Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 13 Going On 30

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Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 04-23-2004, 01:55 PM:

For a movie I thought would turn out to be an updated "Big" (1988, UNI), it wasn't that bad. It'll definitely go over good with the teen girl crowd at the box office, but it does offer a story that their parents may enjoy as well.

SPOILERS!!!
As a 13 year old girl in the 80's Jenna Rink is unhappy with her life. As if by magic her wish of being an adult comes true and she wakes up 17 years later. A big time editor for a struggling magazine. Later in the movie it becomes clear that over the last 17 years, which she doesn't remember, she became bitter and spiteful. The magazine was dying because she was leaking stories to their competition, her best friend hated her because she turned on him when the rest of her "friends" turned on her. Typical high-school sort of thing. But by the end of the movie she's discovered the things that really matterin life and is again wished back to being 13 and of course, she makes right by everyone in the end.
/Spoilers

Quality of the print was quite low, the sound was so-so, and it terrified me when they started recreating the music video "Thriller". But all in all it's a decent family flick.
Two stars.
And Shhhh! don't tell anyone I watched it.

[ 04-23-2004, 04:26 PM: Message edited by: Joe Redifer ]

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 04-23-2004, 02:33 PM:

quote: Dominic Espinosa
"Big" (1988, UNI)

"Big" is a Fox Film, not Universal.

Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 04-23-2004, 04:21 PM:

Dominic,

it would be appreciated if you didn't give the storyline away in your review. I know somewhat about it but I want to see it without knowing what happens. Please refrain from giving plot lines away in the future. If you wish to do so, label them as SPOILERS.....Thanks

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 04-24-2004, 11:46 AM:

My appologies. The UNI mixup was from my memory.
I don't know about spoilers in this one though...The ending is pretty much evident from the outset. Nothing new about this story or how it's told realy.
Sorry about that though.

Posted by Dominique Replogle (Member # 2387) on 04-24-2004, 09:53 PM:

Is it not amazing how often Hollywood hits the public over the head with a flood of theme clones? i.e. Scream and company, or Deep Star Six, Levitathan, etc. I don't know, its just something I have noticed happens often. Please someone save me from all of the Lizzie McGwire, Olsen Twins movies hitting theaters right now.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 04-25-2004, 01:55 PM:

I love Jennifer Garner. [thumbsup]

The theatre I saw it in had an old lamp that flickered and was too dark. This is too bad as it was remodeled this year.

Costume note: Every outfit she wore made her ass look huge. Not is a bad way you understand but in a good booty JLo kind of way.

I thought she did a pretty good if hammy impression of how a 13-year-old might act if they suddenly found themselves 30. But she was much more gregarious as a 13-year-old adult than she was a 13-year-old child.

I might have enjoyed the film more if it were darker. Not darker than the already dim image from the flickering xenon lamp but from a darker psychological realm. After all as a 13-year-old and a 30-year-old she was having psychological problems.

And yes that slate of teen film trailers that preceded the film were abysmal.

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 05-04-2004, 09:57 PM:

It was pretty good. Jennifer over acting a little, but a well rounded movie. The young actors that played the original characters matched well.

3.5/5

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 05-05-2004, 06:55 PM:

I doubt too many 13 y.o.'s would want to be thirty. Twenty-something perhaps so they are in control of their lives but thirty is ancient when you're that young and it's bordering on their parents age and who would want to be that old?