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DVD
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
Actors: Eric Roberts, Lee Grant, Gregory Harrison, Marlee Matlin, Olivia Newton-John
Writer-director Randal Kleiser (Grease) creates "a genuine family feeling" (Roger Ebert) with this "brave, funny and heartbreaking" (Rex Reed, The New York Observer) film starring Margaret Cho, Academy Award(r) winner* Lee Grant, Gregory Harrison, Academy Award(r) winner** Marlee Matlin, Olivia Newton-John, Bronson Pinchot, Eric Roberts, George Segal and Roddy McDowall. Roberts gives a "touching, urgent performance" (San Francisco Chronicle) as Nick, a man whose three-year battle with AIDS is about to come to a close. Rather than face debilitation, he chooses to end his life but not before throwing the greatest farewell party of all time. As friends and family gather for a bittersweet celebration, something incredible happens. It's a two-daylong, uplifting, outrageous and life-affirming party that is ultimately Nick's everlasting legacy.
Director Randal Kleiser is so noted for featherweight fare like The Blue Lagoon and Grease that when It's My Party hit theaters in 1996, critics clapped while filmgoers turned fickle. But it's a potent and tear-jerking film if only because of the personal weight it bears. As Kleiser revealed in interviews at the time of the film's release, the event that made him sit down and write the film "was so powerful it became a turning point in my life," and this film is a fictionalized, heartfelt depiction of that event. It's My Party is about Nick (Eric Roberts) a young gay man whose AIDS symptoms become life threatening. He decides to toss a final party before he ends his life and invites his friends and family to this most special of special occasions. But then the ex-love of his life--a Kleiser-like film director (Gregory Harrison) who bailed on him after he was diagnosed with AIDS--arrives. Kleiser called in favors from his friends and they all worked for scale. He said he "never worked on a set that was so supportive." The result is a movie about AIDS that merits a second look not only because it is empathic and loving, but because it's also defined by Kleiser's honesty and self-critical desire for redemption. --Paula Nechak
| Customer Reviews: |
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| A fantastic awsome movie........ |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I was very lucky one night while crusing the tube........I came on this movie in progress. I missed the begining......once I started watching, I couldn't stop. I laughed, I cried, I got mad and I sang along. What an amazing movie......I was just taken away by all the stars in this movie, all who did an outstanding job....how did this movie make out then out on DVD so quietly? And as for Nick, I understood how and why he did it. What you choose to do with your body is your choice and yours alone.
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| It jumped the shark when Margaret Cho walked in.... |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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Actually, it may have done it way before that. I don't like to give negative reviews but this movie is out of control. Somebody should have reigned these folks in, or, well, put a stop to it. Even on paper it just sounds insulting to the gay community and to AIDS victims. See, movies like Longtime Companion and Torch Song Trilogy were great and moving films. They also worked well because the casts were relatively unknown and were actually "acting", - playing roles. To create a big "party" of well known B (C or D) performers/actors just makes the entire premise silly and overbearing.
I guess the idea of Marlee Matlin and Margaret Cho came from someone who realized that each gay man has an asian girlfriend and a deaf girlfriend. I guess Cho is a good example of why this whole thing is so over the top. Wouldn't this be the kind of movie Cho would make fun of? She looks like she's phoning it in or just being plain condescending.
Eric Roberts is a very talented actor, really, I think he is, (check out Star 80) but...as a gay man that we are supposed to feel sorry for? He falls into the same trap as many other performances in the movie. It just comes across condescending and kind of... I don't know.... put upon.
More importantly, the story itself kind of backfires on their intentions. A gay man dying of Aids, plans to off himself but throw a party before he does it? And this makes him a....hero? No. It kind of makes him self posessed, self involved and a very confused martyr. The characters in Longtime Companion, for example, were all trying to fight to stay alive for themselves and the people around them. They were trying to make sense out of a tragedy that they did not deserve.
It just got to be so bad that I thought Olivia Newton John was going to break out into song somewhere in the film. I wouldn't have been surprised.
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| Warning: NOT a Comedy |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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The reviews here say it all, but it's listed in the Laugh Out Loud section for the Pride month DVD sale. If you are looking to laugh, you're looking in the wrong place. I cried pretty hard at this one.
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| Thoughtfull AIDS movie |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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I love this movie about a man sharing his last days of his life with his friends and ex-boyfriend.
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| Emotional , Moving Film |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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It's My Party came out a few years ago. I love the story line even though it is a bit emotional and moving. The actors do a very wonderful job with a very intense story line. I added this film to my home theatre library because it is a classic and I consider an essential to have. I highly recommend it!
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