Almost Normal (2005)

One of my all time favorites.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

I myself love the Idea. I think anyone GLBT person who went through the public school system could appreciate the idea of waking up back in High School in a world were we were considered normal. However this very basic Idea is where my love for this movie ends. The first problem the acting was horrible! You could tell from the first few minutes where every character either overacts or underacts his part. The second problem with the movie was the script and the speed of which events took place. The movie was very short and it really showed. You barley see his supposedly horrible lonely life at 40 before the audience is whisked away back to the main characters teen years. Once their things move at super speed. Within 10 minutes of waking up 22 years younger not only does he completely believe that he traveled back in time to a reality where gay is normal( I could see at least a few minutes being spent on thinking this is a trick or a drunken dream)but he runs into his dream guy who is obviously in love with him. Give him at least a few minutes to explore his new environment. Of course within the next few minutes they become boyfriends. Now the next part of the plot wouldn't have been my favorite even in a good movie but I could have accepted it if it had been done well. Again within a few minutes of declaring himself in love with his hunk boyfriend he meets this new girl and immediately falls for her. First have the character spend more than 10 minutes with the guy he has been lusting after for 22 years.I would have liked to see at least half an hour spent on Brad and the main character as a couple. Lastly have a real sexual Identity struggle. In the movie shortly after declaring his love for Brad the main character meets the girl and falls immediately in love. Not even questioning the homosexual feelings he has always had. I'm not saying its impossible for a gay guy to fall in love with a girl, but their is usually a struggle period where the guy questions it. In this movie he falls immediately in love and never even considers Brad his crush for 22 years. Over all I wish they would remake this movie with Hollywood actors, a top notch script writer and a run time of two and a half hours. Overall the general idea is very good and with the right actors, script and time frame in which to display all the segments of the movie realistically and in depth it could be a great film portraying gay rights, gender neutral love and sexual identity struggle. If Hollywood remade it I might consider going to see it again.

This is such an annoying movie! Maybe there is an audience for it somewhere, but I'm glad I don't know anybody in it.It pretends to invert the gay/straight imbalance, but it does it so unevenly that it ends up alienating gays even more than we are already. The most annoying inequity: the ONLY sex scene, and the ONLY serious kissing (with tongues, open mouths and credible passion), are between straight couples, although in the world being shown gay is the norm and straight is taboo. The kissing between same-sex couples looks like me kissing my grandmother, every time it happens, and it happens a lot because that's how the movie drives home its insufferably heavy-handed message.If in a world dominated by people like me (i. e., gay people), the only ones who have good sex and the only ones who are passionately attracted to each other are the straight minority, no wonder the star switches teams so easily and eagerly. The preposterous, predictable ending, which I suppose was meant to surprise and delight us, to force a smile onto our faces and a tear into our eyes as we left the theatre, just made me angrier.I don't care what point this obnoxious movie was trying to make; I HATED it.

Unhappy middle-aged gay man gets transported back to his high school days, and everyone's gay! Including the boy of his dreams. A nifty concept, but it gets derailed halfway through when our hero suddenly falls for a girl, which in itself isn't a problem--but he's been gay the whole time, and suddenly has feelings for a girl, and doesn't even pause to question this sudden 180- degree turn in his sexuality, he just pursues her. The film then wanders off into 80s teen-film land, with moral lessons for all about acceptance.If the film had remained an exploration of this one fellow's problems with his own life, the premise would have worked really well. Too bad it didn't do that.Other strangeness: the auto repair guy with the uncanny ability to find our hero at crucial moments in unlikely places, the two brothers mentioned at the start who never appear except for one at the very end, as he's about to return to his real life, the del sol that is miraculously repaired twice using 1970s junkyard parts. Amazing!

This movie can't decide if its goal is to preach, amuse, sadden, or just plain annoy the viewer. Is this the gay "Peggy Sue Got Married", "Back to the Future", "The Wizard of Oz", or a confused amalgam of all 3, with some PG-13 "Queer as Folk" thrown in??Particularly annoying was the unused opportunity to have the role-reversed world be even an iota better than the current state of right wing homophobia extant in America today.Mediocre acting, poor editing, and an uneven script result in a sub-standard movie watching experience. Thank goodness for Fast Forward.