Juno
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman
Director: Jason Reitman
Writer(s): Diablo Cody
Studio: Fox
Rating: PG-13
Official Bar Score: 
Juno (Page) is an intelligent, attractive, and sarcastic 16 year old girl who has to deal with an unplanned preganancy resulting from a tryst with her best friend Bleeker (Cera). After coming to terms with the fact that she is ill equipped to raise a child at the moment, she decides to give the baby up for adoption to an affluent suburban couple. As the baby develops, Juno learns important life lessons and most importantly, learns more about herself.
Normally films of this nature are not really my cup of tea. When the “heartwarming life lessons” theme is used, nine times out of ten the film ends up being a chick flick, and truth be told at it’s core “Juno” is exactly that. But there are some things about the film that separate it from the pack of overly sappy and emotional chick flicks.
The dialog is about as clever as anything I have seen in a while. Every character has at least a couple of lines that will make you laugh. Most of it comes in the form of very dry and sarcastic observations on life and events. Most of it also comes out of Ellen Page’s mouth. Quite honestly, I was shocked when I saw the Oscar nominations and her name was on the list for Best Actress, but after viewing the film the point was proven. She let the world know how talented she was with her turn in “Hard Candy”, and her role in “Juno” basically hammered home the point - she must be taken seriously.
I also really dug how they kept the realness of the situation intact but still managed to keep the whole thing very lighthearted and easy to watch. They never once dumb down the gravity of the whole thing, but instead take a “this is reality, it has to be dealt with, there is no purpose in focusing on the negative” approach to telling the story. This angle keeps it from becoming a straight up “Lifetime” movie of the week, which really helps the film stay fresh and enjoyable. I was impressed.
So here is my bottom line: females - you will love it, probably even more so if you can relate to it; males - great date movie, it won’t be in your top ten lists but you will enjoy it at least a little bit and it’ll make your girl’s day. “Juno” shouldn’t really be a TMB type of film, but it’s decent enough to where I can justify giving it the seal approval. Oh yeah, and GO ELLEN PAGE! TAKE THE OSCAR! THE REST OF THEM BITCHES AIN’T GOT SHIT! (Sorry, had to be done, I’m pulling for all of the underdogs this year in protest of the “American Gangster” snub.)
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[...] Juno - $7,450,000 ($110,263,000 - 9 week total) [...]
cry some more about your oscar no show you little bitch come on give it a rest plus we all know you see movies like this alone so no one can see you cry
This wasn’t a tear jerker really, surprising considering the subject matter. It was more funny than anything else.
But that is besides the point. I am not going to quit bitching because it’s a fucking travesty that “American Gangster” was not nominated for best picture.
wa wa wa you crying little baby you need a hanky or something come on so many other movies should have hald at least been nominated but were not so just let it go ok let it go
nah not really. You can’t nominate films like “Transformers” or “Die Hard 4″ for best picture because Hollywood would completely eliminate any types of challenging or dramatic films. I’m just saying that I have seen three out of the five films nominated for best picture and “American Gangster” was far better than any of them.
ok but do you have to run that into the ground?
[...] Juno - $4,625,000 ($124,090,000 - 11 week total) [...]
[...] Juno - $4,100,000 ($130,377,000 - 12 week total) [...]
Juno know shit about movies, I unfortunately got stuck watching this god awful boring movie. So I decided to put my 2 cents in, it was not funny, nothing happened through out the whole film and everyone in it was a tool. I can’t believe everyone liked this movie as much as they did, I understand if you are a chick or gay or even ever thought about being gay, but no self respecting, entertainment loving dude should like this film, if you do you have some very deep rooted homo erotic tendencies.
OR if you are like you and ultra homophobic to the point where you are probably covering up something you MIGHT not like it. Otherwise is a cleverly written film with funny dialogue and high quoteabilty that everyone else seems to like.
