Valley of the Sun (2011)

Too much of everything

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I actually do not know if this review has 'spoilers' but better safe than banned forever. ha ha I loved this movie on Netflix. The male star is not someone I remember from any other movie, but I really liked him. Which means that I probably really like the DIRECTOR who drew out of the characters their best performance, I think. I'm recommending this movie to my 90 year old uncle and his 93 year old wife. I'm only worried about the first 3-4 minutes, because I do not know if they have a good bad or indifferent attitude towards porn. Personally I love porn movies, well for about the first 5 minutes than I (and my hubby) don't need 'em anymore, ha ha. hmmm. This is the first movie that had a 'porn star' character that I watched to the very end. I like the movie but I don't buy into the basic premise that the porn star had a nervous breakdown because an uptight neighbor thinks he should move out of her 'decent neighborhood'. I also don't agree with how female porn stars were portrayed as though they were real-life members of that old HBO reality show about the house of prostitution located outside of Las Vegas. If I had been more 'liberated' when I was in my 20s I would have done that for a living for a year maybe two. Why not? I watch porn movies, had the hot body required of porn stars and could have taught viewers a few 'sex lessons' too. I would do them now but no one wants to see a 66 year old body except for a 43-year-old husband (my husband). Enjoy this movie, you won't have to think deep thoughts, you can just enjoy the cute little story line and the pretty face/rockhard body of the main star. That's enough for me, anyway.

The movie comes across simple however, it is the actors expressions and interactions that make it great. Love the concepts and story. His desire to have something with more depth and breakdown is not far from what really has happened to people as they restructure their lives to find meaning. Not to mention his behavior of feeling used and unacceptable so therefore unworthy of being anything else was spot on. Very well represented and a challenge faced by people who leave similar jobs. Balance that with the reflections of people in their twilight years that still want to feel alive and in love. The only off part to me was the over zealous Myron being the only one to quote scripture. Plenty of Christians are not psycho judgmental idiots but certainly some are similar to his character. Would have appreciated an additional non-psycho representative, even in a minor roll, in the story too just to point out how off he was. Still overall this rates as one of my favorite movies with a good feeling, lets all live life to be happy theme. Cheers to the writers and all who pulled this one together.

The very concept of the film is hilarious, but the film can't decide on it's audience - a rauchy, Will Ferrellesque comedy, a serious, adult drama, or an ABC Family movie about porn stars. It doesn't mix well. I saw this film in a theater a couple of years ago and the audience loved it - but it was mostly an older crowd. I couldn't help but feel then as I do now that the film was a missed opportunity at a larger audience.Whitworth gives it his all, and the other side characters are solid. The production budget was slightly cheaper than I expected, but it doesn't strongly detract. Again, another case of good but with the potential for great.I'd recommend it.

I watched this movie on Netflix where it got a much better rating than here and I think for good reason. A simple movie about an adult subject that couldn't have been more entertaining and finally ...without any big Hollywood input of any kind. The movie was over before I realized I had watched the whole thing without being bored for a minute. The characters were all likable and again..played very simply and well. I watch lots of movies, one a day at least, and am a tough critic that usually finds fault with most of them, especially big blockbusters, but this, for what it was, had no flaws really. It was good to see Garret Morris from Saturday Night Live of old too. Again...it was a simple movie with a nice message.