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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
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Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.
Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004
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posted 08-19-2006 07:51 PM
CINEMA: Harkins Northfield 18, Denver, CO AUDITORIUM: 12 PRESENTATION: 35mm/Dolby Digital PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Slightly grainy picture; annoying woman in audience yelling "Wait! Your Slushee!" at the screen during the gas station scene RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)
WARNING: There are two types of people in this world...Winners, and Spoilers
In 2000 years, the planet's climate will have changed. Continents will be altered, civilizations laid to waste. But this scratchy Herculon seat fabric will still be here, good as new.
This place kind of reminds me of if Regal decided to cross-breed an Edwards and Century plex with an emphasis on tackiness, then abandoned the project in time for AMC to come in with their presentation equipment. No...AMC has better sound.
"Little Miss Sunshine" is a road flick that builds to a single joke. The joke is one of the funniest things projected onto a screen this year. Getting to it isn't a complete waste of time, but it's a bit bloated. There's one other moment where the audience collectively laughed out loud in the film, and it's the line leading into the joke. There ARE other laughs, but based on audience reaction, they're mostly left to the individual.
You know what I don't understand? Why Toni Collette is attractive. She IS attractive...I just can't figure out WHY.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 01-27-2007 06:03 PM
I didn't get to see Little Miss Sunshine in theaters, just had to settle for watching it on DVD.
Overall, I thought this was a very good character driven comedy. Viewers can interpret it on a more than a couple levels. The whole road trip angle is a common metaphorical device in lots of movies, and it threatens to become a cliché for its overuse. Luckily the characters in this movie had enough unique charm (not to mention great performances) to make the road trip device work.
I loved the payoff in the end in how it made a mockery of child beauty pageants. Abigail Breslin's performance as Olive was great. It took a little while for me to figure out where I saw her before: as the little girl in Signs who tells Mel Gibson in deadpan form, "Daddy, there's a monster outside my window."
While this is a good movie, it is not perfect. I give it three out of four stars. I must deduct one star from the rating for two reasons.
One (most important): the non-stop pile of obstacles along the road trip had me thinking "audience manipulation alert" from time to time. Sure, all movies are about manipulating audiences. But when you feel like the manipulation is coming from a contrived area then you get pulled out of the movie.
Two (not quite so important, but it's an issue that really bugs me): for a road trip movie, this show had a very retarded sense of geography.
Just what the hell kind of circuitous route did these people take to get from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach?
33 minutes into the movie, they're shown driving past an Eastbound entrance to Interstate 10. Then they're driving on some two lane roads. Just a few shots later, they're driving on I-40 through the I-17 interchange in Flagstaff. Huh?
Why go anywhere near I-10? When driving from Albuquerque to L.A., anyone will stay on I-40 to Barstow and not see I-10 until hitting San Bernadino. Did the filmmakers not see Cars? I-40 is a highly influential route!
Maybe the filmmakers really loved that particular location. They must have liked it enough to put it in the movie trailer. Perhaps it was a 2nd unit pickup shot done sometime later. At any rate, any filmmaker should know better. Frame the shot without the damned I-10 sign in there. Or spend a little money on some CGI work to change that I-10 sign to an I-40 sign. Or better yet, find another beautiful, mountainous shot along I-40 itself. There's mountains all over the place between Albuquerque and Barstow.
Lots of movies pull this kind of shit with geography and I spot it all the time. Just who do they think they're fooling?
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