Pretty Ugly People is pretty unremarkable. The set-up and general tone of the movie would suggest a quirky independent romp. It may aim for this title, but it's mostly bland and patronizing. A big lass loses weight and arranges a trip for some friends. They all learn valuable lessons and "discover" themselves. These characters aren't horrible enough for any grand changes, nor or they nice enough to actually like. The protagonist is the biggest bitch of all, allowing her friends to believe she is dying. It's a horrible tactic that only the best writing could salvage a heart from. Unfortunately, such talented scripting is absent here.
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SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain31 December 2011
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Sylviastel14 November 2013I expected more when I saw the accolades but I'm disappointed in the film. I guess this film is supposed to be about a life changing four days for Lucy and her college friends. Years past, they get married, divorced, and have children and careers. A star cast includes Missi Pyle and Melissa McCarthy. The other cast members are fine but the script is weak. The film has great scenery. I can't get past the negativeness of the film. There is no character to root for anyway. Sure, Lucy loses the weight but her mind as well. She thinks her weight loss will lead to feeling accepted and an equal peer. Lucy has a self esteem issue as well. Things change but not much.
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Britneylsmall17 July 2017Was the goal here to present a bunch of awful people, with no redeeming qualities, and have them have a near-death experience to humanize them?
Was the goal to show how "ugly" all these "friends" are and have no one realize the error of their ways?
Or was just a swing and a miss on behalf of the studio?
In any case, I kept watching hoping someone would be a good person and no one ever was. They all sucked, they shouldn't be friends and all the interpersonal relationships were based on self-interest. How they got all these amazing actors to take part in beyond me. -
GWilliamLocke21 October 2010Bad movie.
REALLY bad movie. Did an adult make this?
Bums me out that loads and loads of money and work go into what is essentially no more than a blatant Todd Solondz-inspired, mean spirited comedy full of cliché characters and obvious jokes and story lines.
Wait, did I say "Todd Solondz-inspired?" Ha. How nice of me. This is a Todd Solondz rip-off. Waste of money. Waste of time. Piece of s**t. Imagine if the guys who own McDonalds attempted to rip-off Todd and you'll have a pretty good idea of how much soul this film has.
Really, though, I can't help but shed a little tear for the film US industry whenever I see a movie like this. Actual adults put their time and money into this project. Bad humor. Bad writing. Bad acting. Great resources. For every $20,000 spent on a film like this, there is a unique indie film maker out there wishing he/she could catch a break. -
xhidden9922 June 201736? 38? I mean seriously. We've been watching this movie for 40 years. College 'friends' together and share their horrific personalities with each other. Because not speaking to each other for decades only to jump on a plane for a long weekend in the woods is a thing people do. And especially when they lose 300 lbs to rub in your 'friends' faces. And because all of that is the rational act of sane people, gather up these people to 'share your last 4 lbs weight loss. You know, because no one grows and changes in 20 years. We do gain some insight into the former fat girl though. She's still an angry control freak.
Anyway it pulls every stereotype off the shelf. Uptight Oreo black guy, street black girl, rich douchebag, gay douchebag, friend zone guy, old guy, hillbilly, and of course Melissa McCarthy in her patented hysterical fat girl with borderline personality disorder.
But I tell you it never gets old watching near 40 year olds act like 17 year olds imagining what 30 year olds act like. When do they grow up? 45? 50? -
ahoodwink20 September 2009I went to see this today at the Laemmle Sunset. I like Missy Pyle, but 15-20 minutes in and she had barely appeared. What showed up instead were an entirely implausible group of "friends" spouting banal, dreary quips about how they still happened to be connected--which I did not buy in the least.
I was pleased that the cameo from the always-marvelous Allison Janney came within those first 15 minutes. It wasn't well-written, but she did the best she could.
After a joke about black people being noticeable in the West because there are so few of them was made not once, but 3 times, I walked out. Life's too short for bad work like this nonsense. -
dragora11610 September 2012Firstly, I'd like to get this out of the way: If you have not watched a movie in its entirety, you have no business reviewing it. That would be like listening to the first note of a song, or reading the first line of a book and panning it. Shame.
Now, on to the business of reviewing. While not the best movie in the world, it is certainly far from being the worst. There will always be something for someone to criticise, but for the most part, this movie is funny, sad, maddening, sappy in parts, and even hits a few sore spots. This is all good in my book. If seeing the real truth about yourself, or someone else, for the first time doesn't initially make you at least a little angry, then...
