patjohnson76's Movie Reviews (400)

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The Big Year 
Not as bad as was suggested
2.5/4 stars

It's hard to write a bad review of this movie, mainly because it's clear a great deal of time was spent developing the story and characters in this film. Competitive bird watching is given the film treatment as Black, Martin, and Wilson all compete to try and see the most birds in one year. Each are facing their own difficulties and through their "big year" come to terms with what they've been running away from their entire life.

The biggest problem with this film is that the studio decided to try and push it as a comedy, when there's not much humor here, which is probably why the film wasn't successful. This film is a straight up drama with some humorous moments. Quite honestly, Jack Black has never been more tolerable as he's allowed to develop a character instead of doing stupid things in his tighty-whities. Steve Martin excels at subtlety and continues to do so here, and Wilson is well-cast as the film's "villain." I can't say I'll watch it again, but the film does it's best to serve it's characters well and as long as you approach it as the drama that it is, you can probably walk away with a small appreciation for it.

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