When somebody mixed chocolate and peanut butter, they invented a great candy bar. Trying to mix the karaoke fad with high drama is just difficult to swallow.
This movie tries to inject excitement, dramatic conflict and tension into karaoke, which is nothing more than a fun diversion. Karaoke enthusiasts don't take it or themselves seriously, yet this movie tries to make it something deep and melancholy. It just doesn't work in that context. The film concocts subplots, interweaves them, and somehow stirs them all up together with karaoke as some kind of symbolic catalyst. It introduces characters on their way to a big bucks contest, and casts them into chaotic situations (some even gratuitously violent) along the way.
The resulting movie is akin to the worst karaoke singer of all time, who doesn't know all the words, screeching a Madonna hit at the top of their lungs.
I like Paul Giamatti, but his mid-life crisis character who is borderline wacko is grossly overstated and out of place. The road trip story with him and a convict just gets more and more contrived and senseless as it progresses. The pairing of Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow as father and daughter provides a wonderful rendition of "Cruisin'," but not much substance for a story. Huey is a "karaoke hustler"(!) If there is such a thing, I haven't seen one in years of karaoke singing. Other characters are dull and forgettable.
Ill conceived and recklessly executed, this story is totally out of tune, and overwhelms the film's positive elements. The karaoke contests were fun, with some amusing moments. The actors all really put their best effort here, but are drowned out by a script that is just one big cacophony of pointless noise.
A girl I met at a karaoke place and I thought this would be fun to see on our first date. I wish I could have taken a picture of the look on her face as we left the theater. It was the most hilarious expression I ever saw; far more entertaining than this movie was.
This movie tries to inject excitement, dramatic conflict and tension into karaoke, which is nothing more than a fun diversion. Karaoke enthusiasts don't take it or themselves seriously, yet this movie tries to make it something deep and melancholy. It just doesn't work in that context. The film concocts subplots, interweaves them, and somehow stirs them all up together with karaoke as some kind of symbolic catalyst. It introduces characters on their way to a big bucks contest, and casts them into chaotic situations (some even gratuitously violent) along the way.
The resulting movie is akin to the worst karaoke singer of all time, who doesn't know all the words, screeching a Madonna hit at the top of their lungs.
I like Paul Giamatti, but his mid-life crisis character who is borderline wacko is grossly overstated and out of place. The road trip story with him and a convict just gets more and more contrived and senseless as it progresses. The pairing of Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow as father and daughter provides a wonderful rendition of "Cruisin'," but not much substance for a story. Huey is a "karaoke hustler"(!) If there is such a thing, I haven't seen one in years of karaoke singing. Other characters are dull and forgettable.
Ill conceived and recklessly executed, this story is totally out of tune, and overwhelms the film's positive elements. The karaoke contests were fun, with some amusing moments. The actors all really put their best effort here, but are drowned out by a script that is just one big cacophony of pointless noise.
A girl I met at a karaoke place and I thought this would be fun to see on our first date. I wish I could have taken a picture of the look on her face as we left the theater. It was the most hilarious expression I ever saw; far more entertaining than this movie was.