User Reviews

I LOVE Diane Keaton - Baby Boom is one of my favorite movies of all time. Something's Gotta Give is so great, I've seen it twice. That's what I thought I was plunking down my $10.50 for when I went to see this horror of a film.

I don't know who to blame more, the writers (Karen Leigh Hopkins & Jessie Nelson) or the director, Michael Lehmann. The actors are pretty blameless here in that they have proved themselves in other films and are basically following the vision of the director and saying the words of the writers. The script is repetitious and all over the place. Mom says the same thing over and over again in many scenes, as do the daughters.

I only laughed twice in the entire film. Which is crazy considering that I am usually a hyena at these movies. One laugh was at ONE of her physical comedy moves (which I usually love) and I can't even remember where the other laugh came from.

First of all, it is filled with illogic. People do and say things that make no sense. There is even a scene in which Mandy pushes Diane Keaton out her back door, which just happens to be wide open. Who leaves a back door WIDE OPEN? I can understand unlocked if you are in a ridiculously safe neighborhood - but, huh??? She takes so long to answer the door any self-respecting guy (or girl) would have gone home, cooked dinner for himself and eaten it during that time span.

I LOVE sex talk, I write about sex talk, my films are sexy, but what the hell was the deal with these women just bursting out in "orgasm chat" any old time? And with your damn mother? I don't think so. Even if she was hip. Which Diane Keaton was not supposed to be in this film.

And speaking of sex ... that's the kind of sex you see on AdultFriendFinders? People making out, professionally lit & shot?

Um, the dresses? Didn't they have a costume designer? We all know D has her own campy style, but someone should have stopped her. Those dresses just look plain bad on her. She's a great looking woman with a slim, fashion-friendly body and yet, she looked like a fool in those crinoline-crazed shirtwaists that spun out so wide she looked like a whirling dervish. She would have been better off in a tux.

And then she forces that ugly polka dot dress on her daughter. And, it turns out, the guy LOVES polka dots. What kinda guy loves polka dots? Is it a fetish or something?

The hyperactive kid is obnoxious as hell and there's the one scene where he tells the stupid bus driver joke to Diane, who listens very carefully and plays along as he tells the same joke over and over. Then, moments later, when the daughter arrives he yells out something like, "I like her. She's the only one who listens to my jokes!"

Oh, and the tasteless scene with the senior citizens in front of whom the musician boyfriend chooses to spout the obligatory "you complete me" speech. In the middle of it, one senior lady says "Can you hurry up, I have to go to the bathroom." Um, why doesn't she just go to the bathroom?

And the two senior ladies playing tonsil hockey was unfortunate and out of place. The gag comes out of left field and makes that whole thing seem totally gross, which is a disservice to all the older lesbian couples in the world. The audience just groaned. Not something you hope to hear in the middle of a love scene.

And this was really weird, at some point she picks up a photo of herself holding her daughter as a baby. That's the SAME PHOTO used so importantly in The Family Stone (another Keaton film that's REALLY good). What's up with that? Are they that cheap?

But the worse crime of all is the director Lehmann's handling of Keaton's performance. She is a wonderful dramatic and comedic actress, but this was like putting her into overdrive. It was like somebody doing an overdone impression of Diane Keaton in a satirical comedy sketch. It's a damn shame to take an actor's natural comedic talents and force her to imitate herself.

I felt similarly of Meg Ryan (who was amazing in Jane Campion's "In the Cut") in her last couple of films with Nora Ephron. These directors fall in love with these actor's eccentricities (as we all do) and instead of letting them just happen, which makes it so charming, they direct the actors into doing these charming things, bigger and bigger, more and more until they lose their charm completely.

Diane, please go back to Nancy Meyers who wrote and directed Baby Boom & Something's Gotta Give. She's got your number and the comedic chops to pull it all off.

Do yourself a favor, don't go see this movie. Why? Because I said so.

