Home Fries

Plot synopsis:
The film opens at Burger-Matic, where Henry Lever (Chris Ellis) orders a milkshake at the drive-thru. At the window, he tells the attendant, Sally Jackson (Drew Barrymore), that his wife knows about their affair. She asks him if he has also told his wife about her pregnancy. On his way home, he encounters a ferocious wind. It turns out to be an attack helicopter, which runs him off the road. In a panic, he flees through the woods and drops his heart medication. At an outdoor chapel, he sits on a bench as the helicopter hovers in front of him. The pilot, Angus Montier (Jake Busey), shoots at the ground near him despite the protests of his copilot and brother, Dorian (Luke Wilson). The shots scare him enough to cause a fatal heart attack.
Throughout their attack, Dorian and Angus can hear the chatter of Sally and her coworkers. Likewise, they can hear the helicopter pilots on their headsets. The next day, the police inform Beatrice Lever (Catherine O'Hara) that Henry has died. She appears shocked and crestfallen, when Dorian and Angus arrive. It quickly becomes clear that she encouraged her sons to scare him to death. She is also furious about his affair, and wants revenge on his mistress. Angus and Dorian are worried that the people they heard on the radio might have overheard enough to connect them to his death. They quickly deduce that Burger-Matic is the only location close enough to have been on the same frequency. Angus goads Dorian into getting a job there to ensure that no one is wise to their crime.
Sally is heartbroken at the news about Henry. At work, Dorian bonds with her quickly. He gives her a model helicopter for her baby, and he explains that he and Angus fly them as reservists for the National Guard. She asks him to accompany her to lamaze class, since she doesn't have a partner. Eventually, he takes her to the base to see the helicopter that he flies. As she sits in the cockpit, she tells him about Henry.
Knowing that his mother is still furious about Henry's affair and that Angus would hurt Sally if he knew her identity, Dorian frantically tries to keep the truth from his family. When Angus discovers Sally's identity, Beatrice visits her under the pretense of making amends. Dorian is terrified of what Angus might do out of a misplaced loyalty to their crazy mother. Sure enough, he arrives at Sally's house in the attack helicopter. She, Dorian, and Beatrice escape in a truck. He eventually forces them to stop on the road. Beatrice pretends to be unaware of what is going on and leaves the truck. Dorian gradually convinces Angus to stop his attack.
The stress of the chase triggers Sally's labor, and Dorian drives her to the hospital. After she has a boy, he talks to him. He struggles to explain how they are related, and he tells him that he is lucky to have the best mother in the world.

Tags: comedy, murder

Review:
I remember seeing the adverts for it and thinking it looked mildly interesting, but that it was a piece of romantic comedy fluff that I could wait and rent or something and watch at home without inflicting $20 in movie tickets and an evening of "Chick Flick" on my Husband.
The Marketing Department, apparently didn't watch the movie, they sold it all wrong.I have noticed an increasing trend in that direction, I've skipped some because the marketing made them look AWFUL only to find out they were real gems.If you are in the mood for skillful mix of mystery, romantic comedy, and dark humour then I strongly recommend you rent this movie, or catch it on Cable..
This looks like a case of a classic schizophrenic Hollywood movie--too dark-humored for fans of romantic comedy, not nearly outrageous enough for those looking for that quality.
I was disappointed that Catherine O'Hara's part wasn't any better--she could have really livened the movie up if her character had been a little more forceful.Despite all the problems, there was still something left to like here, and I would give it a positive recommendation, but just barely.
This was a black comedy that unfolded over the first 30 minutes of the film, revealing one surprise relationship after another, until you realize that all the major characters are related in surprising ways.
Luke Wilson did a great job as the moony eyed helicopter pilot who falls for Drew's character.
(during one funny scene, the older boy asks her if it's true that she liked the other son better..."I love you both, she says, but the difference is only this (puts her fingers an inch apart) much!LOL!!!) If you don't enjoy dark humor, this will not amuse you.
I had gone to see this movie because I really enjoy Drew Barrymore's acting.
This movie with Luke Wilson (brother of Owen Wilson) & Drew Barrymore is very enjoyable.
But overall...well, I occasionally get the urge to watch it again (because I like strange movies, and "Home Fries" is possessed of a strangeness I've never quite seen before,) but it certainly won't wear out before most of my other tapes.