Not all film is supposed to be a masterpiece of cinema. Some are just there to entertain us a bit and, if possible, to help us along the way. This may just be one of those.
The premise is okay, just an excuse to get a group of people together. The story you can read about in the plot synopsis. The acting is quite good, considering that coming off as an every-day person in a movie is a lot harder than it seems. And I was happy to see some of my favourites: Missi Pyle, Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer (all of whose talents are abundant), Larry Sullivan (adorable and hot at the same time, not easy for a real actor), William Sanderson (that's the way he speaks; nice to see someone not try to botch a local accent). Also noteworthy were Philip Littell (as the repressed, judgmental Richard) and Phil Lewis (whose Raye gives Wayne Brady a run for his money as the "whitest black guy").
All in all, much better than most of the drivel out there that people actually pay to see. Quite a few belly laughs and some intimate moments, different for each, that may ignite a spark. -
mishaweaver27 February 2012I also stopped watching about 10-20 minutes in. That's a very rare move for me. I consider myself from rural America, and found the "blacks in these parts" bit tiresome. Also, why was the local hillbilly (in Missoula, Montana, a city of at least 60,000... with hundreds of African-Africans living there as well as a university with a large international population) speaking with such an aw-shucks southern accent? Montana is not The South. It just gets under my skin when it seems as though all people outside of the Northeast or California are portrayed speaking in folksy, Appalachian drawls. Apologies for not sitting through it, but... I was a trifle insulted.
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Have seen better & worse!
Typical story someone from the past needs to prove,how they changed & sets out for a reunion with people they need to prove something with.
Heck this doesn't need to be a movie,as it happens at reunions or various social platforms.
Why prove anything to awful people? They never change,even when they should. Of course we get a happy ending of sorts,because otherwise it would of ended more horrible. Had to roll my eyes when MM real spouse played her love interest as the movie is nearing it's end.. These two don't work on screen,sorry not sorry. Only funny part i guess was the bear encounter & the bus accident was predictable yet added something missing to a blah movie.
Not worth seeing unless you like,any of the actors or are bored & needing something to watch. -
JeffAHayes23 May 2014I just finished watching this as a rental (It also was available only on DVD, not even Blu-Ray, which is rare these days, even for a movie that went straight to disk, but then it WAS made in 2008).
While I agree with a few of the negative comments made by some who didn't like the film, I also agree with all of the positive comments by those who did, as well. I thought it was a fair amount of fun, if not "laugh-out-loud" funny, and I've always enjoyed Missi Pyle.
I think the fact that this was made BEFORE Melissa McCarthy became a big star and BEFORE Octavia won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for "The Help," certainly DIDN'T help make it a more marketable movie for theaters, as all I can find in the way of theater showings is a bunch of film festivals and ONE "limited release" in September 2009, and it doesn't even say WHERE, plus one brief showing in Palm Springs.
William Sanderson, of course, has been around, like, FOREVER (my favorite role for him -- probably his most memorable -- was as the puppet maker in "Blade Runner"). But as a character actor, most folks don't know his name.
I think this is good enough that were it released AGAIN during a slow period of the movie year (like the fall or winter), it could probably have a decent showing -- especially now that Melissa and Octavia are stars. Jeff -
jessica_eaton_195911 October 2020Bored me to heavy eye lid action within the first 15 mins.
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Ismaninb11 April 2010If you like your jokes innocent and inoffensive Pretty Ugly People is not for you. If you enjoy the average American TV-comedy, like Cheers, the Cosby Show or Friends, stay away from this as far as you can. If you think relation problems and human condition are to be take seriously and nothing to be mocked, if you think Oprah a source of wisdom and if you want to be comforted by some superficial moral lesson, you will think Pretty Ugly People an insult to political correctness. In the latter case you're right.
Pretty Ugly People doesn't show how people should be like, it shows how people actually are in reality. People tend to marry each other for the wrong reasons. Why else divorce? They can be egocentric and often hurt each other, exactly like the characters in Pretty Ugly People. A large part of the audience can't stomach that and prefers wearing blinkers.
So the point of Pretty Ugly People is not that the spectator should care for one or more characters. Pretty Ugly People holds a mirror and shows human failure. It does it by spoofing the genre of the well-meaning relation movies. The characters in Pretty Ugly People often say and do the wrong things on the wrong moments. Exactly that is what happens in every day life - why else all those quarrels?
