EDtv (1999)

Average rating

(63%)

Starring:	Matthew McConaughey \| Jenna Elfman \| Woody Harrelson \| Ellen DeGeneres \| Sally Kirkland \| Martin Landau \| Rob Reiner \| Dennis Hopper \| Elizabeth Hurley \| Clint Howard
Director:	Ron Howard
Studio:	4 FRONT VIDEO
Run time:	118 mins
Genres:	Comedy
Languages:	English
Dubbed:	German
Subtitles:	Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
Released:	March 24, 2003
Also available on:

Ed Pekurney agrees to appear in a new reality-based TV show even though he's just a regular guy but when the show becomes a hit he suddenly becomes a national celebrity. He then falls in love with his brother's girlfriend and their most private moments soon become public entertainment and the ratings go through the roof...

Rating of 4 stars out of 5

Director Ron Howard's delightfully soft-centred rumination on the excesses of television has suffered in the wake of The Truman Show, but comparisons with the Jim Carrey blockbuster are misplaced. Howard's comedy drama is more concerned with “feel-good” laughs and formulaic romantic complications than hard-edged satire, and it doesn't disappoint in delivering sheer enjoyment. Matthew McConaughey gives a winning performance as the small-town video-store assistant who agrees to be filmed 24 hours a day by a camera crew for a ratings-hungry cable network. However, when his regular-guy persona makes him nationally famous, disrupting his entire existence, the novelty wears off. McConaughey delivers the homespun messages in Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel's script with aplomb, while Ellen DeGeneres steals every scene as McConaughey's ratings-hungry producer. Also rising to the occasion is Elizabeth Hurley, who makes sure her supporting role as the wannabe “It Girl” hitching her career wagon to Ed's new-found fame pays maximum dividends. Hardly subtle yet highly entertaining, despite its deliberately unchallenging fuzziness.

Rating of 1 stars out of 5
Halliwell's Film Guide