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Fired!

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Fired! (2007)

44%
50%
100%
N/A
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N/A
44 %
Reviews Counted: 27 Fresh: 12  Rotten:15 Average Rating: 5.2/10
 
Consensus: This well-intentioned documentary is too broad in its subjects to have any sort of cohesion.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 72 mins

Synopsis: If you spend any time at all in the workplace you’re going to get laid off, down-sized, let go, out-sourced, axed, terminated, canned, cancelled, dismissed…FIRED! When actress Annabelle Gurwitch was fired from a play by Woody Allen she wondered how she would cope with being fired by a... If you spend any time at all in the workplace you’re going to get laid off, down-sized, let go, out-sourced, axed, terminated, canned, cancelled, dismissed…FIRED!

When actress Annabelle Gurwitch was fired from a play by Woody Allen she wondered how she would cope with being fired by a cultural icon. Turning to friends in show business she was assured she was not alone. Once the subject had been broached, everyone she knew from her rabbi and gynecologists to her colleagues had advice and their own accounts of getting the boot to offer. This set her off on a journey to answer the question: was being fired going to be the best thing or worst thing that had happened in her working life.

Annabelle turned the wit and trauma of the “fired” experience into a book, which was recently published by Simon and Schuster. The book has received rave reviews and been featured on The Today Show, People Magazine, InStyle, CNN, NPR’s Talk of the Nation and widely praised. The Washington Post called it, “ a caustic but merry compendium of failure.” The New York Times said, “Fired proves that sometimes losing well is the best revenge.” The book has been number #1 on the New York Post Hot List and featured in Oprah’s Anticipation list.

As she was writing the book she became interested in the downsizings occurring all over the country. She began researching and traveling the country, interviewing people as diverse as Tim Allen, Sarah Silverman, Jeff Garlin, Anne Meara, David Cross and GM workers in Lansing, Michigan whose perspectives ranged from the tragically comedic to proving that old adage when one door closes another door opens, to the just plain tragic. Annabelle attended job fairs, received “outplacement services”, interviewed human resource directors, downsizers, and the downsized who were seeking new jobs.

Her journey took her to the office of Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under President Clinton, and to economist Ben Stein who spoke to her of the growing insecurity the American worker faces today and the incredible inequities being created through corporate and government policies affecting every working or as the case may be, not working American. Fired! reminds us that all great success come out of failure and being fired can be a part of the growth process, that humor helps, and that if you’re employed in America today your firing may be both the best and the worst thing that can happen in your working life. --© Official Site [More]

Genre: Comedies

Starring: Tim Allen, David Cross, Tate Donovan, Jeff Garlin, Sarah Silverman

Director: Chris Bradley, Kyle LeBrache
Screenwriter: Annabelle Gurwitch

DVD Info

Release:

Mar 5, 2008

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case
  • Full Frame - 1.33

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital - English

Additional Release Materials:

  • Featurettes - "Outtakes! More Stories of the Canned, Cancelled, Downsized And Dismissed"

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
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Ratings Image
2.5/5

Narcisisstic, un-empathetic, but stumbles into genuine entertainment at times despite that.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/14/07
Karina Montgomery
Cinerina
Ratings Image
2.5/4

...works best when Gurwitch is chatting with fellow celebrities...

Full Review | comment Comment
09/19/07
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews
Ratings Image
2/5

A mish-mash of insincere journalism and too-random anecdoting.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/14/07
David Cornelius
eFilmCritic.com
Ratings Image
2.5/5

luckily for Gurwitch you can't get fired from a direct-to-DVD release.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/14/07
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com
Ratings Image
72/100

Brings to mind Michael Moore, except not nearly as serious, rigorous, angry or focused.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/05/07
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
05/12/07
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ratings Image
N/A

It's a shame Allen fired her from that play. After all, then she might not have had the time to make this documentary.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/04/07
John Maynard
Washington Post
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2/4

As for her anticorporate muckraking, I can say only that I have watched Michael Moore and I have met Michael Moore, and Gurwitch is no Michael Moore.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/23/07
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
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2/5

Serious portions, in which Gurwitch appears far too often to be mugging and cracking wise, are intercut with dumb sketches.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/15/07
Lael Loewenstein
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
D+

A sharper documentarian might've tried harder to bridge the gap between the problems of the legitimate American work force and the struggles of relatively well-off celebrities, but Gurwitch, while charming, isn't exactly brimming with insight.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/10/07
Noel Murray
Onion AV Club
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N/A

The video is heavy on actors and other showbiz types, and the self-centered Gurwitch doesn't distinguish between a factory worker laid off after decades on the job and an actor getting rejected during tryouts.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/09/07
Fred Camper
Chicago Reader
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2.5/4

At the very least, it's gainful, worthwhile employment for its likable star.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/08/07
Sid Smith
Chicago Tribune
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2.5/5

The film never really takes off.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/07/07
Bruce Kirkland
Jam! Movies
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2.5/4

Ignore the earnest bits here and zero in on what Fired! does best -- treating trauma with a light-bright touch.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/07/07
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail
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2.5/4

Fired! won't offer much by way of revelation to anyone who has entered (and involuntarily exited) the workforce over the past 20 years, but the account it provides is both comforting for its all-inclusiveness and troubling for its implications.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/07/07
Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star
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2/5

The documentary Fired! contains slivers of shtick that play more as diverting filler than prime comedy material.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/05/07
Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
2.5/5

I was truly shocked when I looked at my watch and what seemed to be an hour and a half was only forty minutes.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/03/07
Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette
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2.5/4

Just when the film seems to be getting bogged down in 'before I made it big' anecdotes, Gurwitch wisely broadens her focus, interviewing ordinary victims of corporate 'right-sizing.'

Full Review | comment Comment
02/02/07
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide
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1/4

The film is funny for the first 10 minutes -- maybe 15 -- but it soon grows tiresome and repetitive.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/02/07
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
Ratings Image
C

The filmrambles a bit in places and its structure is veryloose and unformed leaving Fired! assomething of a misfire.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/02/07
Ted Murphy
Murphy's Movie Reviews
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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