Monster's Ball

Rating:
Summary: A Dark,Gritty Drama
Review: "Monster's Ball" is not the type of drama one sees with a family. You got three generation of white men living under one roof. All are/were C.O's for the state. And the first two generations were racists, and the third was more into seeking his place on this earth. He was in a job that wasn't suited for him, his father had issues with him dealing with his mother(he admitted to hating his son just before the son admitted to loving his father before he killed himself)to be honest, The women are either dead mostly by killing themselves. To be honest, those men were just existing. They didn't look too happy to be on this earth. Billy Bob Thornton seemed as though he was just suffering from all of this mess his father was saying while he took care of him. Then you have Leticia Musgrove(Halle Berry) on the other hand. Living in poverty with an overweight son that she sometimes take her frustrations out on; seeing your husband then your son die in close proximity to each other was a bit much. On top of that, she was in the process of being evicted from her home. That's a bit much for one person to handle. Then she hooks up with Billy Bob Thornton's character, who in time, gives her his son's car, and moves the father into a nursing home so she could move in with him. you won't see Halle in makeup. Matter of fact, she portrays this woman to the hilt. A lot is said about the nudity in here. you have a full nude scene when Letitia asks him to help her take away the pain.I can understand why one does that. You lose the family you know about and have no one there for you. She was just reacting out of her sadness and she wasn't the only one either to do so.Did she deserve the Oscar? I felt she did. She wasn't coming across as no prostitute, just a woman who was in pain. When Thornton's character told her that he wanted to take care of her, she was glad to and told him so. Despite the tender moments, there is family dysfunctions on both sides of this accounting for the dark and gritty parts(the younger son's suicide). It ends with Thornton and Berry eating ice cream and watching the stars on the steps at his home. Pretty short film. Also, Thornton's interaction with Mos Def's character and sons change with the movie. Good portrayals by all.

Rating:
Summary: Monster's Drawl Y'all
Review: I found this film to be repulsive. I also find it hard to believe Halle Berry (The Flintstones, B.A.P.S) won an Oscar for this. Her performance was blaringly flawed, and her portrayal of a "ghetto hootchie mama" was exaggerated and offensive. The storyline in Monster's Ball is also redundant. How many movies do they have to make about prejudice in the south? We get the point! This movie was horrible.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Film of 2001
Review: This is honestly the best film of 2001, in my opinion. Albeit lots of sexual content, Halle Berry gives the ultimate and diginified performance of her career. Billy Bob and even the surprise cameo of Sean 'P.Diddy' Combs was great, yet Halle deserved her Academy Award. She was great. I loved the gritty realism of the setting and the honest, Southern characters. HONESTLY, the Best Film of 2001!!!

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly!
Review: Although I really expected to be simply entertained by this movie, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to most watchers. The teen and 20's guy group will differ in opinion, but my husband enjoyed it although he really had no intention of watching it with me. Golf was over, so he sat with me and enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: Quietly moving story
Review: A white corrections officer with a racist upbringing (Billy Bob Thornton) and a black waitress unsuccessfully struggling to make a life (Halle Berry) encounter each other by chance and form a bond based on their mutual need. The complications that such a relationship in the Deep South must necessarily entail are largely ignored rather than confronted, but that is not a flaw in this film. Rather, it is true to the nature of the characters, who are so desperate for a nurturing human connection that all other concerns fall by the wayside. The understated screenplay (by Milo Addica and Will Rokos) does not wrap everything up into a neat package at the end, leaving us to wonder about the ultimate fate of this couple. Great performances and fine direction by Marc Forster.