The soundtrack is fucking horrible though.
look the movie was slow and every one was supossed to be tools if it had been cool people they would havew called the movie knocked up not juno this was well writtin and i enjoyed the witty commints with the characters it was not great but good 2 and a half or 3 would have been enugh but winston fancys himself an intulectual so i understand the 3 and a half from winston but to say the movie was shit is wrong it was good just not OSCAR goood
dad ether i just pissed the bed or … thunder-cats go
BORING… at best it was 1 step up from a lifetime teen pregnancy movie. You guys are easily entertained and obviously got picked on in school, maybe thats why you can relate to this film. As for me being homophobic, there wasn’t one gay situation in the film and I still hated it, your argument is irrelevant. But you are gay for liking this film, to all those who haven’t seen it yet, don’t get it on pay per view or rent it, lifetime will air soon enough.
The only reason this film made any money is because paranoid mothers took their sexually active teenage daughters to see it, well them and Winston.
Nah it was good, overrated but good. The writers tried too hard to be hip though with the insane amount of name drops
It was not good at all, I’m worried about you guys.
You are in the minority on that one, then again I could have told you that you wouldn’t have liked it would have saved you some time
I’ll be a minority, that doesn’t bother me one bit, what does bother me is the fact that you guys where entertained by such a shitty movie. It makes me wonder if you have all fallen victim to fascist propaganda of modern film making. It seems that the less you have going on in a movie and the more ignorant the dialog gets the more fans they acquire. Shame on you all.
Calling the dialog ignorant is in itself ignorant, calling self indulgent hipster bullshit now that’s a bit more on the accurate side, the dialog was the worst part at times but not because it was dumb by any means but quite the opposite it actually was too smart and almost elitist for it’s own good. Iggy and the Stooges, The fucking Melvins, Patti Smith, Argento, and the Wizard of Gore were all shamelessly named dropped for no reason other than to appeal to the uprising of the hipster internet crowd who see themselves smarter than everyone because they spend all day on wikipedia. That reason alone is what made the movie no better than three beers and caused me to not enjoy the film more.
While the movie lacked any type of over the top violence, senseless nudity, or even some random badass blowing shit up, the movie never pretended to be this type of movie and it never tried to be this type of movie. You have to keep in mind that the film was simply an Indy flick about an underage girl who has sex with her friend, gets pregnant and then decides to put the kid up for adoption. It’s real cut and dry, the basic objectives of the film was for the younger people to watch the film and relate to the characters while the older audience was meant to take the Juno character and see that kids are able to mature from mistakes they make, accept the consequences and in turn make a better and informed decision out of it.
How liking a teenage drama makes you a victim to fascist propaganda I don’t know.
Wait till you see the unrated director’s cut, it featured Rambo escorting Juno to the abortion clinic when Burma militants and naked stripper zombies burst on the scene and start causing mayhem. The twist at the end is what gets me though…THE MOVIE WAS ACTUALLY TAKING PLACE IN MODERN TIMES.
What a twist
That’s what I said Lifetime original, go get a starbucks coffee and put on a Sonic Youth album.
Dude, I didn’t even have to do anything because Monk just killed you.
He was right about the name drops though. When they started dropping “Wizard of Gore” and Dario Argento I was pretty much like “they need to stop this quickly before they make an ass out of themselves”, which of course they didn’t do. The shit that cracked me up was that they created an argument out of something that isn’t even an argument. Putting “The Wizard of Gore” up against even the worst Argento flick is suicide.
But that is besides the point, how could you not laugh at the dad? “Well, it’s kind of skanky. Isn’t that what you girls call it? Skanky? Skeevy? Tore up from the floor up?” Dude was priceless. Him an Ellen Page killed it.
I agree with Wendell. This movie sucked. You are all gay.
you haven’t even seen it.
So the guy who went and saw The Spiderwick Chronicles and gave it four beers calls a movie he hasn’t seen gay. You want the real kicker? Read the first comment
http://themoviebar.net/blog3/2.....hronicles/
Check and mate
hahahahahaha NOW it’s over. Fucking classic.
I do want to see the Spiderwick chronicles I’m sure it has a lot more SUBSTANCE than Juno, It’s not over Winnie it will never be over until you regain your masculinity.
I’ll say it.
