The sort of feeble redemption story Hollywood often palms off on the film-going public.
Joe Somebody (2001)
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Reviews Counted:83
Fresh:16
Rotten:67
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: Amiable, but extremely lightweight and predictable.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Tim Allen reteams with director John Pasquin (THE SANTA CLAUSE) in JOE SOMEBODY. Allen stars as Joe Scheffer, a mild-mannered man who makes promotional videos for a Minneapolis pharmaceutical... Tim Allen reteams with director John Pasquin (THE SANTA CLAUSE) in JOE SOMEBODY. Allen stars as Joe Scheffer, a mild-mannered man who makes promotional videos for a Minneapolis pharmaceutical company. Joe is divorced and quietly unhappy until the office bully, Mark McKinney (Patrick Warburton), punches him out in the company parking lot, in front of Joe's precocious young daughter (Hayden Panettiere of REMEMBER THE TITANS). The humiliated Joe sinks into such a deep depression that not even the flirtations of the company's pretty "wellness coordinator" (Julie Bowen) can rouse him. Joe decides that he has to restore his pride by challenging McKinney to a fight, and suddenly finds himself the most popular man in the office. Joe even hires a washed-up action movie star (Jim Belushi in a hilariously grizzled performance) to teach him martial arts. He soon finds that he has to weigh the allure of his newfound popularity against the love and respect of those who liked him the way he was. Screenwriter John Scott Shepherd does a good job of balancing slapstick comedy with touching family drama. Allen shows surprising range, giving a strong and sympathetic performance as an emotionally complex and dynamic character. [More]
Starring: Tim Allen, Julie Bowen, Jim Belushi, Kelly Lynch
Starring: Tim Allen, Julie Bowen, Jim Belushi, Kelly Lynch, Hayden Panettiere, Greg Germann, Patrick Warburton
Director: John Pasquin
Director: John Pasquin
Screenwriter: John Scott Shepherd
Producer: Arnold Kopelson, Anne Kopelson, Matthew Gross, Ken Atchity, Brian Reilly
Composer: George S. Clinton
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Reviews for Joe Somebody
Fans of Allen's safe, everyguy humor will get down with it, but most of this fluff stuff packs a pretty weak punch.
A movie unsure of what it wants to be: a drama about a man wrestling his personal demons or a light-entertainment vehicle for its star, Tim Allen.
Feel-good fluff with a mundane Tim Allen performance and a distinct lack of comedic spark.
While never truly funny or insightful, the movie works intermittently by digging a little deeper than you might expect.
There's plenty of ABC After School Special dialogue here, along the lines of 'You've gotta find people in life who are there for you whether you're somebody or not.'
A movie based on Charles Atlas ads would be both more realistic and more entertaining than the moist, dithering hackwork slinking into theaters under the moniker Joe Somebody.
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