How To Lose An Audience In 10 Minutes

Rating: 2/10 (11 February 2003)

Thank god I saw this at a screening and didn't waste money on it. After the horrid reviews, I had low expectations but still -this movie is so predictable, so false, so by the numbers that it just unfolds because it has to. Who thought the names of the leads was a cute idea - see, she's Andi Anderson and he's Benjamin Barry and they say the names all the time in the movie as if it's catchy and clever as opposed to forced and created. I must be in the minority because I find Kate Hudson so irritating and an awful actress. She can't seem to play a three-dimensional character so she resorts to pretty much mugging for the camera - watch me make funny faces as I eat a hamburger, watch me giggle just like my Mom did thirty years ago. I'm sorry - but if Goldie Hawn wasn't her mom - she'd be lucky to get a dinner theatre part. Bebe Neuwirth and Adam Goldberg try their hardest but seem embarrassed to be in the movie. SPOILERS************ (as if there's ONE actual surprise in the movie) But, once again, the reality of a cabbie stopping on a bridge in New York - especially post 9/11 -please. Plus the crowbarred in way they have Matthew give the cabbie money to take her stuff back to her apartment so they can ride back on his motorcycle. Sheesh - a happy ending? Maybe for some, for me I was happy only because this insipid tripe was actually ENDING. Look, that's what makes the world go round - but when smart, clever romantic comedies like MR. JEALOUSY OR NEXT STOP WONDERLAND have trouble finding an audience and this coloring book rakes in the money, well, hell, you get what you deserve.