Girl Walks Into a Bar
Girl Walks Into a Bar
R | 07 March 2011 (USA)
Girl Walks Into a Bar Trailers

A sharp-witted comedy that follows a group of apparent strangers in interlocking stories taking place in ten different bars during the course of one evening throughout Los Angeles.

Reviews
Ed-Shullivan

I was really looking forward to watching this movie as the cast was in my opinion just filled with many of those near "A" star type actors that just really never get the credit that they so long deserve. One of my favourite under rated actors is Robert Forster and he did not disappoint me in his role as a guy named Dodge. Dodge first appears half way in to the film and he is the father of a son and a daughter. His son is a grifter named Henry played by Aaron Tveit, and his daughter is a stripper named Teresa played by Emmanuelle Chriqui. It would appear that Henry has learned his trade as a Grifter, from his dad Dodge, and his sister Teresa is not too fond of how their daddy has earned his living.Carla Gugino is the main star of the film and the only constant character throughout the film. She plays a private eye named Francine Driver who is working undercover as a purported hit lady who is hired by a dentist named Nick played by Zachary Quinto to kill his wife. Unfortunately for Francine after successfully capturing on tape a clear confession by Nick the dentist to kill his wife, Francine runs in to the handsome young grifter named Henry played by Aaron Tveit who picks her purse. Henry steals Francine's wallet and the video recording of the dentist's confession that he wants his wife murdered and is willing to pay $20K for the (phony) hit lady to complete the job.So the story line does sound interesting doesn't it? Unfortunately as Francine is seen travelling from bar to bar in search of the grifter Henry who stole her tape recording we are subjected to far too much irrelevant rhetoric from a cast of characters that just went on about nothing. This is where I felt the movie had lost me, and although adding bona fide actors like Rosario Dawson and Gil Bellows should have made the film more intriguing, I felt the film went flat.I was hoping for more of an entertaining story as the entire film takes place in a series of bars with characters that somehow intertwine. When you have stars such as Danny DeVito, Josh Hartnett, Xander Berkeley, Zachary Quinto, Carla Gugino, Gil Bellows, and Rosario Dawson, a viewer just expects more from the movie. As an example, I cannot say enough about the fine film Dinner Rush which starred Danny Aiello, and also took place entirely in a restaurant bar. Now Dinner Rush was just an awesome film which I am sure to watch again. As for A Girl Walks In To A Bar, the title is a misnomer, since the girl in question Francine Driver, walks in to a number of bars and I walked out of the film being very much short changed. I gave it a 4 out of 10 rating and that is based on two strong performances by Robert Forster and Carla Gugino, otherwise my rating would have been lower.

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djderka

Girl Walks Into a Bar seems like it wants to be Crash, but in a bar and deals with inter-connective stories about bar denizens who walk in and imbibe their favorite drink.However, this movie tries to be clever with some so-so banter, but ultimately falls flat as a beer that has been sitting on a 'set designed' bar for two days.If you want a 'bar' movie, try Albino Alligator, which is far superior and a lot more interesting. Or even Palmetto.It seems the director decided to make an 'quippy intelligent dialog' movie so as to score some very hot babes that were thinking, 'hey no action so this must be a cool movie"...NOT. Well.."I'll just show off some skin".There were some interesting dialog lines, but I forgot what they were, but I did snicker tho at the line. Certainly nothing up to the quality of "You do know how to whistle don't you? You just put your lips together and blow". But then Gutierrez is no Julius Epstein or Billy Wilder.It is worth watching for the chick factor. But if you ain't Ionesco or Wilder or even Tarantino better be careful what you are writing without action and thin plots of 'connectivity'. Rosario Dawson is totally hot in this flick.Wait...Bulletin..this could have been a satire or parody of bar movies. Then, well, it still didn't work. If you want parodies check out the Scary Movie series and Airplane I and II. If is free though, on Retro TV or HBO, you might check it out. I enjoyed parts of the movie.

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napierslogs

"Girl Walks Into a Bar" is, at once, both better and worse than it was marketed as: A witty comedy with a cast of strangers in inter-locking stories. It's the inter-locking stories part that gets disconcerting. That generally means we get too many loosely-related stories with too many characters that we barely get to know with meaningless plot lines that don't go anywhere. This movie isn't that, it's mostly better.There are only two story lines, born from each other, with arguably two or three main characters. And the beginning totally gets us invested in them. Nick (Zachary Quinto) is sitting nervously at a bar and doesn't want anyone to join him because he's waiting for someone. Francine (Carla Gugino) is that someone; he just doesn't know that. Minutes later we suddenly have no one left to sympathize with when it is revealed that Nick is about to commit an unforgivable crime and Francine gives no concern to the lies she just said.Henry (Aaron Tveit) walks into a bar and steals our attention back. He flirts with Francine and just for the fun of it, and steals her wallet. Our two story lines involve Nick on his mission of crime and the law enforcement on his tail while Francine is on the tail of Henry. Their night of adventure involves checking into a number of bars each with another person to meet. The cast list is quite the collection of talented, mostly recognizable names, but they have nothing to do. Sometimes they say things that are supposed to be clever but are not.That's where the film is worse. The dialogue is not witty nor funny, and it should not be classified as a comedy. There were quite a few scenes which had actors saying crap that none of their characters should have said and which added no meaning or value to the film.Then the movie ended with some kind of choreographed musical and dance number which didn't conclude anything. Almost unbeknownst to me, Nick's storyline was wrapped up in a previous scene (Josh Hartnett's only scene) but with one short, stupid phone call. Quinto can act, as can Hartnett, and a well written scene with confrontation was desperately needed. After the first two scenes, there was very little confrontation, and indeed revealed that you weren't watching much at all. "Girl Walks Into a Bar" seems visually interesting, with compelling lead characters, good acting and clever story lines but then doesn't really go anywhere.

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David Holt (rawiri42)

As someone else has already said, this isn't a professional movie! It was more like a home-movie tour to show where not to go in LA at night. And we all know how much fun it is watching eighty minutes of someone else's home movies don't we? (Actually, that is probably the only good thing about this - it is shorter than your average film - which lets you get back to more fun things like reading Greek mythology a bit sooner!If you have absolutely nothing to do for an hour-and-a-half (which would include cleaning the drains or polishing the family silver), then I guess this might be better than watching the grass grow - just!One has to wonder why would anyone even think about going to the expense (which would probably feed thousands of Sudanese for a year) of shooting this!

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