Sour Grapes (1998)

Unlike most of you, including Larry David (according to Wikipedia), I had fun watching it. I loved the music too that sounded to me similar to the music in Oscar (the US version), one of those catchy classical thingies from a well-known opera. Hence, I kept comparing it to the equally low rated Oscar that I also loved (and I loved the original Louis de Funes version as well). My judgment: Oscar was better but still I am glad I saw Sour Grapes. IMHO, Viola Harris was sensational.N.B. I am one of those gazillions of secular Jews for whom no topic is taboo to be made fun of. Have you heard of a rabbi, a priest, and a commissar in the gas chamber...

Sour Grapes has a certain appeal for Larry David fans like myself, but ultimately, it's too long and overdone. This is a perfect example of eclectic humor where for every one person who finds a certain event funny there are ten people who are appalled or left scratching their head.This isn't bad, and it serves as a precursor to writer and director Larry David's new hit show Curb Your Enthusiasm, currently finished with its eight season. The show began in 1999, and Sour Grapes was completed and released in 1998. It bares a striking resemblance in some cases, and the way some scenes end with an awkward conversation or a random event occurring now seem like it was hinting at what Larry David would find success with later in his career. It's an interesting little setup, but not executed well enough.What makes Curb Your Enthusiasm work so well? I think it's the character of Larry and his bizarre situations, the highly relatable quality of him that many people find in themselves, and the fact that the character himself is so open with discussing random, off the wall situations. It's a unique and daring show that should be lucky it clicks so well with audiences. But it's not everyone's humor, and neither is Sour Grapes. Maybe if Larry David waited a little while longer, worked on Curb for a few seasons, and made a made a bigger name for himself this film would've been more understood and a bit more of a success. Sadly, we'll have to give it the time period it was conducted in.The story follows around two cousins named Evan and Ritchie (Weber and Bierko). Both of them and their spouses go to Atlantic City for the weekend. The men decide to play the slots. Ritchie asks to borrow two quarters after Evan told him to be eligible to win the jackpot you must put in at least three quarters. Ritchie does and boom, wins the jackpot of $436,214.50. How did I remember that? Because you'll hear that number more times in this film than any other number regardless of amount or digits in any film probably in your life.Evan believes he is entitled to at least half of Ritchie's earnings, but Ritchie believes he only owes Evan the two quarters and nothing more. As you would imagine, the money comes between the two cousins and they bicker like little kids. I admire the film for at least setting up a plausible quibble that will likely have a typical person siding with one of the main characters. Personally, I'm middle of the road having sympathy with Evan believing he entitled to a small portion of the money since he contributed to the win. No more than maybe a fourth of the money should be given to him, but after all, it truly is the gesture that counts.Trying to settle ends, Evan buys Ritchie a jogging suit for his birthday. Ritchie gives the jogging suit to a bum. Evan sees that the weasel gave the jogging suit away on his ride home. So to get even, when Ritchie goes home after a visit from the doctor, Evan. Evan calls him up and says that he has a rare form of Cancer with only a few months to live. Ritchie, who lives with his mom, worries that his mom won't be able to go on without him and thus sets up a plan for the bum to kill his mother.Alas, his plan backfires, and now his mother is in the hospital and he is informed that the Cancer call was just a joke. Now both of the men are in hot water and we are supposed to laugh at both of their miseries. I took longer to explain the plot than I usually do, since I believe a review should be more about the thoughts of the person writing rather than solely the plot of the story. But when it comes to Larry David, in order to explain the film, you have to explain almost the whole thing while dodging spoilers. If I'm trying to mention a funny part in Curb to someone, I have to literally tell them the whole episode's synopsis in order for them to effectively get the joke. It's because much of the humor happens because it was the result of a trigger effect caused by the characters. It's a fun and unique way of humor.This all feels like a dull pilot for a sitcom destined to have half a first season, and since David was also working with Jerry Seinfeld on Seinfeld at the time of this, this could've been a rejected episode idea David wanted to pursue. However, the conflict could've been resulted if the characters had an honest talk with one another instead of acting merely on impulse and present emotions.The funniest scenes exist not with Weber and Bierko, but with the group of bums who have numerous and far too quick lines of dialog. Some of the funniest characters are severely underwritten in a Larry David picture? No way.Sour Grapes is cute, but not very well done. It occupies way too much time and leaves way too little accomplished. It becomes not a comedy, but a very long setup that grows weary when blown out of proportion. The two leads are cute, but not memorable. The script isn't sour, but far from sweet. And the directing is of second rate quality. Larry David is a writing wizard, and it is shown here. But he works better when he has a strict time limit, like with his two successful sitcoms, rather than a free range film that isn't time sensitive. It's a curious piece of history for a man so colorful, but brings little to light other than David's writing abilities and his surefire way to create a successful trigger effect in his stories.

I stumbled on this film by accident on Showtime and I laughed my a** off! The story starts with two cousins gambling at a casino. One runs out of quarters and asks the other for two quarters. You know what happens next, the guy hits the jackpot, however, he does not feel that he owes anything more than the 50 cents that was borrowed. What ensues is a series of related blunders and mishaps that all tie together. The strength of this movie is in the brilliant performances of the actors and the wonderful Larry David story. I don't know how anybody could not find this movie funny, it is a real knee-slapper! *** out of ****.

When it was on the air, I wasn't an avid watcher of `Seinfeld', but I enjoyed it. The co-creator of it, Larry David, went on to make the hit HBO show `Curb Your Enthusiasm'. But, before that, he wrote and directed the dud Sour Grapes, which makes you wonder how those two TV shows became so popular and funny. Sour Grapes is basically a short that could have been amusing at five minutes, but stretches out to an overlong and extremely boring 90 minutes of stupid plot devices, stupid and reused `humor', and stupidity in general.What makes Sour Grapes so horrible is that there may have been about one or two jokes that made me do a little snort or something. That's about four seconds that I enjoyed, and out of a film that's 5400 seconds long, that's pretty bad. What am I saying `pretty bad'? It's atrocious! At least in some other bad movies, a few jokes caught on, and others are hit-and-miss, but almost every joke in Sour Grapes missed. Also, many running jokes flopped, such as Richie's `ability'. It wasn't funny the first time, and it wasn't funny the fourth time.When your largest star is Steven Weber, that's a bad sign. He can be a good actor, except he never seems to pick good projects. He's Evan Maxwell, a successful doctor who goes with his friend/cousin Richie (Craig Bierko) to Atlantic City to gamble. Evan lends Richie two quarters for a slot machine, and he wins the jackpot. Since Evan lent him money, he expects to get about half of Richie's earnings. Wouldn't you do that in real life? And THEN things become quirky.Well, there isn't really much to say, not only because it is a wholly unremarkable film, but I don't want it to take any more of my time than the 90 minutes it had already robbed me of. If you're looking for a completely unfunny comedy, where you will surely not laugh, then pick Sour Grapes. I'm sure there'll be lots of copies at your local Blockbusters, because most people will be smart enough to stay away from it.My rating: 1/10Rated R for language and sex-related humor.