Still Pretty Ugly People essentially is a feel good movie. In the end everybody is happy. Sure, two characters die, but one was irrelevant for the story. The other, Richard, was a sour man who still showed remorse before closing his eyes. And his death gave his wife Betty the opportunity to find happiness after all. Even the black congressman found what he was looking for, in a rather unusual way.
Now Pretty Ugly People is far from perfect. It could have had more politically incorrect jokes and drags a bit now and then. But I see it as a most welcome slightly cynical parody of all that moralistic stuff that has been released last couple of years. -
a_athanas5 February 2024First of all, High School is NOT intended as a social club where people stay in touch forever. High School is for learning so that you can branch off, move on and find your calling.
It's very unlikely that such a large group of people from High School would keep getting together long afterward, even when living in far flung states and having children and busy careers. There were so many tall thin white males with brown hair that it was difficult keeping track of who was who. It's also unlikely that such a group would contain whites, blacks, fit folks, obese folks and one closeted gay man. Usually High School groups of forever friends are a little homogenous,
The former fatty gal who lost all her weight with the Gastric Bypass wanted her group of High School friends to see her new bod, so she arranged a highly involved and inconvenient get together. But let me mention here that hospitals have counseling programs for their bariatric patients to help them deal with the emotional aspects of losing so much weight. Obviously Lucy did not partake of such a program. The MAIN emotional issue bariatric patients first run into is the RESENTMENT they feel when they start getting treated like a person of value by everyone; the general public, customer service representatives, strangers, neighbors, acquaintances, friends and family. You don't need a large group of High School friends to experience this - just step out your front door. The basic gist is "What was I before, chopped liver!'?" And "NOW you like me?!" After all, for the person stuck inside a very large body (often for reasons OTHER than eating too much, such as having Hypothyroidism, Fibromyalgia, Depression, Childhood Trauma, a Pituitary Tumor, a Tumor on their Adrenal Gland, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Insulin Resistance, to name a few), sees themselves as a human worthy of everything everyone else has. But they soon realize no one else sees them that way. So Lucy had a RIGHT to be angry at her friends, but she was being fake at first to lure them out into the woods where she could tell them off. Yet, they were ALL guilty of seeing her as "less than" all through High School, and she outed each of them. Interestingly, one of the thin girls from the old High School group had gained a lot of weight over the years. She was married to Richard, who died in the end. The overweight wife made an interesting observation, saying he wasn't ALWAYS a dick to her. We are left to surmise that he became a dick as soon as she gained weight. In response, she sought the missing love and respect as a human from the Coach at her kids' school. It was clear their relationship would become more serious now that her mean husband died. Wedding vows don't say that a man can mistreat his wife if her body shape ever changes. People's bodies are GOING to change as they age, even men's: pot bellies, hair loss, greying hair, wrinkles, flattening butt, moles/freckles, lost teeth, changes in posture, prostate problems, erection//performance problems, bad breath, etc. But most wives see all this as part of the process of growing older and things to overlook when they have been married a long time. After all, none of it has anything to do with the fact they are a human they made a commitment to long ago. These things are to be expected. But MEN often act like their wife gaining weight is a breaking of the marital commitment on the part of the wife - as if they promised never to age or fall victim to the ravages of having HIS children, or any number of hormonal, endocrinological or neurological conditions that tend to befall wives more than husbands - probably because of enduring DECADES of stress from picking up messes after their lazy and childish husbands.....
I found it sizeist and racist for the black politician to call his wife ghetto and fat. The movie should have shown HER finding her way to a new and better life without him, but they simply stopped showing much footage of her after she gave her wedding ring back to her husband in righteous anger. It was as if the producers of the show were in agreement with her husband's unfair assessment of her. That was disturbing.
