Monster's Ball

Rating:
Summary: A Monster of a Performance by Berry
Review: Halle Berry stars as Leticia Musgrove, a young African-American mother whose husband is on death row for an undisclosed crime. Her husband (Sean Combs) is executed by a white father named Hank and his son (Billy Bob Thornton and Heath Ledger, respectively). After the abusive mother's only son is killed in a freak accident, Hank (whose estranged son commits suicide) becomes entangled in Leticia's life, marked by crippling grief and great misfortune. They begin an affair, Leticia all the while not knowing that her new love was the one who killed the father of her dead son. Will she overcome this, or will she succumb to the familiar isolation she has faced nearly all of her life?

The performances are all marvelous. Thornton and Ledger maintain a quiet anger and sadness, Combs and Peter Boyle (as Hank's racist father) are both great in brief supporting roles, but nothing compares to Berry. Usually typecast as the beautiful girlfriend or token black character, she brings exquisite calibration to her work, a raw fear combined with pride and numbing insecurities. She also has some stunning hysterical moments in the film, when she realizes who Thornton's character is and when she finds out her son is dead at the hospital. The latter moment emblazons itself on your memory, as she bangs on the glass screaming with gutteral howls "My baby! Please don't take my baby!" before collapsing into a heap. Berry, despite some recent poor script and genre choices, proved herself in this film, winning a well-deserved Oscar as Best Actress in a Leading Role against such contenders as former winners Sissy Spacek and Judi Dench. Berry's performance ranks among the best in recent memory.

Excellent acting and good writing make this film easily one of the finest of the last few years.

Rating:
Summary: Kudos to the honest drinking game review
Review: Very depressing film altogether. Not a shred of quality to the plot, scenery, characters. Leave it to Halle to take on a roll for yet again the purpose of exposing her surgery enhanced body and thrusting racism back in our faces - guess what, we're not all plantation owners, but she'll do her best to make sure we know that we are. Her agenda is loud and clear and that's what detracts from her acting. There are real, solid actresses out there, I really believe there are - of all ethnicities, who are also very attractive. She just isn't one of those solid actresses; she's been overrated due to JUST her outward appearance, which is common for Hollywood to push on the movie-going public. Have you bought it hook,line and sinker? Perfect college/drinking guy movie - I would give it a 5 star rating on that alone. Otherwise, be honest - all the intellectual hype about it, and the deep comments etc are excuses - people watch it to see Halle folks! Just admit it. PS the person that wrote the fat kid is the star - he's right on! His story and his acting are easily overlooked, poor fellow.

Rating:
Summary: Dissapointinggggggg!
Review: I luv halle berry, infact, she's one of my favourite actors. In this film her character is more than convincing.However, I just think the film drags and hasn't got a real climax or that 'something' in a film that makes you have some kinda deep reaction that lasts for about 3 scenes. the deathrow scene and the sex scene are reaction-jerkers, but that reaction only lasts for a little while cos of the bland scenes to follow. I can't even be bothered to wrtite this review...infact, i'm boring myself so i'm gonna wrap it up.This film was borrrring..snorrrrrrrr!

Ps. the fat boy's the star of this movie!

Rating:
Summary: A different sort of death row film
Review: Here is a movie that uses the plight of a condemned man as a point-of-departure to launch everything else in the storyline. This is a bit unusual, at least to my knowledge. Usually in Death-Row films there is some sort of recapitulation of the crime that the felon committed. Not so here. We're never told exactly what he did, although we're probably safe in assuming he did something more egregious than double-parking.

The film takes a stab at sundry unpleasant aspects of the human condition. We vicariously experience circumstances such as being an inmate on death row, being a corrections officer in charge of a death row inmate, being the wife of a death row inmate, losing a son, loss of employment & one's house, growing old & feeling decrepit as well as a tinge of the horror of prejudice / racism. In short, if you're looking for a cheery movie you may want to look elsewhere.

The movie is very well done and Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton turn in remarkable performances. The tone of the film is very surreal and subtle, and the soft guitar soundtrack is a nice touch.

So, if you're into dark movies, death row movies or films that are a bit off-center, then this movie is highly recommended. If you feel a movie must be uplifting in order to be good, then I recommend you not attend the Monster's Ball.

