Very disappointing...

Great Film overall

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The acting in this movie is really good.

In 1962 UCLA, Ned Bleuer (Gabriel Olds) is alone as he recalls his adolescent with his best friends. Their dream girl Marilyn Monroe has just been fired from 'Something's Got to Give'. Roy Darpinian (Jason Priestley) is a hustler working with the Gallo brothers (Kurt Fuller, Stephen Tobolowsky) and about to go to Army boot camp. One-legged Scott Foreman (Jerry O'Connell) is getting married. Ned is wasting his life in a toy store. Roy convinces the guys to go on a road trip to meet Marilyn.The guys lack chemistry. It feels like the characters are slam together while the narration drones on. It needs more scenes of the group together before they go on the mission. Priestley is seriously annoying. Olds is bland. O'Connell has little to do. This is a superficial group with little to offer. Their mission is boring. It takes a long time before the movie shows any heart. It's not funny. It has little charm.

Almost nobody's seen this movie, but it's secretly a great film. Funny all the way through. One of Jason Priestly's early films and he's great as in everything he does. (No not all of his films are good, but he's good in all of them). It's a movie you don't think you'll want to watch and 15 minutes in, you want to watch the whole thing. Enjoyable, very quotable, and about what every man dreams of-meeting Marilyn Monroe.

Three friends grow up worshipping Marilyn Monroe. When they are in their late teens they decide to drive out to Hollywood to meet her. Roy, Ned and Scott head off a week before Roy is due to join the army. They stay with Roy's uncle Harvey and begin their quest, however Roy has borrowed mobster money and his fathers car for the trip and before long the Gallo brothers come looking for their cash.As I sat to watch this, it did cross my mind that I didn't really need to watch another coming of age movie set in the 50's and 60's. However I thought the premise was interesting enough to justify the time. However the film fails to use the idea of the quest to meet Monroe to raise anything more than a few laughs. We also have to deal with the usual subplots of teenage angst, girls, sex, anger at father etc, these take even more of the comedy away leaving a so-so comedy with bits of drama forced in.The characters are standard – Priestly plays the cocky one, Olds plays the thoughtful one and O'Connell plays the shy, cowardly one. The only interest is provided by the support cast - Pantoliano is good as Roy's uncle with a typically Hollywood obsession with looks and Tobolowsky and Fuller provide the only quirky characters as the Gallo's. The idea of Monroe as the holy grail would have worked better if the film didn't try to have her as a shadow but also use her – her memory is badly used here.Overall this has some funny scenes but not enough to justify the film. The coming of age drama doesn't really work and I think we've all got the `seize the day' message by now. Average.

It's not violent, funny, great, dramatic, nor lame. It's plain and simple, just an ordinary movie with a good plot, but not great either. It was a clash between fun and boring as well.When I was younger, during my so-called "Teenie-bopper" days (which are now long gone now that I'm older), I loved Jason Priestley! I would tune into Beverly Hills 90210 everyday to see his face! I had posters of him plastered on my wall and one on the ceiling above my bed! Plus I had stickers, book covers, notebooks, you name it! Those were the days! I think I was like eleven years old or so. Now that I'm an eighteen year old girl, I look back at those days and say, "What was I thinking?" But I guess all girls (and sometimes boys) go through that "Teenie-bopper" phase in their early teens, but it always fades away eventually. (**grin**)Anyhow, back in those days, I thought that this was the best movie I ever saw in my life, but now, I look at it and see just a simple and plain movie. It could be better in so many ways, but simplicity usually makes something turn out to be good. That's all this movie is...it's just good. It's not great, but it's not terrible either. It's just good.Jason Priestley (who played smooth talking Roy) was good in this movie. I mean, it was a far cry from his (former) 90210 character, Brandon Walsh (who could forget Mr. Clean-Cut Brandon Walsh?). Now, Jason's no longer on 90210 and is married.And Jerry O'Connell had the perfect face to play the dorky Scott, who had the wooden leg and was engaged to Becky. Of course, Jerry went on to star in other roles like in "Joe's Apartment" and "Scream 2".By the way, what ever happened to Gabriel Olds (who played Ned, the peace maker of the group)?????