My Giant

If you like Billy Crystal or are just catching up on old movies you missed out on it's OK, it's by no means a Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, Ferris Bueller or When Harry Met Sally, but it's likeable and simple, not many laugh out loud moments but a coming of age kind of movie, you wish the good guy well kinda movie, and that's why I watched it, I was more into the Billy Madison, Shallow Hal stuff when this came out in 98, so I missed it then. But for $2 at a local charity shop it was a good buy, I will probably watch it again along with other movies I like a bit but aren't my favorites except on a snowy winter Sunday, like Funny Farm or Modern Problems with Chevy Chase, they are ok but not an Uncle Buck or Ferris Bueller by any stretch. Georghie is a pretty likeable guy, glad he made this film.

I'm surprised the ratings for this movie are so low. It's not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, don't get me wrong, but it's not a terrible movie either. Billy Crystal plays a talent agent who gets fired by his client then almost drowns. Luckily two giant hands save him from the water, and they are of course attached to the "giant", George Muresan (spelling?) who he immediately tries to sign on as a client because there is obvious potential jobs for such a huge man. He brings him to the states under the pretense of reuniting him with the girl he used to like, only she doesn't want to see him at all. The movie has comedy at times but mostly it is a dramatic movie, which it wasn't marketed as, so I think that might be why a lot of people are disappointed. It's not a really deep story and the acting isn't great (Muresan is a basketball player and Billy Crystal is pretty much just going through the motions) but it's definitely worth seeing and is a good little movie.

Acting agent Sammy Kamin travels to Romania to see his one (and only) client on the set of a low budget American film. When he is fired by the actor he drives off in a rage and crashes his car only to be saved by a Romanian shepherd and taken to a monastery. When he sees his saviour is 7ft10" tall he realises the potential and gets him a job on the local movie. Together the pair set out for America – Max wanting to find the only girl ever to care for him (25 years ago) and Sammy eyeing a key part for Max as a bad guy in the new Steven Seagal movie.

I love Billy Crystal. When he is on form he is very funny and can make even average romantic comedies worth watching. He alone makes it worth sitting through an overlong Oscar ceremony when he comperes it. However this film is beyond his saving grasp as it is simply just not funny enough. The plot (and humour) is basically `oh look- here's a really tall guy'. The worst thing is that it then goes into cloying sentimentality every five minutes as Sammy learns to love again through the spirit of his gentle giant. And up comes the music that every Crystal film seems to use for `touching' moments.

At the start of the film is a scene where Sammy as a child shows his ability of persuasion by sitting down to a roast pig dinner with a rabbi. This I laughed at but that was the last time (only 100 more minutes to go!) because most of the film is just amusing and any rare good lines are lost in a sea of middling humour. A cameo by Seagal is quite good but not as funny as it could have been if he'd made more fun of himself. Even Crystal's dialogue (usually an oasis in the sea of sentimentality) is poor.

He doesn't do a good job at all here and, although he is playing his usual character, it's difficult to care less what happens to him or why. Muresan is an average basketball player who is good as a bench player but not as a starter. I saw him play in San Antonio when he was with Washington Bullets (as was) and was surprised at how slow and uncoordinated he was on court. On the screen he has the same qualities – awkward, ungainly etc. He makes a sympathetic character so it's not all bad but it doesn't seem to come naturally for him. The two don't have much chemistry and you wonder if there was much onset banter between them once Crystal had used up all his NBA questions. The rest of the cast are Ok and there's a few well known faces in there but Seagal is probably the best bit of casting in the film and he is amusing if not funny.

Overall this is a pretty average film that is just about passable but certainly not funny or enjoyable. There are a few laughs and the rest of the film either falls into fake, cloying sentimentality or just goes for laughs by having the big and the small man beside each other. I love Crystal even in poor films but I won't be watching My Giant again unless I'm tied to a chair a la `Clockwork Orange'.

This film broke my heart especially when his lost love (played bitchily by Joann Pacula) disses him and actually gets nasty with Billy Crystal who is only trying to help. I thought she would turn out to be a giant herself and that there would be a twist at the end but that was not to be. George Muresan was a little difficult to understand but he brought a warmth to the role. I really enjoyed this heartwarming film and Billy Crystal always makes me laugh. I recommend it highly

Billy Crystal is not the funniest man in the world, and Gheorghe Muresan certainly isn't much of an actor. But the Wizard was able to deliver a very good fragile, gentle giant. The story line was very lame. The highlight of this movie was the love an innocence that Muresan feels toward a girl he loved 23 years ago. This movie is billed as a comedy, but feels quite dark at times. **