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DuetsRating:
Release Date: 02 September, 2003 Retail Price: $14.99 OUR Price: $13.99 You SAVE: $1.00! Cast: Complete Cast (13 total) |
Duets Reviews
Awful Dialogue, Improbable Situations and Inherently Racist
It's difficult to make a bad movie when you have Gwyneth Paltrow and Paul Giamatti, yet somehow, Bruce Paltrow managed it.
The poor quality of this movie is obvious from the first scene, in which Huey Lewis hustles a local Karaoke champion out of $690. In order for this scene, as well as the entire movie, to work, the audience has to:
1) Be willing to ignore bad dialogue and bad acting.
2) Believe there's an underground culture where people obsess about karaoke and compete for cash prizes.
3) Care.
None of these happened with me, which maybe would have been fine if the movie was better. But it's not. It's amazingly bad. The dialogue is terrible. The situations are unbelievable. The acting, with two exceptions, is amateurish.
Paul Giamatti and Andre Braugher are able to rise somewhat above the material, but even their skills can't overcome the leaden weight of the awful script. Their characters are forced into the hackneyed "odd couple" road trip of increasingly violent crime we've seen in a thousand other movies. Meanwhile, we get to watch Gwyneth Paltrow act like a 5-year-old and Scott Speedman smile through his 5 o'clock shadow and mumble his lines.
On the positive side, I enjoyed the movie every time Huey Lewis picked up a microphone. Also, Gwyneth's and Paul Giamatti's singing was surprisingly good.
Another glaring flaw in the movie is the racist stereotyping. All of the main characters are white except Andre Braugher, who is black, and therefore a criminal. And of course, he has to die.
The other minority in the movie is the stereotypical drunk Japanese businessman who sings karaoke very badly. I think he was supposed to provide comic relief, but the whole thing smacked of racism.
The finale of the movie is forced and just doesn't fit with the rest of the movie. But, as awful as the rest of the movie is, I have to admit I wasn't surprised.
Just a fun movie
I can't believe this got so many bad reviews. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The singing wasn't that bad and the acting was good too. I bought the DVD. I think people are missing the point. Don't be so serious.
More Customer Reviews (16 total)
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