TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

dcw-12 This film that takes the mickey out of the depravity in Las Vegas ends up making $50,000 its opening weekend and no movie theater companies take it. I'm not big on conspiracy theories but you figure it out. There was a time when Hollywood films weaved in human themes with the entertainment and this film hearkens back to those days. Wow I made the film sound incredibly boring but the opposite is true. When the very human and flawed characters resonate then things in the film become much sweeter.The scenes between the Casino boss and Matthew Broderick are especially well done and funny. Not fall down funny but very skillfully written and acted. Also unexpected events pop out of nowhere in the film and keep you on your feet and things interesting. And they didn't need barnyard animals wandering around a hotel room to achieve that effect.Just a very skillfully created and acted comedy/drama that just might change a few peoples opinions on a few things.Very sweet film.

Roland E. Zwick Harried sitcom writer Taylor Mendon is a recovering addict and compulsive gambler who heads to Las Vegas to rescue his ditzy twenty-year-old niece from a career in prostitution and to get her to enroll in rehab. The problem is that Amanda (Brittany Snow) is more than happy with the choices she's made and finds it rather hypocritical and presumptuous of her uncle of all people to be on his high horse regarding how she's living her life.Matthew Broderick has always excelled at playing the well-meaning, bumbling nebbish, but here, playing a well-meaning, bumbling nebbish who also happens to have alcohol and drug-dependency problems, he defies credibility. Moreover, writer/director Peter Tolan never quite strikes that proper balance between the lighthearted and the serious that he's so earnestly striving for (and which he often achieves on "Rescue Me").That being said, "Finding Amanda" does have a nice feel for its settings, a partially unexpected resolution, and enough goodwill to almost make it an enjoyable experience.

Gordon-11 This film is about a troubled middle aged man with addiction problems trying to rescue his niece from prostitution in Las Vegas.Taylor is hopelessly addicted to gambling, hoping one day he will win it big. Amanda earns money by prostitution in Las Vegas, and is successful as she manages to make money to buy a house and a car at the tender age of 20. It is obvious that Taylor and Amanda are characters with things in common. They live in their own fantasy world, thinking that someday it will magically transform into utopia.Given the subject matter, I find it surprising that "Finding Amanda" is marketed as a comedy. There are funny moments, but it is more a emotional drama about the two waking up from their dreamland. Taylor's addiction is convincingly portrayed by the adorable Matthew Broderick. Amanda is also a likable character, but she is far too happy and fluffy to be a person with a turbulent background. Greg, on the other hand, is convincingly despicable and disgusting."Finding Amanda" is slow at times, but it gives viewers ample time to digest what goes on with the characters. It provokes people to look into their lives, and maybe we can find a part of us that is hypocritical like Taylor is. This film is for people who like serious and emotional films, and it will not appeal to romantic comedy fans.

hprouty It is remarkable to me that anybody could even sit through this film -- I walked out after 45 minutes. The Matthew Broderick character, a TV sitcom writer who I guess we're supposed to feel some empathy for because he's given up drinking and smoking (or so he says) but just CAN'T give up playing the ponies, is basically just a jerk, who lies-lies-lies to his long-suffering wife about his gambling, in ways that are apparently supposed to be seen as clever or amusing but are in fact pathetic and unfunny. (Sample gag: he's calling his wife from the men's room at the track, lying about being at a meeting "at the network"; he's frantically trying to tip/bribe the men's-room attendant to "not sweep" while he's on the phone...and then some other guy FLUSHES a urinal. Wife: "Are you in a bathroom?" MB: "They have bathrooms at the network, you know." Hysterical, eh?) It only gets worse, when he heads off to Vegas ostensibly to "rescue" his niece (the titular Amanda) from a life of prostitution -- and instead heads straight for the casino, after having promised his wife that the trip was "NOT about gambling." He eventually "finds" Amanda (although it hardly seems like he's even interested in looking for her), who turns out to be the most happy-go-lucky 19-year-old hooker of all time. (I don't actually know if she's 19 or not, maybe they didn't even say -- she acts like she's about 13, though.) And get this: despite the fact that he finds her turning tricks by hanging around by the elevators in a third-rate casino (with a couple of other skanky-looking chicks), trying to pick up any guy who walks by, we're meant to believe that she's been such a roaring success as a prostitute that she's been able to buy a nice red sports car AND a house AND support a sleazy boyfriend (who apparently isn't even her pimp). But she's a good person, you see, because the next thing we see her doing is going to a REALLY BAD NEIGHBORHOOD (where she leaves her nice car unattended with the top down, at night) to buy heroin (or something) as a favor to one of her girlfriends -- not that she would ever use such nasty stuff herself, but she buys her friend "a little less each time" because she's helping her quit. Or something like that. By this time I'd had enough, and bolted for the door. Trust me, these comments don't even begin to encompass the lame and obvious jokes, the unbelievable plot situations, the awful performances (Broderick's included), and so on. I've never been compelled to post a comment -- positive or negative -- on IMDb before, but if I can save even one person from wasting their time and money on this piece of junk, it'll have been worth the effort.