Steineded How sad is this?

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Jay Raskin I'm generally not a fan of Robert Downey Senior's movies. His characters tend to be cartoons and his episodic style means that we seem to be watching a series of "Saturday Night" comedy sketches. "Hugo Pool" has enough great actors in it that all the usual faults are turned into virtues. It also has a sweetness and heart that I haven't seen in any other Downey film.The film is dedicated to Downey's wife and co-writer Laura Ernst. She died of the same terrible disease that the character played by Patrick Dempsey has. It is amazing how Downey shows the disease, but never lets us get sentimental over it or be afraid of it. It is just one more comic element in the film. I hope Laura coped with it as well as Patrick Dempsey's character does.The stand out performance here is by Malcolm McDowell. His portrayal of an old drug addict trying to kick the "Ding, Dang, Du" is charming and funny and sad all at once. The only unfortunate thing is that he's only on screen for about 20 minutes.I think the harsher criticisms of this film are by people who expected a more realistic, integrated film. If you willing to give Downey his quirky style, this film is sweet and delightful.

JustApt Intentionally stupid dialogues remain stupid anyway, purposefully idiotic plot is idiotic all the same and deliberately foolish heroes stay fools all the way through. For an hour and a half we see not a single motivated action and very little of any unmotivated action too. The only credible personage is one played by somewhat balmy Sean Penn. An apotheosis of bad taste comes when a paralytic wants to take a leak, so poppa and momma prop him up while Hugo Dugay is rummaging for his pissing gimmick. Mercifully we're saved from seeing his penis but are forced to hear horrible comments about his urination anyway. Alyssa Milano, Sean Penn, Malcolm McDowell, Robert Downey Jr - what a waste of talent.

Tito-8 Parts of this film were absolutely great, and that makes it all the more difficult to accept the fact that the movie as a whole wasn't very good. The best parts of the movie involve the relationship between Milano and Dempsey. Both give wonderful performances, and the story should have focused entirely on these two characters. Unfortunately, much of the screen time is occupied by characters who aren't the least bit entertaining. In particular, the McDowell-Penn scenes, and every single second with Downey are just plain bad. Quite simply, when this film tries to be more serious, or even just somewhat realistic, it's very good. But more often than not, it opts for stupidity and is generally pointless.

JohnD47 There are a number of memorable acting turns, some more than obvious self-reflective references to addictions (of all types), and a too-pat hand of predictability to move this film beyond a 6 for me. The performances almost rise above the plot restrictions (or lack of restrictions)....an interesting contrast is Robert Altman's "Cookie's Fortune" which I saw two days later which used the characters' idiosyncrasies to move a plot.