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The Surprise Party (2001) More at IMDbPro »


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Overview

User Rating:
4.9/10   18 votes
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Up 21% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writer:
Garrett Rice (writer)
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View company contact information for The Surprise Party on IMDbPro.
Genre:
Plot:
Oscar is turning thirty years old. He plans to celebrate his passage by asking the woman that he loves... more | add synopsis
User Reviews:
Pretty good within its severely limited budget more (3 total)

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Colin Ferguson ... Oscar
Amber O'Shea ... Penny

Diane Luby Lane ... Julie the Ex (as Dianne Luby)

Joe Mazza ... Jack Gribble
rest of cast listed alphabetically:

Janice Fuller ... Ed the Waitress

Seymour Horowitz ... Al the Cook
Tyler Janisch ... Bill Tarado
Bob Scott ... Oscar's Father (as Robert Scott)

Douglas Sept ... Don Bitterman

Adele Uddo ... Copper
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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful.
Pretty good within its severely limited budget, 21 November 2003
5/10
Author: ee71da from Guildford, UK

First things first: this film was obviously made for a tiny fraction of the budget most Hollywood films get. Sometimes there are errors. The colour balance wobbles and every now and again you can spot the shadows or reflections of members of the crew.

It's also mostly an unknown cast. Colin Ferguson is the nearest thing the show has to a star but is probably to be remembered mostly for his turn in the ill-fated US version of Coupling.

Finally, the film is in danger of veering towards vanity-project territory, with Garrett Rice not only nabbing writer, producer and director credits, but also playing in the band that provides the songs.

Fortunately, none of that really matters - it's a charming, if rather lightweight, story that neatly transposes many of the usual chick-flick conventions.

It's also (perhaps a little surprisingly) really quite funny. Some characters are there "just for laughs" - our hero's geeky housemate, for example - but unlike certain other films of the genre, they don't start to irritate after about five seconds of screen time.

But ultimately, it works because it's believable and the performances are honest: you can see and sympathise with our hero's anger at his betrayal, then his frustration at the realisation that he still wants the girl. It's an uncomplicated, undemanding film but an entertaining one.

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