Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Family Stone

This is topic The Family Stone in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 12-16-2005, 12:47 PM:

Boring stuff, why couldn't this film have gone directly to video? Too many uninteresting characters, mind you that they are poorly developed at that. Throw in the family getting together at Christmas even makes the film even sappier! I was sooooo bored screeening this that I was actually counting the cuemarks. 1 out of 5 stars.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 12-28-2005, 06:16 AM:

Same here. Why did I even watch it? Well, I was in the theater and basically done for the day, and it was the only movie which hadn't started yet, so I thought, why not?
The answer: because this movie blows.
All the same faces we have seen in too many movies and TV shows already, cranking out the same stereotype performances, lame gags and weak lines.

All of the above does not apply if you live in San Diego. In that case, you have to get all your friends together and head for the next UltraStar Theater to see this heartwarming, deeply human and funny holiday movie and buy tons of concession snacks.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 12-29-2005, 03:48 PM:

CINEMA: Cinemark Movies 12, Ames, IA
AUDITORIUM: 3
PRESENTATION: Ultra-Stereo
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Screen blacked out for 1-2 seconds three times during the movie (the audio continued uninterrupted)
RATING: Two stars (out of four)

WARNING: Spoilers can cause you to not want to see this movie. You'll thank me later.

Was I the only one who saw the trailer for this and thought "romantic comedy"? Boy...This movie is anything BUT. NOTHING is funny in this movie.

Sarah Jessica Parker is Merideth Morton, one of the most unlikeable female characters in the history of cinema. She is dating Everett Stone. Everett is introducing Merideth to his family, a group of eccentric cliches who...oh who cares. Everett is going to ask her to marry him during Christmas.

Merideth bombs with the family, checks into "the Inn", and calls her sister Julie (played by Claire Danes, who looks nothing like Sarah Jessica Parker and is fourteen years younger than she is.) Everett picks her up at the bus station (because you can SO see somebody like her on a bus) and instantly falls in love with her. That's fine because Merideth is going to fall in love with Everett's pothead brother (Luke Wilson) anyway. Everything blows up on Christmas morning. Oh, and Mom's dying. We end on a one-year-later Christmas gathering that is supposed to be poignant.

Destined to be a Christmas classic for rich middle-aged women who never married and have forty cats.