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Movies / Upcoming / Around the Bend
Around the Bend

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Around the Bend (2004)

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29 %
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Reviews Counted:92

Fresh:27

Rotten:65

Average Rating:4.9/10

Runtime: 85 mins

Genre: Dramas

US Box Office: $117,093

Synopsis: "Around the Bend" is inspired by the relationship between writer-director Jordan Roberts and the absentee father he barely knew. It tells the story of four generations of men who are suddenly... "Around the Bend" is inspired by the relationship between writer-director Jordan Roberts and the absentee father he barely knew. It tells the story of four generations of men who are suddenly brought together by the chance to uncover the truth about their family's past. The journey will take them out on the road to a world full of surprises-some comic, some dramatic, and all of them personal. Jason Lair (Josh Lucas) is a simple man with a simple wish: a normal life. This isn't an easy goal for the mild-mannered bank employee: Jason is newly separated from his wife, who has left him to care for their six-year-old son Zach (Jonah Bobo) while she paints in Nepal, and his ailing grandfather Henry (Oscar® winner Michael Caine), a former archaeologist close to death, is investigating alternative rituals for his impending funeral ("I'm not going in the ground!" he protests.) So when Jason's estranged father and Henry's son Turner (Oscar® winner Christopher Walken), whose checkered past includes exploits from the musical to the criminal, pays the family an unexpected visit, nothing is 'simple' or 'normal' in Jason's life anymore. In the coming days, the somewhat reluctant Lair men will embark on a trip not only through the mythic beauty of the Desert Southwest, but across the family's own rocky emotional landscape. Forced together by a deep loss, these very different people find a great deal along the way-devastating secrets, amazing discoveries and, just as Henry wanted… each other. Warner Independent Pictures presents a Kirkham-Lewitt Production "Around the Bend," directed by Jordan Roberts from his original screenplay. Producers are Elliott Lewitt and Julie Kirkham. Executive Producer is Ronald G. Smith. Director of photography is Michael Grady. Production designer is Sarah Knowles. Editor is Francoise Bonnot, A.C.E. Costume designer is Alix Friedberg. Composer is David Baerwald. The film stars Christopher Walken, Josh Lucas and Michael Caine. Also in the film are Glenne Headly, Jonah Bobo and Kathryn Hahn. -- © Warner Independent [More]

Starring: Christopher Walken, Joshua Lucas, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly

Starring: Christopher Walken, Joshua Lucas, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly, Jonah Bobo, Norbert Weisser, David Eigenberg

Director: Jordan Roberts

Director: Jordan Roberts
Screenwriter: Jordan Roberts
Producer: Julie Kirkham, Elliot Lewitt
Composer: David Baerwald
Studio: Warner Independent

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Reviews for Around the Bend

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21 - 40 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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How does a film like this get national distribution when dozens of films exactly like it wallow in Sundance obscurity, never to see the light of day outside Park City?

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment Comment
10/31/04
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

This is the male equivalent of the chick flick. It could have been titled Divine Secrets of the Da-Da Brotherhood.

Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | comment Comment
10/29/04
Joe Baltake
Joe Baltake
Sacramento Bee

Calling this 'tired' gives fatigue a bad name.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
10/29/04
Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

In the end Around the Bend isn't an awful movie. It's merely forgettable.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
10/29/04
Connie Ogle
Connie Ogle
Miami Herald

[A] cloying road/buddy flick.

Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | comment Comment
10/28/04
Steve Schneider
Steve Schneider
Orlando Weekly

All the script has going for it is its tears.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Mercury | comment Comment
10/28/04
Anthony Del Valle
Anthony Del Valle
Las Vegas Mercury

Bend does provide some mild chuckles and gorgeous scenes of rock formations, ruins and blazing sunsets, but it isn't very engaging beyond that.

Full Review Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel | comment Comment
10/28/04
Tracy Allerton
Tracy Allerton
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

[W]alks a fine line that many films fall to navigate: the one that divides wacky-for-wacky’s-sake from the wacky kind of oddballness that characterizes, you know, life.

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
10/28/04
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

The dynamo performance Walken provides is akin to what Michael Jordan did on the basketball court, making everyone around him better.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
10/27/04
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

Given the plotline, how about a KFC promotion in which their chicken is sold in a bucket that's shaped like an urn?

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
10/27/04
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

Endearing performances and a witty script make up for the awkward pacing and maudlin premise. **

Full Review Source: Sympatico.ca | comment Comment
10/27/04
Angela Baldassarre
Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

An ugly secret changes the mood of the piece from maudlin and trite to jarringly maudlin and trite.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
10/26/04
Walter Chaw
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

Jordan Roberts' feature debut pulls off the dizzying high-wire act of being both a misty-eyed glimpse into four generations of the men in the Lair family and a steely meditation on manhood, parenting, and the pitfalls thereof.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
10/24/04
Marc Savlov
Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle

A sentimental journey, to be sure, but is saved by bleakly humorous moments.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
10/22/04
Susan Walker
Susan Walker
Toronto Star

It's a particularly precious form of art-house entertainment, well-acted but ultimately mawkish and forcibly odd, the indie-film equivalent of a Hallmark card.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
10/22/04
M.E. Russell
M.E. Russell
Oregonian

Uneven, with too much going on and too many distractions.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
10/22/04
Liz Braun
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

In Michael Caine and Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas, [Roberts has] surrounded himself with a first-rate cast who, with one exception, seize the day.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
10/22/04
Rick Groen
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail

Walken manages to deliver something pure and heartfelt here. Unfortunately, he's doing so in a film weighed down by coincidences and quirks.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
10/22/04
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News

Seems to think it's extra-crunchy, but winds up a pretty regular affair.

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
10/22/04
Robert Denerstein
Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
10/22/04
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
21 - 40 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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