I went to this movie thinking "Hey, what the heck, Diane Keaton and a couple hotties, plus my girlfriend wanted to see a romantic comedy" Well I'll tell you, it was a comedy, but for the wrong reasons. But, not even the biggest bleeding heart drama-head case would be able to scrape the tiniest ounce of romance out of this movie.

The premise of the movie is really promising; seriously I could see an actual good romantic comedy made about an overbearing mother who can't let go of her children...nothing wrong with that. Well there is something wrong with this movie and its definitely the poor acting performances and an even worse script.

Diane Keaton gives one of her weakest performances to date. Mandy Moore is cute yet vapid. Lauren Graham is...well like she was just going through the rhythms but not trying to much; I don't watch Gilmour Girls so maybe she's always like that? Piper Perabo...maybe she was good, but her character was little more than an afterthought and has maybe 5 lines the entire movie. Surprisingly there are some decent performances, yet they come from the secondary and tertiary male characters; with Gabriel Macht delivering the strongest one.

This movie is complete cheese, only see it if its free or you hate yourself.

I got dragged in seeing this movie and knew it was going to be bad, but no where did I expect it to be THIS bad. You have the typical, over-dramatic and over-bearing mother, who's part might have been semi-humorous if it wasn't overdone. Anyway, there was a huge monologue where the mother was just ranting about how hard it is being a single mother, blah blah blah, with 3 kids...and I guess it was supposed to be a serious scene for the movie, but I literally started laughing hysterically with tears in my eyes. It was just sooo tacky and corny that this movie is hard to take seriously at all. And Mandy Moore, she gets these two guys attracted to her for God knows what reason...She's a one-dimensional character with no depth to her personality and it really makes you wonder why these guys have a thing for her. Anyway, she gets caught seeing both of them...expected cliché...she chooses the struggling musician over the successful architect...blah blah. Same ol' same ol'. Definitely an original storyline there.

Also, if they could have had one more scene with them trying to find the cell phone in her crowded purse or in the oven, or wherever...it might have been funny! K...maybe not.

Anyhow, I'd give this a 0 if it was an option.

What makes a truly awful movie awful? 1) Does it fail to meet the standards of the genre? Well, by definition a romantic comedy should feature romance and comedy; This movie was spectacularly unfunny. CHECK! 2) Does it resort to cliché? The cinematic cliché of the '90's was the "conversation while urinating"; in this decade, we have the "dog humping something". In my theater, people actually laughed at this, which explains in part how the average rating on this site is over five. Anyway, BISS had a horny dog scene, so CHECK! 3) Does it pander to and insult the audience? Absolutely. From the juvenile dialog to the eccentric secondary characters to the ridiculous musical numbers to the total absence of sophistication, a huge red CHECK! My advice: if you genuinely found this garbage entertaining, go directly to Netflix or your nearest video store and rent Annie Hall, The Baxter, or When Harry Met Sally. Watch how a romantic comedy is supposed to be done and you'll see just how asinine Because I Said So is.

I can't write a spoiler because there is nothing to spoil. I would rather sit through teen slasher movies, the acting and dialog would be more interesting. Diane Keaton used to be a very good actress, but I guess she was just trying to get her bills paid. This was a total waste of someones money and time to produce. Twenty minutes into this awful, boring, and predictable movie and I was ready to get up and leave. I have been to bad movies, but this was about as bad as it gets. I am supposed to be writing 10 lines of text but there is not much more that I can say to warn you not to spend your hard earned money on such drivel.

This film was atrocious. It's sad, as these are all competent actors. Mandy Moore might be the only saving grace, as she does play an endearing young woman, unlucky in love. That aside, Diane Keaton irritated me from her very first line, and it only got worse from there. The dialogue was trite, the relationships between the characters awkward to say the least, and the each scene played to only the romantic morons. If you're an intelligent human being, don't see this film. It's laughable. Literally. I found myself chuckling at the "serious" moments. Oh, I'm so sad. 9.25 down the drain and only Diane Keaton's annoying voice ringing in my ear for hours afterward to show for it.

