Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

classicsoncall I'm not big on teenage angst films because those years are way behind me now. But this picture surprised me in that it seemed more realistic and credible than a lot of stories that feature flashy characters and over the top situations. Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) and Diane Court (Ione Skye) were fairly straight, normal looking high school graduates whose career paths might have gone in entirely different directions if Lloyd hadn't summoned up the courage to ask her out on a date. The story points out the varying misperceptions high school students harbor about others who aren't like them, and it was commendable how the all-night party gave Diane an opportunity to feel welcomed by students she otherwise might not even known had existed. There was a rather unforced error in the script though regarding Diane's winning the Reed Scholarship. Her father (John Mahoney) learned about it via a phone call, and rushed over to the nursing home to tell her about it. However later on, when Lloyd spoke to her on the phone to congratulate her, he said he read about it in the newspaper. That seemed like a pretty big goof to go unnoticed by the film makers.Anyway, as far as romantic comedies go, this was more than tolerable. Not being part of the target audience, I didn't feel embarrassed by the picture the way one gets watching a picture like "There's Something About Mary" for example. One might even go so far as to call this a teen flick for grown-ups.

exabyte2024 I rated it 5/10 because I don't like John Cusack acting screenplay is boringIone Skye is not beautiful at least for me i barely could finish itsome goofs In the break-up scene in the car the background changes completely. Before the line "You told your dad?" you can see an intersection and a hillside behind them, then after there is a yellow house and two parked cars.

groomeschase12 There are several small things that go into creating chemistry between actors/characters on screen, and in Cameron Crowe's debut, it seemed he had already mastered them. "Say Anything" has a small story and a handful of perfectly cast roles that are held together by wonderful writing in a movie that could've earned its keep for another hour.In "Say Anything" we see a couple of different, but very important, things that aren't at all standard fare. John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler, the lead, is unspeakably good. There is a nuance he brings with the character, a tick, a flinch that brings it to life. He's playing an ordinary guy, maybe a little too ordinary in some aspects, with some caveats we get reminded of a couple times throughout the picture. He wasn't one of the popular guys in school, wasn't a straight-A student, wasn't an athlete - it's the lack of titles and the usual stigmas with them that helps define this unique performance and character.Cusack is aided by a seemingly on-the-surface quiet performance on the other end by Ione Skye's Diane Court. While Cusack's character is relatable in that something about him applies to most males and the story is really, for the most part, told through his lenses, we see a likeness in Skye's Diane, we've known someone like her before. Her character is more of the distant type, close family ties and kept her head down and focused on her grades while her peers, including Lloyd, were out socializing. When we're introduced to her in the early stages, she's almost only something to be admired, and perhaps she'd stay that way if Crowe didn't write her so many important scenes and give her so many crucial moments that craft her character.There are a handful of moments in great movies that act as crucial moments for character without someone telling the audience how they should feel or how they should think. See Luke Skywalker looking up into the sky in "New Hope" or the look on Kay's face at the ending of "The Godfather." These moments say all about the characters that we need to know with no exposition, and there's a select few in "Say Anything." While the boombox scene is memorable, the moment that stands apart above all, and quite closely resembles the record store scene in "Before Sunrise", involves Lloyd teaching Diane how to drive her new car. In this scene, the audience catches its breath for a moment before seeing a crescendo of emotion between the characters with no words except for driving instructions. The subtle smiles on the character's faces and the culmination of the goodwill of their time spent is nothing short of infectious, and crucial."Say Anything" offers a lot more than its peers. While it does follow, closely, to the "boy meets girl" pattern that's tried and true, it makes enough safe, smart, and heartfelt moves and creates a few moments of great cinema along the way that it has more than stood the test of time. John Cusack portrays an earnest character that is important to show on screen because of his vulnerability and his believability, and Ione Skye acts perfectly as not only the apple of his eye, but delivers her own important messages as well through her actions and her beliefs, she's strong in a way that makes her character delightfully lovable and real in the same steps.Cameron Crowe created a wonderful time capsule of human growth, in an important time of two different but lovable characters' lives. Assisted with a catchy and timeless soundtrack, Crowe created a crown jewel of the romance genre that has a whole lot to say, and it wouldn't without his knack for good conversations, important character choices, meaningful scenes, and a whole lot of chemistry between two wonderfully written characters.

