Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

contractmowing watched in B&B because it was there. OK, lots of stars cast, surprised by that. OK story line, Ray was OK not great. Gene was better. Glad I didn't pay for it but for free...worth it. Wife slept through it but I stayed with it and could make out a reasonable plot. Highly unrealistic but hey, it's movie time.

FlushingCaps This film is reasonably pleasant to view in that the characters were mostly likable and there wasn't cursing or sex scenes thrown in just to draw an "R" rating. In fact, the closest to a sex scene at all was showing two people kissing which stands out since a large portion of this film was about the romantic lives of the leading characters.But the above is about all the positives I can report except that there were some chuckles along the way. The plot deals with a former U.S. president, now divorced, having lost his residence to the ex-wife, deciding to move into his vacation house in the town of Mooseport, Maine. As soon as he moves in, the town leaders practically beg him to run for town mayor, telling him the deadline for filing is tomorrow and he'll be running unopposed. The ex-president, Monroe "Eagle" Cole, played by Gene Hackman, decides to run. Almost as soon as he does this, he learns that at the last minute, the town's hardware store owner and plumber, Handy Harrison (Ray Romano), has also filed. He goes to talk to Handy and the handyman readily agrees to pull out. But on seeing Handy's girlfriend, Sally, the Eagle decides to ask her out. Because she just had a spat with Handy, she agrees. So Handy stays in the race, opposing "the most popular former president in history."The candidates have a debate, which was shortened to three questions due to Handy running out after Sally after he embarrassed her by mentioning private things during the debate. Cole gave a populist answer to the first question from a citizen, and Handy said that he agreed. Cole gave a well-received but impractical answer to the second question, while Handy spoke to the person causing the problem with what was supposed to be a practical solution, although the logic of this failed.The third question came from a pretty young woman, who bluntly asked, "Now that the president is dating your girlfriend, does that mean you're available?" Handy winds up chasing Sally out of the hall and the debate is over. Later we hear that, somehow, Handy won the debate handily.The two decide to play a round of golf, with the winner getting to date Sally. Thanks to his ex-wife, who has shown up in town campaigning for Handy, Monroe learns that his golf game isn't nearly as good as he thinks, that Secret Servicemen have been lining the woods and throwing all of his errant shots back onto the fairway, using substitute balls. The ex-wife prevents this from happening in this round, leaving him woefully behind Handy. Only by getting Handy to make a sucker bet on an old trick on the last hole does the Eagle win the golf game. The Eagle has throughout the film two assistants, Grace, a young female who seems to be more of a detriment than an aide, and Bullard, played by Fred Savage, who is your stereotypical yes man who annoys the Eagle so much that he is often told to move out of his line of vision. He doesn't have to leave the room, just get away so the Eagle doesn't have to see him. Halfway through, Rip Torn is brought in as a political adviser as well.The election is close, but the real ending involves marriage proposals, from Handy to Sally AND from Monroe to his assistant Grace who has suddenly resigned from his staff, and everyone is happy again in Mooseport.My problems with the film are basic: It lacked laughs. For a comedy, this is essential. Almost nothing I didn't describe above was funny at all. The characters who live in the town are all stereotypes—Handy is such a rube that he doesn't even wear a suit to the televised debate, just his Ray Barone white T-shirt showing through his unbuttoned plaid button-down shirt. I didn't mention the town leader who kept yelling that the idea for Monroe to run for mayor was his idea, or the old man who ran through the streets as a streaker, wearing nothing but socks and shoes but who was accepted and liked by all. Just the fact that Monroe's longtime assistant, a woman about half his age, was in love with him all the time, is another stereotype. What really didn't make any sense to me was the relationship between Handy and Sally. People in their 40s, with no kids or divorce concerns in this century rarely date for 6 years without moving in together—with or without the benefit of marriage, unless one or both of them still wants to date other people. Handy's disinterest in talking about this is what made Sally mad at him, yet she seemed incapable of even discussing it with him. Was she never going to be grown-up enough to bring up the subject herself. Handy seemed oblivious to her frustrations, totally unaware why she was annoyed with him, yet she never seemed able to speak to him at all about, "Where do you see our relationship going?" This couple both earned good livings. There was no reason not to tie the knot. If you want to say they were afraid of "commitment" then there was no reason not to move in together. (For those who want to argue on moral grounds or religious training, nothing was mentioned about anyone in this film ever having any religious thoughts at all, nor any standards decrying sex without being married.)As a movie viewer, I can forgive unrealistic actions, but cannot forgive unfunny scripts. If you combine all the chuckles—there were no loud laughs at all—into a half-hour sitcom you would have had, maybe a 6 out of 10. I feel generous in giving this a 4.

