StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

MBunge This movie is like someone standing on a beach watching a man drown 6 feet from shore where, instead of throwing the drowning man a life preserver, the sadistic watcher throws him a series of concrete blocks. Aaron Eckhart is the drowning man, desperately trying to save himself and this film, while the insipid script and lifeless direction of Meet Bill keep dragging him down.Bill (Aaron Eckhart) is less a character and more a collection of characteristics. He's got a pot belly and a bad haircut. He has his job only because he married his boss' daughter, even though his boss treats him more like an intern than an executive. He's got a gay brother and a serious candy addiction. I guess this mix of common and quirky traits is supposed to make the audience empathize and identify with Bill, but he's really just an annoying and self-pitying shmuck.Bill is unhappy with his life and dreams of trading in his job at his father-in-law's bank for running his own doughnut shop. Then, two things happen. First, Bill is roped into being a mentor to a high school kid (Logan Lerman). Second, Bill finds out his wife Jessica (Elizabeth Banks) is cheating on him.Let me digress for a moment. The high school kid in Bill doesn't have a name and is, in fact, listed in the credits only as "The Kid". If you ever write a screenplay, on behalf of everyone who might ever read it, I beg you to please, please, please give all of your characters actual names. You might think it's cute and clever to have one just be called "The Kid" or something, but it's not. It's stupid and aggravating. People, whether close friends or relative strangers, call each other by their names all the time and it's both very noticeable and irritating when a script goes out of its way to avoid that. I don't care if you think the character being nameless has some thematic significance. It's just dumb.Returning to the movie, Bill freaks out when he discovers Jessica is sleeping with a cheesy local news anchor. He beats the guy up and gets thrown in jail. Bill also moves out of his own huge house and into his gay brother's equally huge home. He hangs out with The Kid, who tries to help Bill loosen up and enjoy life. Bill also takes up swimming and keeps trying to finagle his way into owning that doughnut shop. There's also a sex tape, a big party where everything goes wrong and a pointless subplot where The Kid keeps hitting on this lingerie store clerk (Jessica Alba). Not that hitting on Jessica Alba is pointless, but it serves absolutely no purpose in the story.The things that happen in this movie either don't make sense or you don't care about them if they do. How does a dorky loser like Bill end up with a woman who looks like the incredibly appealing Elizabeth Banks? There's no explanation of what Jessica could have ever seen in him. Bill obviously gets paid a lot of money for very little work, has a huge house and a smokin' hot wife…and we're supposed to care that he's not satisfied with all that? When we find out Jessica is cheating on Bill, there's no emotional impact to it because if you were married to a pathetic non-entity like Bill, you'd probably cheat on him too. There's absolutely no reason or explanation for why The Kid makes such enormous efforts to attach himself to Bill and try and help him out, like an overexcited hybrid of Ferris Bueller and Jiminy Cricket, and The Kid is so theatrically irreverent that you just want Bill to smack him. The story also connects Bill's growth as a human being to him shaving off his body hair, which is just odd.This movie is completely uninvolving, even though Aaron Eckhart is working as hard in this film as I've ever seen any performer work in anything. He does everything but drop trou and show us his Little Eckhart to make us laugh or feel ANYTHING about Bill. All of his efforts, however, are smothered by the relentlessly limp work of these filmmakers.Unless you enjoy watching a drowning man being thrown cement blocks, there's nothing in Meet Bill for anyone to enjoy.

Sirus_the_Virus Aaron Eckhart does a great job as Bill, a man who hates his life in Bill. Or Meet Bill. I am still not sure what it's called. The case to it says Meet Bill and IMDb says Bill so I don't know. One thing I do know is that this a seriously funny film. I had never heard of it. It's a shame cause I am sure that a lot of people haven't. The film has a great cast. Eckhart does an interesting portrayal as Bill, am man with a miserable life. His life really is miserable. His wife(played by Elizabeth Banks)is having an affair with Chip(played by Timothy Olyphant), the town anchorman. He works for his wife's father. In a really boring job.His life changes after he finds out about his wife's affair. He gets into tons of embarrassing periods. Such as when he attacks his wife's lover. Or when he records her having sex with him. But his life really changes when Bill has to mentor a high school kid(played by Logan Lerman). Once this happens, he starts to have more fun and he makes some new friends. Like an underwear saleswoman(played by Jessica Alba).Bill is a very funny film. Eckhart does very well here, and there isn't a boring moment throughout the entire film. There are some big laughs here. Is this a masterpiece? Not quite. But it is a funny film. Bill:****/*****

Roland E. Zwick Bill is in the midst of a full-blown midlife crisis. Not only is he stuck in a job he hates (a made-up position at his father-in-law's bank), but his wife is cheating on him with a local news reporter. Meanwhile, his potbelly seems to be expanding at an increasingly alarming rate, a condition brought on by the massive quantities of donuts and candy bars he consumes daily out of nervousness and force of habit. Bill can't seem to step out of the shadows of either his wife's dad or the brother whom everyone seems to think is brighter, more financially successful and more all-around "together" than Bill is. In fact, the one hope Bill has of turning his life around may well rest with an Alex Keating-type prep school student he's agreed to mentor as part of a program for entrepreneurial teens.Written and directed by Bernie Goldman and Melisa Walick, "Meet Bill" ranges from the hilarious to the mildly amusing - with just enough dull patches thrown in to keep us from raving too much over its virtues or letting it too much into our hearts. The screenplay is frequently sharp in its comic portrayal of middle-aged angst, but it also feels vaguely rudderless, undernourished and underdeveloped for much of the time.The real joy of the film lies in Aaron Eckhart's star turn as a man whose career and personal relationships clearly aren't what he'd hoped they'd be at this particular point in his life. He's nicely supported by Elizabeth Banks as his philandering wife; Logan Lerman as his preppie protégé; Jessica Alba as a lingerie salesgirl; Reed Diamond as his overly competitive gay brother-in-law; and SNL stars Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis as donut-shop franchise owners who hope to go into business with Bill.And speaking of the entrepreneurial spirit, a veritable goldmine awaits anyone savvy enough to market that amazing belly-busting weight-loss program Bill uses to great effect towards the end of the film.

huntthejest I rarely comment on movies, but the previous reviewer seemed like a blathering idiot. This movie is excellent, not only acting-wise(Eckhart's transformation is amazing, and keep an eye on that kid) but the story is very real. It contains just enough over the top to remind us that it is, indeed, a dark comedy. But it definitely puts the humor in the right places. The film has a serious message, but a subtly hilarious tone. Though way out from mainstream "succesful" films it is splendidly done, and the ending leaves us inspired to action to better our own lives. Be who you want, and not what others expect. In the end, everyone respects him more for it.