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Movies / On DVD / Finding Amanda
Finding Amanda

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Finding Amanda (2008)

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Reviews Counted:40

Fresh:17

Rotten:23

Average Rating:5.2/10

Consensus: Despite a charming turn by Matthew Broderick, Finding Amanda is too flimsily executed to succeed as a dark comedy.

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: From director Peter Tolan, creator of the hit television series Rescue Me, comes Finding Amanda, a hilarious and heartbreaking autobiographical comedy about the compulsions we can’t shake, and the... From director Peter Tolan, creator of the hit television series Rescue Me, comes Finding Amanda, a hilarious and heartbreaking autobiographical comedy about the compulsions we can’t shake, and the unlikely lengths we’ll go to while trying.

Taylor Mendon (Matthew Broderick) is a television writer and producer working on a low-rated, little-respected half-hour sitcom. Once destined for bigger and better things, Taylor's compulsive gambling, recreational drug use and drinking all conspired to throw his career off the rails. After kicking the alcohol and drugs, he only has one more hurdle...the horses.

His beautiful twenty - year old niece Amanda (Brittany Snow) has her own habit to kick. Living in Las Vegas, working as a "dancer," her family has just discovered she is actually a prostitute, and they suspect hooking for drug money.

On their way home from an emergency family meeting, Taylor's wife Lorraine (Maura Tierney) finds recent racing stubs in Taylor's glove compartment. After years of standing by him, she leaves.

Taylor comes up with a plan: he'll win back his wife by doing the right thing. He'll go to Las Vegas, find Amanda, and deliver her to a rehabilitation center in Malibu. While he’s at it, he might even catch up with some old friends (like slimy casino host Steve Coogan). But besides that, it’s strictly the business at hand—while he's there, he vows, he won't gamble a single cent, but things don’t turn out quite as he’d planned. --© Magnolia Films
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Starring: Matthew Broderick, Brittany Snow, Maura Tierney, Peter Facinelli

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Brittany Snow, Maura Tierney, Peter Facinelli, Steve Coogan, Bill Fagerbakke

Director: Peter Tolan

Director: Peter Tolan
Screenwriter: Peter Tolan
Producer: Wayne Rice, Richard Heller
Composer: Christopher Tyng
Studio: Mitropoulos Films

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Reviews for Finding Amanda

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
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Offers up some zinger lines in the trenches of Sin City but fails to live up to its ingenious concept.

Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
10/18/08
David D'Arcy
David D'Arcy
Screen International

A very darkly humorous film.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
10/18/08
John Anderson
John Anderson
Newsday

This unromantic comedy is something less than a sure bet. For some reason, you get the impression that it doesn't live up to the promise of its premise.

Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment 1 Comment
07/04/08
Jules Brenner
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals

Doesn't have a nuance in it, but it's pretty consistently amusing in its latter-day Woody Allen way. For most of the way, its morals are happily, believably wrong, but all bad things must come to an end.

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
06/27/08
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

... they should've renamed this one Finding the Right Tone.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
05/15/08
Erik Davis
Erik Davis
Cinematical

A fun look at Vegas that imbues the seediness of the setting with a sense of innocence and warmth that might take some by surprise.

Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | comment Comment
06/24/08
Edward Douglas
Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

A peculiar film, which is really two films fighting to occupy the same space.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
06/27/08
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Too much of Peter Tolan's movie takes up Taylor's self-absorption as if it's actually interesting.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
06/27/08
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

This cloying comedy is barely enlivened by its talented stars who both deserve much better.

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
06/27/08
Pete Hammond
Pete Hammond
Hollywood.com

Set mostly in Las Vegas, Finding Amanda offers a vision of confused Americans losing their already shaky bearings in the world’s gaudiest honky-tonk.

comment Comment
06/27/08
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Finding Amanda has its wispy charms, including a funny scene when the ecstasy Taylor pops begins to kick in, and later when he encounters a pimp with showbiz aspirations.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
06/26/08
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post

Offers a steady supply of clever lines but suffers from the patina of self-loathing common to industry lifers and the unfortunate miscasting of straight-arrow Broderick as a depressed, cynical hack.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/09/08
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

Spot-on casting of Brittany Snow in the title role makes the fun movie with a serious turn both entertaining and credible.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
06/10/08
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

Opening with a scene from a bad sitcom that turns out to be indistinguishable from the rest of the movie, Finding Amanda limps before it’s even out of the gate.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
06/26/08
Joshua Land
Joshua Land
Time Out New York

Finding Amanda has some of the good and a lot of the bad aspects of a first film written and directed by the same person.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
06/27/08
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle

Much of Finding Amanda doesn't stand up to close scrutiny, but at its best the still-boyish Broderick suggests his most famous character, Ferris Bueller, going through a midlife crisis.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
06/27/08
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post

This vulgar film, replete with vile language and graphic descriptions of sex acts, degrades our culture. Even George Carlin might find it offensive.

Full Review Source: tonymedley.com | comment 1 Comment
07/03/08
Tony Medley
Tony Medley
tonymedley.com

Whether talking about being hooked on pot or just plain hooking, the movie despite, well, its potpourri of addictions, sticks to surfaces. Not to mention that a darker tone for this rehab redemption fare, might have been just the cure.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment Comment
06/17/08
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze

The familiar premise here has sharp fangs, unsparing wit and a knockout performance by Brittany Snow as the round-heeled 20-year-old.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
06/27/08
Amy Nicholson
Amy Nicholson
Boxoffice Magazine

Hopelessly uneven yet admittedly entertaining...

Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
10/06/08
David Nusair
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews
 
 
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Latest News for Finding Amanda

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