Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Sober-Friend It has now been 20 years since "Ellen Morgan" and "Ellen Degeneres" came out of the closet and television and gay rights have never been the same. It is hard to imagine that there were no regular leads in television shows where the lead character was gay. Most of the times gay characters were almost non existent. A gay man was always used as the "Comic relief" and lesbians were always shown as anything but human. That all changed when "Ellen" came out. Ellen was pretty. She also well known. Her show was entering its fourth season when "Ellen Degneres" decided that "Ellen Morgan" would be coming out of the closet. The show at the time had very small ratings. It wasn't a big hit for ABC but it did well enough. The show from the very beginning however was always in some sort creative turmoil. In fact when Season 4 started none of the original cast (Except Ellen) were still on the show. Ellen Degeneres however was at the top of her game when she demanded that the ABC-Disney allow her to have "ellen" come-out. For months there was lots press being generated about this possible story-line. Finally after 9 months of headlines both "Ellen Degeneres" and "Ellen Morgan" came out and made history.Now as for the episode that Ellen came out on it became an event. It was historic. The episode was the #1 rated show of the week and one of the most watched television episodes of the past 10 years! Now after 4 years on the air the show found its voice and direction however one year later the show was canceled. That's was sad. The last year the show was on the air was the shows best collections of episodes. It was focused and funny. ABC however failed to promote the show. They show failing in the ratings. Had ABC wanted the show to die! You can than Michael Eisner and Bob Iger for this. Now after 20 years we can now look back at the show and see what a mess the shows first 3 seasons were but upon viewing these episodes now we can view them as the main character being on a closet and that makes those seasons funnier than when the originally aired when we had no idea of the characters sexuality. The shows however major growth was at the tail end of season 4 and continued until the show ended in season 5. "The Puppy Episode" went on to win "Ellen DeGeneres" and her show an Emmy for Best Writing. It also won a Peabody Award which is a rare accomplishment for a Network television show. For a few years Ellen career took a hit, However she made the biggest come back in when "Finding Nemo" became a major box office hit. Ellen supplied the voice of Dory! That same year she started her talk which continues to be a major success today. In 2016 Ellen struck gold again when "Finding Dory" became the highest grossing animated film of all time.It is nice to see that with the huge risk that she took she went on to become not only a role model but one the biggest stars in television history.

SnoopyStyle Ellen Morgan (Ellen DeGeneres) is a talkative single gal in her early 30s. Her parents are desperate for her to find a man. In the first season, her friends include Anita Warrell (Maggie Wheeler), Holly (Holly Fulger), and roommate since college Adam Green (Arye Gross). She works at a bookstore where she's joined by illegal Canadian barista Joe Farrell (David Anthony Higgins). In the second season, she becomes the owner of the bookstore. The show adds lifelong friend Paige Clark (Joely Fisher) but loses Holly and Anita without a mention. Audrey Penney (Clea Lewis) is a recurring annoying acquaintance who joins the main cast. The third season opens with the arrival of Ellen's cousin Spence Kovak (Jeremy Piven) after getting kicked out of hospital residence for punching a patient. This is soon followed by Adam's departure.This mid-season replacement premiered a few months before Friends. In many ways, it drove on the same road as that successful show but on a different lane. The first season is four slightly-older friends trying to make their way. There is no real sexual tension between them although dating is a pervasive subject matter. The show keeps changing from season to season. I always felt that the show never found solid footing with the constant changing although it has some nice humor. There are many episodes of memorable comedic takes. There is also that one iconic TV moment.When she came out to Laura Dern (and the rest of the people at the airport), it consolidated the perception of instability in the show. In many ways, the moment is bigger than the show. They spent half the season joking about it before actually doing it. Ellen was struggling with some important real-life issues during that time. That episode came at the end of the fourth season and the show struggled to figure it out for one more season. There was a constant change in characters, lead actors, and even structure. In many ways, Ellen's personal journey colored the show and it could never maintain stability long enough to be competitive against shows like Friends.

cathey-127 I didn't rate it because I have no idea how to rate this series.Season 1 was pretty solid, and my personal favorite. The style was close to Friends', and it was pretty fun. Anita and Holly and Adam were all fun and ordinary nice people. They're like your best friends - fun and nice and when you're together you just have these sort of silly funny moments. It wasn't as good as Friends, and also a bit inferior to the first few seasons of How I met your mother, but it was quite good. A 7 or an 8.The following seasons had a different gang, and it really seemed that they tried to be funny simply by giving all the characters some rare and annoying qualities. After a few episodes, it really gets boring watching Audrey's weirdness and Spence's bipolar disorder. But they did this for the entire length of the show's existence, which gradually dropped the show from 7 to 4. I think 7 was when Adam was still on the show, and 4 was towards the end of season 4.Season 5 was a complete disaster. I have nothing against gay people. And I'm okay with Ellen DeGeneres' decision, even though it was a bit inconsistent since her character was perfectly straight in the first few seasons. But the show just became super boring and annoying when everything had to revolve around Ellen's sexuality. I get it that LGBT equality is important to you, but nobody's watching a comedy to get educated about civil rights. Seriously, Ellen, your show did not get cancelled because you came out. It got cancelled because it was boring and annoying. I hate to be mean but it really became a 1 or a 2 at the end of the show.

policy134 There are not many successful female stand-up comedians and I never understood why so many of them are... well not funny. Ellen is a very funny woman and her show "Ellen" was of course based on her stand-up act. Maybe she's funny because of her rapid-fire line delivery or the way she recites her lines with a kind of nervous insecurity. Basically, she is the whole show here because the supporting characters don't really add much. In the first season there were two other female characters named Holly and Anita (played by perennial recurring character Maggie Wheeler) but they were too normal. They basically just reacted to Ellen. Adam, played by Arye Gross, was a whiny windbag and remained so his entire run.Things improved with the addition of Joely Fisher who is actually quite funny too (I can't believe she didn't have a bigger role in The Mask"). She was more of an equal to Ellen and let's not forget she is totally hot. Then the Adam character was dropped in favor of Ellen's reprehensible cousin, Spence (well played by Jeremy Piven). If you saw him in the movie "Lucas" you could say that this is the character as a grownup. The really annoying addition was Clea Lewis as Audrey, the spoiled socialite. She is such an easy target for ridicule that it's amazing that Ellen puts up with her.There has been a lot of writing about the "Coming Out" episode, especially among the other commentators. Luckily, I haven't seen those episodes that followed it, so I will not comment on that. I will say that whether she did or did not come out, I always had a suspicion that she was in fact gay from the first time i saw the show and it didn't really change my opinion of her or the show. But sadly, show business is a fickle business and few has enough courage to fight controversy. Still, it's funny that a show like Will and Grace was so successful if gays are ill seen in show business.(To be continued on The Ellen Show commentary)