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List Price: $19.99 | | Label: Touchstone / Disney
Salesrank: 1637
Released: September 8, 2000 |
| Our Price: $5.34 |
| Used Price: $3.55 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Follows the love affairs and belated growing up of a \""Generation X\"" pop music fanatic and record store owner.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 8-APR-2003
Media Type: DVD
Description of High Fidelity:
Transplanted from England to the not-so-mean streets of Chicago, the screen adaptation of Nick Hornby's cult-classic novel High Fidelity emerges unscathed from its Americanization, idiosyncrasies intact, thanks to John Cusack's inimitable charm and a nimble, nifty screenplay (cowritten by Cusack). Early-thirtysomething Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a slacker who owns a vintage record shop, a massive collection of LPs, and innumerable top-five lists in his head. At the opening of the film, Rob recounts directly to the audience his all-time top-five breakups--which doesn't include his recent falling out with his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle), who has just moved out of their apartment. Thunderstruck and obsessed with Laura's desertion (but loath to admit it), Rob begins a quest to confront the women who instigated the aforementioned top-five breakups to find out just what he did wrong.
Low on plot and high on self-discovery, High Fidelity takes a good 30 minutes or so to find its groove (not unlike Cusack's Grosse Pointe Blank), but once it does, it settles into it comfortably and builds a surprisingly touching momentum. Rob is basically a grown-up version of Cusack's character in Say Anything (who was told "Don't be a guy--be a man!"), and if you like Cusack's brand of smart-alecky romanticism, you'll automatically be won over (if you can handle Cusack's almost-nonstop talking to the camera). Still, it's hard not to be moved by Rob's plight. At the beginning of the film he and his coworkers at the record store (played hilariously by Jack Black and Todd Louiso) seem like overgrown boys in their secret clubhouse; by the end, they've grown up considerably, with a clear-eyed view of life. Ably directed by Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons), High Fidelity features a notable supporting cast of the women in Rob's life, including the striking, Danish-born Hjejle, Lisa Bonet as a sultry singer-songwriter, and the triumphant triumvirate of Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Rob's ex-girlfriends. With brief cameos by Tim Robbins as Laura's new, New Age boyfriend and Bruce Springsteen as himself. --Mark Englehart
High Fidelity Reviews:
Charming....Really! Sensitivity Warning, though. 
2008-06-22 -
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. John Cusack is his usual charming man-next-door with issues. Jack Black plays his standard stick-it-to-the-man rebel with a heart. Three men with extreme and unnecessary music knowledge spend their days and nights together bantering, arguing and not living their lives. The "non-musical" are excluded from their club, and they even have issues with each other.
Throw a break-up with a long-term girlfriend in the mix and watch as the world begins to crash for Rob (Cusack). In his attempt to deal with reality, he decides, in lad-lit-style narration, to go back and revisit where he went wrong. He consults his Five Worst Break-ups and attempts to discover why he has such lousy luck with women.
Warning to the sensitive....and I hesitated to rent this because of the R rating for sex and language...you never really know how bad it's going to be. There are cloaked sex scenes, and one nightmare/daydream sex scene that is pretty brutal. The F-word is a main player but is not as tossed around as often as it could be.
Overall, there is clever dialogue and great insight into the way people think. I loved the exploration and growth that the main characters chose instead of the path of continued dysfunction and stagnancy. I laughed out loud several times.
If you love Cusack or Black and/or love films like About a Boy, and can handle above stated issues, I think you might find much to like in High Fidelity.
Bought it for one song...
2008-06-03 - To be frank, I bought this album for "Let's Get It On" as performed by Jack Black. It has a lot of other good songs on it, too, which I have been known to listen to, but I really bought it because iTunes was going to force me to buy the whole album for the one song I wanted. It was cheaper to buy the CD and use iTunes' import feature.
EXCELLENT COMEDY WITH A GREAT CAST! 
2008-02-03 - Watching this film again now for the first time since it's released, I found this movie better than ever! The cast especially Cusack and Black are at the top of their game in this smart and relevant love story. Backed by a killer soundtrack this film is heads and shoulders above most romantic comedies. There are many dramas that with they rang as true as this film.
Best Cusack comedy ever (so far) !
2008-01-19 - John Cusack is a very funny guy! And, he definitely does not disappoint as the neurotic narcissistic record-store owner with relationship "issues" in High Fidelity. But, what really sets this one apart from the other brilliant work by Cusack is the high-energy supporting performance by Jack Black and Todd Louiso's hip nerdishness. The whole thing just crack's me up!
Funny and Insightful
2007-11-29 - A great adaptation of one of my favorite books. John Cusack gives a great performance as he struggles with the meaning of love and relationships. Reminds me of Time and Tide - another funny and thougtful film about dating and memory.
