"The Only Thrill"-

Originally, I wasn't even going to bother doing an actual 
review of this movie. I really didn't feel like wasting my 
energy on something that was just not worth it. I was just 
going to leave it at "don't bother!" But I figured I should at 
least make an attempt to explain *why* I think you shouldn't 
bother.

Here's what I got off of Laura Cappozola's site before I saw 
the movie: "Like father like son?  The characters of Sam 
Shepard [Reese] and Diane Keaton [Carol] spend the years of 
their lives involved in a deep friendship that turns into love 
but due to circumstances and time,  they are never quite able 
to express love and emotion until it's too late.  Robert 
Patrick's character [Tom], the son of Shepard's character, 
plays a romantic, charming successful guy who meets the love of 
his life (Keaton's daughter [Kathrine]) and can't forget her 
but can't quite hold onto her either.  You wonder, throughout 
the movie, whether he will wind up lonely like his father for 
the rest of his life because he let the right one get away."

I figured the movie had failed to keep my interest when about 
halfway through I realized that I didn't care whether or not 
Tom and Kathrine got together. And I *certainly* didn't give a 
flip about Reese and Carol! These characters are too dumb and 
boring for romance in my opinion. Reese seems to have 
commitment issues, as does Kathrine, oddly enough. I think the 
parent-child relationships were matched up wrong... The other 
halves of both pairs - Carol and Tom - are just dense.

The worst parts of this movie - the parts that made me want to 
gouge out my eyeballs - were the conversations between Tom and 
his loser friend. I would go into more detail here, but I think 
if I dredge that memory up again, I may need medication to 
recover!

The only saving grace is a brief moment towards the beginning 
of the movie. Reese and Carol go out to a movie together - as 
they do every Wednesday - and Carol is disgusted to see a young 
couple engaged in a very heated make-out session at the front 
of the empty-but-for-the-four-of-them theater. The next day, 
Tom tells Reese and Carol that he 'met this girl' and they 
really hit it off. They've seen each other twice already. Reese 
asks how they could possibly have gone on two dates when they 
just met yesterday. Tom explains that they went to see a movie 
together and then met up again later at night. "Wait a minute! 
What movie," Carol asks. We see realization dawning on all of 
them - Carol becoming even more disgusted. "We thought we were 
alone..." Tom says in defense, to which his father replies 
"Well that was painfully obvious!" 

Unfortunately, I don't think anything else in this movie is 
worth watching. Obviously, I would not recommend this movie. 
Even if the characters were more likable, the story would still 
be boring. How boring? Well...reading the box cover was more 
exciting.

~Diandra Hollman