A SINGLE MOTHER, WITH DREAMS OF BECOMING A WRITER, HAS A SON AT THE AGE OF 15 IN 1968, AND GOES THROUGH A FAILED MARRIAGE WITHTHE DRUG-ADDICTED FATHER. SPECIAL FEATURES: SUBTITLES INENGLISH, FRENCH, CHINESE, KOREAN AND THAI, AUDIO COMMENTARY BYDREW BARRYMORE, THEATRICAL TRAILERS, FILMOGRAPHIES & MUCH MORE.Riding in Cars with Boys achieves broad appeal as a tearjerker laced with hardscrabble humor. In the crowd-pleasing hands of director Penny Marshall, Beverly Donofrio’s bestselling memoir loses much of its real-life gravity, but its rich humanity remains in abundance, especially since Drew Barrymore plays Donofrio with effortless charm. The movie spans 20 years, from Bev’s pregnancy at 15 in 1963 (actually 17 in the book), through welfare parenthood with a heroin-addicted husband (Steve Zahn), and semi-adult resentment as her teenaged son (Adam Garcia) takes priority over her ultimate goal of finishing college and publishing her memoir. For all of Barrymore’s winning tenacity, it’s Zahn’s goodhearted loser who gives the film its genuine soul while lending an edge to Marshall’s cloying sentiment. The material begs for the subtler touch of James L. Brooks (who produced this and Marshall’s more delicate hit Big), but that won’t stop this movie from attracting a legion of admirers. –Jeff Shannon
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April 11, 2008
#1
Nothing but a lame excuse to show the overrated Barrymore’s face on the screen again.
April 11, 2008
#2
I was sitting in the movie Legally Blonde, expecting nothing more then two hours of Resse Witherspoon acting dumb and runnigna round in cute outfitts. But ten minutes after sittind down I was amazed to see this absolutly wonderful preview. I had read an article aboutthe upcoming mvies taken from books and having never read the book Riding in cars with boys, blew it off as another dumb book. On the contrary, after seeing this preview I became ashamed that I had not read what seemed like the best book ever written. In less then a minute, I was exposed to Drew Beryymore lying to her father about what she does with boys, and finding out the consequences. But when you see her cry so genuinly when she does not have a girl, you realy begin to relate to her. All that I can say is that if this movie is half as good as the book (which I am happy to report i have now read, and loved) it is bound to become a classic.
April 11, 2008
#3
A nightmarish sludge ride that spirals without mercy. I hated Drew Barrymore in this film (that means she did a good job). The little boy would have been much better off being raised by his junkie dad. The direction is great, the picture is a perfect digital transfer, it’s just the story itself. I can only imagine s/m types or Oprah fans enjoying this kind of vicious tearjerking. There is not one likeable character in this film, it’s hard to care what happens to this loser family. We are forced to sit through nightmare tragedy after nightmare tragedy. It’s like the Jerry Springer show. In the end Drew is a bitter mess that is totally diluted and sad, the kid is in need of therapy, and the dad is… well, pretty much the same as he was in the beginning, a dope. I just can not say anything nice about this film. The only silver lining is that it makes films like HAPPINESS, WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, heck, even ERASERHEAD look like feel good John Hughes films.
April 11, 2008
#4
The latest effort from Penny Marshall’s direction is not her best. This movie tells the story of a woman, who I did not care for at all, or have any sympathy for, named Beverly Donofrio.
Bev, at age 15, makes a “mistake” that changes her life forever.
In the meantime, she is ruthless about getting a college education and getting her book, same title as the movie, published. While it is good to be ambitious, it is not good to be so darn selfish, irresponsible(even for age 15), and well, just plain mean.
I found Bev to be a very unsympathic, rude, sometimes heartless and unfeeling person. Why was this film even made? Who should even care about this woman as she is just a total selfish, well, female dog for lack of a better word. And why did I bother renting it? I’ll tell you…
Yes, I squirmed in my seat a lot, and forced myself to watch the entire movie. I did however, like the performance of Brittany Murphy, who plays Bev’s best friend, Fae. She had her character down, and is a great young actress with a lot of potential. Murphy, and pretty much every other actor on the screen, totally outacted Drew. I just don’t think she is a good actress at all. She had a very forced and unrealistic New York accent, also. Both her and her character annoyed me beyond belief.
There were some very poignant, and truly funny momments in this film between Bev and her family and friends. It wasn’t a total waste of time, but it wasn’t great. There are far better movies from 2001.
James Woods, Lorraine Bracco, and Steve Zahn were all very good in their roles, and very believable. I think just sitting back and watching someone “ruin” their lives isn’t really my idea of a totally entertaining film.
April 11, 2008
#5
I don’t generally go out of my way to see Drew Barrymore movies, but I’ve ended up tagging along with the GF to a few, and ended up liking them. While Ms. Barrymore may not be a good actress, she has a charm and charisma that make her worth watching. Most of the time.
I honestly can’t imagine who Riding in Cars with Boys will appeal to. I haven’t read the book it’s based on, so I’ll be talking only about the characters, as portrayed in the movie. Barrymore’s Beverly Donofrio is a horrendous, self-centered, self-important idiot, that makes the movie virtually unbearable to watch. She makes stupid choices, she blames others for her misfortune. She treats her child like a burden, she’s a terrible mother, and basically, spends her time wondering why the world isn’t willing to kowtow to her will, and make her life the Beverley-centric paradise she thinks it should be.
That, in itself, makes the movie nigh-unbearable, but the various twists and turns the movie goes through, as well as the pathetically trite and inane resolution to the whole mother-son relationship is so gut-wrenchingly insipid that if I had paid to see this in the theater, I’d have thrown my soda at the screen and walked out. Something I’d never even *considered* before in my entire life.
Maybe there’s something that I’m missing. There seem to be a decent number of people who actually *like* this movie, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out why.
If you like human drama, if you like stories about *people*, then you’ll probably hate this movie. As hard as it tries to be about something, about some redemption in this person’s life – it’s simply not. It’s two hours of watching a vapid idiot whine about how life has screwed her over, then it ends with a nice little (and yet entirely nonsensical) sprinkle of sugar, that only serves to show us what a bitter and vile movie we just wasted the last two hours of our life on.
I’d sell this disc, just to get it out of my collection, but that would mean someone else would probably end up watching it, and frankly, I’m just not that cruel a person.