Theodore Keating
I was attracted to this movie by Tony Shalhoub, (from "Monk"), who does a great job with his character's Russian accent. He plays an immigrant janitor who befriends a parrot who used to belong to a little girl. At first the parrot's lines are a little irritating, but the extended flashback is interesting, although inevitably without Shalhoub. The little girl's speech impediment ties in nicely with the janitor's troubles with English, and even the parrot's desire not to talk, even though he can. Overall it's a pretty decent film, especially if you need one with a language theme. And there's even a New Jersey joke. I suppose that the most disappointing thing is that Shalhoub ends up being a supporting character, but the succession of supporting characters that the parrot meets are some compensation, and Tony makes the moments that he does get, count. (8/10)
Jackson Booth-Millard
I knew it was about a talking parrot, but that's about it, and truly, that's all it is. So Paulie (Small Soldiers' Jay Mohr) is the intelligent parrot (a Blue-crowned Parakeet/Conure to exact) has learnt to talk extremely well, and actually have a personality. So in the film, he is given as a gift to little Marie Alweather (Hallie Kate Eisenberg), but then he is taken away by her father Warren (Matt Craven) when she believes he can talk more just a couple of words. So the rest of the film sees Paulie have some mini adventures with a pawn shop owner, an old widow, a Mexican-American guy and a thief. That's all I can say really. Starring The Notebook's Gena Rowlands as Ivy, Men in Black's Tony Shalhoub as Misha Vilyenkov, Richard 'Cheech' Marin as Ignacio, Bruce Davison as Dr. Reingold, Mohr as Benny, Trini Alvarado as Adult Marie, Buddy Hackett as Artie and Bill Cobbs as Virgil the Janitor. To be honest, this is only a good film to see a parrot talking, and obviously some quite naughty things, the kids will approve, but the older viewer might not care about all going on. It won the BAFTA Children's Award for Best Children's Feature Film. Okay!
livanov
Made me wish my own happy birds could talk. Tisk tisk on the reviewer who dissed the movie. A sweet story that people of all ages will enjoy. Paulie is a lovable little treasure. He has quite a few clever lines that truly made me laugh. I especially loved the dance sequences during his showbiz stint. You can forgive the obvious clichés as you cheer him on in his quest to be reunited with Marie. A charming movie featuring two strong characters who genuinely befriend the little parrot separated from his young owner. Would have liked to have seen more of the woman who becomes blind and must abandon their mutual journey. I liked her artistic and poetic inspirations, a shame she could not share Paulie's reunion. Bless Paulie in his new home, at last with Marie, perhaps joined by the nice young man who helped him defeat the antagonists to complete his journey.
Southmark
Something about "Paulie" touched my heart as few movies do. It is a witty, funny yet emotional movie. I'm a late comer in becoming a fan of this movie. I didn't see "Paulie" until May, 2004 and have since ordered the Widescreen DVD from a seller at eBay.The special effects of showing Paulie talking are superb. My son asked me how the bird knew so many phrases.Probably my favorite part of the movie is when Paulie is in Gena Rowlands (Ivy's) company followed by Cheech Marin (Ignacio). Tony Shalhoub (Misha) plays an excellent part as the good hearted human. You root for him all the way through the movie.You can't go wrong renting or buying this movie!!
AD
