SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

TexaninMD I noticed this movie in the "similar movies" section at the bottom left of the movie "Masterminds" on Netflix. I had already seen Masterminds but was going to watch it again, but then figured THIS one would be similar...and it WAS NOT.At first I was a little disappointed, but then the adult in me realized I was watching an amazing movie that MOST of you knuckleheads out there wouldn't GET or understand, ESPECIALLY if you came here hoping to see a mindless comedy like Masterminds. I started watching this with intentions to just laugh, and turn my brain off a little. What I got was a thoughtful subtly funny movie that was thought provoking and interesting. That's really all i wanted to say. I wanted the movie to keep going for another 30 minutes, but the writer figures he would let us all make our own stories, predictions on what happens next. Lots of bad ratings on this, and that's a shame. Honestly, my wife didn't much care for it, but I loved it. I'm 48, she's 37 (high five). Make your own judgment, but if you are looking for a sophomoric brainless comedy, do NOT push play on this one...

wmartjg This film had me glued to the screen. Owen did a great job here. His role was spot on his usual charming and witty character. Zack was his typical bipolar super interesting and intelligent self. The story had a lot of great points. It spoke to me in many ways about mental illness and friendships. Owen and Zack play best friends that feed off each other's negative choices and are each others crutches. The step mom was a 60's inspiration hippie type. Ben's sister was played well by an actress who usually plays a comedy role. But her face does look creased and stressed and fits the uptight Role wonderfully. Of course the two women clash. The director shows the contrast of city and wandering tumbleweed hippie very well. I do see how the story could confuse some. But life isn't a Hollywood film and they are trying to convey this in the story. Life isn't black and white, good nor bad. We just are here. The voices start to show us Ben really is crazy and he starts to see this too and decides to take his meds. He loses his insanity but also loses his creativity and slips into a normal life. But at the end sees this. It does leave me thinking if he will return to the farm and start the hippie commune...

Arch Stanton Stumbled across this title on Netflix. Saw who was in it, saw it was relatively recent, so I gave it a watch. Starts out making you think its gonna be a Pineapple Express kind of vehicle. Ends up being more like a mish-mash of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and every other Rom-Com you've ever had the misfortune to watch. Yes, its that convoluted. I will admit I did chuckle a few time, but too few to warrant a higher rating. I will give the director credit for throwing the audience a few bones and having some nice gratuitous booty and booby shots of some really good looking babes. That gets a couple of extra points from me. As far as the other actors go - Zack Gandalfgondorwhatever plays his usual bizarre self. Owen Wilson puts his crooked, smashed schnozz to work as well, Amy Poehler does her usual bit. I think the director and writer really didn't know where they wanted to go with this. Funny? Serious? Rom-Com? Turned out to be just a passing of 2 hours. But, like I said, some nice skin shots really saved it for me. But maybe I was just feeling overly horny to begin with. Anyhoo...

socrates99 I don't recall ever hearing about this movie. Perhaps it was too steeped in 60's attitude for today's audiences. If so that is truly a shame because that probably means today's young people are too far removed from the era to understand it well. In today's world that is a great loss. If we could live as hippies attempted to back then, we'd be far closer to mitigating climate change than we are now and a large part of that lifestyle was the attitude. This movie captures that attitude beautifully.Laura Ramsey as Angela, the young hippie step-mother, brought back memories for me about women who actually existed in those years, who would float through life elevating everyone around them like some magical earthbound angel. I suppose nowadays she seems implausible. But back then she was very possible and meeting someone like her was unforgettable. Ms Ramsey's depiction captures the type in a way I haven't seen done in a very long time. It was a pleasure to reacquaint myself with the woman she represents. In a lot of ways those flower children were more affecting than anyone I've met since.The idea of the film apparently is to bring some of that ethos into the present. The two main leads, Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis, have no problem evoking the era and they do a splendid job. I thought both brought the right mix of humor and pathology to their parts. They seemed to understand what the movie was trying to convey, and they were quite successful for people like me. What's surprising is that younger people apparently don't get it and I don't quite understand why they wouldn't.Amy Poehler is also in the movie but in an unattractive role. I still appreciated her contribution to the mix in what seemed like a risky departure from her usual performance.The story revolves around two friends, pretty much drifting through life who end up supporting each other through the trauma of having one's well-off father die. That death spurs them both to grow up a bit though the transition is not easy for them. The movie is set in farm country where Amish live and coincidentally I live in that sort of country myself. It was actually a bit of a treat to see them carry on in such a setting.I enjoyed the movie very much, understand its point completely and am really bummed to find out that very few others enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone familiar with that era (it's actually set in the present) and not hostile to it. Believe me from my point of view it is far more your loss than mine that this movie wasn't as praised as it should have been.