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| Little Miss Sunshine | 
 enlarge | Directors: Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton
Actors: Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, Toni Collette
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy Used: $3.07
You Save: $16.91 (85%)
New (61) Used (103) Collectible (4) from $3.07
Avg. Customer Rating:  513 reviews
Sales Rank: 858
Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Published)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Running Time: 103
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.4
MPN: FOXD2240339D
UPC: 024543403319
EAN: 0024543403319
ASIN: B000K7VHQE
Theatrical Release Date: August 18, 2006
Release Date: December 19, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Complete with original case, disc(s), and artwork. In stock and ships right now.
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Product Description
A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their vw bus. Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 02/05/2008 Starring: Greg Kinnear Alan Arkin Run time: 101 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com
Pile together a blue-ribbon cast, a screenplay high in quirkiness, and the Sundance stamp of approval, and you've got yourself a crossover indie hit. That formula worked for Little Miss Sunshine, a frequently hilarious study of family dysfunction. Meet the Hoovers, an Albuquerque clan riddled with depression, hostility, and the tattered remnants of the American Dream; despite their flakiness, they manage to pile into a VW van for a weekend trek to L.A. in order to get moppet daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) into the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Much of the pleasure of this journey comes from watching some skillful comic actors doing their thing: Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette as the parents (he's hoping to become a self-help authority), Alan Arkin as a grandfather all too willing to give uproariously inappropriate advice to a sullen teenage grandson (Paul Dano), and a subdued Steve Carell as a jilted gay professor on the verge of suicide. The film is a crowd-pleaser, and if anything is a little too eager to bend itself in the direction of quirk-loving Sundance audiences; it can feel forced. But the breezy momentum and the ingenious actors help push the material over any bumps in the road.-- Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 508 more reviews...
The ambivalent ties that bind August 7, 2006
186 out of 213 found this review helpful
If you have ever attended a family reunion or sat down at an extended family holiday dinner and thought to yourself "Who are these people? How could I possibly be related to them?" -- then you will probably appreciate the hilarious and poignant indie film "Little Miss Sunshine."
Richard (Greg Kinnear) is the head of a mostly dysfunctional family and the author of a multi-step/self-help program that he espouses with the passion of a zealot. Sheryl (Toni Collette) is Richard's wife and arguably the most normal and high-functioning member of the family. Their son, Dwayne (Paul Dano), is a nihilistic and remote 15-year-old, who has either stopped speaking to his family because he can't stand them or taken a vow of silence to achieve a personal goal - depending on who is explaining his behavior. Olive (Abigail Breslin) is the family's bright and effervescent 7-year-old, who is already starting to pick up some of the family's more unhealthy tics of criticism and self-doubt. Grandpa (Alan Arkin) is Richard's acerbic and outspoken father who was booted out of his retirement home for snorting heroin. Add to this murky Freudian soup Sheryl's brother, Frank (a wonderfully restrained Steve Carell), who is newly released from the hospital after a failed suicide attempt.
When a message is left on the family's phone machine notifying them of Olive's acceptance into the semi-finals of the Little Miss Sunshine talent competition in California, they decide to (mostly) put aside their personal agendas and take Olive to the pageant. The combustible road trip is fueled by the radically different personalities bumping up against each other within the close confines of a VW bus and exacerbated by a variety of obstacles thrown at them in what seems to be a cosmic conspiracy designed to prevent the family from reaching the competition.
When the family finally does arrive at the pageant, the weirdness well and truly begins. Now I am someone who really loves a good horror story, but the 6 and 7 year old contestants were far scarier than anything you might see in a George Romero movie. I will take flesh melting zombies over little girls in full theatrical makeup and provocative costumes (that just screamed "JonBenet Ramsey") any day. The whole pageant atmosphere was Fellini-esque and completely cringe-inducing. When Olive is finally called upon to do her performance piece for the audience (a real show stopper which I won't spoil by detailing), she is actually the most wholesome and entertaining part of the whole pageant.
Although this family bickers with one another almost constantly, they manage to close ranks and support each other when it truly counts. Part of the pleasure of watching this film was the talented cast, who looked like they were really enjoying themselves. A wonderful way to spend 90 minutes -- and you will probably come away with a deeper appreciation of your own family.
 Dysfuction at it's finest September 25, 2006
116 out of 145 found this review helpful
"Little Miss Sunshine" is the story of the Hoover Family. Olive (played by the adorable and very funny Abigail Breslin) has just been accepted into the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant (because of a cancellation) and her family decides to drive through three states so she can make the competition on time. Richard Hoover (played by former Talk Soup host, Greg Kinnear) is Oliver's dad who believes that winning is number one. When Richard tells poor Olive that she shouldn't eat ice-cream (because there aren't any fat Miss America contestants) I thought it was both extremely funny and also equally sad.
