Average Rating: 6.1/10
Reviews Counted: 44
Fresh: 29 | Rotten: 15
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 50,816
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Four recent graduates discover how difficult it is to find a decent job and true love after college.
Jun 1, 1993 Wide
Jul 21, 1998
MCA Universal Home Video
All Critics (44) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (30) | Rotten (16) | DVD (18)
Although it never became the definitive document of Generation X, Reality Bites is a touchstone for anyone just out of college and stuck with more ideals than job prospects, not to mention a head full of bad-TV trivia.
In 1994, the novelty of seeing a romantic comedy written and directed by, as well as starring, people in their early 20s made for a certain freshness, but after a point this 'youthfulness' consists of little more than TV references.
Reality Bites begins as a promising and eccentric tale of contemporary youth but evolves into a banal love story as predictable as any lush Hollywood affair.
Like the generation it presents so appealingly, it doesn't see any point in getting all bent out of shape and overambitious. But it knows how to hang out and have a great time.
What unwritten law prevented the makers of Reality Bites from observing that their heroine can't shoot video worth a damn, that their hero is a jerk, and that their villain is the most interesting person in the movie?
Beneath a thin veneer of style lie buried all the old cliches and formulas of typical romantic comedies.
Comedy about 20-something slackers isn't for kids.
Remember Gen X? This is why you forgot it.
A surprisingly sweet romantic comedy debut from Ben Stiller.
A romantic heart, caustic wit, and the energy of its fresh cast ensure the film's continued appeal.
It's often genuinely funny -- but it's still an establishment picture pretending it's not.
Ben Stiller's feature directorial debut is a zeitgeust comedy, whose significance is more sociological than cinematic--It's "The Big Chill" for the twentysomething crowd in the Age of Clinton and AIDS.
Gen Xers looking for a good time probably found themselves cheated at having been pigeonholed like this and watching the film's fun, ironic beginning give way to goopy pathos.
There's probably a moderate little romantic comedy crying to get out here, but the film's vain striving for casual hip proves suffocatingly obtrusive.
insightful and engaging
Intensely likeable
This movie bites. Ben Stiller should stick to acting.
Few films from the 90s portrayed the generation grunge and captured the spirit of that time as spot on as this and "Singles". Even today's kids should easily relate to the group of early Twens who dunno where to go with their lives after graduating from college. Their money, love and job issues are the center of
June 14, 2006Super Reviewer
Ben Stiller's first directing job. This drama/comedy about becoming an adult in/after college is really good. I saw it a while ago, but I remember it was good.
September 6, 2010Super Reviewer
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Red Tails, This Means War
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