Drew Barrymore is cute and she has her loyal fans but, man, this woman makes so many lame movies.
To her credit, some of her movies, like "Ever After," are nice films - no language problems and a film the family could safely watch which certainly is opposite of her wild, earlier days when she was exposing herself on the David Letterman show, and other incidents.
It's not exactly the sweet romance story you might think.What hurt this movie, in my opinion, wasn't Barrymore so much as it was Luke Wilson.
I know that movies are supposed to ask you to suspend disbelief, but when you are sitting in the theater and you end up groaning more than ten or twenty times at the absurdity of the film and what it asks you to believe, then suspension of disbelief is a foreign phrase, I have no idea what it means because I do not care about the movie or it's characters.
She's finally proved that she's capable of more than what we expect of her and that she doesn't need to ride the coattails of washed-up Saturday Night Live actors.Hollywood ran amok with the whole "romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore" angle when this movie was promoted.
She looks great in all these movies!!Luke Wilson (didn't know he was brother of Owen!) is handsome and has much potential for an actor!!
I have friends who take me as I am; who can laugh with my sense of humour and my language knowledge has lead me through difficult holiday travels (this year I go to Warsaw in Poland; I can easily understand English and speak German at a good level; Polish not!!)!!"Home Fries" is a splendid movie to me!!!.
The humor was definitely dark (kind of like Heathers) and this will turn a lot of people off, especially since it was purported to be light.Although I was reluctant to rent this movie (the first 10 minutes made me think it was going to be really dumb, like it was trying to do more than it should for this type of movie), I was soon swayed by the quirks, the smart dialogue and the interwoven plot.
There's a cute visual introduction to Drew Barrymore's pregnant character in "Home Fries": shot from above, while walking to work, Barrymore's enlarged tummy leads the way.
Drew Barrymore gives a winning performance - she co-stars here with her real-life boyfriend Luke Wilson , who has great charm and I predict will eventually become a big time leading man.
(If he chooses to go that way - from the IMDB registry though it looks like he is choosing to stick with indies) Although these are two very good performances the movie is STOLEN by Catherine O'Hara as the mother of Luke's character.
If you saw the trailers or commercials, you'd have thought the movie was a romantic comedy.
The relationship between Luke Wilson and Drew Barrymore's characters plays only a small part in plot, and even then it's not the type of interaction you'd see in a romantic comedy.This flick is pure dark humor.
However, the show was stolen by Luke Wilson (Bottle Rocket), who inadvertently falls in love with the girl who his stepfather had an affair with."Home Fries" blends romance and dark comedy in a way that results in a very entertaining film.
This has got to be the most horrible movie Drew has ever done, the plot was so bad I had to turn it off after 45 mins.
Luke Wilson plays a lovably confused character in the middle of a family crisis including a dead, cheating step-father; a manipulating mother; a jealous, psychotic brother; and the sweet, well-meaning (pregnant) mistress of the step-father.
This movie is not like The Wedding Singer (which I loved) but personally I'm happy to see a romantic comedy with a dark, murderous and twisted plot.
I watched it with little expectation, but when in the first 5 minutes you see a guy being confronted with his soon-to-be-born illegitimate child, then being chased down by an attack chopper, getting a heartattack, dying, the pilots radios are being overheard by employees of some burger joint and afterwards the police finds the dead guy still sitting up straight (rigor mortis squared or something), I was really starting to think the writers are desperately trying to create a strange situation that in itself warrants laughter without anything actually humourous in there.Anyway - don't think I've given a lot away with the above, this only covers the first 5 minutes.
When I first saw previews for this movie, I thought it would be a nice romantic comedy.
Moreover, Angus and Dorian (the male lead) get away with attempted murder and probably manslaughter, which is IMHO a little too strong for a movie that is supposed to be a romantic comedy.
Nothing at all like the trailer suggests (which is EXTREMELY rare nowadays) Go see it, Drew Barrymore and Luke Wilson are great..
One of the worst films I've ever seen.I believe this was probably one of the only movies I've gone to where I actually got up and left.
It's like someone dropped a script (wrapped in roll of twenties) off in the middle of a cow pasture, and dared the townfolk to create a feature film.Drew, you're a cutie, but the director had no intention of making you look the least flattering as a trailer trash pregnant burger flipper.Luke, you got to stop getting acting lessons from David Arquette, it's starting to wear on ya.This freakshow was scarier than psycho.....
