Reviews & Ratings for
People Like Us More at IMDbPro »

Page 1 of 6:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

46 out of 57 people found the following review useful:
It's People Like All Of Us, 2 July 2012

Author: editor-530 from United States

My wife and I saw this film without having any idea of what it is a about. All we knew was some guy's father died and he went through a life decision change. For all we knew that meant he could have become gay (he didn't, and it had nothing to do with that).

This is an adult family film. It's PG-13 rating is not for nudity, swearing, or violence. It is rated that because it is a mature look at dysfunctional family problems. So while little of that is shown, they are referred to through the dialog, thus making it a mature film for teens and up.

From the opening credits of Dreamworks, the artistry of the film was evident. Instead of the usual music for the kid fishing from the moon, we hear conversations in a recording studio. In our opinion, every actor and actress gave outstanding performances. While the topic could have had a heavy handed approach, it did not. It was deftly edited and paced.

In summation, this movie was art because the content was all heart. I have deliberately avoided talking about specifics because I want all viewers to be as surprised as we were in the viewing. I give it a ten, and intend to watch it again.

40 out of 48 people found the following review useful:
An Amazing Movie! The BEST Performances of the Year., 6 July 2012
Author: Elle from United States

This has to be under everyone's radar and that's a true shame. I can't recommend it enough if you're looking for a truly moving film about fractured families and fractured souls.

I was completely blown away by this movie and by every single performance. If I were an Academy member and I saw this film I would immediately place the names Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks and Michelle Pfeiffer at the very top of my Oscar nominations lists. Honestly, everyone is just that good in these roles especially Banks. Hers is the best performance I've seen this year bar none. The movie itself is so wonderfully written and packs true emotional resonance. The plot may sound cliché but nothing is handled in a predictable or unreal fashion. Secrets are revealed and it sheds new life on family and the meaning of love. To paraphrase: what seems important now really isn't and what's may seem not important now really is… there's a lot to digest about this film. One thing's for sure, if you "lean in to it" and give this movie your time and undivided attention you will not be sorry that you saw it.

23 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
A good movie with a good message., 29 June 2012

Author: Drew St. Pierre from Maine

You know, it's always good to see a non-action film during the summer movie season every once in a while; even if it has an actual message to it.

Going into People Like Us, I was rather excited. I had a feeling that this would turn out to be a good drama. Maybe it won't be award-worthy or anything, just good as like a regular drama with a good message. After the seeing the movie, I came out feeling touched by it. People Like Us was such a good movie.

STORY: People Like Us has a very simple plot. After his father passed away, Sam, a salesman (Chris Pine) has to deliver $150,000 – which was left behind by his father – to Frankie (Elizabeth Banks), a sister whom he never knew about. As the relationship develops, Sam tries to re-examine his own life choices.

MY THOUGHTS: The writing/dialogue in People Like Us is believable and very good; the music score is beautiful and sets the emotional tone well; the ending to it is so touching and downright perfect that it made me left the theater with emotion. This movie does a great job talking about the loss of a loved one and trying to re-think choices in life.

The only problem I had with People Like Us was that the movie started off a bit slow, but then it gets better as it goes on.

THE ACTING: Chris Pine does an excellent job playing Sam, a guy whose father had passed away, and wants to re-think his own choices in life. Elizabeth Banks does great playing Frankie, a sister that Sam never knew he had. The ever-so gorgeous Olivia Wilde had a good supporting role as Sam's girlfriend. Michelle Pfeiffer is fantastic as the mother. The kid is fantastic as well.

IN CONCLUSION: Although slow at times, People Like Us is such a good drama featuring great performances, good dialogue, and an ending that made me feel touched.

8/10

19 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
Great drama for 2012, 29 June 2012

Author: DarkVulcan29 (DarkVulcan29@aol.com) from United States

Nice to see Elizabeth Banks can recover from disaster unfunny What to expect, When your expecting. And Chris Pine from the cinematic blandness that is This Means War.

Sam(Chris Pine) a smooth talking salesman, who's last deal falls flat, then his girlfriend gives him the news that his father had died, this has a mixed reaction for Sam, cause he and his father have never gotten along. Sam goes to funeral, and sees his mother. Then meets with with lawyer, who gives a kit of 15 thousand dollars, but then sees a note that tells him to give it too Frankie(Elizabeth Banks)a recovering alcholic, and a single mother, and a waitress, trying to make ends meat. But discovers she is his half sister. How will this play out in the end?

Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks are beyond terrific with there performances, so was Olivia Wilde, not just playing the throw away love interest. Michelle Pfeiffer is also great as Pines mother. A well acted drama.

11 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Heartfelt Drama That Makes You Laugh, Cry and Every Emotion in Between, 3 August 2012

Author: rannynm from United States

KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, 15-year-old Raven Devanney shares her review below:

Video review available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzovjcl38xw

People like us is a heartfelt drama about a man who's life takes a turn for the worst and in unsuspecting events leads him to a sister he never knew he had. This film was exceptional. It stars Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pine and Michelle Pfeiffer. People like us made me laugh, cry and feel every emotion in between. The visuals in this film were great and the acting was superb. My favorite character was Frankie played by Elizabeth Banks because her performance was so solid and she definitely carried the comedy of this film as well as the heavier emotions. My favorite part of this film is when Sam played by Chris Pine is getting to know Frankie and her young son because I enjoyed watching their bond grow.

It really bothered me that Sam wouldn't tell Frankie who he was until the end of the film because it just complicated their lives, but it gave the film a much needed twist. I recommend this film for ages 13 and up because of adult content and younger children may have a more difficult time fallowing along with the plot. Overall I give People like us 4 out of 5 stars.

13 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
Not your typical Romantic Comedy!, 25 May 2012
Author: carlin-14 (carlin@cwlangley.com) from New York, NY

I really enjoyed seeing this latest movie with Chris Pine. The acting is great, the storyline is well written with adequate character development to let you get emotionally invested. Michelle Pfeiffer gives the level of performance you typically expect from Diane Keaton with empathy and sincerity. Chris Pine as Sam shows he's much more than just a pretty face, but the true scene stealer is Michael Hall D'Addario who plays Josh, the bad-boy son of Elizabeth Banks' character, Frankie. I really enjoyed that it isn't your typical romantic comedy between a man and woman who end up either together or not. Frankie and Sam being sister and brother as the primary love interests give it a very interesting twist but there's also the mother-son sub-plot as well as Sam and Hannah, played by Olivia Wilde. We clapped when the credits rolled, which is rare for a romantic comedy movie.

7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
A Contrived Concept Makes Way for a Surprisingly Worthwhile, Emotionally Resonant Drama, 4 July 2012

Author: Ed Uyeshima from San Francisco, CA, USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A studio picture with a premise this contrived shouldn't work, but this 2012 family drama works in ways that are quite unexpected and emotionally resonant because a palpable level of truthfulness emerges with the characters even as the plot teeters precariously on credibility issues. First-time filmmaker Alex Kurtzman, a go-to screenwriter of ϋber-action fare like "Star Trek" and "Mission: Impossible III", based his personal movie on events in his own life when he met his own half- sister for the first time as he turned thirty. The plot focuses on Sam, a slick, 31-year-old huckster of a salesman in the bartering business. Just as he gets snagged by a bad deal that costs him the huge bonus he just secured to pay off long-standing debts, Sam finds out his father, Jerry Harper, a legendary Laurel Canyon record producer, has died, which means he needs to come home to LA for the funeral against his will. Reuniting with his estranged mother Lillian becomes challenging enough, but Sam also discovers that his father left him $150,000 in his shaving kit.

The catch is that it comes with instructions to deliver the cash to an 11-year-old named Josh, who happens to be the son of Frankie, a half- sister he didn't know he had. Tempted to keep the cash himself, Sam finds Frankie and follows her to an AA meeting where she shares the sudden news of her father's death and the hurtful anger she feels for not being publicly acknowledged as his daughter. Her pain is what becomes the common bond that she and Sam share and the beginning of a web of lies he tells her in order to build upon his newly discovered family ties. It's this thread of deception that propels Kurtzman's storyline, and the moment you start to feel the movie get phony, he manages to get it back on track through the burgeoning relationship that forms between Sam, Frankie and Josh. Of course, the further Sam delays in telling the truth, the more catastrophic the results. Perceptive performances are critical in pulling off this kind of drama, and Kurtzman coaxes strong work from his cast.

