ThiefHott Too much of everything

VividSimon Simply Perfect

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.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

rjkeenan Yes, the acting and directing were a little inconsistent, and some of the lines were sophomoric and occasionally downright lame, but the value of the movie lays in it's overall existentialist theme. Cliff Spab doesn't care about the consequences of anything- he's smokes, he drinks, he curses, doesn't care about bettering himself, doesn't really care about the way he looks, and isn't afraid of anything- not even death. Is it because he was overlooked, abused, etc.? Not really. Cliff doesn't revel in fame or attention when he gets it, but rather treats it as a joke because it simply doesn't matter (even if he half enjoys it), hence the phrase "So Fu.... What." The importance of this phrase points to the notion that nothing really matters in life. Someone can get the best grades, go to the best schools, watch their weight, be good to others, always do right, gain fame and notoriety...or they can be shot in the head in the middle of a store robbery. In the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter. Quoting Chuck Palahniuk, "On a long enough time-line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." Our existence in our solar system, in our galaxy, in the universe is a spec of dust on a spec of dust on a spec of dust, hence SFW (nothing really matters).The black comedy and satire of this movie comes from the doting media and fans of Cliff Spab. It's not that they really love him, they are just looking for an answer- a motto to guide their lives. But, as in real life, something seemingly meaningful to you one moment becomes a useless fad in the next moment. In the conclusion of the movie Barbara Wyler tries to shoot Cliff or something (it's really been years), and states her tag-line "Everything matters!" It's the complete opposite theory of Cliff's. Her essential meaning is that everything we do has an affect on the future, future generations, the overall makeup of things on our planet, etc. Her message could be looked at as kind of good, but the irony lies in the fact that she seems all too excited to step directly into Cliff's shoes and be another meaningless, short-lived role model. In essence Cliff was right when he believed nothing matters and Barbara's time in the spotlight will also fade away. One day neither will be remembered and will have no affect on anything or anyone. Even those that followed them for a brief time will be gone and forgotten. It's a sad story of the media misguiding people to waste their short lives with whatever's popular and meaningless in the moment. But, it also questions, if nothing really matters anyway, SFW.

bob_meg I saw this movie on release ages ago and it's not hard to fall in love with it at first.Stephen Dorff's performance is really amazing. You never think for a moment he isn't Cliff Spab, with all the pent-up rage, pain, hostility and hilarity that it entails.For the first half of the movie, it's really "the Cliff Spab/Stephen Dorff Show." He goes on a sort of Jack Kerouac road trip, bumping heads and rubbing noses with a variety of characters (and some wonderful actors who play them): Jake Busey (a good movie for once), Joey Lauren Adams (always terrific and smokin' hot here), and Pamela Gidley (quite a complex little cameo).But after his odyssey ends, there doesn't seem to be much of a place to go...the film just stalls. I think the intent was for it to be completely character driven, so I wasn't expecting, well, a story-line or anything, but still.... I was hoping for more of a connection between the final scene, Spab's revelations, and the rest of the movie leading up to that point, but it didn't happen.Never read the book, but it sounds like that ending would have made more sense. A movie this dark doesn't deserve a happy ending....a little too tidy, in my opinion. But SFW?

dt_one It is one thing for a film to merely be bad, it is quite another for it to insult your intelligence. The latter happened to me in this non-attempt at filmmaking. How the likes of Stephen Dorff and Reese Witherspoon (one of my all time favorite actresses) got messed up in this I'll never know, but I hope they fired their managers afterward. This is, quite possibly, the single worst movie I have ever seen (Roger Ebert agrees!). Every character seems to be a ripoff of some celebrity who probably had the common sense to steer clear of this movie. Every situation seems entirely implausible. What's more, the writer seems to have a vocabulary that extends to only the three words in the title (you figure it out). This was a painful movie to watch, not because of it's depth, but because it is so inexcusably horrible. It may be the first time in my life that I actually felt sorry for the actors, who really were at the mercy of this doomed screenplay. I so not buy for one minute the notion that this movie may simply have been "too deep" to appreciate. Please, I do not need to be insulted again. Reese, I still think you are on top of your game, and this was ten years ago during your indie phase, so I don't hold you accountable, just please don't let it happen again.

HCG714 S.F.W. the concept was interesting the plot once watched was lame and boring a true waste of a casts time and a industry's money.Once you see it you will soon forget it!!Stephen Dorff & Reese Witherspoon just waste there time & talents in a really wasted script. With a better more talented screenwriter and a more talent director the movie could have been so much more mabey even some underground cult film. But what happens to a story about 5 people that are being held hostage in a convenience store for 36 days, & one of them demands from the hostage takers that all TV-stations should broadcast the entire situation live, turns into a boring little movie with nothing more than a loud soundtrack and really bad over the top acting in a really bad made for Tv movie of the week for the big screen.Whats funny is that Reese Witherspoon is billed as a main character, she is on the cover of the DVD box but she is hardly in the movie, and when she is on screen she shows what talent she does have, but how much of it is wasted. Stephen Dorff is a great actor, another of the under-rated talents in Hollywood today who seems to find really bad scripts that just really under-rate his talent and "S.F.W." is just another film that is a big mistake on his acting resume.Rounding out the rest of cast that sseem to waste there talents is both Jake Busey and the very laughable not so talented Natasha Gregson Wagner.One film I'm adding to my "Worst Films of 1994" list!!!See it once, if you don't fall asleep, and once the credits roll you will soon forget it.