An instantly forgettable trifle, "Fortune Cookie" has no new insights into the awkwardness of first dates or long-delayed declarations of true love, but it does have an enthusiastic cast that provides some gently comic moments. The directorial debut of Clay Essig, written by Rob Thomas (ABC's "Cupid"), the low-budget American indie shot in Utah premiered at the Hollywood Film Festival.
By far the most photogenic and engaging of the three related couples who converge at a restaurant that purveys customized fortune cookies, high schoolers Heath (Matt Barker) and Doug (Rachel Kimsey) are mismatched. She's a confused cheerleader who agrees to let the awkward but sweet guy take her to the prom. Their rocky road to appreciating each other has no serious problems needing radical maneuvers, but the performers are appealing and the characters are the most believable in the movie.
Heath's jaded older sister (Brandy Snow) goes out on a date with a handsome radio DJ (Christopher Marley). They get to know each other's sensitive secrets and spar about details as she measures his sincerity, with little doubt they will bond seriously if they ever stop blabbing.
The third couple is Doug's widowed mother (Terra Allen) and her boyfriend (Doug Caputo), who is considering a new job out of town and wants to pop the question. Instead, they come close to breaking up during the climactic scenes, with the eatery's cynical Fortune Cookie scribe producing riddle-like words of wisdom.
Well-mannered, with no sex or harsh language, "Fortune Cookie" is competently made.
By far the most photogenic and engaging of the three related couples who converge at a restaurant that purveys customized fortune cookies, high schoolers Heath (Matt Barker) and Doug (Rachel Kimsey) are mismatched. She's a confused cheerleader who agrees to let the awkward but sweet guy take her to the prom. Their rocky road to appreciating each other has no serious problems needing radical maneuvers, but the performers are appealing and the characters are the most believable in the movie.
Heath's jaded older sister (Brandy Snow) goes out on a date with a handsome radio DJ (Christopher Marley). They get to know each other's sensitive secrets and spar about details as she measures his sincerity, with little doubt they will bond seriously if they ever stop blabbing.
The third couple is Doug's widowed mother (Terra Allen) and her boyfriend (Doug Caputo), who is considering a new job out of town and wants to pop the question. Instead, they come close to breaking up during the climactic scenes, with the eatery's cynical Fortune Cookie scribe producing riddle-like words of wisdom.
Well-mannered, with no sex or harsh language, "Fortune Cookie" is competently made.
- 8/31/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This "American Pie" is the kind Mom never baked. A raucous, ribald teen sex comedy, the film should score with its target audience. But an R rating might cut down on boxoffice take if NATO is serious about policing the rating code. In any event, the film is mostly stale pie for anyone older than 25.
Neophyte filmmaker brothers Chris and Paul Weitz, the producer and director, respectively, occasionally try on the Farrelly brothers' mantle of gross-out humor. But either you have the imagination for this kind of physical comedy, or you don't. The Weitz brothers don't. As a result, "American Pie" plays like a pale imitation of movies such as "Dumb and Dumber" and "Porky's", which in their peculiar way were classics of testosterone comedy.
Few films are clearer, however, about the goals of their leading male characters. In Adam Herz's script, a quartet of high school seniors in a medium-sized Michigan town are desperate to get laid. This is one final exam that, if flunked, makes college seem like an arid wilderness.
The friends make a pact to accomplish this goal before graduation. Each sets about the task in his own inimitable way.
Jim (Jason Biggs), looking and acting a bit like Adam Sandler, suffers a hilarious "date" with a Czech exchange student (Shannon Elizabeth) that is accidentally broadcast online to the entire community. He then settles on hyperactive band member Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), largely because she appears to be the only one in town who didn't witness his Czech fiasco.
Kevin Thomas Ian Nicholas) has a girlfriend, Vicky (Tara Reid), but has failed to get further than "third base" with her. Oz (Chris Klein) tries working on his sensitivity to woo his choral partner Heather (Mena Suvari). Finch Eddie Kaye Thomas) floats rumors about his sexual prowess and equipment in hopes that advertising will do the trick. Meanwhile, Jessica (Natasha Lyonne) dispenses more advice than a Fortune Cookie factory.
Cliches abound in every plot line, but, interestingly, the payoffs are genuinely funny in two instances and somewhat poignant in the other two. This film saves its best moments for last.