Chris Pine captures Sam's manic energy and evasive nature to a T, and he manages to reveal the vulnerability underneath that shows he never quite gave up on his quest for his father's approval and love. Still etched in my memory as the hot-to-trot bookstore clerk in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", Elizabeth Banks has matured as an actress and delivers a genuinely empathetic performance as Frankie, a single mother struggling with a hardscrabble life and a smart, troublemaking son. She and Pine manage a nice rapport that skirts the incest minefield that could have occurred in lesser hands. Too long off the screen and still looking like People Magazine's most beautiful woman, Michelle Pfeiffer makes her few scenes count as the newly widowed Lillian, who met Jerry back in the seventies when she was a former hatcheck girl at the Troubadour and dreamed of becoming the next Joni Mitchell. She succinctly shares her anger toward Sam for his indifference toward Jerry while slowly revealing her own secrets and fears. As the precocious Josh, Michael Hall D'Addario is given lines only an 11-year-old in a mainstream movie would speak, but he is such a likable young actor that he manages to come across as authentic.

Olivia Wilde has a thankless role as Sam's put-upon girlfriend Hannah, but she provides more depth than the plot device she represents, while indie mainstay Mark Duplass ("Humpday") seems to be showing up everywhere these days, this time as Frankie's conveniently available downstairs neighbor. There are cameos from familiar character actor Philip Baker Hall ("50/50") as Jerry's attorney friend and Jon Favreau as Sam's belligerent boss. A.R. Rahman ("Slumdog Millionaire") provides the original music, while cinematographer Salvatore Totino really captures the vibrancy of LA life beyond the stereotypical images. Kurtzman sometimes abuses quick cuts to emphasize Sam's restlessness, but when the truth is revealed in the story, it reinforces the message he sincerely conveys in appreciating the value of family and the importance of forgiveness. His clever use of home movies to bring this message home results in the heartbreaking impact that was obviously intended. I definitely recommend this surprising movie.

8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Its not the Brady Bunch thats for sure, 6 July 2012
Author: dtucker86 from Germany

Michelle Pfieffer and Elizabeth Banks both give A+ performances in this movie and they both deserve to be remembered at Oscar time. It is a joy watching these two outstanding thespians at work. It is amazing the intensity and depth they bring to their performances. They bring these tortured characters to life and you feel their pain. When I was getting ready to write this review, my first instinct was to say that there wasn't a really likable character in the film. That instinct was wrong. Its not that the characters aren't likable, its just that they are flawed and in deep emotional pain because one man didn't do his job as a responsible husband and father and the pain he caused lives after his death. This is a very dark film, very depressing, gritty and true to life. No "Brady Bunch" happy endings here folks. Surprisingly, I think it makes it a better movie. The only major beef I have with this film is the character of the boy Josh. He is without a doubt the most appalling child character since Wesley on Mister Belvedere. I kept wanting one of the adults to give him a good smack in his little fresh, dirty mouth. I always hate it in movies when they show smart aleck kids who talk to adults more strongly then real life kids would dare do!

7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
The thing about family is...Sometimes you have to go the extra mile to understand each other, 14 August 2012

Author: KineticSeoul from United States

Now this is a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. Movies like these proves that you don't need crude and obnoxious jokes with nudity and swearing for it to be good. This is an adult movie that approaches things in a touching and yet mature manner. The story in this is about Sam(Chris Pine) getting $150,000 dollars in cash after his fathers death who he loathed. But in his will he wants that money to go to Frankie(Elizabeth Banks) who is his half-sister that he didn't know about until he got his father's will. So he decides to go stalking Frankie and her son and soon chemistry starts to form between them, I guess it's awkward chemistry. Now Sam already has a girlfriend played by Olivia Wilde but the chemistry between Sam and Frankie is just so well written in this to the point I wanted to see more of it. And the fact that they are half-sibling makes things awkward and yet interesting to watch. Elizabeth Banks is still very hot and attractive, random but wanted to throw that in. This movie is mostly about understanding one another since everyone comes from different background no matter how close you are with them. This is a well written emotional drama that maybe predictable in some cases but it's well worth the watch for sure.

8.5/10

7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Go See It, 3 July 2012

Author: SusanShop from Canada

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Somewhere everyday a family member dies, and secrets aren't secret anymore. Funerals are often referred to as celebrations and starting points for new directions in life. Chris Pine is a smooth talking salesman right up until he has to go to his father's funeral. His relationships with his job,his girlfriend, his family are nothing compared to what he now has to look at in regards to his feelings for his father. Tension that has been on the screen since the opening scene intensifies, and never lessens until the final scene. What initially appears to be a simple legacy,becomes the catalyst for so much more !! Wonderful drama!!

Page 1 of 6:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Add another review

Related Links