dee.reid Most of us know about that scene, that famous scene where the guy is standing in the front yard outside the house of his girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend, I should say), after she just broke up with him the day before. It's early in the morning when he's decided to pull off this little stunt, and, standing next to his car, he's holding up a huge boom-box over his head blaring Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes."This is the most iconic and famous scene in Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything...", his 1989 debut which he both wrote and directed. This is a movie I've seen in clips over the years but have never actually sat down and watched the whole thing in its entirety. I've read the critical praise (the most significant coming from the late film critic Roger Ebert), "Entertainment Weekly" naming it the greatest modern romance AND ranking it at #11 on their list of 50 best high school movies, and a Valentine's Day article in "The Washington Post" from 2006 titled "What I Did For Lloyd." Now I've finally sat down and watched the movie and understood where it's all coming from.The 1980s were a wasteland of teen comedies. John Hughes (1950-2009) was behind the best of them ("The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles"). At the tail end of the decade, came Cameron Crowe and his "Say Anything...". This film is much like any teen comedy/romance to come out at that time (and ever since) and begins as such, with a "noble underachiever" who falls for an ultra-intelligent, if socially unskilled, beauty who seems way out of his league. The movie also seems to at least partially pre-figure the Seattle "grunge" era of the early '90s (which was spear-headed by the legendary grunge band Nirvana), but the exact details of this implication are part of another discussion entirely.Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) is the noble underachiever who dares to ask out the beautiful high school valedictorian Diane Court (Ione Skye) the day after their graduation. Lloyd's ambitions are pretty slim, since the only thing he can really see himself doing in the immediate future is Kick-boxing (which at that time was still a relatively new thing). So at least he's honest about his life's aspirations: he knows what he wants to do, and he especially knows what he DOESN'T want to do - which does shock some people and makes him the most truthful character in the entire film. But it's an even bigger shock when he decides that he wants to go out with the lovely Diane Court.Diane, on the other hand, has her whole life set out before her. She's worked hard her entire life to work her way up to the top of her high school graduating class. And all that hard work pays off when she learns she's been granted a fellowship to further her studies overseas in England. And she'll be leaving at the end of the summer. And then there's Lloyd, who impulsively asks her out on a date and much to his surprise, she accepts his invitation. They do go out, they enjoy one another's company, they connect, and their feelings of just being "friends with potential" do gradually deepen into love. While Diane's over-protective father James Court (John Mahoney) seems to like Lloyd, he mostly sees him as a distraction and someone who's going to steer her away from the future she's worked so hard to achieve.We like Lloyd and Diane both, and we want them to be together. But like any good love story, there has to be roadblocks, and these roadblocks hurt...In a major subplot, however, James, owner of an elderly-care facility, is also being investigated by the IRS for tax fraud. This subplot would be a most unnecessary distraction from an otherwise touching teen romance, but the way everything turns out and why it's even happened in the first place is just one of the many unique charms of "Say Anything..." and why it stands out amongst most teen romance films made before and since. A less ambitious movie would JUST be about Lloyd & Diane's relationship and nothing else, but "Say Anything..." has other things on its mind beside those two - even though it still hurts us when outside forces cause them to separate for a time. "Say Anything..." wants to show us how their relationship is affecting everyone around them, and how everyone around them is affecting them, as well."Say Anything..." is a wondrously scripted, acted, and directed film; it's definitely an early indication of the skill of a writer and director with huge ideas, huge potential. Crowe knew his characters well and chose his performers even better. John Cusack and Ione Skye are the dynamic young stars playing Lloyd and Diane. Like John Hughes before him and who dominated the early portion of the 1980s teen scene, Cameron Crowe knew how to make a "smart" teen film: one that is not filled with stupid sex jokes and even stupider characters - teens and adults alike.With that in mind, I can see how an audience so cynical in 1989 after being bombarded with teen comedy after teen comedy throughout the earlier portion of the decade can very easily write off "Say Anything..." as just Another Teen Movie. It's a teen film, yes, and an occasionally very funny one, too, but it's also an extraordinarily moving and compelling one, as well. So I can also see how that cynicism would wear off once the movie really begins to reveal itself to the audience - especially with its emotional honesty and maturity, and the fact that it's actually a very well-written and acted little piece of cinema.So it's really no wonder why you can Say Anything you want about "Say Anything..." but you cannot deny that it is not a great movie!10/10