Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
romanorum1
Curvy and pretty Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel), who comes from a decent family, has planned for her future since she was a young girl. Having worked hard in college for good grades, she is very confident that she will latch onto her dream job at the Happerman and Browning publishing house. But it is a bad omen when, on the day of her interview, her car is sideswiped by a hit-and-run stake body truck driver in downtown Los Angeles. And with no witness in such a busy area! Anyway, disheveled but not shattered Ryden somehow arrives to the interview on time, only to find almost a dozen applicants also applying for the same position. Worse for Ryden, her rival Jessica Bard (Catherine Reitman), the class valedictorian, is also there. Jessica walks away with the job as Ryden's world comes crashing down around her. Over the course of the next few weeks, reality becomes difficult as our heroine Ryden is unable to secure meaningful employment. Lacking funds, she is forced to vacate her new apartment to return home with her family. So, for most of the movie, the plot is centered on Ryden's frustration. Meanwhile Ryden has a boyfriend Adam Davies (Zach Gilford), a likable enough fellow, who loves to sing and play the guitar (not too well, though). Adam has applied to law school at Columbia University. in NY. Now the Ryden-Zach romance is the movie subplot to Ryden's job dilemma. But the denouement changes the movie direction and the ending is simply not inspiring. Along the way there are complications, like the potential romance with next door neighbor and cat-owner David (Rodrigo Santoro), to whom Ryden is obviously attracted. Taking away from the main plot, the screenplay relapses into such fluky comedy scenes like Grandma Maureen (Carol Burnett) shopping for her own coffin. Then there is daffy dad Walter (Michael Keaton) who decides to make a living selling belt buckles that he does not realize are stolen. It is almost as bad as the happenings at his shopping mall luggage concession where he forces a ludicrous bellhop costume upon poor Ryden. Another odd set is the son's unrelated soapbox car race; there is no purpose or amusement in showing the boy (Bobby Coleman) crashing into the pond. On a more positive note, the Malby family is certainly likable. In addition, the movie fortunately is without excessive swearing and gross- out scenes that seem to predominate nowadays. And Ryden Malby as the lead is not without talent although her script does her little justice. Michael Keaton as Walter Malby is fine as Ryden's unconventional father. He acts like those well-meaning but madcap dads of 1950s American television. Jane Lynch as Walter's wife Carmella has little to do. Carol Burnett, one of America's all-time greatest comediennes, plays wacky Grandma Maureen, who always has her oxygen tank in tow. She's OK, but is nothing like the old Carol Burnett. Overall the film is not among the worst of its kind and is bearable.
Guilherme Martins
This movie is not Very Good, is just good. I think what it may contain more history and comedy. I like not of the blasphemy in the movie too. The character played by Rodrigo Santoro is totally unnecessary in the story, and should have had more involvement in the film. The "nasty girl" does not hurt enough to the main character, this causes a lack of conflict during the movie, which eventually becomes boring and bland. I give 5 stars because of it, but it can be a good entertainment for those who are not expecting a very good movie, course some people may like a lot, but most will repeat the same words:lack of fun and comedy in the film, much of it missing, although the story be engaging
MBunge
If you're a fan of TV talkfest Gilmore Girls, Post Grad is probably as close as you're ever going to get to a GG movie. Lorelai is nowhere to be found, but Alexis Bledel is basically playing Rory and she's surrounded by a clutch of oddballs right out of Stars Hollow. If you've never seen Gilmore Girls, you'll only be able to tolerate this mildly amusing and terminally predictable film until it wears out its welcome, which it does in a very big way.Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel) is a young and ambitious college graduate who's on the verge of getting the job she's dreamed of her whole life. But when that job goes to her lifelong scholastic rival, Ryden has to move back in with her parents and deal with her father (Michael Keaton), who's like a combination of Ralph Kramden and Norton from The Honeymooners. When not preoccupied by her dad or her futile job search, Ryden also falls in like with the handsome foreigner next door (Rodrigo Santoro) and remains an indifferent bitch to her best friend (Zach Gilford), who is totally in love with her while she treats him like a gay foot stool. Some funny things happen, many of which don't involve Ryden, and then screenwriter Kelly Fremon pulls a major plot point and two big emotional moments completely out of her ass and gives Ryden a weirdly anti-feminist happy ending that the character has done nothing to deserve.Bledel is a pleasant and attractive presence on screen, though her eyes are so blue that there a moments when she resembles one of the Na'vi from Avatar. Michael Keaton and Carol Burnett as Ryden's live-in grandma use their comedy chops to breathe a lot of life into shallowly drawn roles. And at only 88 minutes long, Post Grad moves along at a good enough clip to hold your interest for a surprisingly long time, given the extraordinarily ordinary story its telling. And unless you've been dying to see Rory Gilmore say the S-word, that's about all the positives to be found in this production.The negatives of Post Grad aren't that bad, but there are just so bleepin' many of them. To start with, Ryden is not all that sympathetic a girl. She starts out kind of charmingly arrogant and presumptuous, then falls back into just plain arrogant and self-pitying. When that's compounded by the exploitative nature of her relationship with Zach Gilford's character, where she knows he loves her but she's content to keep him around as a platonic sidekick, you're left with the extremely likable Bledel playing someone you wouldn't miss if she got hit by a truck.Then there's the consistently poor writing. There's a subplot involving Ryden's dad and her little brother that, and I'm not joking, consists of not much more than 5 or 6 lines of dialog and maybe a minute or two of screen time but leads up to one of those big emotional moments Fremon pulled out of her ass. I didn't even realize it was an actual subplot until it got to that out-of-left-field climax. Jane Lynch as Ryden's mom is also given nothing to work with. Her character couldn't be more unformed if she were warm Jello and couldn't be more generic if she had a bar code on her forehead. And then there's a whole scene where Ryden literally does nothing but stand around while the story suddenly becomes all about the career frustrations of the foreigner next door.By the time the ending came around and Ryden gave up all of the dreams she ever had for her life to fly across the country and be a girlfriend to Zach Gilford's character, after showing as much sexual or romantic interest in him as Barbara Streisand would have for Rush Limbaugh, I only wanted this movie to go away. Which is unfortunate because Post Grad started out rather engaging, but the plot is so badly conceived and structured that I felt like my intelligence was being deliberately insulted.Alexis Bledel could be the star of a really smart and funny film about a young woman trying to make her way in the world. This ain't it.
giffey-1
I so wanted to like this film but I felt like I was watching two different movies, or I should say two different types of comedy. You have Alexis Bledel on one hand, who in my opinion, is better suited to a more sophisticated comedy (I mean, just watch any episode of Gilmore Girls and see how great she is) then you have Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch and Carol Burnett who are far more slapstick in their approach. Michael Keaton's acting and facial expressions tell me he still wishes he were doing Mr. Mom, not in itself a bad film, just wrong for this one. The only thing I liked was the fact that the script did not take the easy way out and she ended up with the right man. I watched this for Alexis, and will someone please write her a sophisticated screwball comedy so she can show what she can do?
