddamn weird and inexplicably unfunny this very mainstream and legitimately financially-successful movie was.

 

Beyond Julia Roberts in a fat suit and a whole plotline about a video that people think shows John Cusack masturbating, you've got Christopher Walken playing an eccentric filmmaker obviously based on the late Hal Ashby who does something that would not only get a director fired but sued and arrested... the whole movie is about movie making, is made by people who have made many movies, and yet its plot is dependent on so many things happening that would just never happen on a Hollywood film or in an actual Hollywood press junket.

 

Hank Azaria is in it, though, basically playing Antonio Banderas, and he's legitimately hilarious.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

Have to bump and recommend this movie. I unabashedly fucking love it from start to finish, while not being blinded by its flaws. 

[nthurkettle 148]

16 hours ago, Ofcoursemyhorse said:

Have to bump and recommend this movie. I unabashedly fucking love it from start to finish, while not being blinded by its flaws. 

THANK YOU! I think about it way more often than I should think about a movie I saw a single time 17 years ago and thought was bad. On what planet are Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones SISTERS? Why cast John Cusack, whose persona has always been that hip, alternative guy who wouldn't be in to being super-famous (and doesn't even try to be different in this movie), to play Bobo Tom Cruise? How damn long does that scene of Billy Crystal running back and forth between limos last? In my memory it lasts for at least three hours.

[CopKabob 1]

How. Dare. You. This movie is fucking great. John Cusack, Julia Roberts and Hank Azaria. What more do you want? 5 stars

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I loved all the snippets from the fake movies Cusack and Zeta-Jones were in together.  That's interesting you saw him as a bobo Tom Cruise, because I saw him more as a bobo Tom Hanks which made it a bit more believable in my mind. I do take issue with the fact that Cusack ends up as the de-facto winner of the movie, because throughout he's a pretty terrible person. 

3 hours ago, nthurkettle said:

THANK YOU! I think about it way more often than I should think about a movie I saw a single time 17 years ago and thought was bad. On what planet are Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones SISTERS? Why cast John Cusack, whose persona has always been that hip, alternative guy who wouldn't be in to being super-famous (and doesn't even try to be different in this movie), to play Bobo Tom Cruise? How damn long does that scene of Billy Crystal running back and forth between limos last? In my memory it lasts for at least three hours.

 

[Gemmariemcc 5]

Yes yes YES! I've only recently discovered this podcast, and I am soooo surprised that this film hasn't been done! Catherine Zeta Jones and Julia Roberts as SISTERS? Julia Roberts in a fat suit.... Hell, Hank Azarias accent alone should be enough to fill an episode. 

[MichaelKatsimbris 6]

I can't believe I missed this being recommended. I'm with @CopKabob, this is 5 stars for me. Although I would still love to hear HDTGM go over this film.

Mike K

[nthurkettle 148]

Christopher Walken's character of Hal Weidmann is pretty clearly meant to be a very in-joke-y Hollywood spoof on eccentric 70's filmmaker Hal Ashby, who directed movies like Harold and Maude and Shampoo. For the plot to work, you have to believe so many impossible things: a) that someone like this would EVER be hired to direct a giant budget time-travel action film, b) he would be allowed to go all the way to the press junket while never showing anyone a single scrap of footage, and c) he could just torch the whole movie and make an invasive fly-on-the-wall documentary that ruins a movie star's career, and d) not end up sued, thrown in jail, and sued again. 

 

 

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

Yea this movie is perfect for the podcast in so many ways. This movie paints itself as essentially as an insiders look at how big rom-com ares made and marketed etc.

But its absolute nonsense from start to finish. It doesnt help that everyone in this is thoroughly unlikable, even Billy Crystal. 

[nthurkettle 148]

It's so weird because Crystal co-wrote the movie, so he knows that his character is supposed to be the best big studio P.R. guy around, and yet he plays every scene as a hapless underdog who can't keep up with anything even before things go truly off the rails.

[RyanSz 3140]

This is definitely one of those movies where everyone involved is too far into the woods to see the trees, which happens a lot with these type of inside the Hollywood machine films. They either are so inside that no one gives a crap about anything happening within them (What Just Happened, Burn Hollywood Burn, among others) or they are parodies that make light of the reality and how absurd it actually is (Tropic Thunder, Last Action Hero, Entourage to an extent) but this kinda slumps in the middle because it's about probably the most mundane thing about making a movie, the press junket. It doesn't help that Zeta-Jones is completely unlikable in this film so the audience has no reason to root for Cusack to want to get back with her and Crystal is at times a genius at building anticipation for the movie and at others a complete idiot in trying to keep the train on the tracks so that the junket is a success. Then you have Walken who breaks so many laws in making his movie that even John Landis would say "hey dude that's too far," but it's okay because he's the kooky guy who bought the Unabomber's shack and now lives in it, and this movie is glorious clusterfuck.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

4 hours ago, RyanSz said:

This is definitely one of those movies where everyone involved is too far into the woods to see the trees, which happens a lot with these type of inside the Hollywood machine films. They either are so inside that no one gives a crap about anything happening within them (What Just Happened, Burn Hollywood Burn, among others) or they are parodies that make light of the reality and how absurd it actually is (Tropic Thunder, Last Action Hero, Entourage to an extent) but this kinda slumps in the middle because it's about probably the most mundane thing about making a movie, the press junket. It doesn't help that Zeta-Jones is completely unlikable in this film so the audience has no reason to root for Cusack to want to get back with her and Crystal is at times a genius at building anticipation for the movie and at others a complete idiot in trying to keep the train on the tracks so that the junket is a success. Then you have Walken who breaks so many laws in making his movie that even John Landis would say "hey dude that's too far," but it's okay because he's the kooky guy who bought the Unabomber's shack and now lives in it, and this movie is glorious clusterfuck.

Whats even worse is that not only are you not rooting for Cusack to get back together with Zeta-Jones, Cusack is so unlikable in this movie that I actually felt bad for Julia Robert's character for ending up with him in the end. 

I think credit has to go to Julia Roberts for her performance, she's the only likable person in this movie by a landslide. Its hilarious how much the end reveal with the hidden cameras is played as a joke. 

Like John Mctiernan went to prison for doing something similar on the set of Rollerball. And given that Mctiernan's recording device was audio only I can only imagine the fact that he has cameras even in places like the costume dept or hair and makeup would be an even more severe charge. 

[twrecks14 12]

Here's my vote for this one as well. I mean I think we can all imagine the hilarity when Jason sees Billy Crystal getting a stiffy from a Doberman at the end. That alone makes this fodder for this podcast. I've seen this movie a few times and not much really stands out but that sure does!