I Heart Huckabees | | Cast : | Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jude Law, Mark Wahlberg, Naomi Watts | | Director : | David O. Russell | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby, Full Screen | | Released Date : | October 22, 2004 | | DVD Released Date : | February 22, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | Delightfully quirky look into the meaning of life. | Content
 | I Heart Huckabees is an intelligent and funny look into the classic types of angst we all feel in our modern world. It weaves thoughtful and relevant commentary out of screw-ball plot tools and delightfully quirky characters. It touches on heady issues like universal interconnectedness and the meaning of life, but stays relevant and entertaining because we can easily identify with its characters and their down-to-Earth problems. The movie's humour is often subtle, built on slapstick laid over sociopolitical dialogue with bull's-eye acuity, and that's certainly not everyone's cup of tea. As for me, I often found myself laughing my head off whilst half-cringing at the nature of the human condition. In the end, it's a heartwarming movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | finally saw it | Content
| i avoided this flick for a long time figuring it would suck... well, i didn't. it is probably the best movie i've seen in the last 12 months. give it a shot |
| Rating | | | Date | August 05, 2005 | | Summary | If you like Plato... | Content
| In the tradition of the Platonic dialogue, I HEART HUCKABEES expounds upon moral conundrums that has baffled philosophers for literally years. "It is a fool who thinks he is a very wise man, but the very wise man who says 'I am a fool' is very wise." Plato said that in his philosophy - it is very appropriate to a thorough understanding of the film. What is the point of the film, you might ask? I would say, what is the point of life? That is the point of the film, the question, "what is the point of life?"!!! The film sort of studies two different approaches. One is the decidedly greek school, the notion that everything in the world is FUNDAMENTALLY CONNECTED and thereby everything is good and has a purpose and reason. This is counteracted by the decidedly russian and chinese schools that say that nothing in the world is connected but that everything is pointless and the only things that mean anything is like slapping your friends in the face (ok i didn't get that part! lol!). But, it is an extremely interesting dialogue between the two partys, or schools. I personally like dustin hoffmans approach, that everything in the world is connected and good. I just feel that it's better to accept this approach because its always better to be positive, and if you believe that the world is all connected and all of history is in like a grain of sand than there will be no more wars and no more fighting.
RIYL: Philosophy (plato, aristotle, descart); smart or philosophical movies |
| Rating | | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | Definitely different | Content
| I Heart Huckabees is definitely not like anything you've seen before. I have to give it at least a couple of stars for attempting something different and unique, given that so many movies are just cookie-cutter copies of one another. It's refreshing to see a movie that is not predictable and in which you don't see the ending coming 90 minutes beforehand.
This movie is kind of an allegory of different philosophies. Schwartzman starts off disillusioned with environmentalism, and successively confronts and rejects materialism (Brad), existentialism (the detectives), religion (the African guy's adoptive family), nihilism (the French woman) and narcissism (the Huckabees girl), rejecting each of them in turn. It is only when Schwartzman thinks for himself and synthesizes something from his own intelligence and experience that he is able to reach a personal resolution. I'm not sure that's what the message of this movie is supposed to be, but it's what I'm taking with me, and I'm sticking to it. Having said all that, you get a college-freshman-bull-session level view of all these philosophies, rather than a serious examination thereof; but, this is a 2 hour comedy, not a survey class, so that's OK.
While this is billed as a comedy, this is not a laugh-a-minute film, although there are some very funny parts. The performances are uniformly good. In particular, Dustin Hoffman actually acts for a change, instead of playing himself like he has for the last 10 years. Mark Wahlberg also turns in a standout performance.
The one thing that isn't unique is the tired old "evil capitalist" cliche, which first came to prominence in "Jaws," and hasn't really gone away since. Still, it's a comedy, so you can just roll with it.
Not everyone will care for this movie, which has nothing to do with the viewer's intelligence, but rather on their taste and their tolerance for quirkiness. It's probably best as a rental the first time around, rather than a blind purchase. But if you liked "Flirting with Disaster" or movies of that ilk, you may enjoy this. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | Lagging | Content
| I <3 Huckabees is a lagging movie. Even with a superb cast, I felt bored at time and the story seems confusing and slow. It's like a Wes Anderson movie, but not as funny. |
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