Rating:
Summary: Monster's Ball- Simply The Best
Review: When I saw Monster's Ball, I must say I was quite impressed and stunned with the beautiful performances from Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton. Halle Berry won an Academy Award for Best Actress in this film. This film was amazing, the acting, the plot and of course the sexuality. Halle Berry is quite conspicious with her sexy body and does intend to be quite a beauty. As for Billy Bob Thornton, he is a fine actor, but why did he leave Angenlina Jolie one will never know. Anyway back to film, Billy Bob Thornton plays a prison guard and he executed Halle Berry's husband played by Sean Combs. Soon, Berry's and Thornton's characters fall in love and from here the film becomes more romantic. Monster's Ball is rated R for Strong Sexual Content, Language and Violence. The film's sexuality is devastatingly explicit and highly entertaining. There is also nudity, very entertaining. This flim is stimulating and amusing and works very well on its own terms.
Director Marc Forster does a fine job, and so do the actors. This film is not the best choice for preteens, best for 17 year olds and above. Though it is a film worth seeing and possibly even owning. You will last and live in pleasure, the film will make you fill lascivious, quite a good thing. I enjoyed it and you will too. It's worth your time! Trust Me! Now available to own on Video and DVD! SEE MONSTER'S BALL!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: just awful
Review: This movie was one of the worst of the year by a long shot. I can't believe this was praised so much by critics. It was awful.
One of the main problems with this movie was Halle Berry. She's just not a good actress. She has the problem of not merging into her role, on the screen it is clear that she is always acting. The most frivolous thing to the whole movie was the prostitute shared by the father and son. It completely went against the son's character study. He's supposed to be a good police officer, yet out of nowhere he does this. Also what annoyed me most was Halle Berry's financial and emotional dependency on Thorton. It wasn't reciporated. It shows the screenplay was written by a man with issues.
The only good thing about this movie was the actor who played Halle Berry's son. He was delightful in the movie and put a smile on my face. But even he was copped out of the movie early on.

Rating:
Summary: Could be better
Review: Monster's ball's main problem is that it tries to make reference to too many aspects of the US southern life, and in the end, none of these aspects are treated with necessary depth they deserve.

The movie tells the story of two very different people brought together by chance. Billy Bob Thronton is a state prison guard in charge of executions. His father legacy was racism. In the first scenes of the movie he uses a shotgun to make two black kids go away from his property. And he is in charge of a black man's execution in the electric chair. But the viewer is able to see that, although Billy Bob does that racist stuff, he's not very comfortable with them.

Hale Berry is the wife of the condemned man. Her life is going down the drain. After her husband's death, she has to work in a cafeteria and try to raise a son with weight problems.

These two troubled lives meet, and among personal problems and tragedies they try to build a life together.

Billy Bob, as always, is in excelent acting shape. Hale Berry is a very beautiful woman and an amazing actress, and they both do a series of strong scenes during the movie, though some of them are a little bit extreme. The best acting in the movie, though is provided by Heath Ledger, an actor whom I thought just another one of the bunch of Freddie Prinze, etc., but who in fact is a great new talent, with a powerful yet short participation.

"Monster's ball" would have to be eight hours long to discuss correctly all the subjects in it... It is not a bad movie, not at all, but the ending is too close to a fairy tail, if compared to the rest of the story.

Grade 7.5/10

Rating:
Summary: Expected a nail-biting ending, but was let down
Review: I thought the storyline was very great throughout the whole movie. Once the worst happens to Thorton's son, and later Thorton and Berry move in down the line, I knew that she would find some type of evidence from the son's personal possessions to change the whole mood of her and Thorton. Well, once she finds out, a quick thought of shock, disbelief, etc., but the better overcomes her bad thoughts=the end. Where's the strong suspenseful ending?

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but not good either...
Review: This is a very strange film. There is a story here, but it is not a very good one....

This family (three generations of which Thornton is the middle and Boyle is the senior) has a career history in the Department of Corrections in Georgia. They are prison guards.... They are all on the Death Row squad. They work in the execution room. Their job is to perform the executions.

Boyle is retired and is very racial oriented. Thornton and son are still on the job. Thornton is the ranking officer on the detail. His son is a junior guard. Apparently, there is a huge problem between father and son. Thornton shows no love for his son. It even comes out that he has always hated his son.

Anyway, after all that gets out of the way, the real story begins. ... And, that's the end of the movie. Kind of a lame ending.

Oh yeah... There are some quite explicit sexual scenes. Quite a bit of nudity and profanity.

As I said before, this is not a bad film, just not a good one either. No action to speak of. A little bit of violence between Thornton and his son.

You make the call...