Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Everything is such a generic cliché - a never-do well embarrassing father, a jerk of an older brother, a brat of a little one, a girl who is ashamed of her growing breasts, a junkie of a cousin, blah blah, everyone is so stupid and does such stupid things it hurts, a generic cliché story, distilled by bad and an occasional good joke. Jaw-breakingly while yawning boring.

Slums of Beverly Hills is one of those movies that can make you laugh and touch your heart within the same scene.The beautiful and talented Natasha Lyonne plays the part of Vivian who, with her brothers and her father (Alan Arkin), skip from one cheap apartment to another trying to stay within the Beverly Hills city limits. Murray (Arkin) likes the schools. Vivian has her own issues to deal with. She hates that they move so much, she hates that they're poor, she hates her boobs. But she likes Eliot (Kevin Corrigan), the pot dealer next door.As if all this isn't enough, enter Rita (Marisa Tomei), Vivian's promiscuous, drinking, pill popping cousin. Her father doesn't know what to do with her, so Murray offers to take her in, if her father will finance a bigger and nicer apartment for them. One disaster follows another as their family situation implodes. Carl Reiner and Rita Moreno have a cameo as Rita's parents.There is a moral to the story. Money doesn't buy happiness. We've all heard that one before. It proves true in this case, as Vivian and her amusingly dysfunctional family do have one thing her rich relatives do not. When all's said and done, they have each other.

I'm surprised at this film's low rating. I remember really liking this when I saw it in the theatre back in 1998.I didn't realize until coming here to write this comment that Tamara Jenkins directed this. She directed one of my favorite films from a couple of years ago, "The Savages." No wonder I liked this one as well."Slums of Beverly Hills" is a female coming of age story featuring an appealing Natasha Lyonne, who enjoyed a brief period of productivity in the late 90s and since has seemed to disappear from the scene. It's a quirky, very funny little film, not about any big theme but rather about a bunch of little ones. There's an especially hilarious scene featuring Lyonne, Marisa Tomei and a vibrator.Grade: A

Marvel as children deal with their father's madness--well or badly.Alan Arkin plays Murray Abromowitz, a troubled single father who turns his children's' lives upside-down--again and again--in an attempt to resolve his own inner conflicts. This is all quite charming and funny. That is, until the darker side of his existence begins to surface.His eldest child Rita (Marissa Tomei) has found a shaky equilibrium away from home, whereas his younger daughter Vivian (Natasha Lyonne) is finding a more graceful way to balance growing up with her father's nuttiness.Watch as just how Daddy got so screwed up suddenly appears before your very eyes. Carl Reiner shows up as his successful, snobbish--and sadistic--older brother. I refuse to spoil the movie for any human being who hasn't seen it yet.I can't say just how wonderful this movie is!