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Duets (2000)
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Reviews Counted:86
Fresh:18
Rotten:68
Average Rating:3.9/10
Consensus: Duets suffers from sloppy direction and stretches credibility. Also, the characters are uninteresting and it's hard to care about what happens to them.
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Genre: Comedies
Box Office: $2,002,588
Synopsis:
Duets is a road-trip film about six individuals who throw off the binds of their pre-determined lives and strive to fulfill their dreams. The metaphor for this is Karaoke … the courage to stand up,...
Duets is a road-trip film about six individuals who throw off the binds of their pre-determined lives and strive to fulfill their dreams. The metaphor for this is Karaoke … the courage to stand up, sing and be free. They are: a waitress (MARIA BELLO) from Wheeling, West Virginia desperate to get to California to become a recording star, an ex-con (ANDRE BRAUGHER) unwilling to bend to the rules of society who sings with the voice of an angel, a salesman (PAUL GIAMATTI) who melts down while chasing the American Dream, a seasoned Karaoke hustler (HUEY LEWIS) who is disconnected from everybody and everything, an innocent Vegas showgirl (Academy Award® winner GWYNETH PALTROW) searching for family and love, and a young down-on-his-luck cab driver (SCOTT SPEEDMAN). Each is searching for the meaning of life.
As they converge on the $5,000 Grand Prize Karaoke Contest in Omaha, Nebraska, their lives intertwine, revealing the funny, raucous world of Karaoke bars and chain hotels that link the interstates of Middle America. -- © Hollywood Pictures
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Huey Lewis, Andre Braugher, Paul Giamatti
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Huey Lewis, Andre Braugher, Paul Giamatti, Maria Bello, Paul Bello, Scott Speedman, Murilo Benicio, David Paetkau, Dafne Fernandez, Adam Symansky, Max Färberböck
Director: Bruce Paltrow
Director: Bruce Paltrow
Screenwriter: John Byrum
Producer: Kevin Jones, John Byrum, Bruce Paltrow
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Reviews for Duets
Some of these characters are interesting enough to keep your attention on the movie between songs. The soundtrack is full of great music and songs.
Happily for all, director Bruce Paltrow approaches the sing-along world of karaoke with an affectionate but mildly satiric eye.
Whoever thought reuniting TV-vet director Bruce Paltrow with daughter Gwyneth would create some sort of onscreen chemistry probably also thinks taking karaoke seriously is cool. They're wrong on both accounts.
Every so often a movie comes along that's bad in such original and unexpected ways that it inspires an almost admiring fascination.
Only furthers the idea that people just want to be heard and applauded, even if they have to purloin someone else's work to do so.
A lack of adequate character development makes much of the film hard to swallow. So does its hokey central plot device.
The whole thing comes off as a poor man's Robert Altman film, with too many characters who never really get to grow and overlapping story lines that never really mesh.
To their credit, [Byrum and Paltrow] attempted to make a movie of ideas. Alas, many of the ideas are bad. Not to mention bigoted.
Because Giamatti is so good and the rest of Duets is so only-OK, it feels lop-sided. Kind of like a duet between Whitney Houston and me.
There are too many characters, subplots and themes going on at the same time, so it's hard to connect with any of them.
Duets is bafflingly uneven in tone and content, even after many months of reported editing room surgery.
Latest News for Duets
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