Ron Wells

It's charmingly bad and an excellent date film.

What was needed was either a Stanley Kubrick, or, well, the Farrelly Brothers. Instead we get warmed over Spike Jonze. Still, a little watered down Spike Jonze has to be entertaining some of the time, so this isn't a total loss.

The strong parts are the rip-offs of "The Conversation." The worst part is the lack of understandable character motivations.

No, this isn’t going to be for everyone, and if you didn’t like the original show, you’ll probably hate this too. For everyone else, this is the one comedy in ’02 you can’t miss.

I'm sure that an interesting film could easily be made about girl surfers, this just ain't it.

What could have been the most boring, unwatchable crawl-up-your-own-asshole picture instead becomes a gripping, searing portrait of a lost soul trying to find her way through life. Stephanie Bennett is amazing.

This is not light-hearted entertainment. Be prepared to think. Uncle Dave will take you someplace new.

Thornton's Jacob initially comes across as the love child of Elmer Fudd and Butthead, but ends up as the best role he's ever had.

Unfolding and sounding like a novel, Hartley's ensemble of lower-class losers clash and repel in a startlingly, unpreachy lesson about the importance and danger of influences.

For the most part, the film is brilliant.

I can't really remember the last time I saw a movie with this much biting satire and brilliance that was utterly excruciating half the time.

I thought I might have seen everything I needed to see about neo-Nazi skinheads in "Romper Stomper" and "American History X". Not only was I in for a surprise, but newcomer Ryan Gosling gives every bit as stunning a performance as did Russell Crowe and Ed Norton in those two films, and then some.

The film is not without its problems, some inherent to Wilde's original play.

Individual parts are actually quite funny, and the music, the most marketable element, is quite good. It's just that most of us cringe at photos of ourselves taken while we're really loaded. Too often, Hey, Happy! feels as if that embarrassment was taken to the next level.

More "Heat" than "Eraserhead". It's all good. Just don't be disappointed if it's not what you were expecting. Try to enjoy this for what it is.

It lacks humor. Unlike "Scream", this film is more of a horror-drama, with everybody taking themselves way too seriously.