THE VULGARIZATION OF THE HEARTBREAK KID

Neil Simon must be rolling his eyes somewhere if he’s seen the remake of his 1972 movie The Heartbreak Kid. He wrote the clever script and Elaine May directed the original movie. Charles Grodin played the young Jewish guy who married the wrong nice Jewish girl and fell in love with a blonde shiksa (played by Cybill Shepherd) on his Miami honeymoon. Neil’s delicious script went from comedy to satire to serious drama and back. In the new version, the Farrelly brothers ditched the script and removed all ethnic references – effectively lowering the IQ of the movie. What remains is plenty of gross-out physical humor and vulgar dialogue. If you see the new Heartbreak Kid, do yourself a favor and rent the original. The real heartbreak is what the Farrelly brothers did to Neil Simon’s script.

13 Comments so far

1. By Eva
   On October 5, 2007 at

   The Farrelly brothers have never made a decent film and never will!

2. By LAME-ITY LAME LAME
   On October 5, 2007 at

   only two posts so far in one day? LAME

3. By judy
   On October 5, 2007 at

   I was wondering if this was a remake of the original Heartbreak Kid. That is a good movie, it was funny as hell on the honeymoon.
   Can’t these people come up with anything original anymore?

4. By cazie
   On October 5, 2007 at

   The same thing happens with a lot of remakes…they remove what was the heart of the flick, the dialogue, and the remakes tank. “Yours, Mine & Ours” for ex.

5. By Anonymous
   On October 5, 2007 at

   I havent read any decent reviews of this film either.
   But what do you expect with what his name as the male lead?
   HE HAS NO APPEAL AT ALL.

6. By Margo Channing
   On October 6, 2007 at

   It just proves that there are no new stories to tell in Hollywood.

7. By Nat Bussichio
   On October 6, 2007 at

   “He who learns must suffer. Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, and against our will, comes wisdom by the awful grace of God.”

8. By Anonymous
   On October 6, 2007 at

   You mean Hollywood passed up a perfect opportunity to make a movie with the little-represented “jewish theme?”
   Say it isn’t so.
   (What is the keyboard combination to denote extreme sarcasm?)

9. By Anonymous
   On October 6, 2007 at

   Oh there are plenty of movies involving Jews, but they always make Jewish women out to be unpleasant.
   And by the way, Jesus was a Jew, so while you are stewing about how awful Jews are, think about that, genius.

10. By Anonymous
    On October 7, 2007 at

    ^^^The movies that “always make jewish women out to be unpleasant” are called documentaries.

11. By Anonymous
    On October 7, 2007 at

    Oh that was original.

12. By Anonymous
    On October 8, 2007 at

    So glad it tanked at the box office this weekend. What a shame to bastardize a great film.

13. By Stan
    On October 14, 2007 at

    I never saw the original. I am sorry I missed it but I am really sorry that I sawe this version. I don’t mind gross humor but here it just wasn’t funny.

13 Responses to “THE VULGARIZATION OF THE HEARTBREAK KID”