Movie Review: Heart and Souls

TITLE: Heart and Souls

STATS: U.S. RATING: PG-13 RUN TIME: 104 min GENRE: Comedy/Fantasy/Romance DATE: 8/13/1993 COMPANY: Universal Pictures LANGUAGE: English

MY SUMMARY: Four people from completely different backgrounds are involved in a fatal bus crash at the same time a baby is born, therefore they are linked to the boy. They discover however, that they are causing problems for the young boy as people think he has mental problems so they decide to disappear. Twenty years later, they discover the reason they haven't crossed over is so that they can complete their unfinished business that they each had before they died. In order to do this, they must make Robert Downey Jr. believe in them again and the adventure begins...

IMDB SUMMARY: In 1959, Milo, Penny, Julia, and Harrison board a bus that later crashes, and all of them die but do not go to heaven right away. A baby is born in town at the same moment the bus crashes. The four dead passengers are tied to the baby, who would be named Thomas. For some reason Thomas can see them, and Thomas grows fond of them but when people think that Thomas might have something wrong with him, they decide not to let Thomas see them, which devastates him. Thirty years later Thomas is all grown and a little jaded when it comes to letting people into his life, and the four of them are still with him even though he can't see them. One day they simultaneously appear to him, and stay by his side until each one completes the final task of their personal lives.

DIRECTOR: Ron Underwood

ACTORS: Robert Downey Jr., Charles Grodin, Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedgwick, Tom Sizemore, David Paymer, Elisabeth Shue

MY RATING: 7 out of 10

ROTTEN TOMATOES RATING: 50%

MOVIEFONE RATING: Not Available

ROGER EBERT RATING: Not Available

THE GOOD: The movie has pretty decent special effects for the time and the acting wasn't too bad for what I would call a "fill-in" movie (a movie that doesn't launch anyone's career, but gives the actors a paycheck). I especially liked Robert Downey Jr.'s acting when the characters inhabit him. I also liked how their last "mission" tied everything together and completed the movie so to speak. There were plenty of heart-warming moments where even a criminal becomes a good guy. The movie also had some good morals, such as there is always hope and don't let love pass you by.

THE BAD: This is a pretty cheesy romantic comedy which is something I enjoy, but if you don't enjoy this kind of movie then you definitely wouldn't like this one. It is as cheesy as it gets, but it is a pretty good movie for families. The one thing that really got me was a fight scene with Milo at the beginning of the movie. It was horrible. They didn't get anywhere near hitting each other. It was just a little too fake for me, but if you aren't as obsessive-compulsive as I am, then you'd probably look over it.

FUN FACTS:  When Robert Downey Jr. is a kid in the bathroom of his school, he doesn't actually wash his hands. He doesn't even turn the water on! The microphone at the B.B. King concert looked to be a SM58 microphone made by Shure The guest comedian at The Purple Onion is Bob Newhart, played by his real life son, Robert William Newhart

WORD OCCURS WORD OCCURS A** 2 RACIAL FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN 0 A**H**E 0 B*****D 2 RACIAL FOR HISPANIC 0 B**CH 1 C*** 0 RACIAL FOR ASIAN 0 D**N 7 F*** 0 RACIAL FOR CAUCASSIAN 0 G**D*** 1 H**L 3 RACIAL FOR OTHER 0 M*****F****R 0 S**T 3 LORD'S NAME IN VAIN 10 * These numbers are as accurate as possible, but some mistakes may be present. This is to give a general idea of the vulgarity and not to represent a precise measurement system.