Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

adonis98-743-186503 Two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment embark on a week-long road trip through California's wine country, just as one is about to take a trip down the aisle. Despite the good cast 'Sideways' unfortunately goes sideways from the very start to the point where it gets boring but also not as dramatic as it might have hoped. The perfomances weren't bad but they weren't great either and in the end? It was just a film that wasted my time and just another movie that doesn't need such a high rating as a whole.

merelyaninnuendo SidewaysThe premise walks on familiar path and offers the same rudimentary process that is created by the usual structure that such genre consists, and it still finds a way to stand alone in its self-created journey and the primary reason to that would be the chemistry among the cast which is stronger, meaningful and not charming or cheesy. The adaptive screenplay is smarter and keeps the audience engaged not because of its grip on the characters but the constant concrete material it offers. Alexander Payne; the screenwriter and director, has done a tremendous work on executing the anticipated vision on screen where he speaks more volume that any other with an amazing camera work; it is shot beautifully. Paul Giamatti is convincing in his lead role and is supported decently by his on screen partner Thomas Haden Church. It is short on technical aspects like background score and sound department, although is edited perfectly. The minor crisis in here would be the build-up of high pitched dramatic scenes which could have been given more importance to create much greater impact. Sideways is a free spirit trip that walks miles rather than flying with the help of its pragmatic characters that keeps it grounded.

Davis P OK so Sideways is kind of a complex film. I look at this movie in two parts. And that's how I'm going to review it. It stars Thomas Haden church, Paul Giamatti, Virginia Madsen, and Sandra Oh. The movie basically is centered around Paul and church's road trip before church gets married. They meet two woman (Madsen and Oh) and these women get close to each of the men (Madsen with giamatti) and (Oh with Church). The chemistry between Madsen and Giamatti is very good and since they are both such good actors it is very believable. The two parts are those two relationships that go on in the film. I got pretty frustrated with Thomas Haden church's character, simply put, he's just a two timing jerk, a complete loser. Haden Church isn't a bad actor at all, and his isn't bad, I wouldn't say it's Oscar worthy, but personally I just really despised the character he played. He was just so damn annoying. I like Madsen and Giamatti's characters though, I liked their part of the movie, but that's the ONLY part I liked. I didn't like any other part of the movie, if the whole movie only focused on that, then I most likely would have loved it. But it didn't. And that's why I'm giving the film a 5, I honestly wanted to eliminate Thomas Haden Church from the film altogether. This is considered a comedy-drama film but there was no actual comedy in my opinion, I didn't even chuckle once at the "funny/comedic" moments. Some of the dramatic stuff worked though. 5/10 overall.

John Brooks Where this easily could've just been a vain pseudo-intellectual production of intellectual masturbation for two hours with no plot, it actually surprises and has real substance to it.First of all, Paul Giamatti is excellent. He isn't 'very good', he's excellent. The opinion is not overblown, he simply acts every single moment out like it was totally real, but I mean, right down to the unimportant eye movement, eyebrow positioning...he conveys all the impressions that were so important for the lead character to do, throughout the whole film. This isn't a case of the lead actor carrying the film, as the film is very good in its own right, it's a matter of having picked exactly, but I mean exactly the right guy for the right job.They all do well, and Virginia Madsen has more to her ability than this mere role, but she plays it well, every actor delivers the right performance. Haden Church also good.I'll get it out of the way that the film is very well structured, not once do you get bored or complacent with it, it manages its tension superbly well, very good tempo and the events fit their place just well, not a scene too many...so as a more general commentary about the film beyond the technical/cinematographic aspects, this film does really well at being about a pretty uninteresting story really, a pretty used up topic, and doing it in a very particular way which itself brings meaning and purpose about. Not so many films have that flavor, their own atmosphere, their own scent. This one has that. You follow the adventure like you're there, in there, not like you're behind some computer screen watching actors play roles. The details depicted in this film with regards to relationship, to things brewing in one's mind...are so very realistic and subtle. The film gets a hold of you, and although there's plenty of immoral happening in the story, there are also meaningful wiser choices and an actual moral ultimately, one that spread its buds throughout the whole film and observes full bloom at the end in a very classy way (classy, like the rest of it).8.5/10.