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Movies / On DVD / Finding Amanda
Finding Amanda

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Finding Amanda (2008)

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Reviews Counted:40

Fresh:17

Rotten:23

Average Rating:5.2/10

Consensus: Despite a charming turn by Matthew Broderick, Finding Amanda is too flimsily executed to succeed as a dark comedy.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong sexual content including graphic dialogue, pervasive language, drug content and brief nudity.

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Comedies

Theatrical Release:Jun 27, 2008 Limited

Box Office: $31,340

Synopsis: From director Peter Tolan, creator of the hit television series Rescue Me, comes Finding Amanda, a hilarious and heartbreaking autobiographical comedy about the compulsions we can’t shake, and the... From director Peter Tolan, creator of the hit television series Rescue Me, comes Finding Amanda, a hilarious and heartbreaking autobiographical comedy about the compulsions we can’t shake, and the unlikely lengths we’ll go to while trying.

Taylor Mendon (Matthew Broderick) is a television writer and producer working on a low-rated, little-respected half-hour sitcom. Once destined for bigger and better things, Taylor's compulsive gambling, recreational drug use and drinking all conspired to throw his career off the rails. After kicking the alcohol and drugs, he only has one more hurdle...the horses.

His beautiful twenty - year old niece Amanda (Brittany Snow) has her own habit to kick. Living in Las Vegas, working as a "dancer," her family has just discovered she is actually a prostitute, and they suspect hooking for drug money.

On their way home from an emergency family meeting, Taylor's wife Lorraine (Maura Tierney) finds recent racing stubs in Taylor's glove compartment. After years of standing by him, she leaves.

Taylor comes up with a plan: he'll win back his wife by doing the right thing. He'll go to Las Vegas, find Amanda, and deliver her to a rehabilitation center in Malibu. While he’s at it, he might even catch up with some old friends (like slimy casino host Steve Coogan). But besides that, it’s strictly the business at hand—while he's there, he vows, he won't gamble a single cent, but things don’t turn out quite as he’d planned. --© Magnolia Films
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Starring: Matthew Broderick, Brittany Snow, Maura Tierney, Peter Facinelli

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Brittany Snow, Maura Tierney, Peter Facinelli, Steve Coogan, Bill Fagerbakke

Director: Peter Tolan

Director: Peter Tolan
Screenwriter: Peter Tolan
Producer: Wayne Rice, Richard Heller
Composer: Christopher Tyng
Studio: Mitropoulos Films

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Release:

Sep 16, 2008

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • Taylor (Matthew Broderick) is a television writer and producer whose compulsive gambling, recreational drug use and drinking problem are jeopardizing his career and marriage. In a desperate attempt to save his marriage to Lorraine (Maura Tierney), he sets off to redeem himself by bringing home his 20 year old niece (Brittany Snow) who is living in Vegas and working as a prostitute. While there, he vows not to gamble a cent or drink a drop of alcohol. Alas, the best laid plans...
  • Source: Magnolia Home Entertainment
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    Reviews for Finding Amanda

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    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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    Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
    04/23/09
    Peter Keough
    Peter Keough
    Boston Phoenix

    Offers a steady supply of clever lines but suffers from the patina of self-loathing common to industry lifers and the unfortunate miscasting of straight-arrow Broderick as a depressed, cynical hack.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
    12/09/08
    J. R. Jones
    J. R. Jones
    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
    10/18/08
    St. Louis Post-Dispatch

    Offers up some zinger lines in the trenches of Sin City but fails to live up to its ingenious concept.

    Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
    10/18/08
    David D'Arcy
    David D'Arcy
    Screen International

    A very darkly humorous film.

    Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
    10/18/08
    John Anderson
    John Anderson
    Newsday
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Matthew Broderick regains his cinematic stride as a morosely wise-cracking television producer on the skids, ably abetted by Maura Tierney as his much-put-upon wife and Brittany Snow as his perky prostitute niece.

    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    10/18/08
    Ronnie Scheib
    Ronnie Scheib
    Variety
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Hopelessly uneven yet admittedly entertaining...

    Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
    10/06/08
    David Nusair
    David Nusair
    Reel Film Reviews

    This unromantic comedy is something less than a sure bet. For some reason, you get the impression that it doesn't live up to the promise of its premise.

    Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment 1 Comment
    07/04/08
    Jules Brenner
    Jules Brenner
    Cinema Signals

    This vulgar film, replete with vile language and graphic descriptions of sex acts, degrades our culture. Even George Carlin might find it offensive.

    Full Review Source: tonymedley.com | comment 1 Comment
    07/03/08
    Tony Medley
    Tony Medley
    tonymedley.com

    Broderick’s sunny spin on the deeply flawed Taylor is interesting but eventually defies belief. In the third act, Finding Amanda loses steam altogether.

    Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment 1 Comment
    06/30/08
    Richard Roeper
    Richard Roeper
    Ebert & Roeper
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Though Finding Amanda's story reaches a reasonably satisfying conclusion, the empty characters at its center make the whole thing feel like a waste.

    Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com | comment Comment
    06/29/08
    Katey Rich
    Katey Rich
    CinemaBlend.com

    Doesn't have a nuance in it, but it's pretty consistently amusing in its latter-day Woody Allen way. For most of the way, its morals are happily, believably wrong, but all bad things must come to an end.

    Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
    06/27/08
    Peter Canavese
    Peter Canavese
    Groucho Reviews

    Finding Amanda has some of the good and a lot of the bad aspects of a first film written and directed by the same person.

    Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
    06/27/08
    Mick LaSalle
    Mick LaSalle
    San Francisco Chronicle
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Much of Finding Amanda doesn't stand up to close scrutiny, but at its best the still-boyish Broderick suggests his most famous character, Ferris Bueller, going through a midlife crisis.

    Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
    06/27/08
    Lou Lumenick
    Lou Lumenick
    New York Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Tolan writes regularly for smart shows like Rescue Me, but his best instincts deserted him when he set his sights on the big screen for the first time.

    Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
    06/27/08
    Elizabeth Weitzman
    Elizabeth Weitzman
    New York Daily News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Written with more bite, the premise might hold up, but as executed here by Tolan, it is a soft-hearted, haphazard mess.

    Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
    06/27/08
    Mark Olsen
    Mark Olsen
    Los Angeles Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Writer-director Peter Tolan has glibness down pat, but can't quite wring the intended pathos from his characters' desperate lives. He does, however, give Broderick his best part since Election.

    Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
    06/27/08
    Glenn Whipp
    Glenn Whipp
    Los Angeles Daily News

    Too much of Peter Tolan's movie takes up Taylor's self-absorption as if it's actually interesting.

    Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
    06/27/08
    Cynthia Fuchs
    Cynthia Fuchs
    PopMatters

    Set mostly in Las Vegas, Finding Amanda offers a vision of confused Americans losing their already shaky bearings in the world’s gaudiest honky-tonk.

    comment Comment
    06/27/08
    Stephen Holden
    Stephen Holden
    New York Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    This cloying comedy is barely enlivened by its talented stars who both deserve much better.

    Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
    06/27/08
    Pete Hammond
    Pete Hammond
    Hollywood.com
     
     
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