Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

A Masterpiece!

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

So if you ask me what's good about this movie I can only tell you that I hadn't figured it out yet. Maybe the story could have some potential if it got a new screenplay, set of characters etc. You get the idea. Not much good to tell.On the flip side, if you ask me what's bad about this movie, I have a whole list of things. But I will only focus on one point - the characters. And I don't mean the actors - or rather - I don't know if I have actors in mind as well, because the characters themselves and their lines were so terrible, it overshadowed the actors' performance. Total eclipse of talent, if there was any to start with.Here's a quick character overview so you get the gist of it: The main female character - Rosalee - is so dull, I even thought her best friend could be in the lead, for what was like the first 5 minutes of the movie.Cathy - Rosalee's best friend. Annoying, annoying, annoying. Fangirl of the title character, Ted Hamiltion. And FANGIRL do I mean! Hearing her overly exalted lines made me have a spasm attack inside, every time she opened her mouth. Whoever wrote that & thought it could be relatable? Or even believable? Tad Hamilton - a tool,but a nice tool. At least he tried. A celebrity and Rosalee's prime love interest.Pete - Rosalee's best friend, who also happens to be secretly in love with her & my MAIN VOMIT GENERATOR in this movie. This character is a disgrace for every underdog lover in every romcom movie ever created. Chauvinist & treating his love interest like his property, he always knew better what she needed & wasn't shy to tell he what exactly she had to do with her v-card (& was very explicit about that, too). He basically felt entitled to tell the girl of his dreams where she could and couldn't go, with whom and when, as well as harass her life, while still being a coward too much to tell her his actual feelings for her. Not that it changes anything, because when he finally tells the unsuspecting poor thing, after who knows how many years of cowardice, he expects her to dump her current beau and move to another state with him ON THE SPOT. Is that supposed to be romantic, cause I'm getting more like psychotic? If I ever met a guy like him in real life I would steer clear of him & possibly report him a stalker. This character literally made me pause the movie after each scene he appeared in, for like 15 mins, so I could cool off and forget I ever watched him.I only finished the movie because I was down with pneumonia for 3 weeks and was dying for something I haven't seen before. But I tell you - even then it was a BIG FAT NO.

I'm not one for romantic comedies, but I was a huge fan of That 70s show, and wanted to see if Topher Grace's movie roles were really worth leaving the show for, and needless to say, I was unimpressed. The film centers around three friends working in the grocery store of a small town. They are big movie fans and the girls love Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel), the hottest new star in Hollywood. Hamilton has the looks, but his reputation isn't so good. To fix this, his people come up with the idea of a contest, where the winner get a date with Hamilton and hence the name of the film. Josh Duhamel stars and really shouldn't do comedy. He may have been terrific in the show Las Vegas, but he just isn't believable in a comedic role. As for Topher Grace, he plays this whiny, love struck, jealous friend of Kate Bosworth, and he wasn't really that funny either. Win A Date With Tad Hamilton seemed like someones attempt at making a Woody Allen film and ultimately they failed. This film just tries too hard and gets to a point where it isn't funny. It lacks all the subtle, intelligent humor of a Woody Allen film, not to mention the plot is kind of cheesy. There is a lot to look at in this movie for both men and women, but beyond that, it's really not worth your time.

