Excess Baggage (1997)

Sorry, this movie sucks

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Excess Baggage (1997): Dir: Marco Brambilla / Cast: Alicia Silverstone, Benicio Del Toro, Christopher Walken, Harry Connick Jr., Jack Thompson: Title indicates unwanted companionship, which can describe Alicia Silverstone's performance and the sympathy that should be given to her co-stars. She plays a rich brat who stages her own kidnapping in order to gain her father's affection. She locks herself in the trunk of a car but a car thief steals it. Clichés set in as he cannot get rid of her then after a warehouse full of cars burns down they have to stick together and fall in love, etc. Recycled plot done twice this particular year with A Life Less Ordinary being the other film. Directed by Marco Brambilla who made the equally stupid Demolition Man. He does his best but this project should have been put out of its misery before production began. Silverstone whines so much that she becomes irritating. Benico Del Toro does his best as the car thief but the role is reduced to a romantic prop with all the personality of a flat tire. Christopher Walken is a fine presence in the film as her uncle but the role is straight forward and totally beneath him. Harry Connick Jr. is given the cardboard role of Del Toro's partner in crime. Jack Thompson plays Silverstone's less than active father whose life is work. Title indicates that video outlets obtain too many movies and this one should go. Score: 2 / 10

If truth be told, I appreciated Excess Baggage!!(now stare at the title!!!) I actually liked all of the characters and how emily hope ( alicia silverstone) and Vincent( Benicio Del Toro) were so appealing jointly. To me , they represented someone needing someone else, or Emily needing the love and support of Vincent. I could watch this movie everyday! Another thing i loved about this movie was how sweet it was!! Alicia plays a spoiled rich girl who never got the love she wanted from her busy father, and plus her father would rather attend a business meeting than even talk to her. how rude!! And then she meets vincent and at first she is scared but then they sort of have an understanding of each other. (Plus Benicio is really hot in this movie!!!)Vincent,in a way, takes care of emily and fills that empty spot in her heart. He would take care of her much better than her own father. Vincent can't stand that even her own father wouldn't give her the love that she needs.It was a really beautiful movie and also it was Alicia Silverstones Debut of producing! Another thing i thought was sweet was that Benicio and Alicia actually dated in real life during the making of this movie! How Sweet! Even though the movie got bad reviews, i really enjoyed it. Not only that, but it is clean enough to watch with younger kids in the room.To me, it seems like the perfect date movie or whenever you just feel like watching a movie. Another plus is that christopher walken is in the movie and he has made a lot of movies and he is well known. There were so many funny and sweet performances. Christopher plays uncle ray, Emily's uncle, and ever since she was born, he has looked out for her as if he was her father. He would protect her in anyway he could, even if that means killing vincent, the car thief, who could put her in jail. There was only one think that i can think of that was really weird and that was the preview, i had never actually watched it before, but it didn't really showcase the movie for what it was! i would have done it completely different, but otherwise the movie was sooooooo great!!!!(plus there were a lot of nice cars)

I sure did enjoy the review by Luvmymom and many other reviews here. I saw the 51% rating at the header and I am sad for the 49% that found no joy here.My Mom was - is - the finest, most Motherly human being on Planet Earth, possibly the entire Universe. A beautiful and proud Italian Gal, but more to the point a Human Gal - Mom and Dad were colorblind as to race and never locked our front door - "What if one of our friends or neighbors has an emergency and needs our phone or something?" - that was the basic way of life at our various San Fran and Brisbane households. Never went wrong with this way of life, even though some junkies who learned about our lax security walked in and stole my Brother Aaron's life savings while the family was at my Father's funeral in 1986.Both those unfortunates died soon after, due to their own druggie actions, leaving behind good decent families who are still our close friends.But I am getting way off track here.This film, these actor-artists, the writer and director, have put together a true piece of Magic.I just want to add: The first time Dave Matthews Crash...comes in like a warm rainfall, is during the scene in the motel when Alicia says to Benicio, "You don't have to be drunk to kiss me".When Crash began playing, I was reminded of the first time I heard this wonderful sound.I was crippled - for only a year, thank Ma Nature - by getting hit by a car while jogging, and I spent many months in 1997-8 staying in my room, feeling sorry for myself, and then I bought this Dave Matthews cassette...saved my Spirit, it did. I just got out of a wheelchair last year after a fall from a scaffold.This fine movie is helping save my life, that it is.

Rich, unloved teenage girl stages her own kidnapping, but her plan gets foiled when a carjacker takes her for a ride. Anemic comedy-drama with cynical romantic undermining looks fairly stylish and is well-paced, but the screenplay is filled with plot-holes and annoying characters, and the film's last act loses all inspiration. In the lead, Alicia Silverstone--just off her star-making turn in "Clueless"--isn't bad, but she needed a stronger director to reel in her bratty-comic excesses. Surprisingly, the film failed to find an audience with its target group and did a fast fade. Silverstone deserved better. ** from ****