Shaking the Tree (1990) User Reviews

Predictable soul-searching bit. (spoilers)

[vertigo_14 · 5/10 · 19 March 2006]

'Shaking the Tree' follows a long trend of the 20-something soul searching story which involves a group of friends longing for the glory days and wondering what exactly went wrong in life that they didn't quite achieve what they thought they could have. Faded sports heroes, lost loves, deadend jobs, and sometimes nothing at all. The earliest of these and probably the most recognized is 'Diner' and later, 'The Big Chill' and 'St. Elmo's Fire.' Others that I can think of is the early 90s 'Queens Logic' and the late 90s comedy, 'The Four Aces.' 'Shaking the Tree,' because it offers nothing new really, and even stories of characters that are not all that unique or really all that interesting compared to others like it, it is instantly forgettable, despite the nostalgic appeal of 80s regular, Ayre Gross and pre-Friends Courtney Cox.

This is simply the story of four guys long past their own glory days. One is soon-to-be-father and aspiring novelist who can't seem to relate to his wife and deals with it by fooling around. Another is engaged to be married, but wedding plans are nixed when he finds out that his fiancée long ago slept with one of his friends. Another is a bartender who can't box anymore and is wondering what is left for him. And another comes from money but has zero ambition and, seems to deal with that, by running away from everything except for the ten grand bet he gambled away at the races.

Not a particularly bad movie. A nice distracting time waster, if nothing else, but overall, there are a slew of this variety of comedy/dramas that have been in the past 20 years alone, and this one is nothing special among them.

Amateur production

[jrbry · 13 April 2003]

I admit the only reason I got this movie was the presence of Courteney Cox and, once again, I'm surprised at how bad her early movies really were. It's a good thing she lucked into "Friends," because her choices for film roles were atrocious. I suppose I can't be too hard on her this time, since she only has a tiny part in this self-consciously earnest coming-of-age movie set in bleak Chicago. The first thing that strikes a sour note is the concept, four young men coming to terms with adulthood in an urban environment, quite obviously a ripoff of 'Diner', a much better film from eight years earlier. This movie was made in 1990 but not released until 1992 - a hint of what a turkey it was. The problem is the writing is so poor and the main characters have so little in common, one can't sympathize with them or even see why they would hang out together. Check the credits for the writers and you won't be surprised to see they hadn't written anything before or since. Courteney is little more than a pudgy and very pregnant wife whose husband is cheating on her -- talk about being miscast! The storylines for the four guys seem cliched and lack any real depth. By the time the smarmy conclusion comes, you just don't care.

This was my age in 1990. I'm glad this wasn't me.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 22 April 2021]

"I thought I'd be, you know, ready." Such a profound line that one 20 something man says in this independently made dude flick that takes some cliched ideas of what men were like in the metropolis of Chicago. It's just a constantly changing world where nothing ever happens that we've not seen before, and rather than being flesh and blood men whom you can use to point to as influential, you get just archetypes of TV drama characters, not humans.

I guess I should be grateful from the perspective that this is one of the few films to focus on a group of men rather than a group of women, but these aren't any men that I would want to know. A pre-"Friends" Courtney Cox is stuck in the same universe, if a different city, but at least she is a reactor here as a story focuses on the men, of whom only Arye Gross and Douglas Savant have any name familiarity.

If the story has been more than just a series of the men and their individual problems and really dealt with some of the issues that men face at that time, this might have some merit 30 years after its release, but you really aren't giving enough time to care about these people, and you also begin to ask yourself why would you. All this confirms is the lesson I learned a long time ago, that all lives are a mess at one point or another and put in your problems out there with no idea of how to work them out just really doesn't work to get sympathy for cardboard cutout characters like this.

Great movie

[evelyn33 · 18 May 2004]

I got this movie because i really liked Gale Hansen in Dead Poets Society. The guy is brilliant! Don't listen to other people when they say this is boring - it really isn't. Its funny, full of one-liners and well acted (at least by Gale!).

Its a touching story in places, very 80s/90s cusp and tells the story of four male friends who are branching out into their lives with different ideas on what life will/wont hold for them. Two of them are successful, one is trying to be (if he ever finishes his novel) and the fourth is a rich kid/dead beat with a gambling problem. We watch the four living through their problems and successes with women, work and life. The only thing keeping them all together is their friendship.

Its also a fun film in places too (especially the baseball game part - Gale you are so funny...you have me in stitches!.

Personally i was sad to see it end - i could have quite easily sat through another two hours of Sully's 'shenanigans' :OD

Enjoy!

This movie sucks

[madsully · 21 June 2003]

*POSSIBLE SPOILER HEREIN* Four guys who have "problems" try to work out their "problems" and remain friends. Far too long, this movie is tediously slow and the characters are surface only. No depth at all. When the script attempts to project depth in the characters, it is akin to soap opera melodrama. I wish these guys had real problems, like losing their hair or discovering cavities. Instead they wallow in self contempt and insecurity. This movie comes with the promise of one of these guys attempting to off himself. Truly "dramatic!!!" Like anyone could care about a bunch of vapid losers like these. Go ahead, kill yourself. Watching this movie nearly killed ME! I hope IFC TV stops running it. A waste of air-time.