Ed Pekurny (Matthew McConaughey) is an everyday guy with a loser video clerk job. TV producer Cynthia Topping (Ellen DeGeneres) wants to do a 24/7 reality show for a failing cable network. They choose to do the show with Ed. His brother Ray (Woody Harrelson) is a bit of a douche. Ray breaks his girlfriend Shari's (Jenna Elfman) heart, and she falls for Ed.
If there isn't the gimmick of a TV show, this would be a simple rom-com between McConaughey and Elfman. However, the movie is too simplistic about what a camera following somebody all the time would actually mean. This feels like a Hollywood movie of a Hollywood TV show of a Hollywood reality.
Director Ron Howard doesn't actually do edgy that well. It's definitely not his forte. And this movie needs to get down and dirty, but Howard's light touch fails him here. After an interesting start, it quickly gets boring. It's a speed bump in an otherwise great directing career. The sad thing is that it's so obvious that Howard is not up to this job.
Edtv
1999
Action / Comedy / Drama
Edtv
1999
Action / Comedy / Drama
Keywords: tv ratingssimulated reality
Plot summary
In a Hail Mary move for corporate preservation, the San Francisco based Northwest Broadcasting Corporation launches True TV, a new network which will broadcast the life of an Average Joe or Jane, 24/7 live and thus unedited, the subject chosen signed initially for one month. The project is conceived and led by one of the producers, Cynthia, but her boss, NWBC president Whitaker, will take the credit if it succeeds, and let her sink as the captain of the ship if it fails. The network is rebranded EdTV when Cynthia believes she's found her subject, Ed Pekurny, a native Texas hayseed, who fits the two main criteria that she is looking for in the person: he is easy on the eyes, and he has what seems to be a potential trainwreck of a life in that he he is thirty-one years old, spends most of his time hanging out at the bar, and has no ambition beyond his longtime dead end job as a clerk in a video store. Ed did not actively campaign for the job - his blowhard of a brother Ray was the one who played to the cameras when Cynthia's team was looking for subjects - but ultimately decided to do it after discussing it with those close to him, namely his immediately family of his mother, stepfather, and two siblings. After a slow start and despite some people associated with Ed hamming it up to the cameras in wanting their fifteen minutes of fame or more, Ed becomes enough of a toast to the TV watching public for the network to become a success. However, having the cameras rolling during certain times may not be the most advantageous for those directly involved, especially as someone from Ed's distant past reenters his life, and an issue with regard to Ray's relationship with his current girlfriend, a UPS delivery person named Shari who if Ed was being honest would admit that he is attracted to himself. Other issues that eventually do emerge is Ed and those around him using the cameras as a convenient excuse for things that happen, and as Whitaker, against Cynthia's wants as the moves being totally self-serving, begins to manipulate Ed to make EdTV more salacious TV viewing.
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Starts great with a good premise but...
Sneak Peek
Reality TV - 24/7 "surveillance and something some people are doing nowadays in some form. Filming themselves as much as possible and if they don't do it, there are enough cameras on the streets in some cities to cover you. Now let's begin with one major flaw: to be able to air all what we see, everyone would have to sign a contract with the TV station ... giving away their rights. Something completely unthinkable nowadays.
And not because it ain't happening (everyone films everyone),but because they make money with everyone. So if you can wrap your head around this and be like "ok it's a movie, creative freedom", you will be treated to a really funny romantic movie. Outdated things aside (yahoo? video stores unfortunately),this has a lot of heart. It also has quite some cliches and you can see where it is going . predictable but more than decent
"ed"iting the world for "tv"
In a way, it was sort strange that less than a year after "The Truman Show" came out, there was another movie about a man's life getting broadcast on TV. Moreover, it seemed like whereas "TTS" was more of a biting satire, "Edtv" was going soft - maybe trying to be cute - with cameras following a video store clerk (Matthew McConaughey). However, years of reality shows have shown just how disgusting TV can get. And these two movies predicted it. Although I do prefer the former, the latter actually seems to be portraying what we now know as reality shows.
So, I will say that this movie doesn't do as good a job as "The Truman Show", it does have some funny scenes. I actually thought that Ellen Degeneres and Rob Reiner were the two best cast members. OK seeing once; Ron Howard has done better. Also starring Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Hurley, Jenna Elfman, Sally Kirkland, Martin Landau, Dennis Hopper and Clint Howard.