Sour Grapes
Sour Grapes
R | 17 April 1998 (USA)
Sour Grapes Trailers

The bond between cousins is tested when one wins a fortune with the other's money at Atlantic City.

Reviews
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.
Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
imilic-1 I'm a Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fan. What I liked in this movie was its unique story and how things get going. Things get complicated like in Seinfeld and CYE, but that could have been done better. It's not so funny like in Larry David's sitcoms. Larry should have added more humor and talk-jokes in the movie script. It's like I'm watching a Seinfeld episode written by an amateur stand-up comedian. Larry, it was because of the money, wasn't'it? Both characters are very much like Larry David. They talk and make gestures in the same way Larry does in Curb Your Enthusiasm; this can be very annoying and boring (like "Pretty, pretty, pretty good..."). And the guy who won at the casino is not such a good actor. He reminds me of Stephen Snedden from spin off series The Lone Gunmen - he is really that bad. And his wife resembles Susie from Curb Your Enthusiasm. And that horrible soundtrack! It's always the same song over and over again. And I used to like classic music...
MisterWhiplash Although it's been a long time since I've seen Sour Grapes, the experience of seeing it- preferably alongside another Seinfeld fan- was fairly pleasant, in that biting Larry David tone. This was the only time David wrote and directed a film, and it does show that he's giving a good try to tell a story within the framework of a film feature all the way through. It's somehow quite an entertaining piece of quietly (or not so quietly) deranged satire on envy, sexual frustration, and the condition of a principle of something. The premise is simple- two good friends go out to Las Vegas to gamble, one friend asks the other for a quarter for a slot machine, and via the quarter in the slot machine the guy wins a helluva lot of money. By the friend with the original quarter's estimation, a part of that change is his, but the friend now says that it isn't. A likely Seinfeld sub-plot is stretched out so that the ideas are given a little breathing room, even if one recognizes that, perhaps, it would be a masterpiece if it were simply a Seinfeld episode, or more appropriately a Curb Your Enthusiasm with even more acidic humor and total unease thrown at the situation.Around the premise, David also tosses in a supporting character who has one of his testicles removed- the wrong one by the doctor, who is one of the friends- and despite his now high voice (ho-ho) he seeks out some payback. That's one of the clearest big gags, as obvious as it is, is the moment when the 'testicle-man', as one might be tempted to describe him, is told by the doctor that the wrong one was taken out during surgery, to his immediate fainted response in a cut-away. On top of this, David experiments with some stupid sex humor (not that there wasn't at least a little later on on CYE, eg Jeff's mother's ass at a stoplight), like with Bierko's character in the self-humiliation of not being able to, um, 'service' himself in a certain way, under the stress of the tear in the friendship. As mentioned, none of this really makes for the kind of classic comedy one might expect, or crave, from maybe one of the only geniuses (yeah, I said it) working in comedy today. But as almost something of a fluke, it does its job well.
Bjarte Lund Rolland I actually thought it was kinda funny. It was certainly entertaining, and it was very Larry David, perhaps too much? I found that the main problem with the film was the awful casting, except for Orlando Jones. I honestly think this would have made a better film with a different cast and crew. The writing is good, it has the suspense and the story progress of a feature length movie, and it's entertaining. But I found myself imagining the cast of Seinfeld all the way, which was disturbing. They should have made a bigger effort of making it differ further from Seinfeld, but then I guess it wouldn't been made in the first place. This film was after all made at the peak of Seinfeld's success. What could have been a decent film ends up as a spin-off, but entertaining enough. The Friends-spoof is all worth it though!
Jack the Ripper1888 I have seen some sarcastic films, and SOUR GRAPES is one of the most sarcastic. From one of the guys who brought us "Seinfeld". That pretty much says it all. There were some parts of the film that I thought were just stupid and not funny, but all in all, the whole thing was pretty good.My family and I watched this film right before we watched DEEP RISING, and it kind of put us to sleep a little bit, but the whole thing had some humor that had us all laughing out loud. The sexual humor is funny as hell and I really enjoyed the whole idea of the film. It was quite original and very, very clever.I can't think of any really good recommendations, except for maybe WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? starring Martin Lawrence and Danny Devito, and maybe catch a couple of reruns of some "Seinfeld" episodes on TV. That should do you fine if you liked this film. All in all, a good watch with some really hilarious humor, but there were segments of hte movie that didn't really do much for me.SOUR GRAPES: 3/5.