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Best Friends (1982) More at IMDbPro »

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16 comments in total

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Watchable and pretty amusing, 13 June 2009
Author: Surfer-23 from Minneapolis

"Best Friends" is a nice film for a weekend afternoon. It is entertaining, has an easy-to-follow storyline, and shows some respect for the viewer. Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn are quite appealing in the leads, but so is the supporting cast, which includes Barnard Hughes, Jessica Tandy, Keenan Wynn, and Audra Lindley (best known as Mrs. Roper on "Three's Company").

Though a comedy, "Best Friends" has, alas, very few laugh-out-loud moments, and is almost too casual in pace for its own good. The near-classic wedding scene (with Richard Libertini) offers perhaps the most genuine laughs, although Reynolds, a very underrated comedic actor, adds some subtle bits of his own throughout the movie.

"Best Friends" is a competently-made and sometimes touching film that also lacks drive and usually fails to produce much more than an occasional smile. But it's worth a look, to be sure.

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7 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Vastly underrated romantic comedy, 8 March 2000

Author: Chuck O'Leary from Pittsburgh, PA

"Best Friends" is one of my favourite romantic comedies because of the pain and humour that's shown in the relationship between Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn seems so real. So many of these kinds of films (like "Sleepless in Seattle," "You've Got Mail, etc.) come across as plastic because filmmakers sugarcoat everything so nobody gets even slightly offended. But in their zeal to please everyone, they forsake all realism. And when the characters get mad at one another, there's no real emotion behind it to make it seem convincing. Most recent romantic comedies are more like glorified sitcoms. "Best Friends," on the other hand, doesn't back away from showing the true-to-life trials and tribulations that almost every couple goes through. Also, the humour in this film is often hilarious since it comes from recognisable situations -- especially the sequences when Burt and Goldie visit with their mutually eccentric in-laws for the first time. Reynolds and Hawn are at their most appealing here, but "Best Friends" isn't a cliched "feel-good" movie and isn't afraid to show its characters behave selfishly and stupidly -- don't we all sometimes? Honest, touching and funny, "Best Friends" is a wonderful, but largely forgotten film that definitely deserves rediscovering.

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4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A hilarious movie trying to break out, 24 January 2005

Author: budikavlan from Irving, TX

The "based on real life" story of what happens when a carefree cohabiting pair of screenwriters decide to get married, Best Friends is a funny movie constrained by an annoying third act. After marrying, they go on a whirlwind tour for each to meet the other's families. And what families they have! The two families (hers in Buffalo, his in Virginia) are both very different and about equally as funny. If they'd left it at that and not tried to get serious with a breakup and lots of arguing, Best Friends would have been an unqualified success (at least so far as quality is concerned).

They didn't, though. The third act is tedious (as they confront their differences) and it weighs down the rest of the film. It doesn't ruin it, however--I still recommend it, especially for people who like Burt and Goldie, who have chemistry.

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Entertaining, 26 April 2007

Author: jeremy3 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This movie only gets a 6, but I actually for it's rating its a movie that I enjoy. Reynolds and Hawn play "best friends" who take the next step - marriage. The results is nothing but tension until they finally work things out at the end. I liked the family of Hawn's character in Buffalo. The Father is completely kooky. The Mother (Jessica Tandy) is also very funny. The family of Reynold's character is also very funny. He comes from a very proper Southern family. The stresses and tensions of their relationships is basically what the film is all about. In the end, they are resolved. I don't think that the plot is as cohesive as it could have been. Nonetheless, it is a good movie to watch on a rainy day.

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A Look into Hollywood Relationships, 1 October 2006

Author: lambiepie-2 from Los Angeles, CA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Best Friends is one of my very favorite films that deals with love and relationships.

Goldie Hawn and Burt Reynolds are the 'perfect' "Hollywood" couple in this serio-comic look at the never ending question: Do you marry your best friend, and if so, will they stay your best friend?"

Paula (played by Hawn) and Richard (played by Reynolds) are two of Hollywood's sought after screenwriters and they work very well together. After 3 years, Richard decides that he wants to marry his live-in Paula, but Paula has been hesitant because "marriage changes everything". To Paula, everything is fine as is. How interesting that it's the man that wants a long term commitment, and the woman doesn't!

After convincing, Paula marries Richard, but in the worst way possible - she chooses a "walk in chapel" out of the phone book and the ceremony is done barely in English. Next, the biggest problem facing the newlyweds is that neither has seen or spent any time with each others parents, and they decide to visit each of them and spring the news that they got married in person.