"American Pie" has a likable cast, but the actors appear throttled back by a pedestrian script and direction. Consequently, one winds up liking the film more than it deserves because of the gameness of its attractive cast.
While guys are the central figures, it's nice to see women's roles given enough weight so that they are characters rather than sex objects. Their yearnings aren't any different than the guys'; they just come off a bit smarter.
Technical credits are not much better than a "Melrose Place" episode.
AMERICAN PIE
Universal Pictures
A Warren Zide/Craig Perry production
Director:Paul Weitz
Producers:Warren Zide, Craig Perry, Chris Moore, Chris Weitz
Co-producers:Louis G. Friedman, Chris Bender
Writer:Adam Herz
Director of photography:Richard Crudo
Production designer:Paul Peters
Editor:Priscilla Nedd-Friendly
Costume designer:Leesa Evans
Music:David Lawrence
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jim:Jason Biggs
Stifler's Mom:Jennifer Coolidge
Nadia:Shannon Elizabeth
Michelle:Alyson Hannigan
Oz:Chris Klein
English Teacher:Clyde Kusatsu
Jim's Dad:Eugene Levy
Jessica:Natasha Lyonne
Kevin:Thomas Ian Nicholas
Vicky:Tara Reid
Stifler:Sean William Scott
Heather:Mena Suvari
Finch:Eddie Kaye Thomas
Running time -- 95 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Neophyte filmmaker brothers Chris and Paul Weitz, the producer and director, respectively, occasionally try on the Farrelly brothers' mantle of gross-out humor. But either you have the imagination for this kind of physical comedy, or you don't. The Weitz brothers don't. As a result, "American Pie" plays like a pale imitation of movies such as "Dumb and Dumber" and "Porky's", which in their peculiar way were classics of testosterone comedy.
Few films are clearer, however, about the goals of their leading male characters. In Adam Herz's script, a quartet of high school seniors in a medium-sized Michigan town are desperate to get laid. This is one final exam that, if flunked, makes college seem like an arid wilderness.
The friends make a pact to accomplish this goal before graduation. Each sets about the task in his own inimitable way.
Jim (Jason Biggs), looking and acting a bit like Adam Sandler, suffers a hilarious "date" with a Czech exchange student (Shannon Elizabeth) that is accidentally broadcast online to the entire community. He then settles on hyperactive band member Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), largely because she appears to be the only one in town who didn't witness his Czech fiasco.
Kevin Thomas Ian Nicholas) has a girlfriend, Vicky (Tara Reid), but has failed to get further than "third base" with her. Oz (Chris Klein) tries working on his sensitivity to woo his choral partner Heather (Mena Suvari). Finch Eddie Kaye Thomas) floats rumors about his sexual prowess and equipment in hopes that advertising will do the trick. Meanwhile, Jessica (Natasha Lyonne) dispenses more advice than a Fortune Cookie factory.
Cliches abound in every plot line, but, interestingly, the payoffs are genuinely funny in two instances and somewhat poignant in the other two. This film saves its best moments for last.
"American Pie" has a likable cast, but the actors appear throttled back by a pedestrian script and direction. Consequently, one winds up liking the film more than it deserves because of the gameness of its attractive cast.
While guys are the central figures, it's nice to see women's roles given enough weight so that they are characters rather than sex objects. Their yearnings aren't any different than the guys'; they just come off a bit smarter.
Technical credits are not much better than a "Melrose Place" episode.
AMERICAN PIE
Universal Pictures
A Warren Zide/Craig Perry production
Director:Paul Weitz
Producers:Warren Zide, Craig Perry, Chris Moore, Chris Weitz
Co-producers:Louis G. Friedman, Chris Bender
Writer:Adam Herz
Director of photography:Richard Crudo
Production designer:Paul Peters
Editor:Priscilla Nedd-Friendly
Costume designer:Leesa Evans
Music:David Lawrence
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jim:Jason Biggs
Stifler's Mom:Jennifer Coolidge
Nadia:Shannon Elizabeth
Michelle:Alyson Hannigan
Oz:Chris Klein
English Teacher:Clyde Kusatsu
Jim's Dad:Eugene Levy
Jessica:Natasha Lyonne
Kevin:Thomas Ian Nicholas
Vicky:Tara Reid
Stifler:Sean William Scott
Heather:Mena Suvari
Finch:Eddie Kaye Thomas
Running time -- 95 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 6/25/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The most original aspect of "Nowheresville", a low-budget comedy-romance, is the writer-director credit. Bishop Trout is the team moniker for co-producers Randall Harvey and Alex Mindt, Seattle-based filmmakers with several shorts and stage productions on their resumes.
