worldofjohnboy

I saw this at a sneak preview showing knowing very little about the film other than one preview.

This film is along the same lines as "Knocked Up" or "Superbad" in that it is rather funny, but at the same time makes you relate to the characters in a way that also tugs at your heart. There were many times when the theater full of people burst into laughter, and I even found myself crying at some points I was laughing so hard! The actors all do a fantastic job with their parts, and you can easily identify with most of them. (No "over the top" characters ever do a hostile takeover of the plot.) This movie is probably a notch below movies like "The Hangover," "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Wedding Crashers," but it definitely holds it own and you will most definitely find yourself laughing hard more than once. Well worth the $$ to see it in the theater!

I didn't really know what to expect in this film going into it, but knew that the visuals and imaginry would likely be good considering Jackson directed it. Overall, the film definitely kept my interest in it throughout the entire film. I was a big fan of flow of the plot and the cgi effects and imagination Jackson shows in the main character's world was really nothing short of fantastic. Character-wise, I felt there were many that were either under-developed or they "disappeared" during large parts of the movie. This wouldn't have been as big of an issue had they not omitted the development of one character that was (in my opinion) a key part of the film.

As my sister stated, the plot wasn't as predictable as I initially thought and even 3/4ths of the way in, I was still puzzled by some of the minor and major twists given. After the movie ended, and still to this point, I have been thinking about the film and trying to figure out all of the messages it was trying to convey. I now realize that much of what I can take from this film is what I decide to take from it... there is a freedom that Jackson and company gives you to decide what to make of the holes, what to put in the spots that at first you believe are a gaping plot hole.

The rating of this film seems a bit low for the tones and situations it deals with: Murder, afterlife, "pedophelia," etc. All in all, I want to see this movie at least one more time as perhaps I can get a little bit better understanding of the underlying themes this movie offered up to me the first time I saw it.