The screenplay is so bad that a standing army couldn't defeat it. It's the Doomsday Machine of screenplays -- and it's not helped by Bruno Barreto's incredibly flaccid direction.
View from the Top (2003)
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Reviews Counted:122
Fresh:17
Rotten:105
Average Rating:3.7/10
Consensus: Uneven in tone and badly edited, A View From the Top wastes the talents of its cast and condescends to its characters.
Theatrical Release:Mar 21, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $15,512,221
Synopsis: This breezy comedy from director Bruno Barreto (FOUR DAYS IN SEPTEMBER) stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Donna, a young woman who dreams of escape from her rural Nevada home town. Her life changes when she... This breezy comedy from director Bruno Barreto (FOUR DAYS IN SEPTEMBER) stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Donna, a young woman who dreams of escape from her rural Nevada home town. Her life changes when she sees Sally Weston (Candice Bergen) on TV talking about her book, "My Life in the Sky," and her fabulous career traveling the world as a flight attendant. Soon, the plucky Donna has a job at a small Nevada airline that caters to gamblers and drunks and, along with fellow trainees Sherry (Kelly Preston) and Christine (Christina Applegate), dreams of working the international routes on a large airline. That opportunity arises when Royalty Airlines holds a job fair where the girls are drilled by Mike Myers' hilarious former airline attendant, John Whitney. Soon, Donna and Christine find themselves in training at Royalty's home base with the manic Whitney where the ambitious Donna makes it clear that she's headed for the international routes by acing all of Whitney's tests. However, Donna finds that success doesn't come without its pitfalls when she ends up stationed in Cleveland where she strikes up a romance while still dreaming about jetting around Europe as a first class flight attendant. [More]
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Candice Bergen, Kelly Preston
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Candice Bergen, Kelly Preston, Rob Lowe, Mark Ruffalo, Mike Myers
Director: Bruno Barreto
Director: Bruno Barreto
Screenwriter: Eric Wald
Producer: Brad Grey, Matthew Baer, Bobby Cohen
Studio: Miramax Films
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Release:
Sep 9, 2003
Reviews for View from the Top
It’s understandable why it sat on the shelf for almost two years. What I can’t comprehend is why it didn’t stay there.
It would be almost likeable if it weren't for the contradictions that rip the guts out of the set-up.
Clearly a love letter to Paltrow, offering her plenty of moments to show off, but her acting is often flat and the self-adoration of the movie is almost too much to handle.
Though it does not exactly have wings, View from the Top might be worth a viewing -- particularly when it's next to Sweet Home Alabama on the video rack.
Eventually, the exhaust roar of condescending affirmation drowns all else out.
Such a godawful mess that you honestly can't tell if it was meant to be a comedy or not.
View From the Top is one of those misguided movies that mistakes wackiness for depth.
Quite empty with hardly any laughs, a terribly cliched romance subplot, and just plain nothing going on.
...as tasty as two-day old stale airline cuisine and just as imaginative...this fuel-injected ruse leaves its inherent frothy perkiness on the runway...this particular plane trip is missing its creative turbulence.
"View from the Top" stays stranded on the runway, denied takeoff. It's got all the appeal of a bag of stale peanuts.
If this is the View From the Top, I'd hate to see the View From the Bottom.
Stinks like it was made by rank amateurs, and particularly incompetent ones, at that.
The cast's talents alone can't save the film from its awkward tonal shift and a story that feels out of sync with the modern era that it's set in.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 90% 90% | District 9 |
| 86% 86% | 500 Days of Summer |
| 63% 63% | Extract |
| 06% 06% | All About Steve |
| 78% 78% | It Might Get Loud |
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