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Zack and Reba (1998) More at IMDbPro »

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Funny, offbeat film, 5 July 2000
7/10
Author: (kaili@earthlink.net) from USA

What a crude, hilarious sense of humor! The actors, director, the writer, were all unknowns to me when I picked up the video and took it home. Sean Patrick Flanery is adorable, but all the characters in this offbeat film leave an impression. The scene with the preacher had me laughing out loud, and rewinding the tape to watch it again. I've never seen a movie quite like this.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
a buried treasure, 27 September 2005
Author: (hewhohasnoname@hotmail.com) from los angeles

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

this movie is terrific... i really had my money on Britteny Murphy for a long time after seeing this...why did she go blond and all brentwood skinny? Zach and Reba seems to me a real throwback to a kind of 70's guerrilla comedy ...a time when filmmakers liked to take established genre and turn it on its ear. the romantic comedy in this case... where in the formula says you have to keep the characters apart till the end of the movie. this is usually achieved by making the romantic rival a prick or a bitch ...and once he or she is out of the way...viola ...happy ending. here the characters are held apart by the neurotic grief caused by the death of their last loves... the whole death=love thing is great. how very sad this movie didn't get to have its day or didn't get the money behind it to fully flesh it out. virtually all the performances in it are stellar especially najimi (in a religious rightwing skewering performance) ,Murphy and flannery. this should go in one of those 100 greatest movies you've never heard of books

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A three rating is pretty harsh, 18 August 2001
10/10
Author: jen sparks (jsparks@ameritech.net) from michigan



This movie has no explosions nor does it have blood and guts, hell it doesn't even have Julia Roberts. But it's undeniably a cute romantic comedy with a weird sense of humor. It's a mix between a black comedy and a true romance story. Brittany Murphy is outstanding, it's nice to finally see a film in which she stars. Sean P.F. is also great in this movie and they seem to have good chemistry together. So if you're not looking for a blockbuster hit and want to try a movie thats a little more on the cynical side (still telling a good story none the less) pick this up from your local video store. I was so impressed I bought it.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
offbeat fun, 8 June 2000
10/10
Author: Bridget-3 from California

Debbie Reynolds outside her perky persona is what drew me, but this movie is a lot more. Brittany Murphy is adorable, and Sean Patrick Flannery should be out of the indies by now. It makes you smile while you watch,a clever story, and no glaring holes in the plot. What more can you want?

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
A lotta laughs and fun, 17 June 2006
10/10
Author: pennia4 from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I think of the many films iv'e seen Zack and Reba is the one that has made me laugh the most. Debbie Reynolds does a fantastic job of playing a wacky grandma. When Zack's (Sean Patrick Flannery)wife dies he cannot get over his grief so he Carry's his wife's skeleton with him, when Reba's (Brittany Murphy) Fiancé shots himself she doesn't think she'l find anyone else. If your bored or it's just a rainy day, Zack and Reba will keep you laughing. Brittany Murphy does a wonderful job of playing Reba, and Debbie Reynolds is one of the most original characters ever.

Another character which will leave you in stitches is the slightly perverted priest with his "pomegrantete" line. Definitely a worthwhile film.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
quirky and silly, 7 June 2002
Author: gypsy129 from Michigan

I bought this movie before seeing it, because it was rare and had two favorites of mine (Flanery and Murphy). I watched the entire thing, not knowing whether it was okay to laugh at lines like, "at...at my wife's bones." - then decided it was fine, and continued to laugh uproariously throughout the rest of the film.

Dark humor mingled with fantastic line delivery and offbeat, oddly lovable characters make this movie one of my favorites. Murphy is beautiful and sweet as the girl who doesn't want to admit that her ex-fiance actually killed himself after she broke it off with him - and definitely doesn't want to admit that she's got a crush on the town looney's grandson. Flanery is superb as a young man who rarely leaves his room after the death of his wife...who's bones are never far from his side. (as a sidenote, Flanery deserves to be out of the indies, I don't know of anyone who can flesh out characters as well as he can - however, I would hate to see him in the mainstreams, because it wouldn't be a challenge - nor would he get such interesting roles) And for those of us who are mothers of small children, there's an extra special surprise in the form of Michael Jeeter - who we recognize from Elmo's World. He plays a cute little drunken grave robber - which will give you all (or maybe just the morbid ones like myself) something to giggle about when you next watch Sesame Street with your little one.

Overall, find the movie, get silly, and appreciate the morbid humor. You shouldn't regret it.

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1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Definitely not the best romantic comedy I've seen..., 6 August 2000
6/10
Author: K N from Colorado

Well, first of all, I give it 6 out of 10. The plot is not very well thought out, and the characters are portrayed as very bland and superficial. The only good performances come from Sean Patrick Flanery (who excels in any movie that he's in) and Debbie Reynolds. There were hardly any chemistry between the leading characters, which I suppose isn't really their fault but the script's. Overall, the movie is not even worth commenting much about so I guess I will stop here.

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3 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Mature?, 18 June 2001
2/10
Author: Jeremy Bristol from Plattsmouth, NE

I bought this film at Blockbuster for $3.00, because it sounded interesting (a bit Ranma-esque, with the idea of someone dragging around a skeleton), because there was a cute girl in a mini-skirt on the back, and because there was a Restricted Viewing sticker on it. I thought it was going to be a sweet or at least sincere coming of age story with a weird indie edge. I was 100% wrong.

Having watched it, I have to wonder how it got the restricted sticker, since there is hardly any foul language, little violence, and the closest thing to nudity (Honestly! I don't usually go around hoping for it!) is when the girl is in her nightgown and you see her panties (you see her panties a lot in this movie, because no matter what, she's wearing a miniskirt of some sort). Even the anti-religious humor is tame (and lame, caricatured, insincere, derivative, unoriginal, and worst of all not funny in the slightest--it would be better just to listen to Ray Stevens' "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex on His Television Show"). This would barely qualify as PG-13 (it is Not Rated), but Blockbuster refuses to let anyone under the age of 17 rent this--as if it was pornographic. Any little kid could go in there and rent the edited version of Requiem for a Dream, but they insist that Zack and Reba is worse.

It is, but not in that way.

In a way, this worries me--the only thing left that could offend people is the idea of the suicide at the beginning. If anybody needs to see movies with honestly portrayed suicides (not this one, but better ones like The Virgin Suicides), it's teenagers. If both of those movies were rated R purely because of the suicide aspect, then I have little chance of turning a story I've been writing into a PG-13 movie (the main characters are eleven and a half and twelve). Suicide is one of the top three leading causes of death in teenagers (I think it's number 2), so chances are that most teens have been or will be affected by it.

Just say no to this movie, though. 2/10.

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