one of my absolute favorites!

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I like this movie for a lot of different reasons. There was certainly a lot of good characters,, but other than the character Nora,, and Merle Stiker none of them were likeable. The first 3/4 was good but i found the ending a little too much like a Simpson episode where Grandpa encourages Bart and his friend to go after the town bully. For me, seeing the town,, and yes the town Trona actually exists, was a real eye opener. I can't image living in a place that hot,, where nothing grows and your front 'lawn' is dirt. There are no trees... wow.

Although back when the movie was made, some of them did not have that star power they had later (and some still) in their career. DeVito is well known of course, or was better known and he has a nice role in this. It's actually a slow burning comedy though, one where Danny does not have to "explode" or go all crazy or anything.That also means, that some might not have the patience to actually sit through this one. There is good humor in this and it can be a fun watch, but it's not exactly laugh out loud material you're being served here. Not sure if comparisons would make this look better for some (especially to Juno as another reviewer remarked), but if you like small budget movies or find yourself to be a fan of most of the cast, you will have at least some fun watching this (it's more than decent overall)

shallow undeveloped story line - a six grader could have done better. I happen to like Devito, which was my reason for renting this movie in the first place. I was looking forward to a good laugh, but the humor was so exaggerated that it was not funny anymore (Charlene's psychological state and the line about french kisses). Having put up with the beginning of life in a deadbeat town, I was hoping for a turnaround in the movie the way it was described on the cover. However the second half hardly hardly went beyond the cover description. Opportunities to develop the plot and characters wer passed up, that I was left wondering why an actor like Danny DeVito agreed to be in the movie in the first place. Maybe it was his only chance to get a piece of Cerina Vincent. Sorry to say so, but I was disappointed

I have always been fascinated by Trona since the first time I drove through it some 15 years ago, reminds me of a full scale model railroad town and it looks like perhaps no other place in California...Trona has a bit of a reputation , it is the least expensive place to live in California and , consequently, you will find a lot of dead enders in this little town, people on fixed incomes , ice heads and everything in between , there is not a lot in the way of law enforcement in the town ....Trona, as is pointed out in this movie, was not always like this , there are plenty of good , hard working people there who remember better days...and no doubt dream of future better days...the town is situated in the most striking high desert any desert lover would fall in love with, it is on the way to Death Valley and was once a hangout for Charles Manson, Manson's last redoubt was the Barker Ranch which is, by way of the crow flying, no more then maybe 10 or 15 miles.....But back to the film at hand Ray Tuckby {Played by Dylan Walsh} is one of these people who remember better days, his personal life, mainly his marriage , has taken a hit and worse yet , the town has been taken over by a skinhead meth syndicate who pretty much run the town, extorting money from the residents and selling drugs and worst of all, sucking the town's young people into there activities ...... A gentleman by the name of Merl {played by Danny DeVito} comes to town to open a gas station. Merl is a very positive person who, at first, is naive to the town's ways.....Merl meets Ray, Ray tells Merl about the town, Merl tells Ray that it is never too late to dream and envision a better life, they form a fast friendship....to cut to the chase, this builds a fire under Ray to take the town back , and to be with a woman named Nora {Played by the lovely Tracy Middendorf }whom he has admired ever since high school, she is a huge upgrade from his estranged wife, and that is putting it mildly..The movie was beautifully shot and of the three movies I have seen that deal with Trona {"Trona" , "Land Of Plenty" and this film} "Just add water" is the most comprehensive look at Trona yet . The message of the film is indeed very inspiring and does indeed show that one man with a dream can indeed change himself and the people around him {there is even some narration to that affect} My only quibble I would have with the film is that they borrowed the saga of Keeler California which was on the eastern side of the now dry Owens Lake, This is a whole other story altogether, in short, the city of Los Angeles diverted the Owens River nearly a hundred years ago for there own water purposes, drying Owens Lake and creating an environmental disaster that still has major ramifications......I will forgive this fusion of stories...Trona is on the western side of Searles Dry Lake...the key difference being that it is a ice age era lake and has been dry for 10,000 years......and I certainly would have no objections to it refilling .....regards and enjoy, Darryl....PS "Land Of Plenty" is a fine film as well....