Homer and Eddie

Finally had enough time to finish this again this morning, and wow- was it ever ultimately one of the most touching movies I've ever seen!! Filled with messages of acceptance, mercy, hope, and faith.

This is a love-story between two very different people with very different issues who approach each-other, warts and all. And their realness is what makes their friendship so true. This was filled with talk of God, and it really hit home for me. I think God must have said bravo to this story of love in spite of evils that we do to ourselves and to each-other. The character of Eddie had many Godwinks, and Homer had the pure heart of a child that led her to start taking them to heart.

This is also a story of redemption, showing that good can win out in the end, even for those who have done such bad.

This movie makes me see things in a brighter light. I loved it. Not perfect, but almost! Whoopi Goldberg movies of the 1980s and 1990s just rule- full-stop! But "The Color Purple" (1985) didn't even touch my heart and make me bawl like this one- and this is a comedy!

Shout out to the adorable Jim Balushi who is irrespirable cute and sweet as Homer! Ya just gotta love him!

Laughter and tears are paired perfectly in this buddy road-trip movie that's like "Bonnie & Clyde" meets "Forest Gump"!

And the soundtrack is excellent! Wow, wow, wow! Nary a false not is hit. Tender when needed, upbeat when needed- so smooth!

1980s and 19980s Hollywood really knew what they were doing, as movies of the era just flow like honey, and are hardly ever boring, ideally paced, etc. We just don't see this kind of warmth and flow in movies anymore and haven't since. Maybe the 1980s through 1990s WAS the peak of cinema!

Such a freaking good movie!!!

I don't know what all the dissing is for! This is a great film, although I would've picked different music for the soundtrack. Entertaining...funny...heart and soul. What more could you ask for? Whoopi's best performance next to The Color Purple...

Whoopi Goldberg-James Belushi road movie isn't very good, isn't well-directed, but it does have something. Wrongly advertised as a wacky comedy, "Homer and Eddie" is actually a surprisingly sensitive and light-on-its-feet drama about friendship. Mentally backward man (Belushi) partners with an escaped mental patient named Eddie (Goldberg) who also has a brain tumor and keeps thinking she sees Jesus going by. Sort of a tragic love story between two unfortunate people that life threw away. Both stars are just fine, but the sloppy editing shows signs of an indecisive captain of the ship, and the blue-collar rock music on the soundtrack is grating. Panned by the critics, I found several scenes between the leads to be moving and funny, and Belushi shows a wonderfully huggable side of himself with a lovely monologue at a funeral; this is his best performance to date. **1/2 from ****

This is easily the "craziest" Road Movie ever made - and one of the best. It's funny, tragic, dramatic and intelligent. Konchalovsky's composition is without any flaws - you'll find no plot holes or boring sequences destroying the flow of the story. The soundtrack supports the atmosphere of the movie perfectly. James Belushi stars as Homer, a retarded man, who goes on a long journey to see his dying father. Right at the start he's being robbed of all his cash and has to sleep in a car cemetery. There he meets the criminal Eddie, played by Whoopi Goldberg, who's slowly dying of a brain tumor. This tumor is the reason for several violent outbreaks. Eddie escorts Homer and arranges the first sexual contact for him - with a monstrous prostitute. This results in one of the most charming and funny "sex scenes" I've ever seen, beaten only by the priceless dancing scenes with Homer and Eddie at the pier. I've never seen one of the two acting better. But don't miss the guest appearances of Anne Ramsey, Karen Black and Jesus! And be warned: even though this film is full of funny, charming and lovable scenes it has also its violent parts.

If you liked "Harold & Maude" and "Gilbert Grape" this is a film for you!

Though it has been years since I have seen this movie, I remember it with affection and feel compelled to counter the sweeping dismissals of many reviews.

In the bone-hard truth of the desert, humanity is stripped down to persistence, interdependence, and hope and faith in the absence of a visible destination. The road is a trajectory for self-recognition, catharsis, and redemption. And so, just as the desert surprises us with life in the most unexpected places, Homer and Eddie surprise themselves.

Homer and Eddie are not that unlikely a couple. Neither has anywhere to go, figuratively or literally; so they keep on going. Neither has a future to look forward to, and yet each of them harbors hope. They do so because they are still alive, and moving and hoping are as basic to life as breathing. They did not choose each other's company, and they are no less prejudiced towards others for their own low station in society.

Though a road movie, `Homer and Eddie' it is not of the usual sort. Violence here is not redeemed by a `good cause' or an undercurrent of sex appeal; vile speech is not tempered by youth or good looks; and there is no romantic involvement to offer distraction. Homer and Eddie are not Thelma and Louise. They have more in common with Lennie and George in `Of Mice and Men', or with Josué and Dora in `Central Station'. Sidelined by society for crime, poverty, terminal disease and mental disability, Homer and Eddie begin their companionship by default. Eddie reluctantly looks after Homer, like a parent after a stranger's child. As she takes on responsibility for someone more helpless than herself, Eddie senses a reawakening of her capacity to care (in every sense) for another human being and, implicitly, for herself. By defending Homer's human dignity, she recovers her own. Though it will not avert her fate, the experience restores Eddie's humanity.

I found the film empowering because it takes its protagonists and their situation seriously. Homer and Eddie are not innocent. Nor are their shortcomings dismissible as picturesque, colorful, or cute. They don't try to be lovable; they simply are who they are. Their humor is that of people who believe they have nothing to lose. The film's perspective is level and from the inside out, not from the lofty perch of mainstream society. In that sense, it isn't judgmental, either, and so allows us to empathize with its outcasts. Their heroism is in their refusal to be victims, and in rising above their situation against all odds. This quiet and remarkably subtle piece is some of the best I have seen of Hollywood, and the tears I cried were those of joy and relief: No matter how low you sink in life, it is never too late to be a worthy human being.