rooprect First of all, I have to come to the defence (spelled with a 'c') of the actors' British accents. Unless your name is Henry Higgins, I don't think you'll mind what you hear here. Now Keanu Reeves doing Shakespeare or Julia Roberts doing Mary Reilly, THOSE are bad accents. In "Caffeine" the two American fakers had me fooled enough to think they were actual Brits.Now on to the movie. Like many good Brit comedies, the overall plot isn't as important as the witty criss-crossing of subplots. Like a clever stage play, that and some good acting is all you need. The whole story is set in a restaurant: the dining room, kitchen, and back balcony. Basically it's "a day in the life" of a bunch of oddball characters working and dining in a cafe.The stories revolve mostly around romantic/sexual relationships and the absurd situations they create. Like a good Shakespearean romp... or the 70s sitcom "Three's Company", all the mayhem is the result of misunderstandings, awkwardness and overreactions. The film starts out somewhat tame, but as it progresses and we get to know each character, they seem to become increasingly insane. One of my fave segments was the meek vegetarian girl who was subjected to an excruciating blind date with a gun-toting macho man. By the time the movie is near its end, anything goes.If you like dialogue-driven films that feel like plays, such as "Death at a Funeral" (original version 2007), "Le dîner de cons" (original version 1998), "My Tiny Universe" (2004), "Deathtrap" (1982) or even the classic "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1966), I think this movie will be worth your time.

nats_always_write On first look, this movie seems appealing - the coffee house is certainly a relatable setting, and the characters all have their humorous moments of witty dialogue, however short-lived. But on the long glance, and after 89 minutes, the overall performance leaves a rather bitter aftertaste. Because, lets face it, the movie brings up nearly every socially awkward situation possible in a way that tries to make light of it all, but doesn't quite get away with it. The mentally ill grandmother who brings a shotgun into the café and then timidly asks for a cup of tea, the dumped boyfriend yelling "I have cancer" in order to avoid a beating, the lawyer who wears his fiancé's underwear while cleaning, the gay waiter who breaks into tears, the threesome with twins - it's a bit too much for this movie to carry. Maybe it's movie's self-contained nature; like a play with one main set, I half expected to see the cast of "Noises Off" to run across the screen.Katherine Heigl's performance is a bit strange here too - while she did give a better British accent than I expected she only shot off these short little lines, as if the screenwriter was worried her accent wouldn't last through a paragraph. Her comic timing is alright, but her character is hardly developed, and since she is probably the film's biggest draw right now, this seems unwise.What is most unsettling is that this movie can't seem to decide what it wants to be; a slice of neurotic 'real' life or a satire of the crazy social situations that emerge when people get coffee-ed up? Are we meant to like these characters despite their quirks - which are basically unbelievable, because in what world would all this happen in one coffee house in one day? - or think they're all nuts? But Caffeine does attempt to wrap up the ending with the very odd grandmother walking down the street with granddaughter Mena Suvari, declaring "That was a nice day." I just hope all my days aren't that nice.

gloshpit When the opening scene had two 'stoned' kids explaining in clumsy exposition just how stoned they were ("I am getting anxious! I am so stoned!") I feared that this would be a waste of money, especially given the quality of the trailers on the DVD. But although it's not brilliant, it's actually quite watchable.The first thing I stated when it had finished was this wasn't really a movie per se, but more like an extended play for television. The style is very much like a theatre piece with a series of dialogues and subplots between sets of characters, leeching between groups at times. The acting was competent and the accents were quite convincing in the cases of Heigl and Suvari although no awards are likely to be won.The problem I think many people will have is that it's marketed as a "hilarious" comedy, when it's not. It's an observational piece and a study in embarrassment, more along the same lines of The Office than blatant out-and-out comedy. Although it does have wit to it, this is not a comedic film and doesn't even *feel* like an actual film, so it's liable to confuse people. I doubt if I'd watch it again, but it was entertaining while it lasted and doesn't really deserve the lambasting some of the comments have given it.

T. Cakebread I think that this movie could have had the potential to be very successful & hilarious but, it was such a let-down for me. The story-line was a bit too random & slow at times. I didn't fancy this movie at all. I'm glad that I rented it and didn't purchase I'll tell you that. It seemed like it would be a good flick because of certain actors & actresses that I've seen in other movies. However, If I were them, I'd leave this movie out of my filmography. There were few remotely humorous parts. I didn't like the way that part of the story was left up in the air like about Rachel and the new job as well as Rachel and Charlie. Personally, if my boyfriend did what Charlie did to Rachel, I would be so hurt and wouldn't allow him back into my life.