Head Over Heels (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	funny, enjoyable to watch
Disadvantages:	stoy line was a little predictable at times

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

♥♥Head Over Heels♥♥

Head Over Heels is a Romantic Comedy which was released in 2001. The film was Directed by Mark Waters who also directed Freaky Friday (2003) and Mean Girls (2004). Head Over Heels has a BBFC Rating of 12 because of some mild violence and sex scenes and it has a run time of approximately 86 minutes.

Head Over Heels portrays the story of Amanda Pierce who is single, after breaking up with her ling term boyfriend she moves into a luxury apartment with 4 super models who are a little on the "blonde" side. Amanda builds up quite a strong relationship with the 4 models and they become quite close friends who help one another. Amanda teaches the models about romance and tells them what it is like and the models give Amanda a makeover and give her advice on how to deal with the opposite sex.

When Amanda literally bumps into her neighbour Jim and his horny Great Dane who tries to hump everything he sees. The first encounter with Amanda and Jim is quite near the beginning of the film when she is buying a latte and Jims great Dane rushes across the street and knocks her off her feet. When Jim helps Amanda to her feet she goes weak at the knees and nearly falls over again. Amanda going weak at the knees every time she sees Jim is a scene which is repeated throughout most of the film. Jim is like Amanda's perfect man and she falls in love with him almost straight away although they don't form a relationship straight away. The both of them have a chemistry between them but nothing happens at this point in in the film, its not until there is a ultimate twist in the story line that the real drama begins and most of the funny scenes start.

Monica Potter plays the part of Amanda Pierce pretty well, I actually liked her character because you sort of felt sorry for her throughout the film because she was quite unlucky in love and had been hurt quite badly in previous relationships. Whilst watching the film I got the impression that Amanda Pierce was quite wary of men and didn't really want to get close to anyone in case she got hurt or bored with her new boyfriend again like she had done previously. Amanda pierce was a really funny character throughout most of the film, I think she played the part really well, you could tell that there was a chemistry between her and Jim (Freddie Prinze Jr) from the off as she was always going weak at the knees and stuttering when she was trying to talk to him, which often resulted in mixed up sentences such as ~ "I have to go I have the runs" Amanda meant to say " I have to run". It just goes to show that if you really like someone as much as Amanda likes Jim that you can often go weak at the knees and jumble your words up.

Freddie Prinze Jr also plays the part of Jim really well, it was nice to see him play a semi-serious character instead of a silly teen one like he had done previously. Jims character had a somewhat split personality in some parts of the film although he didn't show his true colours until the end 30 minutes or so of the film. I think that the split personality of Jim added a sense of mystery to the story line, Jim blamed his split personality on his job because he had to kiss ass most of the time when he was working and it was hard for him to switch off and be normal Jim again. This split personality with Jim was quite regular in the beginning of the movie although seeing Jim's other personality seemed to happen less frequently the more we got to know his character. Even although Jim's character is supposed to portray the mid twenties successful career man you do get the sense of a little immaturity shining through his character. Some of the teen style comedy moments played by Freddie Prinze Jr are what we are used to seeing him portray in his earlier films, such as the rude jokes and some gross toilet humour.

The Models also play very good parts in the film and I think it is the models which make the film funniest because of their silly remarks and actions. One of the models in particular who is played by actress Sarah Murdoch who plays character Candi provides most of the laughs throughout the film. Candi is a hilarious character and Sarah plays the part really well, Candi is what you might want to call a typical blonde model who has no common sense and spends most of her time trying to look her best. I felt quite sorry for her character at some points in the film because it was evident that her uncle abused her when she was younger although she didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong with it. I don't think that she realises what's wrong and what's right so to speak. One of the main quotes from the film which makes it evident that Candi was abused by her uncle was "No props in charades! No props and no clothes! Uncle Pete's rules"

As I stated previously Candi is a somewhat clumsy character but she has a heart of gold and would do anything to help Amanda get her true love. Candis clumsiness provides quite a few laughs throughout the film, especially when we see her bandaged up after yet more plastic surgery to look better. One scene in particular is when she has had some sort of cosmetic surgery done on her eyes and she has big white patches on them, she is temporarily blind for a few days and is always falling over tables and into walls etc.

There are three other models in the film who all form quite a strong bond with Amanda, Roxanna, Jade and Holly. All of the models play good parts in the film and are all equally close to Amanda although Candi seems to be my favourite of the three because she is the clumsiest and funniest.

I thought Head Over Heels was a great film even although the story line was a little predictable at times. With lots of funny moments, toilet humour and a horny dog you cant really go wrong with this movie, unless your not a fan of teen style romantic comedies. I watched this film on ITV late last night although you can buy the DVD from Amazon and it costs £4.98 which is really good value for money considering it is a good film. I would watch this film again as it is really funny at parts.

Director ~ Mark Waters
Release Date ~ 2nd February 2001 (USA)
Run Time ~ 86 minutes approximately

Cast
~~~~~
Monica Potter ~ Amanda Pierce
Freddie Prinze Jr ~ Jim Winston
Shalom Harlow ~ Jade
Ivana Milicevic ~ Roxana Milla Slasnakova
Sarah Murdoch ~ Candi (as Sarah O'Hare)
Tomiko Fraser ~ Holly
China Chow ~ Lisa
Jay Brazeau ~ Halloran / Vadeem Strukov
Stanley DeSantis ~ Alfredo
Erin-Marie Dykeman ~ 10-Year-Old Amanda
James D. Kirk ~ Tommy
Elysa Hogg ~ Tommy's Girlfriend
Kristina Lewis ~ 17-Year-Old Amanda
Ben Silverman ~ Charlie
Sam MacMillan ~ Charlie's Date

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:O)X

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2008