spacefoo As an avid fan of the genius that is Everybody Loves Raymond, i went in to this movie with a degree of optimism- and was dramatically let down.The worst thing is the character Ray Romano plays in this movie 'Handy,' well they might as well of called him Ray Barone because he is exactly the same character as he is in his famous sitcom only a plumber without kids and a wife. Good thing right? WRONG...he plays a hapless oblivious bumbling idiot, which instead of bringing out a lovable aspect,you cringe at how a this guy can be so infuriatingly simple.Probably most infuriatingly of all about his character is not his own doing, but his undying love toward the nightmare that is his girlfriend in this movie. What the heck does this guy see in this broad? I mean shes the nice ER girl don't get me wrong, but the things she does to him in this movie merits his leaving her immediately. Seriously, Ray sorry 'HAndy' turns up a little late from work so she gives him dogs abuse and he accepts it. She then happily while still supposedly going out with the ray guy starts dating the President. And she has the audacity to continue to stomp about like the bell of the ball and continue to give the ray guy dogs abuse for being quite forgivably bemused by her show of loyalty to the guy she was supposed to have been with for six years. Heck she even throws books stones underwear whatever household appliance landed on this poor dudes head. This brings us to the plot then we'll delve in to the disaster that was the stereotypical characters later. basically Andy (can i just call him Ray) is a kind, simple but happy small time guy who is the plumber of Mooseport, an obvious look at small-town America,a town in Maine. The movie starts off with literally everybody going 'Hi Handy' everybody loves....Handy? familiar pattern huh, anyway jam packed full of pointless gags later, we meet Gene Hackman acting as the popular ex-president. He is forced to run for mayor of Mooseport or whatever this place is called, to improve his finances after a messy divorce we're led to believe, and so needs to get his PR ship shape. Then Ray's girlfriend the pretty ER girl takes Gene's fancy and that convinces him. Ray is understandably miffed; yet the story takes the turn that basically Ray runs against Gene to win the girl. GAG ME. Most guys would look twice at the stunts his girl was pulling off and personally recommended the girl and the election to the rival. But Ray was determined. The rest of the movie follows the boring pattern of David morally triumphing over Goliath etc.Ray's character seemed more like the outtakes of his Ray Barone character, and his interaction with Hackman was about as spontaneous and funny as an episode of the Antiques Roadshow. Which is a tragedy considering how Hackman is one of the finest actors to grace the bigscreen in our lifetime. Yet he looked vacant in this role.And the ER girl seriously should have revised her role as she merited ridicule rather than a future gig in movie stardom. However Ray remained a small light of decency to this movie, he at times carried off the lovable simpleton well with his comic charisma which valiantly failed to turn which was a ridiculously bad script in to something watchable.You know the movie was off to a bad start when a random naked dude is running to start the movie, having no bearing on proceedings what some ever. Ray owns a pet Donkey which walks about the street; And we have the obvious nose 'gag' comparing Ray and the Donkey's nose- and that is about the extent of the intelligence to the humour. We even have gene Hackman say 'Unless Donkey's fly- i'm always going to be Mr. President...' wait for it, yup! guess what he sees when he looks out the window of his plane-no seriously- A donkey transported by a nearby helicopter. Thats what the film seemed like a bogged down relationship, election story with odd snippets of dreadful humour neither cynical, intelligent or goofy enough to be funny, it was just plain- turgid.To sum up i bought the movie in the supermarket for a couple of bucks, and that basically sums it up- its a bargain bin movie and a sad state of affairs for wonderful talent like Hackman. No doubt Ray as a great comic will find his niche, however on evidence of this movie he looked like a fish out of water without his wonderful co-cast from his Raymond sitcom.

denscul Gene Hackman proves that a good actor can still hold an audience in their seats until the credits roll. And this was done despite a bad script that tried to make him appear incredibly trite. This was the first time I had seen Ray Ramano, I don't have TV or cable where I live, so I exist on DVD's. My mother is a big fan of his from TV. I felt that he may be, like Seinfield a better comic than actor. I thought the only realistic character was played by an aging Rip Torn.Even a comedy requires some attachment to reality. But the plot is too detached from reality to succeed. This is not a Marx Brother's comedy.I was troubled from the start by the obvious distortion of logic that has a rather sophisticated man picking Mooseport as his place of retirement. Neither he, nor his caricature of a wife seem to be the type of people who would choose Mooseport.Then there was all the commotion about his arrival. Hadn't he arrived before? The hardest pill to swallow was running for Mayor because of a twinkle in the eye of the town's vet, who was pleasant enough for Romano's character, but the idea of her attracting a former President was not funny, but just silly. That's what really ruined the movie. I did enjoy the golf game. By the way, I've been to Maine, and I've never seen such beautiful weather. This movie was not made on location was it? In most small towns, if someone dies in office, someone is appointed or in some cases, the office remains unfilled until the next election.