I thought it was really obvious the guy with the earpiece was a dad. He’d clearly been to a boatload of these things, so I’m sure he knew that the crowd was likely to laugh (or boo) Olive off the stage. By jumping into the stunned silence with hooting and clapping, he headed that off. That’s a daddy’s behavior, through and through.
Overall, I thought the movie captured a family dynamic pretty well. That whole “I can badmouth my family all I want, but Og help the outsider who says anything at all negative about them” thing, you know.
[QUOTE=kittenblue]
My daughter rented this for us to watch on Christmas Day with my 22-year-old son, who really hates touchy-feely movies. He laughed through the whole thing, and I overheard him telling his new girlfriend all about it on the phone. This is very rare!
I really liked the movie, for the small moments as well as the over-the-top gags. The way Toni Collette glares at her husband as she walks around the van just before they leave Olive behind. The almost-smile on Dwayne’s face when they are pushing the car and he sucessfully leaps into the van…in fact, all the car-pushing moments were great bonding moments. The way Olive just hunkers down next to the despondent Dwayne and puts her head on his shoulder to comfort him, and the way Dwayne picks her up to help her up the hill.
There were so many opportunities to go cliched, over-the-top, and they stopped short and kept it believable. Even the whole family getting up on stage was fine with me…after all the stress they’d been under, and given the fact that by this point they really didn’t care about the pageant any more, I really enjoyed it! And the faded beauty queen was just faded enough…not over-the -top dolled up like a Suzanne Sugarbaker clone. Oh, and I loved how much Miss California liked Olive’s routine! The other contestants were quite scary with all the make-up, but they still ran around the halls like little girls.
All in all, it’s a movie I would buy.
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I saw this movie twice in the theater and I got the impression that Miss California was at first dumbfounded and then disgusted with Olive’s dance routine. I’m glad that Olive kept on dancing in spite of the pageant director trying to throw her off the stage. All these bits everyone is recalling are funny, but my favorite is when Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear leap onto the stage and start dancing. When Dwayne (can’t remember actor’s name) leaps up as well and starts gyrating, I just lost it. It’s nice to see dysfunctional families support each other this much.
[QUOTE=medstar]
I saw this movie twice in the theater and I got the impression that Miss California was at first dumbfounded and then disgusted with Olive’s dance routine. I’m glad that Olive kept on dancing in spite of the pageant director trying to throw her off the stage. All these bits everyone is recalling are funny, but my favorite is when Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear leap onto the stage and start dancing. When Dwayne (can’t remember actor’s name) leaps up as well and starts gyrating, I just lost it. It’s nice to see dysfunctional families support each other this much.
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I don’t know…it sured looked to me like Miss California was a grinning fool the whole time.
And I have to agree on the Steve Carrell hotness thing…and I thought it was just me!
Saw it last night. I liked it, but I wouldn’t give it an “8”, which is what it’s getting on IMDB. It had a superficial resmeblance to Family Vacation, but it was a completely different movie for me. Much more situational type comedy than slapstick, over the top stuff.
[QUOTE=medstar]
I saw this movie twice in the theater and I got the impression that Miss California was at first dumbfounded and then disgusted with Olive’s dance routine. I’m glad that Olive kept on dancing in spite of the pageant director trying to throw her off the stage. All these bits everyone is recalling are funny, but my favorite is when Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear leap onto the stage and start dancing. When Dwayne (can’t remember actor’s name) leaps up as well and starts gyrating, I just lost it. It’s nice to see dysfunctional families support each other this much.
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Miss (“I love ice cream!”) California is clearly grinning & bopping her head & maybe snapping her fingers & dancing in her seat. Hell, I almost expected her to jump up on stage & dance with the family!
I saw this Thursday. The first thing I asked my Dad, who suggested it, was “Are you sure it’s supposed to be a comedy?” The last movie that left me puzzled about the genre people insist a movie belongs to was Punch Drunk Love. Both of these movies feel like dramas to me, not comedies.
There were a couple of funny scenes in LMS, but then again, I write the occasional humorous scene into my horror stories too, so a couple of laughs doesn’t neccessarily make a movie a comedy in my book.
It wasn’t a bad movie, but I honestly don’t understand why so many people loved it. I’d give it a 5 on a ten point scale.
Just rented this and watched it last night. Overall I thought it was OK, some funny parts, a little goofy. My only question is, why did the cop pull them over in the first place?