Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

jejcruzn The move now feels like from a time that has gone by. I found the movie to be well casted. I thought that Klein was perfect as the rich WASPY preppy.

Python Hyena Here on Earth (2000): Dir: Mark Piznarski / Cast: Chris Klein, Leelee Sobieski, Josh Hartnett, Michael Rooker, Bruce Greenwood: Depressing film where girls left the theatre in tears. I cried too after realizing the money I spent to view the shame. Title regards a reality check although there is no proof that the filmmakers clued in. Mable's Diner goes up in flames after a drag race between two high school graduates who are competing for the affections of a female. Charges are dropped pending that the boys help rebuild Mable's Diner. Frankly I think they should have been forced to write a better screenplay. It is clear that Chris Klein and Leelee Sobieski will fall in love and that ex-boyfriend Josh Hartnett will stop acting like an ass. Dull and depressing with director Mark Piznarski doing the best he can. Klein is given an embarrassing scene where he gets drunk and talks to cows. Sobieski has medical problems and refuses remedies. Hartnett is tiresome and repetitious, and that accepting forced grin he gives at the end is enough to make you puke. Michael Rooker appears as one of the stone faced stern authorities making sure Mable's Diner lives again. Bruce Greenwood plays the standard Sheriff and that's about it. Nothing we haven't seen before. Theme of taking responsibility for your actions bypassed for a film so lame one suspects that the screenwriter wasn't here on earth. Score: 2 / 10

Hannalee Hannalee I want to be generous, so--I'll give it a 4. The makers spliced two films: in the first, two stupid young boys do stupid things, then get directed by a wise judge onto a life road where they grow up and turn into men (this plot element comes unnoticeably to fruition, if at all); the second movie hacked in half and appended to this one is Love Story. My mother wanted to watch this movie and I wanted to keep her company, but it was getting unbearable, even with the pretty scenery, so I decided to look up the actors because she was curious. When I found out the young heroine was terminally ill with cancer, I decided that might be just interesting enough to enable me to stick it out.

kurt_messick Perhaps I am a softie or a romantic, but I can't agree with many who pan this film. It is far from the greatest of films, but it was touching in many ways. It is rather formulaic, but the formula works here for the most part. A rich upstart teenager comes into a small town and manages to get into a fight with a local and burn down the local diner. In a made-for-television kind of Solomonic wisdom, the judge sentences them to work together to rebuild the diner, Mabel's Table, the 'hot spot' of this whistle-stop town. Rich out-of-towner and local boy fight over the local girl, who has a tragic secret she is concealing.Leelee Sobieski, plays the lead as Samantha, the local girl track star whose knee gave out, jeopardising her chance to go to college. Chris Klein plays Kelley, the spoiled rich kid who is nonetheless intelligent and has a heart he begins to discover during his time in the small town. Josh Hartnett is Jasper, the local boy who wants nothing more than to keep things the way they are, including his relationship with Samantha. Most of these performances are serviceable without being stellar; they are typical romantic B-film fare, with many long, ponderous glances overlooking scenic views, and silly situations in which everyday life is shown.The action is slow, but then, it isn't meant to be a fast-paced film. Samantha is torn between the comfortable sameness of her life in the small town with Jasper and her family, and the attraction that rich 'bad boy' Kelley represents, particularly after she learns he does have a heart. Samantha overhears Kelley reciting the valedictory speech he was prevented from delivering because of his sentence to build the diner; Kelley in the end does get to the deliver the speech, under different circumstances.Jasper and Kelley fight (both verbally and physically) over the affections of Samantha, but when Samantha falls ill, they are able to put this aside for her sake. The diner is rebuilt, the town is restored to wholeness, but the situation with Jasper, Kelley and Samantha enters a new dimension, as fate has a different ending in store that none of them anticipated at the beginning of the summer.The other actors in the film are really background for the tale - few stand out, but one who does is Annette O'Toole, who plays Samantha's mother, a role very similar to the one she takes up on 'Smallville' as Clark Kent's mother.The story is gentle, sad, poignant - not terribly original, but very understandable in human terms. Love is unpredictable, and love often hurts. Love sometimes requires a sacrifice. Love can transform you. These are all themes that come across in the film, if not always terribly successfully.It is a film worth watching, though.