Product Description

Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin lead an all-star cast including Jude Law, Naomi Watts and Mark Walhberg in this outrageous comedy from director/co-writer David O. Russell (Three Kings). Kindhearted but confused activist Andrew Markovski hires a pair of screwball "existential detectives" (Hoffman and Tomlin) to help him find the meaning of life. All the while, a sexy, French author (Isabelle Huppert) is trying to throw a wrench in their plan by seducing andrew's mind and body.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35596 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-02-22
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.com
Billed as "an existential comedy," I Heart Huckabees is a flawed yet endearingly audacious screwball romp that dares to ponder life's biggest questions. Much of director David O. Russell's philosophical humor is dense, talky, and impenetrable, leading critic Roger Ebert to observe that "it leaves the viewer out of the loop," and suggesting that Russell's screenplay (written with his assistant, Jeff Baena) is admirably bold yet frustratingly undisciplined. Russell's ideas are big but his expression of them is frenetic, centering on the unlikely pairing of an environmentalist (Jason Schwartzman) and a firefighter (Mark Wahlberg) as they depend on existential detectives (Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman) and a French nihilist (Isabelle Huppert) to make sense of their existential crises, brought on (respectively) by a two-faced chain-store executive (Jude Law) and his spokesmodel girlfriend (Naomi Watts), and the aftermath of 9/11's terrorism. No brief description can do justice to Russell's comedic conceit; you'll either be annoyed and mystified or elated and delighted by this wacky primer for coping with 21st century lunacy. Deserving of its mixed reviews, I Heart Huckabees is an audacious mess, like life itself, and accepting that is the key to enjoying both. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
Since I Heart Huckabees is the kind of film that inspires deep loyalty among its defenders, it's only fitting that this two-disc special edition offers an abundance of bonus features catering to devoted fans. Writer-director David O. Russell's existential screwball comedy was also issued with the commentary tracks included here: the first is Russell on his own, providing a more low-key assessment of the film and the Buddhist philosophical endeavors that inspired it; he's not the raving lunatic that Sharon Waxman's scathing 2004 profile in The New York Times would lead you to believe. The second commentary, with Russell and his primary cast, is much more of a party-like romp, strictly optional but entertaining for anyone curious about anecdotes from a production that was apparently a lot of fun. Much more interesting, however, is Charlie Rose's half-hour interview with Russell, Lily Tomlin, and Dustin Hoffman, which includes deeper insights (both thoughtful and funny) and Hoffman's semi-offended reaction when Russell refers (with purely complimentary intentions) to Hoffman's "era" of actors.

The 35-minute "Production Surveillance" documentary (partially shot by Russell's director friend and Three Kings costar Spike Jonze) is also a lot of fun, showing Russell's very loose working methods (he runs multiple cameras and often directs his actors throughout a take), and including ample evidence of Hoffman's off-screen humor. (It's also fascinating for anyone who wants to see Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, and Hoffman sporting a very realistic prosthetic pair of lactating breasts.) For a film as frenetically improvised as Huckabees, 51 minutes of deleted and extended scenes is strictly overkill, of interest only to those who crave a few extra glimpses of the film's philosophical lunacy. On the other hand, the features devoted to music composer Jon Brion (including music videos and behind-the-scenes footage with optional Russell commentary, are worthwhile for Brion's fans and anyone interested in the nature of his collaboration with Russell. Disc 2 is rounded out by four minutes of outtakes; the complete half-hour "Detective Infomercial" and "Open Spaces Coalition" public service announcements, and "Huckabees" promo spots glimpsed briefly in the film; and behind-the-scenes profiles of production designer KK Barrett and costume designer Mark Bridges. It's all a bit more than necessary for a film like Huckabees, but it's certainly a definitive wealth of material, most of it above-average. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
David O. Russell's new satire is an authentic disaster peppered with many odd and brilliant moments. The characters, skittering along the edges of the frame, speak only about Big Ideas, say everything four times, quarrel at the drop of a non sequitur, and have sex in uncomfortable places. The hero, one Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman), is the head of an open-spaces conservation group, and he makes a deal with a rising young executive (Jude Law) at Huckabees, a superstore chain, to preserve some woods. Yet Albert, a surly little hysteric, feels lost, so he hires two "existential detectives" (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) to find out what's wrong with him. The true existentialist, however, is Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert), a sexy philosophe in a limo who believes that life (as it says on her business card) is "cruelty, manipulation, meaninglessness." She and Albert make love on a log. There's much more, all of it devoted to a quarrel between two philosophical viewpoints-that everything is connected and that everything is separate. Russell embraces both sides-there are messy scenes in which everyone talks at once and saner moments, when the eccentricities of the individual characters stand out. With Mark Wahlberg, who is touching and funny as a fireman with nothing on his mind but petroleum. Jeff Baena worked on the garrulous screenplay with Russell. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

I Heart This Movie
I don't like to write reviews - its work and I'm busy, but I'd like people to know about this really fun film. I love it, it's fun, it's clever and it makes you feel good. Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin are great in this. Mark Walberg, Jude Law and Tea Leoni (sp?) are letting their hair down and not playing the usual Hollywood STARS that I, too, like,but in this case, their talent is put to another use - FUN! This film is especially for anyone that's had to suffer through a semester of Nietzsche or Michel Foucault.

Dumbest Movie Ever
This movie was absolutely horrible. A complete wasted of time!!! THe only reason I gave it two stars is b/c the actors did a good job, but it was completely ruined by the story line. It didnt even make any sense..............absolutely terrible.......what a dissapointment

If you get it, then you must've missed the point
A fun movie with odd characters that's meant to be more entertainment than a decisive view of existentialism. The actors portraying the main characters, mainly Mark Wahlberg and Jason Schwartzman are great in their roles.