So intent on driving home its worthy if not mind-blowing message that it becomes surprisingly conventional.
Comment
11/08/01
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
The Farrelly brothers have done themselves proud with this movie. They've shown us their inner beauty.
11/08/01
Together Black and Paltrow create an air of believable charm to make this fantasy work.
11/08/01
As much a fracturing of the romantic comedy genre the way Shrek splintered Disney fairy tales into a thousand pixels.
11/08/01
Sadness saturates every frame of Peter and Bobby Farrelly's Shallow Hal like a melancholy tune.
11/07/01
Not a side-splitter by any means, and certainly not worth more than the price of your every day video store rental.
11/07/01
A nearly laughless, woefully under-written romantic comedy that flaunts its political incorrectness only to conclude with an insultingly insincere sermon.
11/07/01
... feels like the Farrellys are taking us to a circus sideshow, hoping we will laugh at the workers inside and then be ashamed of ourselves.
11/06/01
This is a wildly uneven farce.
11/06/01
Sentimentality swamps much of the comedy as Bobby and Peter Farrelly go for the heart rather than the solar plexus.
11/06/01
Top CriticAn uneasy blend of the naughty and the nice in which the two ingredients fail to mesh....The result isn't bad; it's just not good enough.
11/05/01
There's no quarrelling with the theme, and the laughs are gentle and surprisingly tasteful.
11/05/01
A sweet, somewhat dumb romantic comedy that's almost impossible to actively dislike.
11/04/01
The Farrelly Brothers have become Smart and Smarter!
11/02/01
If you're planning to see Shallow Hal with the expectation it will be as funny as the Farrelly brothers' Kingpin or Dumb and Dumber, you may be in for one of the year's biggest disappointments.
11/02/01
Hal: "If you can see it and smell it and feel it, who's to say it's not real?"
11/02/01
As long as the concept does not offend you, Shallow Hal should successfully entertain and charm you.
10/31/01
The end result isn't so much a blind taste test for the male pig than it is a subversive jab at the fragile male ego and the moral sightline.
10/29/01
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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