RubyJuly1958

I've read so many negative, dismissive reviews of this movie and I have to say, LIGHTEN UP for heaven's sake! It's not meant to stand with Ghandi or Gone With the Wind. It's just a fun, silly movie with a thin plot and lots of laughs and sight gags. Go to see it because you just want to sit back with your popcorn and laugh. (And daydream about George Clooney.) Clooney gave us "Good Night and Good Luck", so it's not like we should feel he "owes" us a "serious" movie. It's a fluffy little piece of nostalgia, a movie you won't be afraid to go see with your tween-age kids or Mom and Pop. Gramps will love it too, with all the vivid images of the "good old days" and a great ragtime score.

Clooney and Zellweger are campy in their roles (isn't that what they were shooting for?) and Stephen Root is a quiet riot as the hard drinking team owner.

Pity my poor friend who spent all day telling me how hil-lar-ious Tyler Perry movies are, tsk-tsking all day that I had not ever seen one of his movies. Chuckling about how funny this was going to be and how i was going to run right out and rent all the others. Sadly, she spent the whole rest of the evening over coffee and cannoli reflecting on how great Tyler Perry's OTHER movies were. I forgive her - we're friends.

This movie was OK - it had its funny moments and good Lord don't we ALL have those family members? I don't care if you're black, Italian, Jewish or white-bread American - we've ALL got that same cast of characters sitting around our family table.

And OK, i understand that unless i saw the other movies i would not have a clue who Madea is or why she's being chased by the police. But that's OK - i can let an inside joke slide, especially considering the huge hoot and roar that accompanied her appearance.

Overall, i understand that this was not Tyler Perry's finest hour. But i sense that he has a LOT to say about families, standing proud, sticking with convictions when the rest of the world says "settle for less" and working hard to overcome circumstances. I will go out and rent his other movies, just to get a more fair picture of this filmmaker.

First of all, let me say that I am ASTONISHED that in 2008 anyone is still aware of this movie and further taking the time to comment on it on IMDb! Now let me tell you why this is an important, groundbreaking and momentous moment in film history: pivotal scenes were filmed at CAZENOVIA COLLEGE in lovely, tiny little Cazenovia NY in the snowy winter of 1978 when I and my classmates were tapped to be extras in the "college scenes"! Little did we know that those fun couple of days would turn into one of the most forgettable movies in cinematic history! But hey, for those days we were STARS - taking direction, re-shooting scenes, learning not to look at the camera and each deciding that it was perfectly reasonable to expect that a Hollywood Director would see one of us in the background crowd, jump to his feet and yell FIND ME THAT GIRL!! It could happen, we'd seen it in the movies, after all.

OK, so the movie was a little on the sappy side, the song was on the radio sung by the incomparable Roberta Flack and we got to attend a Premier Screening in Syracuse when it opened. Now, as we look to our 30th Reunion Year in 2008 (yikes!) we will be treated to a special screening of the film again as part of our Reunion Weekend festivities.

So here's to Joe Brooks and the rest of the cast and crew who ended a long day of shooting in the Central New York snowbanks by sharing drinks and laughs at the Caz Bar - i still have my "autographed" napkin and swizzle sticks taped into my scrapbook along with review clippings and snapshots of our Hollywood Moment together! CHEERS!