May be the best Farrellys movie yet, even though it doesn't live up to the pair's usual level of uproarious, crass comic genius.
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11/09/01
Shallow Hal (2001)
50
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:119
Fresh:60
Rotten:59
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: While surprisingly sweeter and warm-hearted than previous Farrelly outings, Shallow Hal is also less funny and more bland.
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly continue their string of hilarious oddball comedies with SHALLOW HAL. Hal (Jack Black of HIGH FIDELITY) is a "regular guy" who has no luck with women because he... [More]
Starring: Jack Black, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jason Alexander, Zen Gesner
Director: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly
Reviews for Shallow Hal
As with Cameron Diaz in There's Something about Mary, Bobby and Peter Farrelly and their film are saved by an actress who's a very good sport.
11/09/01
An apology -- even a comedic one -- for naughty behavior isn't as much fun as the naughty behavior in the first place.
11/09/01
By preaching that beauty comes from within while simultaneously leering at slender examples of the female form and poking fun at the portly, Shallow Hal undermines its own message.
11/09/01
Wickedly funny but heartfelt and, like Hal, far deeper than first glance would indicate.
11/09/01
Paltrow's intelligence has the effect of adding weight, as it were, to a thin visual joke.
11/09/01
I'm always skeptical of moral lessons from Hollywood -- especially lectures about the beauty of fat people from writer-directors whose last three films have starred ... stick-thin types.
11/09/01
Anyone seeking Dumb and Dumber yuks will be waiting a long time.
11/09/01
Works far better than it would ever seem possible and even delivers some genuinely touching moments.
11/09/01
Dull, torpid, lugubrious, insufferable and just plain icky.
11/09/01
Who among us doesn't need to be reminded now and then how dumb and hurtful it is to judge people based on how they look?
11/09/01
The Farrellys had a golden chance to be creatively, satirically, usefully offensive -- and they wimped out.
11/09/01
[The] Farrelly brothers have finally taken on a heavy subject -- but so little of it sticks to the bone.
11/09/01
Top CriticWhat can I say? You've just got to root for this couple.
11/09/01
If you've seen the trailer, you've seen the best of the movie, and there isn't really that much good stuff to go around.
11/09/01
Top CriticOften very funny, but it is also surprisingly moving at times.
11/09/01
Top CriticSweetness, not grossness, should be the way these brothers go in the future.
11/09/01
[The Farrelly brothers] have struck gold with what is easily their most broadly accessible and technically accomplished work to date.
11/09/01
It's big-hearted, and it's funny.
11/09/01
There's nothing wrong with the moral of "Shallow Hal"... the problem lies in (the) maddeningly obvious approach.
11/09/01
Latest News for Shallow Hal
November 28, 2005:
Special Olympians Find No Problem with Knoxville's "Ringer"
While the concept might sound more than a little tacky (a con man poses as a mentally handicapped man to defraud the Special Olympics), the officials for the actual games find... More...
August 20, 2001:
'They didn't want an overtly slick Ferrari dude,' Black says. 'That's why they came to me, because I'm just such a snugly, lovable, chubby little bo-bo.' 
More...
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