Let us now meditate on this thing known as "the crappy movie." We'll just skip the "medium-crappy-movie," which Hollywood provides every week, in deference to its big brother "the seriously, atrociously crappy movie"; the kind of movie that leaves you in a state of wonderment, which then becomes the bewildered lobby conversation that follows the question, "What the hell were they thinking?" as you walk numb to your car.To find some way to pay this heinous movie a compliment, it IS amazing that something can issue from Hollywood that hasn't been written by a machine and measured against a checklist for absolute genre conformity, however...House Fries is an awesomely terrible movie.
Although the preview suggested a romantic comedy, you'll be damned if you can actually name what this baroque, convoluted excresence is.Catherine O'Hara has her two military helicopter-pilot sons buzz her cheating husband to scare him, for cheating on her with Drew Barrymore.
This movie may actually dethrone "Nothing But Trouble" in the bad movie category as the worst thing ever committed to film.Catherine O'Hara or Jake Busey get my vote as the most awful of many heinous elements in the movie.
"Home Fries" (1998) is an offbeat romcom about a pregnant girl (Drew Barrymore) who has two National Guardsmen after her – one wants to romance her (Luke Wilson ) and the other wants to murder her (Jake Busey).
This alleged comedy-drama-romance movie has Drew Barrymore playing a pregnant Sally Jackson, who falls for Dorian Montier (Luke Wilson), the stepson of the unborn baby's deceased father.
Only one word can describe how I feel after watching this movie.That word is awful."Home Fries" isn't comedy because in real comedy people smile.It was nothing funny in this one,it only gives you reasons to cry.I'm sad to see Drew Barrymore in this role.She is so annoying like her partner(Luke Wilson).Only positive thing is acting of Catherine O'Hara but that is even not enough to give this movie grade 2.Plot of this movie doesn't make any sense.Why would two sons listen to their crazy mother and chase their stepfather in a helicopter?After that chase poor man dies of heart and that is not enough because then they must kill a girl who is carrying that poor man's child,in order to please their mother.But wait,one of those brothers starts to like pregnant girl.How realistic is that?Judge it yourself.WARNING:Don't watch this movie unless someone is pointing gun in your head..
It's just an ugly waste of time.What can you say about a film that somehow manages to make Drew Barrymore's pathetic attempt at acting and trying not to go down the Madonna Road of Not Knowing When To Quit?
We were expecting a nice, cute Drew Barrymore romantic comedy and instead there was this whole crazy story about a nutso homicidal family that wants to kill Drew's character.
HOME FRIES is an anemic romantic comedy/murder mystery that a pretty good cast can't salvage..
Although this movie was marketed as a cute looking romantic comedy, it came off as being a mindless, reality-inept stuper of a film, that led me to the conclusion that it was probably written in about a week's time.
This is an off-beat comedy with a slightly ridiculous plot that is saved by the fine acting of several actors such as Drew Barrymore as the FastFood countergirl who unwittingly lets herself get taken advantage of, and Catherine O'Hara as the betrayed and psychotic wife out to gain revenge on her cheating husband.
Yes, it's true that(1) The trailer is carefully crafted to attract viewers who will not like the film and to discourage viewers who might enjoy it.(2) The movie jerks back and forth between romance and black comedy.
(The sound track consists of two riffs: an edgy guitar line to identify the black comedy scenes and a cloying instrumental phrase repeated over and over--and over--during the romantic scenes.)(3) The plot is an affront to logic in general and the Air National Guard in particular.(4) None of the main characters in the story are likable, well-developed or even plausible (especially including Drew Barrymore's character).But all that doesn't stop Home Fries from being delightful at the detail level.
After Hours).(2) Shelley Duvall playing the white trash mom to perfection.(3) Even the thankless role of the unfaithful stepfather was played with some nice touches; I loved the way he takes a sip from his milkshake as he pulls away from the drive through after being castigated by Sally.(4) There were countless other small touches: the son being invited to take a few packs of cigarettes "on the house" when he visits his dead step-father's office at the cigarette factory, the lecherous helicopter mechanic receiving his just reward with the machine-gun turret.In short, the plot made no sense and most of the major characters weren't worth watching, but there were several great minor characters and some interesting dialog that make this movie worth seeing..
We love Drew Barrymore, the premise of the movie is kinda cute.
