![Notting Hill [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qtvdQQgyL._SL160_.jpg) | |
List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 15891
Released: August 28, 2007 |
| Our Price: $3.99 |
| Used Price: $5.99 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: HD DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) is the world's most famous movie star. Her picture has been plastered on the cover of every magazine, and every time she makes a move, the entire world knows about it. William Thacker (Hugh Grant) owns a travel bookstore in the quaint neighborhood of Notting Hill. His business is stagnant, he has the roommate from hell and his love life is completely nonexistent. Then one day, their paths cross and the couple comes to face the ultimate question: can two people fall in love with the whole world watching?
Description of Notting Hill [HD DVD]:
They don't really make many romantic comedies like Notting Hill anymore--blissfully romantic, sincerely sweet, and not grounded in any reality whatsoever. Pure fairy tale, and with a huge debt to Roman Holiday, Notting Hill ponders what would happen if a beautiful, world-famous person were to suddenly drop into your life unannounced and promptly fall in love with you. That's the crux of the situation for William Thacker (Hugh Grant), who owns a travel bookshop in London's fashionable Notting Hill district. Hopelessly ordinary (well, as ordinary as you can be when you're Hugh Grant), William is going about his life when renowned movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) walks into his bookstore and into his heart. After another contrived meet-cute involving spilled orange juice, William and Anna share a spontaneous kiss (big suspension of disbelief required here), and soon both are smitten. The question is, of course, can William and Anna reconcile his decidedly commonplace bookseller existence and her lifestyle as a jet-setting, paparazzi-stalked celebrity? (Take a wild guess at the answer.) Smartly scripted by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and directed by Roger Michell (Persuasion), Notting Hill is hardly realistic, but as wish fulfillment and a romantic comedy, it's irresistible. True, Roberts doesn't really have to stretch very far to play a big-time actress who makes $15 million per movie, but she's more winning and relaxed than she's been in years, and Grant is sweetly understated as a man blindsided by love. Together, in moments of quiet, they're a charming couple, and you can feel her craving for real love and his awe and amazement at the wonderful person for whom he has fallen. The only blight on the film is its overbearing pop soundtrack, though Elvis Costello's heart-wrenching version of "She" gets poignant exposure. With Rhys Ifans as Grant's scene-stealing, slovenly housemate and Alec Baldwin in a sly, perfectly cast cameo. --Mark Englehart
Notting Hill [HD DVD] Reviews:
Nothing Hill, more like! 
2009-10-03 - One star for scruffy and slightly drunk Dylan Moran, who plays Rufus the thief. Everybody else in this film (including the film) is useless and hopeless (or, as an average American would say, "sux hard and loud").
Solid romantic effort 
2009-09-12 - The Bottom Line:
At 124 minutes Notting Hill clocks in a little long and some of the attempts at broad humor (particularly the roommate character played by Rhys Ifans) fall flat, but Notting Hill is by and large an enjoyable romantic comedy from Richard Curtis with Hugh Grant at his Hugh Grantiest and Julia Roberts presenting a pleasant and attractive foil; it's probably weaker than Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral but it's enjoyable enough.
3/4
Didn't quite hook me. 
2009-07-19 - This film definitely had it's funny parts which made me laugh out loud, although those parts mostly occurred by the supporting actors. I think that a successful romantic comedy makes you fall in love with the romantic couple. In this film, I didn't feel the chemistry between Hugh and Julia. She kisses him in the beginning for no reason. They didn't talk much when they were together. He obsesses over her, but we only know that because the supporting actors tell us so. This film had potential, but didn't quite hook me.
Chick Flick 
2009-07-02 - And I love it! Have seen it many times & had to add it to my collection.
Notting Hill 
2009-06-16 - I am very happy! Love the movie, can't even count how many times I have already watch it!! ;) Thank you Amazon