Stiller should get an Oscar for his performance as Fineman and that's no joke. This is a role of a lifetime and Stiller relishes the opportunity.
Comment
08/16/08
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The Independent (2001)
60
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:48
Fresh:29
Rotten:19
Average Rating:6/10
Theatrical Release:Nov 30, 2001 Limited
Synopsis: Morty Fineman (Jerry Stiller) is an independent schlock film producer-star-director with a problem. He's broke, and he can't finance his new film about a singing serial killer. The bank offers to... [More]
Starring: Jerry Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, Andy Dick
Director: Stephen Kessler
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Reviews for The Independent
Despite laughs, the movie only sporadically works.
05/02/02
If you're a tongue-in-cheek fan of bimbo-driven B-movies, The Independent should tickle your funny bone.
04/19/02
Hollywood loves to satirize itself, wanting to reassure us it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The Independent is worlds away from The Player (1992), but it’s still one joke hammered over and over, hitting more often than missing.
07/05/02
Jokes and clips pull The Independent together.
12/21/01
Most of what we see on the screen has been done before -- many times before, and many times better.
01/29/02
Even with its over-the-top spirit, The Independent's sense of spoof quickly goes flat.
03/01/02
The final and best joke of the film might be that a movie ostensibly spoofing a blowhard of an untalented hulk of a filmmaker is itself the product of the same.
04/07/02
A mockumentary that is as endearing as it is silly.
04/26/02
Top CriticIt's cute and amiable, maybe easier to cherish if you don't recall Russ Meyer or Matinee or Ed Wood.
05/03/02
The genius of the This Is Spinal Tap team becomes even more apparent with each failed imitation, of which The Independent is the umpteenth.
11/30/01
Top CriticSo good-natured, its humor so loopy, and Fineman so charismatic in his crass way, that few film buffs will be able to resist its absurd charms.
04/26/02
This one is cute, and full of amusing cameos but when the clips of Morty's films end, so do the laughs.
01/24/02
The first half of the film is dead-on brilliant.
01/31/02
It's all a spoof, of course, expertly done in a loose-jointed, semideadpan style.
11/29/01
Top CriticLots of satirical hilarity and characters one grows fond of, and it ultimately touches on truths about the hucksterism at the heart of showbiz.
12/07/01
Top CriticA parody of exploitation films that fails largely because the movie itself is as unpolished as the ones it sends up.
10/29/01
The press kit for the B-movie mockumentary The Independent is hilarious, sidesplitting, and leaps and bounds funnier than the awful film that the kit promotes.
03/29/02
A lot of fun, thanks in no small part to the wonderfully over the top performance of Jerry Stiller
09/10/02
All in all, it's a good omen for Kessler's future career.
04/15/02
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