In PEOPLE LIKE US, Sam (Chris Pine) is a fast talking and struggling corporate barter who has a deal that is falling apart on the same day when he get s a call that his father (a music producer) has died.  He reluctantly returns home (with his girlfriend) to Los Angeles to go to his father’s funeral and finds out his estranged father Jerry left behind a daughter Sam knew nothing about.   His father leaves $150,000 for Sam to give to his unknown sister Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) and her 11 year old son Josh.  Sam wants to tell Frankie who he is, but he chickens out and starts to develop a friendship with her and her son.   He begins to connect with his sister and his mother as he must make choices in what is important in his life.   I enjoyed watching this movie one time, but I find out the story is very problematic when you start to think about it too much.  PEOPLE LIKE US is there to appeal to your emotions and your heart.   It just that it tries to hard and leaves some things unresolved like Sam’s troubles with the FTC and too easily wraps other things up.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET: THE STORY BEHIND PEOPLE LIKE US- a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie which was inspired by true events in the life of co-writer/ director Alex Kurtzman.  It is basically a promotional featurette.

 

Various deleted and extended scenes show what was cut out of the movie for pacing and tone reasons while taco Time shows all of the improve bits that didn’t make it into the Taco scene in the movie.  The bloopers reel is slightly amusing.

 

Also on the disc are an audio commentary for the film with Director Alex Kurtzman, writer Jody Lambert, Chris Pine, and Elizabeth Banks in addition to select scene commentary with Kurtzman and Michelle Pfieffer.   My favorite part of the audio commentary has to be Elizabeth Banks commenting how a certain scene would be so romantic if it wasn’t for her and Pine playing brother and sister.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  PEOPLE LIKE US is an average movie that may appeal to your emotions, but Kurtzman and Orci do better writing with sci-fi and action movies and shows.

 

This review is (c)10-7-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com