They trek on a "cross country journey" in true a Hollywood Screenwriters fantasy - via a cramped, small train to visit Paula's parent's first in Buffalo and then Richard's in Virginia. The parents are not what each envision, they are totally different and somewhat weird on occasion. Needless to say, each set of parents and their families have Paula and Richard questioning what kind of person they actually married.

Also thrown into the middle of this, is that Paula and Richard are working on a screenplay that needs revision after revision. The Producer they are working with (played by Ron Silver) is the epitome of Hollywood Producers - he will say and act however he can - from lying about his child that may or may not exist to finally making real adult decisions - to get his movie done. What makes matters worse is that Paula and Richard have a total breakdown during their trip so the script revisions aren't done by a very tight shooting deadline.

You don't have to know much about Hollywood screen writing to see that this is a story about two people who love each other, but worked so hard that they didn't have time to let anybody else in. They seemed to be compatible, they've known each other for 5 years total - 2 years and then lived together for 3 - who didn't really know each other at all. What they are learning is that their life does not fit into a neatly written screenplay format as they have obviously lived and controlled. And now that their life play has been re-written/revised, can their relationship endure?

I would not say this is a total chick flick, nor is it an adrenaline flowing male romp. It is about two 'best friends' and their paths into real world adulthood and long term commitment.

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3 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
a movie that's not afraid to tackle the best AND worst of relationships., 17 January 2004

Author: triple8 from Conn

I was a kid when I saw this but remember it for it's realism. I love sappy, hollywood unrealistic love stories dearly and I'm not embarrassed to admit that this picture(which does NOT fall into the above mentioned genre) did indeed bore me at certain moments. But it has a realistic quality that many romantic comedies lack and though the relationship between the two main characters isn't always sappy and perfect it does have more of an element of realism then other romantic comedies-it's a realtiohip that is sometimes great, othertimes not so, it's flawed but still real--in other words it's human!

Although this isn't one of my favorite flicks in the whole world I would recomend it for the reasons listed above. A movie doesn't always have to be sappy all the time, to be welldone.

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5 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME! Why isn't it out on the market?, 11 September 2005

Author: cyndisellscondos from United States

I can't think of ANY movie made before or since, that I've seen that compares to this hysterically funny yet dramatic view of relationships.

If you've been married and divorced or lived with someone then married, you have to be able to relate to this movie! It's SOOOOOOOO true to call!

I'm ordering this DVD today- but I haven't seen it for 10 years. Yet~ it's one of those movies I always look for ~ and relate to. It's sticks with you!

DYNAMIC writing- EXCELLENT Performances. The in-law scenes... Blah... But the basic plot and performances- Sensational!

A friend of my daughter (LANA) is an actress and was working with Goldie's son. When Lana called my daughter- All I could yell in the background was for her to GET ME THIS MOVIE!! It's one of a kind!

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5 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Not very friendly, 27 March 2001

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn as sweetheart screenwriters who live together unmarried; soon however, Burt starts feeling his mortality and wants something substantial, Goldie wants to be a team-player...and so they propose to each other in the shower. These rather uninteresting lovers spend the rest of the picture sniping at one another, and director Norman Jewison keeps the pacing at a sitcom-cute crawl. Reynolds and Hawn create a fatigued sort of rapport that certainly suggests they've known each other a while and have built a relationship which can withstand a little irritability, but what's funny about that? So many of the situations here bomb completely, particularly a really stinky one regarding Hawn's father who molests all his housekeepers. Keenan Wynn and Audra Lindley are wonderful as Burt's parents--but after the first hour, "Best Friends" becomes melodramatic and muddled. I didn't believe for one second these two characters would find their happy ending...they're much too self-involved. ** from ****

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0 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
very entertaining, 13 November 2001
Author: Lee-87 from Milwaukee, WI

A nice story, well acted and directed. Reynolds and Hawn at their best. Good range of emotions and quite believable. Interesting locations -- I don't recall a movie shot (at least in part) in Buffalo...

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2 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A Tired Comedy Driven by Star Power, 14 December 2005

Author: ijonesiii from United States

The undeniable charm of its stars, at the peak of their popularity, is the only thing that makes BEST FRIENDS slightly watchable. This paper-thin story centers on a pair of Hollywood screen writers named Richard Babson (Burt Reynolds) and Paula McCullen (Goldie Haw), who after years of living together, decide to marry, though they both have always felt marriage would destroy their relationship. There's nothing new or interesting here and the thrust of the film is when the pair make a trip to visit each other's parents. Jessica Tandy and Barnard Hughes are wonderful as Goldie's parents, Audra Lindley and Keenan Wynn also have their moments as Burt's parents, but the whole thing just plays like a hastily written sitcom. The film is driven purely on star power and has this whole "been there done that" air about it. I think Burt and Goldie must have needed the money.

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