Good movie but grossly overrated

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I had always heard this was a "guilty pleasure" or some kind of minor cult classic, and it being my own 10 year reunion this summer I thought I would finally check it out. Well I don't think it's either of those really, though I suppose guilty pleasure always fits to some degree.It's a just alright, broad, semi-funny look at female friendship above all else. Mira Sorvino's accent is the scene stealer here, it's some kind of Californian valley girl monstrosity that takes on a life of its own throughout the movie. Is it just me or does it become more pronounced when she returns to Tucson, where no one has that accent? Is this a subtle shade of "acting" on her part, the accent an affectation she picked up in SoCal to distance herself from her terrible adolescence? There's also Justin Theroux who plays a cowboy with a goofy southern accent. I've got nothing for that one.

Romy White (Mira Sorvino) and Michele Weinberger (Lisa Kudrow) are dim-witted blonde best friends in L.A. Romy runs into her high school classmate Heather Mooney (Janeane Garofalo) who is now wealthy with news of the upcoming Sagebrush High School 10th year reunion in Tuscon. The girls decide to go but then they realize that they are not as successful as they thought they were. Despite their best efforts, two weeks are not enough and they decide to lie about their lives. When the girls were in high school, they were picked on by popular mean girl Christy Masters. Romy was in love with Christy's boyfriend Billy Christianson and they played a trick on Romy. Michele was in a back brace. Mooney was secretly in love with fellow geek Sandy Frink but he was in love with Michele.Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow have both played iconic dim-witted blonds. In this movie, they pull together their performances and it's a wonderful pairing. Their friendship is really the glue that holds this movie together. The dream sequence in the middle could have been cut down. Also Sandy Frink could have been played by a hot nerd rather than Alan Cumming. There are some hilarious fun and some uncomfortable awkwardness. I would have loved these great actresses go for a sequel.

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion put Sorvino's then soaring career into a tail dive.It took in $30M at the box office. Not a flop, but far below expectations. At the end of the day, movies are about making money. So despite proving her chops as a comedy actress, Sorvino didn't get a second chance. She tried many other genres, but somehow always picked movies that didn't do well at the box office. (She's now in a new TV series: Intruders) Kudrow has done a bit better, but never became an A-lister.Why didn't Romy and Michele do better? Perhaps it was expectations. The caliber of the cast and the fun premise has us expecting something far better. On first viewing I was very disappointed. I almost hated it.But the first 45 minutes is very good. It has enough laughs, and the characters (and the actresses) have a lot of charisma. Romy and Michele are a Folie à deux; a happy pair of fools who share the same delusion. They're fun to watch and it looks like we're in for a real treat.But after that first 45 minutes, with a few exceptions, the movie falls flat. The last hour of the movie is about the reunion itself, but this is poorly told and poorly directed. Laughs are few and far between. The whole thing is carried on two very weak jokes, which in a sitcom would no more two throwaway lines. But instead of hitting us with new jokes, Director Mirkin and Writer Schiff recycle the same two weak jokes over and over again.This has been done before and done much better. Even teen comedies like Patrick Dempsey's "Money can't buy me love" have a far more compelling plot. So after the build up, we're left disappointed. Perhaps it was bad word of mouth that killed it.But I watched it again, and while my comments still apply about that last hour, there's still a lot to like. Sorvino and Kudrow are brilliant, and there are iconic scenes (like Garofalo's Cowboy) which carry a lot of weight and a few good gags (the suit cracked me up). If there were more of these, the movie would have been a classic. The interpretive dance at the end is nerdy but very sweet and I loved their "Stayin' Alive" too.For the first 45 minutes I'd give it 8/10 (4 stars), but that last hour drags it down to 6/10 (2 stars).There have been attempts to relaunch Romy and Michele. In 2005 Shiff launched a TV series which by IMDb comments was badly written. Sorvino and Kudrow are begging Disney (Touchstone) to let them do a sequel, but Disney is baulking. Perhaps they can't imagine a movie with two 40 year old female leads? Perhaps they think the Valley girl undertones are passé? Perhaps Disney don't want to give up the rights either? Hollywood is competitive, and studios have been known to buy rights to scripts just to stop another studios possibly making a hit.And perhaps after two disappointing outings they don't think Shiff can deliver? I think Shiff had a wonderful germ of an idea here. If she stands back and lets more experienced comedy writers take it further, her franchise may yet deliver.

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion mayn't be the best movie I have ever seen, but sitting down to watch it I wasn't expecting that. Just a fun charming movie and that is exactly what I got, a perfect way to get my mind off my sprained ankle. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion is not a complete masterpiece, the film does have an engaging story but is occasionally too plot heavy, and I would also have loved to seen the girls be themselves more. Criticisms aside, it looks good, with colourful locations and fashions, and the soundtrack is the very definition of cool, not to mention nostalgic. The script is funny and smart, the two main characters especially engage and the direction is efficient. I loved the performances. Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow are just great and have such an easy-going chemistry. Of the support cast, I was most impressed with Camryn Manheim who steals all her scenes. Alan Cumming is also endearing with great comic timing, and Janeanne Garofalo relishes her role if over-doing it just a tad at times. Overall, a nice, fun movie that never tries to be anything more than it is. 8/10 Bethany Cox