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The Sweetest Thing Review By Shawn McKenzie 04/12/2002 There has recently become a new way to drive both men and women into the theaters. It involves making your standard chick flick and add some gross-out scenes for the guys. This is a style pretty much created by the Farrelly Brothers with their 1998 hit There's Something About Mary. Unfortunately, the Farrelly Brothers should have put a guidebook out on when gross-out scenes can further the plot and not just exist for shock value. Just existing is exactly what happens in The Sweetest Thing. The story is about Christina Walters (Cameron Diaz), a woman who is afraid of commitment, so she insists on playing relationship games. She then meets Peter Donahue (Thomas Jane) at a club and something about him makes her think that she could have a real relationship. After flaking out on attending a bachelor party he invited her to, she decides to go to the wedding after her friend Courtney Rockliffe (Christina Applegate) talks her into it. She hopes that maybe she can meet up with him again at the wedding and maybe get a chance to know him better. The movie is all about the road trip to the wedding and the events that take place once they get there. Along the way, several of those gross-out things happen. I won't tell you them, because that would lesson their impact if you intend on going to see this movie, but I will tell you that they feel tacked on. In fact, there is one other character in this movie named Jane Burns (Selma Blair) that seems to exist just to be tortured. Her only purpose to the plot is to be the reason for Christina and Courtney to go to the club (to help her get over a break-up.) Other than that, her character suffers most of the gross-out stunts in this movie. I am far from a prude, but I have never seen the need for gratuitous or unnecessary scenes that don't advance the plot. Whether it be this movie for the gross-out scenes or something like 3000 Miles to Graceland (the second worst movie of 2001 behind Freddy Got Fingered) for violence, it doesn't seem necessary (okay, there is one exception I like: gratuitous nudity, like the famous Halle Berry scene in Swordfish. There's always room for nudity! Hey I'm a guy!) Is it still funny though? Actually, yes it is. There is a scene in the movie (that doesn't make sense but is still funny) where the two main characters are trying on dresses to replace the ones that were ruined on the way to the wedding. They do it in a movie montage scene that parodies other movies like Pretty Woman and Flashdance. In fact, before the scene starts they say "There's always time for a movie montage!" Just when you are rolling your eyes at that statement, the scene starts and it is very funny. That scene along with a few other moments and lines in this movie make it an enjoyable one. If you like gross-out scenes just for the sake of their existence, go see this movie, but if you are looking for a chick flick that just happens to offer something for the boys, this movie delivers, but only very flimsily. If that is good enough, check it out. If not, wait until it hits video. You decide. For me, I could have gone without the gross-out scenes, but that's just me.
Ratings System:
SEE THIS MOVIE!
Catch this movie at the theater if you can...
Wait until it comes out on video...
Wait until it plays on HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc...
Demand your money back, even if you saw it for free! |
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