(yawn)

Rating: 3/10 (18 April 2001)

What was this? Nominated for best picture, best screenplay, Julia Roberts won the academy for her portrayal of Brockovich? I don't think so. See, this is where the wonderful world of entertainment and myself have a little differ of opinion when it comes to good movies. THIS was not one of them.
I will never understand why celebrities are paid these big bucks just because they can memorize some lines. You throw in some movie previews that you think the public should see in order to waste seven, eight dollars, and suddenly, you have a money making picture all because you had the brains to hire one of the biggest (and overrated) actors in the show business.
Why did everybody, and when I say 'everybody' I mean the academy awards association, think that this picture was deserving to be nominated for an oscar? I suppose I should have seen this one coming considering that they gave the lousy 'American Beauty' the gold statue the year before.

I think that I am about the only person who doesn't like Roberts. I don't like the roles she picks, her acting ability isn't exactly golden, and I hate how everyone thinks that she is the number one actress around nowadays. Will somebody explain to me why she was exactly nominated for the best actress award? You got her running around like a hooker for two+ hours. I thought that we had already covered the whole hooker thing in 'Pretty Woman.' She goes prancing around the town in heels that she can barely stand up in. And the thing that made this story look bad was that no matter how tight the money was and whenever times got tough, we never see Brockovich wear the same outfit twice. Here she is looking all over for a job and complaining that she's got three kids to feed but just how poor was she if her wonderful wardrobe of mini skirts and tank tops never came to a repeat? There went the movie.
I can't really comment on the rest of the cast because there wasn't any! Yeah, sure Masry was a good size part but scene after scene I had to put up with looking at Roberts' face.
Brockovich's snappy come backs and rude one liners began to run dry during the first twenty minutes of the film. I'll admit that some evoked a slight laughter from me but not a whole lot. I got a little tired of hearing f___ this and f___ that, but what can you do?
I'm just wondering that if another actress had portrayed Erin Brockovich, would this movie have gotten the same amount of publicity? The story line, even though it was based on a true story, was very bland. All you have here is a non-educated mother of three who is trying to support her family when she comes along a case of water contamination and decides to bring it to the surface. She wins, the water drinkers get a pay off, she gets a pay off and we're all really happy. The movie ended too quick and then I was forced to listen to that dumb song by Sheryl Crow.
Just some last comments: The problem the movie crew had here was that they tried to make a movie out of something that didn't need to be made. There wasn't enough information given about the case and it more or less focussed on Roberts playing a half dressed lawyer-type. The lack of music was another thing that annoyed me. How could they possibly make a soundtrack? And somebody want to tell me what they spent their $51 million budget on? The most creative thing that this movie had was the real E.B. in a cameo named 'Julia.' Oh, how do they come up with these things!? Final words: This movie was given too much credit all because it had the overrated Julia Roberts in the lead/only role. Critics never know what they're talking about and I should never listen to the academy again. Don't watch this!