From director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, Monster-in-Law), I had certainly heard the title, and I knew it might be a soppy romantic comedy chick flick, but I have been known to sit through many of those. Basically in rural West Virginia, young grocery clerk Rosalee Futch (Superman Returns' Kate Bosworth) dreams of one day meeting her movie star idol Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel), and she sees a way to make this a reality. She spots a competition where the prize is to go on a date with Hamilton himself, so after raising the $100 entry fee, she is shocked and delighted to be the winner, while her best friend and co-worker Pete Monash (Topher Grace) is irritated. So Rosalee finally comes face to face with Tad Hamilton, who is doing this, with the insistence of his agent Richard Levy the Driven (Nathan Lane), to clean up his fading image and boost his profile, and she is naturally nervous. So the date goes well and she has a nice time, as does Tad, who is somehow smitten with this girl he only got to know for a few hours, and he wants more, so against the wishes of Richard, he moves to West Virginia. Rosalee is of course confused to see this movie star asking her out for another date, and getting close to become a more frequent boyfriend, but she enjoys every minute of it, while Pete, who is secretly in love with her, is extremely jealous. Pete does find it in himself to come out and show his true feelings for Rosalee, but she is confused, doesn't seem to really take it in and is naturally more towards Tad. In the end, Rosalee realises she does indeed have true feelings for Pete, Tad tells her he has been lying and lets her go, and the true loving couple have their happy ending kiss. Also starring Gary Cole as Henry Futch, Ginnifer Goodwin as Cathy Feely, Kathryn Hahn as Angelica, Octavia Spencer as Janine, Sean Hayes as Richard Levy the Shameless, Amy Smart as Nurse Betty and Stephen Tobolowsky as George Ruddy. Bosworth is nice as the beautiful star-eyed fan, Duhamel is alright as the simpleton movie star, and Grace is good as the love sick jealous friend, the film didn't make me laugh a lot, but the story would appeal to anyone who has always wanted to meet their idol, your probably going to get more than you bargained for, and there's that saying that it's different when in the flesh, anyway, a not bad romantic comedy. Worth watching!

Unobtrusive would be a good word to use when describing the film Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. Is it obvious? Yes. Is it clichéd? Yes. Is it horrible? Not quite. With a few good laughs, some fun performances, and a decent soundtrack, the movie ends up being nice filler on an evening with nothing else to do. I even think it was better than Robert Luketic's previous "chick flick" effort Legally Blonde, but then, I hated that one. With no expectations at all, mocking my sister for her taste in films, I will say I had a smile throughout. Sure most of it was due to the sheer absurdity and banality of it all, but it was a genuine smile nonetheless.The premise is something that could be written by any marginally gifted screenwriter and pits two best friends (with the obvious sexual tension of the boy being in love with the girl) caught up in the fact that she wins said date with said movie star. Being the good Virginia girl she is, she does not allow Tad to take advantage of her in Hollywood and ends up leaving town to go home with his heart. He follows, trying to better his life full of materialism and debauchery, much to the chagrin of his manager and agent (a funny twosome of Sean Hayes and Nathan Lane). Just at the moment when our lead is about to pour his heart out to the love of his life, after she finished her story of Hollywood escapades, in comes Tad to turn his life upside-down. Rather than finally tell her how he feels, he attempts to sabotage Tad's advances, but of course, like in all these types of films, his tries end up backfiring, bringing the two lovebirds closer together.There are no misconceptions on how the movie will end up, who will get the girl, who will do the right thing at the right time, but despite these misgivings the journey is entertaining. Topher Grace as the lead hero, trying to win the girl of his dreams, plays the geeky good guy to perfection. When he goes to Tad's farm, portrayed great by Josh Duhamel, (he's really just playing himself isn't he?), and the two go head to head chopping lumber, you can't help but laugh. Especially when Duhamel smacks Grace at the end, and Topher feels the sting…priceless. As for the girl at the center of it all, Kate Bosworth does a good job. She has never impressed me too much, but here she plays the country-bumpkin to a T. All the innocuous language and catch phrases can definitely induce some eye rolling, but it works for the part. Even Ginnifer Goodwin and Gary Cole bring in some laughs with small roles. Cole's attempts to talk the west coast movie biz lingo is great because you can see someone in his situation totally doing just that.It is paint-by-numbers through and through yet finds some moments of creativity. With lines such as Grace saying he'd tear Duhamel apart with his bare hands, or vicious rhetoric, I had to chuckle. The director and screenwriter treat the townspeople nicely with their star-goggles on, unbelieving that a movie star is in their home. I guess they even throw in an homage to An Officer and a Gentlemen—I'll take the parents' word for that being as I have not seen the film. Would I go out of the way to check the film out again? No. However, if it is on TV or someone suggests watching it, I will have to refrain from laughing at them obscenely, walking out and never talking to them again, because in the end, I'd probably stick around and watch.