The movie tried to intertwine comedy and drama which in this film did not work out at all.
It was marketed and promoted as a romantic comedy, but turned out to be a very dark movie.
If you're looking for a truly good dark comedy, rent "Cable Guy" or "In The Company Of Men." I give Home Fries 2 out of 4 stars......
The director, the writer, and the entire primary cast (Drew, Luke Wilson, Jake Busey, and Catherine O'Hara) were all present, introduced on stage prior to the film after about a twenty-minute delay.
(I heard considerably more sustained laughter and genuine applause at the screening of a comedy from the Philippines during the festival, to give you some idea as to how well this film went over with a most receptive audience.)I had a considerably better time chatting about movies and computers with two people sitting beside me while waiting for Drew to make her late entrance than I did actually watching the movie.
I look forward to seeing Luke in other, better, roles.Jake Busey, the spittin' image of his father Gary, does a fine job with a one-note character.Having noted all the above performers, let me say that their performances were the only thing I enjoyed about this movie.
One shining light is Jake Busey, who steals most of the scenes he has, and the crazy thing is that he's stealing them from actors like Luke Wilson and Catherine O'Hara.The writing, dialogue and costumes were another highlight of the movie.
Drew Barrymore is one of my favourite actresses, and I love Luke Wilson, but they both REALLY let me down in this movie.
Romance can add to a film, but with some black comedies(including this one) the plot is too far-fetched for you to really care about the characters, and romance in a movie is empty if you have no one to care for.
I liked Drew Barrymore here, better than her performance in "The Wedding Singer." Luke Wilson, of "Bottle Rocket" and "Scream 2," was very strange throughout the movie.
I would like to see him in a movie side-by-side with David Arquette, not counting "Scream 2."  Catherine O'Hara seemed to have fun with her role in another great part.
"Home Fries" has an intriguing cast, with such talents as the always charming Drew Barrymore and her real-life love interest Luke Wilson, Catherine O'Hara from "Home Alone," Jake Busey and Shelley Duvall.
But most of the movies comic elements are original, but too dark to laugh at.I really liked the characters in "Home Fries," that were colorful and entertaining.
I, like most people, saw the trailer for this movie and thought "romantic comedy, looks good"...well, I was wrong.
what a boring movie, this was probably, actually yes it was the worst drew barrymore movie i have ever seen, it was so poorly acted and predictable and just boring in every which way possible, i hated this movie and i hope none of you have to go through the pain i did of watching this movie.
Drew Barrymore, Catherine O'Hara, Luke Wilson, and Shelley Duvall were all great.
Home Fries stars one of my favourite actress' Drew Barrymore, but not even she can save this boring movie.
Still, as usual Drew Barrymore does a good job, so she made the movie at least a little bit enjoyable.
Drew Barrymore is sickening and I normally find something to enjoy in her performances and the movies she is in.
the trailer sets it up as a romantic comedy in which luke wilson sees drew barymore at a drive thru and wants to get a job there in order to meet her..
Home Fries (1998): Dir: Dean Parisot / Cast: Drew Barrymore, Luke Wilson, Jake Busey, Catherine O'Hara, Shelley Duvall: Intriguing satire that exaggerates in its conclusion.
Things become complicated when one of the brothers (Luke Wilson) falls for a girl (Drew Barrymore) that his mother does not approve of.
Just the wonderful scene where Drew looks at Luke with total sweetness and trust and all smiles is worth seeing for it's charm--but you, the viewer, know the back story and secrets.
Her performance is as good as usual.Luke Wilson is handsome and likable enough but it is not at all believable that his character would suddenly fall in love with the poor pregnant girl who works at the local Burger-Matic - especially given all the circumstances of the plot.
The film is pointless with at least three dark, twisted and very unsympathetic characters."Home Fries" is no better than a student film project with a much bigger budget and access to a military helicopter.When it's over, you're likely to ask yourself as I did - Why did I waste 1 1/2 hours watching this lousy movie?.
I love films with the likeable Drew Barrymore.
What you think it is going to be about is not what it actually is.I enjoyed Drew Barrymore in this role tremendously though even if I really didn't like the overall movie to much.
Unknowingly one the man's step-sons(Luke Wilson) falls in love with her, while his brother(Jake Busey) is ordered by their mother(Catherine O'Hara) to murder her.