Serving Sara
Serving Sara | |
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Directed by | Reginald Hudlin |
Written by | Jay Scherick David Ronn |
Produced by | Dan Halsted |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Robert Brinkmann |
Edited by | Jim Miller |
Music by | Marcus Miller |
Production company | |
Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $29 million[2] |
Box office | $20.1 million |
Serving Sara is a 2002 American
Plot
Joe Tyler, a
While Joe is attempting to serve Sara, Tony tips her off, thus revealing that Joe has been failing lately because Tony is sabotaging his efforts. Eventually Joe does serve her, but is mugged soon thereafter. Joe and Sara are forced to take the same bus; while they are riding together, Joe informs her that, under Texas law, she stands to gain nothing from the divorce. When she learns that "half of everything" would apply if the papers had been served under New York law, Sara offers Joe a million dollars to serve her husband and rip up her papers. Despite knowing that he might lose his job, Joe agrees and the two set off together to serve Gordon.
When Ray hears of their plan, he informs Gordon and sends Tony off to re-serve Sara. Gordon hires a bodyguard named Vernon to protect himself, and Joe, expecting Tony to tail him, leaves a set of bogus clues that lead Tony to
While Joe contemplates his lost fortune and budding affection for Sara, he notices Tony's watch in the picture Tony took of him serving Sara, and calls Ray to inform him that Tony forgot to set his watch to Central Time Zone, so that the papers do not take effect until 7:04 pm Central Time. With mere minutes until they both lose a fortune, Joe and Sara trail Gordon to a monster truck rally. They chase Gordon and evade both Vernon and Tony, and with seconds to spare, Sara knocks Gordon down by dropping a six-pack of beer on his head. Joe serves him under New York law and Gordon receives the papers. Tony and Vernon are carried out of the stadium on stretchers (due to Tony accidentally running over Vernon) and then attempt to fight one another. The final scene shows Joe and Sara at Joe's vineyard, where they taste-test a bottle of Joe's first vintage before going inside to have sex.
Cast
- Matthew Perry as Joe Tyler
- Elizabeth Hurley as Sara Moore
- Bruce Campbell as Gordon Moore
- Vincent Pastore as Tony
- Cedric the Entertainer as Ray Harris
- Amy Adams as Kate
- Terry Crews as Vernon
- Jerry Stiller as Milton the Cop
- Marshall Bell as Warren Cebron
- Joe Viterelli as Fat Charlie
Production
Matthew Perry was struggling with drug and alcohol addiction during the production. He was working on the show
Reception
Critical response
Serving Sara was panned and received negative reviews from critics.
Cynthia Fuchs from PopMatters found the progression of the plot "increasingly incoherent, a string of rehashed sight gags based in insipid vulgarity."[7] Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum described the film's humor as being "a cattle ranch full of joke droppings and mooing shtick not worth stepping in."[8] Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club said about the film, "[A] third-rate conflation of Midnight Run and It Happened One Night, Serving Sara relies heavily on Perry's perpetually exasperated shtick, which fits more comfortably among the democratic ensemble of TV's Friends."[9] Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times called it, "One of the more cynical and insulting Hollywood offerings in recent memory," saying that, "Unfunny and lacking any sense of commitment to or affection for its characters, the Reginald Hudlin comedy relies on toilet humor, ethnic slurs."[10] In a review for The New York Times, Stephen Holden criticized the film for utilizing a similar cattle gag scene from the Farrelly brothers comedy Say It Isn't So to grab laughs from the audience, saying that "Some jokes, apparently, are just so uproarious they have to be recycled." He also gave note of the performances of Perry and Hurley, finding the latter coming out unscathed but felt the former doesn't do well because "his blocky, charmless screen presence and attitude of blustery impatience make the movie sometimes hard to watch."[11]
Box office
The film opened at #6 at the U.S. box office and earned $5.7 million in its opening weekend. The film had a budget of $29 million and the film's total gross in the United States was $16.9 million.[2] The film grossed a further $3,215,965 at the international box office.[12]
References
- ^ Harris, Dana (December 17, 2001). "Mandalay on road with Summit". Variety. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
- ^ a b "Serving Sara (2002) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on 2022-12-03. Retrieved 2022-11-11.
- ^ Mary Kate Carr (2022-11-10). "Elizabeth Hurley on Matthew Perry: Lovely man, nightmare working with him". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-11.
- CBS Interactive. Archivedfrom the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2007.
- ^ "Serving Sara (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on June 1, 2021. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "Bad Movies: The 100 Worst Movies of All Time". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on February 21, 2024. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
- ^ Fuchs, Cynthia (August 21, 2002). "Serving Sara (2002)". PopMatters. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
- ^ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (August 28, 2002). "Serving Sara". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
- ^ Tobias, Scott (August 30, 2002). "Serving Sara". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Archived from the original on October 4, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
- ^ Dargis, Manohla (August 23, 2002). "'Serving Sara' Does No Service to Anyone, Viewers Least of All". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 4, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ Holden, Stephen (August 23, 2002). "Rich Man Wants a Divorce; His Wife Has Her Own Plans". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 4, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
- ^ Serving Sara at Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 29, 2007.