20 Dates Review
by Frankie Paiva (swpstke AT aol DOT com)October 3rd, 1999
20 Dates (R) * 1/2
Starring Myles Berkowitz, Elizabeth Wagner
Directed by Myles Berkowitz
A Review by Frankie Paiva
There are so many people that live their lives wanting to become a filmmaker or do something in the film related business. Every year they enter our nation's film schools with the high hopes that they too may one day make a movie that will be loved and adored by millions, then make a billion dollars, earn themselves a lifelong career, and start dating a supermodel. But seriously, how often does this type of thing really happen? 20 Dates is supposed to be a movie about a guy that goes on twenty different dates in LA and secretly films them to show what real life dating is like. However, I actually found the film to be much more of the man's quest to make his first ever Hollywood movie.
Myles Berkowitz is an aspiring filmmaker who's come up with a brilliant idea. He's going to film 20 dates with 20 different women to see what dating and love is really like, instead of what we are usually shown in the movies. His first problem is funding, on what are supposedly secretly taped conversations Myles and Elie Samaha, who's forking over the $60,000 to make the picture will only do it if he can hire actresses to go out with him. Myles sees this as trying to kill his artistic vision, but he's the producer so sooner or later he will have to agree.
As the film (and a restraining order from a woman who didn't want to be filmed) go by Elie wants more nudity and more sex in the film and refuses to fund it unless Tia Carrere is in the picture. This troubles Myles because he's just met, Elizabeth, he's crazy for her and she seems to be marraige material. So Myles faces a choice, should he finish the dates and start his movie career, or should he stay with possibly the only woman that he will ever truly love? Yawn...
For trying to be edgy and interesting, and being unlike regular love stories, this film certainly is what's it's trying not to be. None of the dates Myles takes out are all that interesting and as for Myles himself, he's so god dang self-involved that I hated him at about the 10 minute point. An interesting concept with a bad result, 20 Dates gets * 1/2 stars.
The Young-Uns: Strong language, brief images of strippers in strip clubs, and lots of talk about putting sex and nudity into the picture make up the most worrysome content. Good Age: 14 & Up
A Review by Frankie Paiva
The 12 Year-Old Movie Reviewer
E-Mail me at [email protected]
Visit my website at http://expage.com/page/teenagemoviecritic
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
