Search - With Honors (Keepcase) on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 11/7/2022...

A fan of a few of these stars but this went from good to bad leaving you disappointed.

Food for the soul...

Jennifer Cruz | nyc | 10/09/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The human spirit is such a vast yet complex thing that help us understand BReath taking films such as this one! Films like "with honors" come a dime a dozen. Films that show the reality of everyday life and the humanity and everlasting love of a friendship... old or new! It makes you weep of sadness and cry happy tears. Cause we've all experience it. We've all had or known a father who left his son/daughter and we've always hated that figure. Yet we've never known it from their perspective which can be very harsh... This film is eye opening and witty! The plot is ingenius yet heartwarming. With a great cast and great production this film shows the ways of the spirit in many ways. It truly deserves 5 stars. Buy it feed your soul"prince of pop""

A different take on college characters

11/13/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"With Honors certainly has its problems. It's predictable and more than occasionally cheesy. But the cast make it well worth watching. They do their best with the lines they're given, and all of them actually act--facial expressions and physical cues and changes in tone of voice instead of just reciting the lines. Brendan Fraser's character visibly relaxes as the story progresses, and Joe Pesci's performance is simply great.More to the point (for me, anyway), this is the only "college movie" I can recall seeing where the student protagonists are actually concerned both about academics and about attempting to grow as people, rather than being on a perpetual quest for spring break/girls/boys/beer/all of the above. Even better, the writer attempts to be serious about student worries instead of taking the easier route of mocking the nerds. When the script comes down off its soapbox, it's a fine ensemble show about the high cost of trying not to need other people. Beneath his defiant exterior, Simon (Joe Pesci) is haunted by the family he abandoned; Monty (Brendan Fraser) hides behind academic achievement because his grades can't walk out on him like his father did; Courtney (Moira Kelly) settles for an empty physical relationship with a good-looking jerk because her emotions are tied up in her efforts to reach out to Monty. Ultimately, I liked With Honors less because of the warm fuzzy moral point it was trying to make than because I liked the characters. Most unusually for any movie, I could relate to most of the characters. Cheers to the writer and especially the actors for making their characters real."

PESCI'S PHILOSOPHY

Michael Butts | Martinsburg, WV USA | 03/28/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"WITH HONORS is a thoughtful and well done little "slice of life" with a moral we've all heard before: do what makes you happy and take time to live your life. Director Alex Keshishian and screenwriter William Mastrosimone, however, don't knock you over the head with its theme and/or morals. There are some scenes where you're expecting the probable to happen and they don't: e.g., after Simon cooks Gorky, the rooster, you expect his master to be furious---when Simon finally meets up with the son he abandoned, you expect some kind of tearful reunion----and you certainly think Monty is going to graduate with honors. The end results of these scenes, however, avoid the usual cliche. Joe Pesci is delightfully understated in his role, and although he never really becomes coochy coo loveable, you understand his pains and shortcomings; Brendan Fraser starts out pretty snooty and insufferable but as he matures in his relationship with both Pesci and Moira Kelly (who is delightful as Courtney), Fraser becomes a more sympathetic character; Patrick Dempsey adds some lightweight humor as Gorky's master, and Josh Hamilton eschews the usual pain in the butt role with a believable and touching change of heart.
The movie is definitely manipulative, but its heart is in the right place and its cast takes it seriously, so it ends up being a charming little film with a strong reaffirmation of the human spirit."