A movie worth watching ONCE though. See if you can detect any bad qualities in yourself as you watch... -
SJinSeaTac26 January 2010First of all, if you do not read the title before watching this movie, you may be a little...irritated? Or upset. The characters in this movie are dysfunctional but their dysfunctions remain very well guarded and hidden in their everyday lives...until their old friend from college (Missi Pyle) convinces them all to meet years later, in the middle of nowhere Montana to go on her own selfish journey. At first she seems to be the only person who is not a mental case, but towards the end, we realize she may be worse than any of the other characters.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who isn't afraid of stepping out of their comfort zone, and has the ability to to laugh at the fact that what runs through a person's mind daily, or even just many times in their own life, can actually be played-out in reality when all pretenses and distractions are suddenly removed. -
My 2 girlfriends and I saw this in Palm Springs and thought it was a great piece. It kept me laughing through the entire film, although I thought there were a few too many "F" words and felt they detracted from the enjoyment. You didn't need them! The actors were great and look forward to seeing them again. Thanks for being at the screening--I enjoyed the background about the movie. I now have a better understanding about the pitfalls there can be in making a low budget, independent film and how you over came so many to make a great film. I can't wait for your next venture..."The Help". Hopefully the Palm Springs Film Festival will not reject that one or any others you plan to submit.
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Hey everyone,
I'm a HUGE fan of authors and directors who do something different!!! Thank God, I just happened to have come across this film at the Sunset Laemmle 5 called "Pretty Ugly People".
A play on words, these people are "pretty" on the outside but have "ugly" things about themselves they need to face. I'm a huge fan of an author that can shock your sensibilities and make you laugh, all at the same time. Not only that, but I surprised myself when (not to ruin the movie for you) I burst out into tears during the film's sudden surprising turn.
I remember, 12 years ago, when I saw Todd Solondz's movie, "Welcome to the Dollhouse", it was the first time someone made me laugh-out-loud at his shocking dialogue that revealed each character's pathetic existence which was often times layered with an ignorance that made them "ugly". In many of the same ways, "Pretty Ugly People" holds that same hilarity, as it gives voices to some endearing characters as they struggle to find themselves and find their "pretty" selves and the other side ugly.
Like my friend, Heather Ulsvick, who I had seen "Welcome to the Dollhouse" with 12-years ago (who was horrified and shocked by the movie), I appreciate the diverse ways of reacting and interpreting the art around us. For me, that's my kind of movie!
Pretty Ugly People was a shocking pleasure and I find myself quoting moments of the movie. "Ignorance is bliss. Ignorant men, yield blissful women."
In regards to the previous comment mentioned (by someone who only watched the first 10 minutes of the movie), I find it shocking that someone who only watched the introduction to the film could make such a baseless assessment of the film's intention. If your black, white, gay or straight, a virgin or sexually promiscuous, you will will be guaranteed a cleverly crafted dose of stinging dialogue that promises to give us all a tongue lashing that will leave you laughing.... laughing that is if you have the grace to laugh at yourself.
Go see this movie! -
venetianchristina15 July 2013@@@Possible to read into a SPOILER@@@ Entertaining with good casting. I'm the first to mention that there are 3 Oscar recipients/nominee from this humble B movie. Missy Pyle for The Artist which won....Octavia Spencer won for The Help...Melissa McCarthy nominated for Bridesmaids! All in the same year, too! Wow.. Who knew? All actors were believable when they were annoyed, vulnerable, sad, happy, hopeful. Even after watching, the entertainment goes on when you find out that the actor who played George has a Congressman father, and two of the other actors are gay, but not the ones from the movie. What's not to like? The plot was original.....the characters were believable...the script delivered various emotions...there were surprises...the ending I wish was longer, but it's good enough.
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I'm a boomer who loved The Big Chill and I enjoyed this version for millenials. There's a lot of negative reviews from people who think the portrayals were standard cliches but you know what? Most of us are pretty standard cliches...that's life, that's relationships, that dealing with your college friends (yes, I still see them one a year since we graduated in 1978). This film is kind of sweet, kind of dramatic, not very deep, and a lot like life. Plus there's a very good cast with Missi Pyle and Melinda McCarthy (who shakes off her usual goofy persona for a more quiet, dramatic and utterly sympathetic role.
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play-me-a-symphony20 February 2024This is one of my favorite films ever, I have rewatched it twice, and I am extremely picky with cinema. It's an absolute gem. Do not read reviews or read the plot before watching it, you are in for some delightful surprises. Great plot, unexpected character developments, amazing acting and sceneries. Whoever did not like it needs to go take a hike ;)
This is one of my favorite films ever, I have rewatched it twice, and I am extremely picky with cinema. It's an absolute gem. Do not read reviews or read the plot before watching it, you are in for some delightful surprises. Great plot, unexpected character developments, amazing acting and sceneries. Whoever did not like it needs to go take a hike ;)