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Here on Earth (2000)
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:2
Rotten:19
Average Rating:3.3/10
Consensus: Critics say Here on Earth's weakness comes from its script. The story may appeal to young teenage girls, but it suffers from being overly sentimental and formulaic. The cinematography, however, is lovely in how it captures its Minnesota setting.
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis:
The lives of three young people -- a rich student, a girl from the "wrong side of the tracks" and her boyfriend -- unexpectedly intersect during one fateful summer in the romantic drama Here on...
The lives of three young people -- a rich student, a girl from the "wrong side of the tracks" and her boyfriend -- unexpectedly intersect during one fateful summer in the romantic drama Here on Earth.
Kelley Morse (Chris Klein), who is cocky and brash, normally would never have crossed paths with the residents of a small town near his posh private school. But when he takes his shiny new Mercedes out for a drive, he locks horns with some of the locals, including Jasper (Josh Hartnett). As Jasper's willful girlfriend Samantha (Leelee Sobieski) looks on, Kelley and Jasper engage in a dangerous car race that turns disastrous, leaving a popular diner owned by Samantha's mother in ruins.
Kelley and Jasper are sentenced to a creatively ironic but fitting punishment: They must help rebuild the diner. Not only does this ruin Kelley's summer plans, he also must board at the home of his rival, Jasper. Kelley begins to fulfill his "sentence," but refuses to have anything to do with Jasper and his parents.
When Kelley again encounters Samantha, the attraction is immediate and strong. First love blossoms in the Berkshire woods ("a little bit of heaven, here on earth," Samantha calls the pastoral setting) -- angering Jasper, who has known Samantha practically his entire life. These new feelings and the romantic triangle that develops are only the beginning of a new journey for Kelley, Samantha and Jasper, as they ultimately make life-changing discoveries about themselves and each other.
Starring: Chris Klein, Leelee Sobieski, Josh Hartnett, Bruce Greenwood
Starring: Chris Klein, Leelee Sobieski, Josh Hartnett, Bruce Greenwood, Annette O'Toole, Michael Rooker, Annie Corley, Stuart Wilson
Director: Mark Piznarski
Director: Mark Piznarski
Screenwriter: Michael Seitzman
Producer: David T. Friendly
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Reviews for Here on Earth
Staring thoughtfully into the middle distance, Ms. Sobieski looks as if she is already contemplating better scripts.
While the positive aspects of not being a 14-year-old girl definitely beat the negative, there would be one short-term asset: It would probably make it a whole lot easier to appreciate Here On Earth.
If you haven't seen Klein's charming dodo-head athlete in Election or Sobieski's sympathetic hooker in Eyes Wide Shut, you won't know just how ignominiously both have fallen in Here on Earth.
Three appealing performers are lumbered with material that doesn't measure up to them in Here on Earth.
Here on Earth hungers for the nostalgia of an Elia Kazan-style farmbelt romantic tragedy à la East of Eden, but the end result is more akin to a soggy Troy Donahue-Sandra Dee weeper.
Makes the similarly themed Love Story seem positively sophisticated by comparison.
A film that wants to be both simultaneously slick and tender and misses both by a country mile.
Here on Earth distinguishes itself by not taking the easy way out: It's not about sex.
Here on Earth does what it can to flatten the ascending careers of its attractive leads, yet Chris Klein and Leelee Sobieski probably will live to see another big-screen day.
Here on Earth is so very general in its characters and story that it actively keeps you from enjoying the simple pleasures of a movie like this, even with your sights set low.
Here on Earth slides too easily into its sentimentality; the characters should have put up more of a struggle.
For a movie about the ferocity of first love, it seems curiously pallid and passionless.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 15% 15% | The Ugly Truth |
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 45% 45% | Shorts |
| 53% 53% | David & Layla |
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