Stuck on You (2003)

Brilliant and touching

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Stuck on You (2003): Dir: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly / Cast: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Eva Mendes, Cher, Wen Yann Shih: The one problem with this film is that it's not as funny as it should be. It is like Peter and Bobby Farrelly have caved in to the controversy surrounding the vulgar humour in their films. Among their best work is Kingpin and There's Something About Mary. Yet this film is touching in its presentation of friendship of brothers joined at the hip and work in a fast food restaurant. Matt Damon has a romance over the Internet whom he hasn't informed of his condition. He also suffers from stage fright when Greg Kinnear wants desperately to be an actor and receives opportunity. Tension surfaces when the possibility of separation occurs and the possible dangers. What truly comes across there is the reality of their handicap being highlighted as normal. Cher is fantastic playing herself struggling to break a contract only to have it turn around and backfire. Eva Mendes provides laughs as an airhead actress who will obviously end up with one of the boys. Wen Yann Shih plays another romantic interest to the Damon side but she doesn't realize until too late, why they are constantly together. Well made comedy that isn't quite on the same level of humour as previous Farrelly brothers films yet it still works. Interesting comedy examines deformation and friendship that holds everything together. Score: 9 / 10

Everything about this movie is just so wrong, its not even really all that funny, mostly uncomfortable, yet somehow it just wasn't horrible. I'm actually not sure why this worked for me but it did -on a very basic level.Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear play conjoined twins Walt and Bob whose brotherly bond is tested when Bob decides to leave their idyllic hometown life and pursue an acting career in Los Angeles. Yeah, this is the Farrelly Brothers so somehow this plot works and the cameos from Cher and Meryl Streep (yes really) as themselves, are very entertaining. The supporting cast is excellent too including Eva Mendes and there are also some surprisingly heartwarming moments but wow, imagine trying to sell this movie to studios initially. 11.13

Bob (Matt Damon) and Walt Tenor (Greg Kinnear) are conjoined twins living in Martha's Vineyard. They are cooks/owners of a diner, ace goaltenders, all around good guys, and so much more. Bob is not so great with the ladies except for his pen pal. Walt is the more confident one and dreams of big time acting career in Hollywood. When they get to Hollywood, they meet April (Eva Mendes) and Bob's pen pal May.The Farrelly brothers are just flailing away. I don't know where the comedy is suppose to be coming from. Are we laughing at them? They seem perfectly fine. While there isn't anything particularly funny, the two guys have a nice sweet chemistry. So it actually works as a brotherly drama. Nevertheless, the Farrellys are trying so hard to make jokes. It's distracting to have most of the comedy fall flat. The movie actually works best when I forget that they're conjoined. The conjoined part just takes away the comedy and distracts more than helps.

There's a recurring pattern with Farrelly Brothers films that I've noticed over the past few years. The ones that get the most recognition, like Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary, are decent, fairly-capable comedies, but after a second viewing they don't truly hold up. The more subtle films that waltz on by, boasting a strange but viable screen presence, like this and Fever Pitch, are the ones that are truly the most enjoyable.Stuck on You is a weird film, but one with humor and a soul. The story focuses on Bob (Damon) and Walt (Kinnear), a pair of conjoined twins who are stuck together at the hip. Bob is one of low ambitions. He is comfortable with the idea of staying at his personal burger joint, working orderly with his brother. Walt dreams big. He wants to become an actor, but feels that Bob is his unintentional albatross when trying to get work.The problem is whenever one has an idea, regardless if they like it or not, they are going with the other. They could get separated, but there's only a fifty-fifty chance that Walt would survive because of the majority of their liver being on Bob's side. Walt decides that after being a long-suffering actor in Massachusetts he should try his luck in Hollywood, and Bob reluctantly agrees to follow him.After a string of failed gigs, Walt becomes acquired by Cher, and this leads to his success on a network drama, at the same time trying to hide the fact that he is a conjoined twin to his audience.Stuck on You is a rare comedy, and it reminds me a lot of Adam Sandler's surprisingly good 50 First Dates. That was a film that balanced comedy and seriousness perfectly, occasionally becoming very sad and sullen. This film is the same way. Yes, it likes to make a few off-color jokes about two people being conjoined for life, but it has a side of humanity to it, one rarely explored. It isn't all fun and games, and it isn't all tightly wound shlock.Damon and Kinnear work and play well off of each other, and the cameos are always fun to watch as well. The wonderful Meryl Streep is nicely placed here, in a scene that is delightfully witty and incredibly unexpected. Even the good ol' Frankie Muniz shows up in one great scene as well.Rarely is a subject taken with such a human approach, and Stuck on You succeeds because it doesn't try to hard. It's premise is mildly poignant, a tad goofy, but it shockingly works. This is the last film I was expecting to recommend, but honestly, I've seen films with potential quickly fall down, and films with utterly none soar past expectations. Stuck on You struck a point of indecisiveness with me upon approaching it. Glad I just ran with it.Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Eva Mendes, Wen Yann Shih, and Pat Crawford Brown. Directed by: Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly.