Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

movieman_kev A small group of friends attend three different parties spread months apart. Some funny bits, some funny gags, but the film feels incomplete. I choose to attribute the good parts to Noah Baumbach, not out of liking his other work, as I have yet to see his "Kicking and Screaming" film (heard nothing but good things though), but rather because I REALLY want "The Life Aquatic" to be great. And I pin the blame of the bad scenes on the shoulders of Christopher Reed, because..well because the man made "The Sixth Man" 'nuff said. The acting is good all around though. Kudos to that.My Grade:C+Where i saw it: Showtime

enigmann There is so much here to praise, where to begin? Writing the equal of Woody Allen's sharpest urbanity. Story woven with understory interleaved with back-story. Non-stop desert-dry humor delivered with cutting but subtle irony. (E.G. the scene in which the subway girl at the Halloween party looks at Felix and says, "Are you always this funny?".) Acting so natural it could not have been acting.Photography and lighting primitive but perfect. Sound quality excellent. Editing expert and effective.Like a layer of transparent frosting, in nearly every scene the filmmaker smears mockery over the film itself and its characters. And yet, after being immersed in a seemingly non-stop train wreck of sarcasm which eventually mildly sprained my sense of humor, at the final scene I cried.Reality TV wishes it might maybe someday approach this level of authenticity.I will always cherish this film and those shining talents who created it.

mangospider I can't believe how much I laughed out loud at this movie. The comic energy that they managed to capture is outstanding. I just saw it recently and keep laughing when I remember certain moments- like Justine Bateman's shifting while the girl is talking about how she "used to love a gay man." I almost peed myself.

dwpittelli Ignore the blurb on the VHS box, the movie is not about a couple's hot parties with hip friends, it is about a couple's awful parties with jerk friends. Now, that might not be a bad thing -- in fact, I think it could be easier to make a good movie about bad parties than about good ones -- but the advertising is dishonest.Much worse, though, is the the pointless and boring character of the movie, which is about a bunch of stupid or verbally sadistic "friends" who mostly don't like each other. While I've known cliques that keep getting together despite frictions between some members, it's inconceivable that these people would keep getting together for these abusive and tedious holiday events. Also, the couples' relationships, which come and go between these parties, are unexplained and mostly unexplored, as are some individuals' character changes, and indeed, almost everything that doesn't happen at the parties themselves.