- Overview
A young boy whose parents just divorced finds an unlikely friend and mentor in the misanthropic, bawdy, hedonistic, war veteran who lives next door.
- Release Date
09 October 2014
- DirectingTheodore Melfi
- Budget
$13,000,000.00
- Revenue
$54,837,234.00
- Stars
Videos
User Reviews
See moreKamurai
23 June 2021
Great watch, would watch again, and do recommend. Any movie that gets me to well up with tears is an automatic winner in my book. I always wanted to see Bill Murray play a grumpy old man, and this movie is a little more "About a Boy" than "Up!", but it's a good middle ground between the two. There is something wholesome, even when it's specifically not, about a kid being taught life lessons by someone. It's something special that I feel like I haven't see enough of, and I'd love to do myself. It's also interesting to see a coming of age story that doesn't revolve around the character coming of age and a romance. It is possible to grow up without focusing on sex, it's like a reverse Bechdel test. This is completely worth the watch, and the movie does a great job of embodying it's own message of being rough on the outside with goodness on the inside.
Peter McGinn
15 September 2022
i had watched this years ago, and upon watching it again recently, I was surprised to see that it features Melissa McCarthy. I must not have been as familiar with her special comedic skills then as I am now or I would have remembered. This is one of my favorite quiet films. It ends up as a feel good movie — one of those where a large group of people appreciate someone at the end. Like anything from the Alan King character in Memories of Me (at his funeral!) to the exceedingly less likable Al Pacino jerk in Scent of a Woman. I believe the Vin character would be less likable himself in the hands of many actors. I have been pleasantly surprised at Bill Murray’s acting curve since Saturday Night Live. He brings bits of himself into most roles, I think, but he is great at subtle gestures, tone of voice, pausing for effect, and other tools of acting. He reminds me of Mark Ryland, who also makes acting look easy. I actually feel sure that Murray’s totally improvised the final scene during the end credits where he waters a plant and everything else in his back yard. I like that the movie doesn’t take shallow, cheap shots at people like it could. Even the cheating, divorcing dad is given a more positive spin before we are done. The four main actors are terrific here, and the two child actors who play Oliver and the bully are great also. As a side note, I saw a statistical oddity on a certain review site name after a rotten vegetable (or fruit, depending upon who you ask), as this is the only movie I have looked up that has the exact same rating by both the critics and the audience (78). That sounds about right to me, too. And speaking of credits, I really need to try to stop wincing when I see The Weinsteins listed in the opening credits.
More Like This
All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane
Anthea is 25, single, hates her job – and all her friends are leaving Brisbane. Should she follow the herd to Sydney or London? Is there anything...
See moreLatter Days
Christian, a hunky, 20-something, West Hollywood party boy gets more than he bargains for when he tries to seduce Aaron, a sexually confused Mormon...
See moreDad Would Have a Fit
Szarka and Barbi, two 17 years old girl travel to Europe to find love and happiness. The vacation starts bad, they lose all their money, but they...
See moreThe Cuckoo
September of 1944, a few days before Finland went out of the Second World War. A chained to a rock Finnish sniper-kamikadze Veikko managed to set...
See moreThe Terminal
Viktor Navorski is a man without a country; his plane took off just as a coup d'etat exploded in his homeland, leaving it in shambles, and now he's...
See moreWhen Harry Met Sally...
During their travel from Chicago to New York, Harry and Sally debate whether or not sex ruins a friendship between a man and a woman. Eleven years...
See moreBilly Elliot
County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with...
See moreItalian for Beginners
Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of...
See moreThunderbolt and Lightfoot
With the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organise a daring new heist.
See moreBeyond the Sea
Whilst still grieving the loss of a close loved one, Michael (Harry Murdoch) finds that his new friend, Lisa (Jenny Smith) has a past so...
See moreWomen on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Pepa resolves to kill herself with a batch of sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho after her lover leaves her. Fortunately, she is interrupted by a...
See moreThe Married Couple of the Year Two
Nicolas Philibert goes to America after killing a French aristocrat. On his return he tries to divorce his wife, Charlotte, but when he sees others...
See moreCartoon Network Christmas: Yuletide Follies
Ring in the holiday season the Cartoon Network way via nine original tales that run the gamut from naughty to nice. The stories feature popular...
See moreSecret × Heroine Phantomirage! ~We've Become a Movie~
They'll take back your uncool heart to protect peace! One day cool director Piyoshi Kurosawa offers Phantomirage a sparkling big role! That's...
See moreThe Bucket List
Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a...
See moreOur Folks
Two quarreling peasant families, who were forced to leave their lands after the war, are settled by accident on two neighboring farms.
See moreThe Private Lives of Pippa Lee
After her much older husband forces a move to a suburban retirement community, Pippa Lee engages in a period of reflection and finds herself...
See moreMy Best Friend
Catherine refuses to believe that her business partner, the unlikeable François, has a best friend, so she challenges him to set up an introduction...
See moreThe Station Agent
When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and...
See moreMomo
Momo is a young orphan girl who lives in the ruins of an old Roman amphitheater and becomes friends with everybody in the neighborhood. But when a...
See more