"Nowheresville" made its world premiere recently at the Wine Country Film Festival in Northern California. Well-made and mildly diverting, the tale of friends, lovers and mates-to-be is predictable but sweet-natured. However, its commercial prospects are frankly nowaysville in a flooded marketplace.
"Like a river that don't know where it's flowing" is how one character describes love, quoting the Bruce Springsteen song "Hungry Heart". Unfortunately, one can't say the same for the scenario of this film, which opens with matter-of-fact philosopher Mike Mark Berry) introducing the small cast of players while dressing in formal wear for his own wedding.
Of course, the ultimate trick is guessing to whom Mike is getting hitched. Thankfully, the filmmakers don't overplay the gambit as Mike is mostly peripheral to the main action.
The primary players include manic, used-to-be-a-drunk Tom (Henri Lubatti), notorious for his dramatic approach to just about everything. In a seemingly healthy relationship with perky guy-saver Jenny Kim Tyler), Tom is set to pop the question in an elaborate scheme set at a Chinese restaurant.
Mike and Tom's best friend, Lillian (Kim Evey), are co-conspirators in a plan that includes a ring hidden in Ice Cream and the proposal inside a Fortune Cookie. In the days leading to the big event, however, Tom and Lillian realize that they have more than an intimate friendship. Maybe Tom is asking the wrong girl to walk down the aisle.
With supporting characters that are uniformly irritating, from Jenny's dysfunctional parents to a flower shop owner who goes ballistic when Tom and Lillian stand frozen and watch his store robbed by an old woman, "Nowheresville" rarely delves beneath the surface to explore what motivates the leads beyond their obvious longing for true love.
NOWHERESVILLE
Trout Films
Writer-director: Bishop Trout
Producers: Alex Mindt, Randall Harvey, Kim Tyler
Director of photography: Christopher Bell
Editors: Timothy Demmons, David Culp
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tom: Henri Lubatti
Lillian: Kim Evey
Jenny: Kim Tyler
Mike: Mark Berry
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"Nowheresville" made its world premiere recently at the Wine Country Film Festival in Northern California. Well-made and mildly diverting, the tale of friends, lovers and mates-to-be is predictable but sweet-natured. However, its commercial prospects are frankly nowaysville in a flooded marketplace.
"Like a river that don't know where it's flowing" is how one character describes love, quoting the Bruce Springsteen song "Hungry Heart". Unfortunately, one can't say the same for the scenario of this film, which opens with matter-of-fact philosopher Mike Mark Berry) introducing the small cast of players while dressing in formal wear for his own wedding.
Of course, the ultimate trick is guessing to whom Mike is getting hitched. Thankfully, the filmmakers don't overplay the gambit as Mike is mostly peripheral to the main action.
The primary players include manic, used-to-be-a-drunk Tom (Henri Lubatti), notorious for his dramatic approach to just about everything. In a seemingly healthy relationship with perky guy-saver Jenny Kim Tyler), Tom is set to pop the question in an elaborate scheme set at a Chinese restaurant.
Mike and Tom's best friend, Lillian (Kim Evey), are co-conspirators in a plan that includes a ring hidden in Ice Cream and the proposal inside a Fortune Cookie. In the days leading to the big event, however, Tom and Lillian realize that they have more than an intimate friendship. Maybe Tom is asking the wrong girl to walk down the aisle.
With supporting characters that are uniformly irritating, from Jenny's dysfunctional parents to a flower shop owner who goes ballistic when Tom and Lillian stand frozen and watch his store robbed by an old woman, "Nowheresville" rarely delves beneath the surface to explore what motivates the leads beyond their obvious longing for true love.
NOWHERESVILLE
Trout Films
Writer-director: Bishop Trout
Producers: Alex Mindt, Randall Harvey, Kim Tyler
Director of photography: Christopher Bell
Editors: Timothy Demmons, David Culp
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tom: Henri Lubatti
Lillian: Kim Evey
Jenny: Kim Tyler
Mike: Mark Berry
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 8/19/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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