This is the most enjoyable comedy I've seen in quite a while. I enjoyed this movie tremendously. Most of the movie kept a smile on my face the entire time. The audience loved it too, and the turnout was good (between 200 and 300 people, I'd say) on a night when Star Wars was selling out every show ahead of time.

It is rare these days when a comedy gets its laughs not by gross-out jokes, but my more intelligent means. Much of the humor comes from hearing what the characters are thinking (the brutal honesty of the thoughts). I liked Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary, but I think I liked About a Boy the best.

Maybe the overly-macho types won't like this movie, but I think most people will. There were people of all ages in that auditorium with me, young and old, and judging by the reactions, an overwhelming majority of them loved it.

I can't imagine why this movie didn't play at more theatres. It is a wonderful alternative to the hyped actions movies out there. I highly recommend it!

Presentation notes:

Pre-show music was the most horrible stuff I've had to endure, and it was loud. It was song after song of modern pop/urban crap. I think DTS played through as PCM without a decoder would have been more soothing than that stuff. :-)

Audio was painfully loud during the previews. One Coke commercial did not play in digital and it was a nice brief break. The only other thing that didn't play in digital, ironically, was the "flying disc" DTS trailer, which played in terribly miscalibrated analog, which makes me wonder if the sound was actually Dolby Digital and the trailer was intended for another auditorium, since the sound dropped out briefly for a couple of seconds at a time during some previews.

The trailer splicing was carelessly done. The first few seconds of audio of some previews were wrong. The Universal intro music was over part of one of the green bands and the first few seconds of the DTS trailer didn't even play (even in analog). I see carelessness at this megaplex. Keystoning was very obvious on the Regal policy trailer, for which the scope version is not printed across the entire scope aperture, but "windowboxed". The booth (and rear seats) were above the top of the screen! The movie itself did not seem quite as loud, but it would have been more comfortable at a slightly lower level.

------------------
Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site

 |  IP: Logged

Notwithstanding the above, I loved this movie. As Evans and Aldo said, it's a comedy that manages to get genuine laughs without resorting to gross-out humor aimed at 15-year-olds (no offense to any 15-year-olds reading this ). Everyone in it was great and the writing was smart without being overly-clever. Toni Collette (sp?) is becoming one of my favorites. Hugh Grant does an amazing job as Mr. Shallow, and the kid was good without being obnoxious. As Evans noted, the audience seemed to really enjoy this a lot, young and old.

This movie deserved better lab work.

 |  IP: Logged

Presentation was a little dark unfortunately. I can recall a scene where there is dialogue between two characters on a couch and the viewer was straining to see the difference between one of the characters and the couch itself - is there a luminosity problem?

This film is a narrative style film as narrated by the lead character. I'm not a big fan of that style of film but I liked this film anyway. It seemed to have enough of a realist edge to keep it believable. Its not the sort of comedy that will give you big laughs but it does have its moments.

My rating 7/10 - worth seeing

cheers Peter