The Suburbans (1999)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

Donal Lardner Ward

Writers (WGA):

Donal Lardner Ward (written by) &
Tony Guma (written by)

Release Date:

19 January 2000 (Belgium)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Never before has a girl done so much with so little.

Plot:

An 80's one-hit wonder band (Donal Lardner Ward, Tony Guma, Craig Bierko, Will Ferrell) named The Suburbans...

Plot Keywords:

Reference To Yeats | Independent Film

Cast

Donal Lardner Ward	...	Danny
Tony Guma	...	Rory
Craig Bierko	...	Mitch
Will Ferrell	...	Gil
Dick Clark	...	Himself
Amy Brenneman	...	Grace
Bridgette Wilson	...	Lara
Brian Chlebowski	...	Kenny
Perrey Reeves	...	Amanda
Robert Loggia	...	Jules
Jennifer Love Hewitt	...	Cate
Jerry Stiller	...	Speedo Silverberg
Ben Stiller	...	Jay Rose
Lisa Gerstein	...	Leslie Gonzale
Antonio Fargas	...	Magee

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexuality.

Runtime:

81 min | Argentina:85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Iceland:L | UK:15 | USA:R | Argentina:13 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

First Christian Church of North Hollywood - 4390 Colfax Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

HSX Films

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Reflected in car windows when Danny runs over the trash can in the driveway.

Quotes:

Mitch: Don't let Grace "Yoko" The Suburbans.

Movie Connections:

References The Godfather (1972)

Soundtrack:

By My Side

Almost as dull as Chicago. (That's the band, not the city.)

"The Suburbans" is part comedy, part drama and all misfire - in 1981 the band of the title scores its one and only hit, and in 1999 the members are talked into performing at a wedding for a fan in the Navy. A representative for entertainment company EVI later approaches them about making a comeback...

Co-writer/director/co-star Donal Gardner Ward's movie positions the group as one-hit wonders who most people don't really want back, but the group itself is more problematic than intended; if their song had been either good (like the Wonders' "That Thing You Do" from the movie of the same name) or at least a believable 1980s pastiche, their status as one-hit wonders from the Neon Decade would have been plausible. Unfortunately neither is the case, particularly the latter - as well as being a limp rock track, it sounds way too 1990s to be passable. This proves to have a knock-on effect on the movie; the person who brings them to EVI turns out to have had an obsession with one of the Suburbans since she was seven. The trouble is, she's played by Jennifer Love Hewitt - who looks as if she was barely out of Pampers in the early '80s (and she was, since she was born in 1979).

The band members are universally uninteresting, the music's boring, and it's impossible to see what the point of it all is - it looks like a home movie, it's almost never funny, it's never dramatic, and the appearance of A Flock Of Seagulls at the end marks the only true taste of/nostalgia for the 1980s in the entire movie. The appearances of Robert Loggia as the father of the bride, Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas as a club owner, Ben Stiller and Jerry Stiller as EVI bosses, J.J. Abrams (creator of "Felicity" and "Alias") as a journalist, and JLH (whose display to Amy Brenneman in the kitchen is, to be honest, the highpoint of the movie) liven things up, but not enough to raise the movie's level.

At least the last time Jennifer Love Hewitt and Bridgette Wilson were in the same movie was "I Know What You Did Last Summer," which wasn't boring.