John Holden
It's about on the level of "Pat Boone talks to Teens about S-E-X" and "Tough Guys Find God".There was a story here. A tranche of Providence Italianosity. But those bits are just filler for the real story which is, I don't know, "Jesus Saves".Imagine a Catholic Woody Allen making his 1st HS film. He shows some family interaction (pretty good), then characters find a way to talk about whether or not god exists and question their own existences; introduce a sub-plot about the family store being sold (this is OK), then characters find a way to talk about whether or not god exists and question their own existences; the once ugly female lead is now a babe, then characters find a way to talk about whether or not god exists and question their own existences; keep repeating.The script is so contrived that it hurts your teeth; the characters and actors are bland; the story is right out of "Ministers talk to young people about STDs". Touchstone sucks and it's way better than this pap.It's awful and really should be a 1 or 0.
Slug-3
This is a real disappointment for a film with such a fine cast. Despite the attempt to promote religious tolerance, understanding and disapproval of religious pretentiousness, it still comes across as an attempt to promote Anglo-American Christianity by using skeptics, who are, of course, presented as somewhat immoral characters.The film seems to be promoting a message that says "It's okay to accept others who are different then you, but only as long as they're devout, Anglo-American Christians", which, I suppose, is okay if you want to show the film in an Anglo-American church, but besides being somewhat pretentious, it's also just a boring subject.If I could re-write the script, I would re-write it so that the point it makes is that Christians aren't good people because they're Christians, but rather that good people are Christians because they're good people. This point seems to get lost in this film.
Jay Harris
I just saw this little charmer under the title of WELCOME BACK MISS MARY on Showtime ON DEMAND, I just wanted to kill some time & watch anything before my main film tonight.This was a nice surprise, with basically a little or no name cast, this is a very well thought out screenplay, The author seemed to hit all the right notes, in what could have been a sloppy cliché ridden script. OH yes there still are clichés, but handled deftly, the acting is a pure delight by all the large cast. I know I want to see some of these actors again.Next I have to look this film up to see when & if it was a theatre release, & when it will be on Showtime again, as I will want to record & keep this one.Rating *** (out of 4) 88 points (out of 100) IMDb 8 (out of 10)
bedfords
I laughed and was inspired as I watched this sensitive portrayal of a complex relationship between Joey, a young Roman Catholic, and a born-again young lady named Mary. The central characters were complex, not the one-dimensional types often seen in this kind of story. (I am tired of seeing born-again Christians portrayed as either "holier-than-thou" or hypocrites.) Additional characters were somewhat zany and made this a really funny movie to watch. I especially enjoyed the contrast between the two families, although they were too stereotypical. The most appealing feature of the movie is the development of the dynamic relationship between Joey and Mary and also the growth of Joey's character. The script was written by Vincent Pagano, the actor who played Joey, and I would like to see more from him.
AD