For some odd reason, this movie is listed under the "comedy" genre. I find that strange because no one in the theater was laughing. It was more along the lines of offensive because it seemed as though the writers of this movie were having a field day insulting the audience's intelligence.

Take the scene when Diane Keaton's obnoxious character visits AdultFriendFinder, for example. A pornographic video appears on her screen and instead of being rational and closing the window like everyone else would have thought to do, she covers the screen with a blanket and calls the software hotline. Embarrassed to speak to the operator because of the sex noises blaring from her speakers, she raises her voice in a failed attempt to drown out the sounds. The dog, whose only purpose in the entire film is to execute this clichéd scene, pulls the blanket off of the computer and begins to feverishly hump an ottoman (because, of course, human sex is a turn-on for dogs).

Another mentionable scene: Diane Keaton's character is interviewing a laundry list of clichéd rejects in hopes of finding her daughter's true love. These rejects happen to be completely oblivious of their unattractive behavior. You have the geeky nerd with the permanent head cold who is unaware of his disgusting snot problem. Then there's the fat guy. Oh, and let's not forget the Indian guy.

Sadly, that isn't the end of it.

It's so embarrassing. Not for the characters, but for the viewers. Definitely a movie to see, but only if you're getting paid for it because that's the only way you'd ever get me to watch it again.

What do you get when you combine an overbearing mother with three daughters who circumvent the entire range of personalities? If you're lucky, you get "Because I Said So," a movie sure to appeal to fans of "Father of the Bride," and other parent-child type comedy drama's.

Of course, if you look for everything to have an air tight script and logical undercurrent, you won't enjoy this movie.

Diane Keaton plays Daphne, the matriarch of two happily married daughters (Maggie and May), and one regrettably single daughter (Millie) who seems to have the worst luck with men. Being single herself through most of her life, Daphne wants to see Millie happily connected with a life partner, and so she utilizes an online dating ad service to find Millie a mate.

In the process of her searches, Daphne finds Jason, an architect who will be perfect for Millie, or so she believes. She also manages to attract the attention of Johnny, a musician at the restaurant where she was meeting potential dates for Millie. She tries to discourage Johnny from pursuing Millie, however he swipes one of Millie's business cards when Daphne isn't looking.

Of course, this brings up what I think is the biggest flaw in this and most of these movies: the "undatable" girl/boy always turns out to be sweet, worldly and attractive. Mandy Moore, who plays Millie, is often shunted because of a comical laugh that she can't control when she's nervous: however it seems to me that people can and often do overcome this level of nervousness when they're aware of it. So why is Millie single? Likewise, it is peculiar that both Johnny and Jason are also single. Jason, a successful architect who has time to take Millie out on dates, is also attractive and clearly rich: does it seem logical in the daily adventure of networking that he would encounter that he would have to resort to meeting a woman looking for a date for her daughter? Johnny may seem a more suitable candidate for being single, given that he's the father of a young, rowdy son who he and his father are the sole caregivers of- however being that he's a good father, a musician, good looking, and teaches people to play the guitar, it would also seem logical that he would encounter girls more suitable to his own pursuits.

Of course, there are other holes to the story that are easily witnessed as well: Daphne's encounter with the internet, Maggie's very unsympathetic and unprofessional psychological practice, and so on...however this doesn't matter. Ultimately, if you allow yourself to enjoy this movie, its a lot of fun...and the characters are for the most part very likable. The story evolves in predictable ways, but it takes you on a roller-coaster ride of emotion that gives you a good experience for your buck.

So, if you won't over analyze the movie so much, give it a look...and I suspect you will very much enjoy it. If you have no choice but to over analyze it, or you're so jaded with love stories and romantic comedies that you no longer enjoy them, may I suggest "Hannibal Rising?"