Paul Dano played Olive's (very comical) morbidly hate-filled brother, Dwayne. Alan Arkin played the coke-snorting, sex-crazy grandfather. Toni Collette was the kids' mom Sheryl; it was obvious that Sheryl was wrapped way too tight but she really did love her family. And rounding out this ensemble cast is Uncle Frank (played by "Forty Year Old Virgin" star Steve Carell.) Frank came to stay with Sheryl and her family after he recently tried to commit suicide after his homosexual love of interest rejected him.
So the family embarks on a car trip across NV, AZ, and CA in a broken down, old 70's bus (they have to push it to get it started!)
There are so many funny moments in this picture. It was also touching to see Olive put her head on her brother's shoulder to try to cheer him up, and I did suspect at that moment that Dwayne actually didn't hate everyone because he seemed so sensitive.
Anyone that watches this picture will certainly agree that Olive's dance routine was the hit of the entire movie. Olive dances to the tune of the Rick James hit "Super Freak" while prudish Pageant Official Jenkins (played perfectly by one-time "Malcolm In The Middle" star Beth Grant) goes absolutely BERSERK! I don't want to give anything away, but the entire family was involved, a huge scene resulted, and the police were even called!
After watching the first thirty minutes of this movie I thought to myself, "why are these people all together..." ...But I suppose family is whatever you make of it and the Hoover family must have really loved each other to go through all they did and still stay together. Maybe they don't make the same decisions as the "traditional American family" but that's ok because they still find their own happiness.
I reluctantly went to go see this movie after a friend told me how good it was. I protested because it looked totally ridiculous but my friend had already seen it and he insisted that it was a superior picture. And I am so glad that I went because this was one of the best movies I have seen in months. It is dysfunction at it's funniest!
 Very Over Rated February 11, 2007
22 out of 47 found this review helpful
This story has been told many times and in many forms. This time it's form uses a little girl, a dysfunctional family and a beauty pageant. There are the typical family losers... the motivational speaker father who is a failure at motivating anybody, the plain jane little girl who dreams of winning the "Little Miss Sunshine" Beauty pageant, the mom who has no control over anything or anybody, the brother who hates his family so much that he has stopped speaking to anybody, the uncle who has recently tried commtting suicide, and the dirty old grandfather.. Cliche to say the least. The old VW bus they go cross country in has no gears so they have to push it to start it running (you get the idea).. On the way the grandpa dies so they put him in the back of the old bus and take him along (shades of National Lampoon's Vacation)..
Don't waste your money.. There is nothing cute or special about this movie.. I wish I didn't waste my money or my time.
the brainwashing influence of an "indie" film September 2, 2006
19 out of 51 found this review helpful
Don't believe the hype, and don't believe all of these schmaltzy reviews. Little Miss Sunshine, which has been bolstered recently by ridiculous praise, is nothing more than a vacuous exercise in creating quirky characters. It is an ultimately meaningless film that relies heavily on "humanistic" humor that seems more reflective of films for teenage audiences. Toni Collette looks like she didn't sleep for a week. (Will she ever again generate the kind of performance she had in Muriel's Wedding?) Alan Arkin, as the coke-snorting grandfather who has been kicked out of a nursing home, is the only glimmer of light in this mess of murkiness. But, of course, his character dies mid-way through the film in order to go for the dead-body jokes. Juvenile humor--yea! Good grief! Oh, and the end is just awful. Let's throw in Rick James's "Super Freak" to have our Little Miss Sunshine dance to in the talent portion of the beauty pageant competition. It's not the acting that kills this film; it's the script: unoriginal, recycled, and puerile. You've been warned.
 This movie pretends very very hard to be "realistic" January 24, 2007
19 out of 33 found this review helpful
Here's the main rub against reality; unless you are a completely inept parent or hell-bent on political correctness, you don't let a porn-obsessed and cocaine-addicted "grandpa" whose every other word is f*** to take care and sleep alone in the same room with your 7-year old daughter. And you wouldn't let a suicidal gay "uncle" sleep in the same bedroom with a 15-year old emotionally unstable boy. The stories told on Oprah and Jerry Springer, or even news reports about JonBenet Ramsey or Michael Jackson could hint you that such parental negligence practiced in real life might turn perilous.
As the tale unfolds, it appears to be not parental carelessness but 100% pure political correctness version 2006/2007 at its finest. So I'm not surprised about the nominations for rewards the movie got. However, I'm still surprised that this was categorized as comedy. There is a broken erratically honking horn in the movie, probably meant to be hilarious, but I kept thinking, wouldn't it occur to the travelers just yank a wire from it at the first stop? And I answered my own question: well, yes but the movie wouldn't be a comedy anymore.
"Comedies" with excessive foul language aren't amusing. The potty-mouth language used throughout the movie isn't doing it any good. It's probably a desperate attempt at "reality." But in reality very few families use this kind of language on daily basis and still fewer use it in presence of 7-year old kids. "Little Miss Sunshine" is R-rated - meaning, not for kids, but the R-rated language in the movie is used right in front of a 7-year old kid. So what's the exact message behind it?
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