I like Footloose, I would rather watch Kevin Bacon dance than a no name actress walking around drinking sunny delight and making stupid references to bands that only high school nerds like.
If in some way you related to this film, and it touched you thats cool, I understand. But while your jumping on the Juno band wagon like so many others remember it, because 6 months from now no one will even know what Juno is.
All this film was, was a less funny, watered down Napoleon dynamite with a horrible soundtrack.
I can’t wait to read Winnies review for 27 dresses or the devil wears proda.
My review must have been the shit and got your attention if you remember so well.
Read down a couple comments and somebody else I know said they would like to see it too!
I saw some pregnant chick walking out of the 7-11. It was boring, so I have no desire to see Juno.
The movie was okay, not the greatest.
Let’s see here…
Years in the game: Kevin Bacon - 30 Ellen Page - 11
Academy Award Nominations: Kevin Bacon - 0 Ellen Page - 1
No name actress huh? Let’s go further and compare their latest movies’ popularity shall we?
The Air I Breathe (Kevin Bacon) - $19,487
Smart People (Ellen Page) - $8,284,401
And just so you don’t try to call that a stretch, let’s compare the amount of “popular” movies each has been in the last two years not including those two flops:
Ellen Page: X-Men 3 ($234,360,014, Hard Candy ($7,022,209), Juno ($143,380,890)
Kevin Bacon: Death Sentence ($9,525,276)
No name huh? More like “box office gold”.
How about major DVD release rentals?
Juno - $8.38 million first week (it’s only been out a week)
Death Sentence - $8.33 million first week
According to the number Ellen Page got your boy beat every possible. No name actress? Kevin Bacon is washed up.
And we’ll see how many people forget the movie when they start using it to sell other movies, like “From the creators of Juno”. You think James Wan is ever going to use “From the Director of Death Sentence”? You sure as hell better believe it won’t before mentioning “Saw”.
And never once did I say that “Juno” was better than “Death Sentence”, because it’s not, but if you are going to start throwing around “no name” and “will be forgotten”, the numbers don’t back you up at all.
I’m not concerned with numbers,or awards I’m concerned with quality. I don’t care how much money it made (by mothers and pregnant teens)or who will use it to sell whatever. The real fact of the matter is the movie was very boring.
Awards mean nothing, if that was the case American Gangster must be the worst film ever it wasn’t even nominated. Ellen Page brought nothing to the table in X-men 3 and I’m not comparing her to Kevin Bacon at all, there is no comparison.
Juno is boring, thats all there is too it. All this film was, was a less funny, watered down Napoleon dynamite with a horrible soundtrack.
That wasn’t the point, you called Ellen Page a no name actress, which is false. The numbers are there to prove my point regarding that. They don’t have anything to do with the quality of the film.
And by the way, let me give you a quote directly from this review:
You are attacking me for liking this movie, but I just liked it, I didn’t love it. My nominees would have been “American Gangster”, “Knocked Up”, “Death Sentence”, “Charlie Wilson’s War”, and “Transformers” with “American Gangster” taking the crown. Those are the movies I liked more than any of the others (although depending on my mood “Superbad” or “Walk Hard” could easily replace “Transformers”.)
Nobody knew who Ellen Page was until Juno, Shit nobody knows who she is now. The numbers prove that people saw the movie, not that people knew who she was. I’m surprised they don’t considering her awesome performance in X-men 3. Nobody else could of ran from Juggernaut that good, that is fact my friend.
That’s like saying nobody knew who Johnny Depp was until Nightmare on Elm Street. Argue the movie sucked, sure I can see how people wouldn’t like it, argue Ellen Page is still a no name actress and you’d be flat out wrong.
Keep in mind we aren’t arguing talent because honestly I don’t see what see did in Juno that was anything special but we are arguing name value and right at the moment Ellen Page like it or not is very much a household name amongst the hollywood young upcomers.
Or that nobody knew Kevin Bacon until Friday the 13th…
And you can clown the “X-Men 3″ reference all you want to, the fact is that Kevin Bacon doesn’t even get bit parts in blockbusters anymore, much less leading roles.