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst I've ever seen
Review: When it comes to movies and music I'm very open minded, but this movie is horrible. Halle Berry naked is the only thing that wuld make me ever watch this movie again. I watched it at a friend's house the other day and after about 30 mintues jsut fast forwarded to Halle Berry naked. This movie is as boring as movies come. I even like slow movies and i thoguth this was unwatchable. After looking that there are over 80 one star reviews it makes me feel better inside that people don't actually like this drivel. The plot is ssoo lame and moves slower then molasses. Billy BOb's character is so evil it mkaes me mad. I just can't take this movie. Usualy when movies receive as much critical acclaim as Monster's Ball did i can see why, but w/ this movie I am left in awe at how bad it is.

Rating:
Summary: Great drinking game movie!
Review: Me and my buddies like to get around the screen with some hard booze and every time someone yells, starts to cry, or exposes a nipple we take a shot. You're guaranteed to be wasted by the end - awesome!

Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: This is one of the most deeply moving films that I have ever seen. Everything worked. The acting was superb. The script was masterful. Halle Berry richly deserved her academy award. The characters pain, frustration and confusion was palpable.

Unlike so many other films, there was no attempt to glamorize the characters living situation. No angst was played out in a $100,000 dollar Mercedes. These are people who have bills to pay, lonely lives to survive bereft of anything resembling abundance.

I deeply respect the deliberate pacing of the film. The director ( Marc Forster ), wasn't interested in pandering to short attention spans or limited empathy. Sadly, real people truly find themselves in situations where they experience crushing, almost unimaginable suffering. This film examines this realm of existence with honestly, attention to detail and compassion.

Monsters Ball is a masterpiece. I think that anyone who is interested is assembling a well rounded, well considered collection of films will want to own this DVD.

Rating:
Summary: What's the big deal?
Review: When I heard the hype about this movie when it first came out (about Halle Barry's makeup, the sex scenes) and now remember the night when Halle Barry became the first black actress to win an Academy Award for her role in this film, i thought, is it that good? I saw a few scenes on HBO, and thought it was interesting, intriguing, and hot. But then when i rented it and watched the WHOLE film, i was left wondering what's the big deal? First of all, the plot of this whole movie was lacking depth, and later on doesn't even seem to have a point to it. And Halle Barry's make up, or lack of it, was nothing special, she still looked like the same Halle Barry to me, except with a country accent. Don't get me wrong, i think Halle Barry is a great actress, and she deserved her Academy Award, but i don't understand what was so special about this role for her to finally get recognized for her talent. Her character lacked personality, and at times she was pretty boring. In fact, this whole film was kind of boring, and slow at times. And i thought the sex scenes weren't as hot and explicit as people hyped it up to be. It was nothing special, it was just too overrated if you ask me. So to conclude this, this film was just OKAY. But i think that all the hype over this film was just unnecessary.

Rating:
Summary: "Make me feel good!!!!"
Review: This is one of the best movies I've seen in a while, and it features Miss Halle Berry, the greatest actress in years! I love that scene where she's with Billy Bob Thornton and they're on the sofa and Miss Halle screams "make me feel good!" That scene got me so excited! Girl, you have to see this movie to believe it! Miss Thing deserved that Oscar and I hope she'll get more roles like that!

Rating:
Summary: Astonishly real.
Review: I do understand the criticisms that people have put against this film. The sex scenes are explicit, but I feel they are justified. Yes, Leticia (Halle Berry) had been mourning the death of her son and this makes it distinctly uncomfortable viewing. However, in times such as these, the human spirit turns to basic wants, whether comfort eating or sexual pleasure. The difference is not that vast.
The reason I applaud this film so highly is not so much for the acting, as this has been widely admired, but for the directing and the film in general. Things happen suddenly in this film and they often seem random. The end does not tie up neatly. But this, this strange ambiguity is what makes the film so real. Things do occur in life which are random or seem by chance (whether truly random or not is down to your personal belief) - like Hank being the one who passes Leticia and her son in the road, things do not tie up neatly, often you make decisions which are strange but perhaps necessary for you, like Leticia's choice to remain with Hank at the end. Having said that, this is left slightly uncertain and perhaps she does not stay with him.
Neither of the two main characters are perfect. Leticia abuses her child, and Hank is a racist bigot. Once again, this makes the film more true to life - nobody is perfect. I did not personally really sympathise with either of the characters, but it almost didn't matter as the story was still worth telling.
The film made me feel very much an observer, not someone drawn into the film - again this struck me as a sign of truly magnificent directing making this story true to life - you can never be inside someone else's story. You can only observe and emphathise with their story through your own experience, which is precisely what this film makes you do.
People have criticised the implausibility of the sudden love between the two main characters. However, I want to point out that the characters do not at any point say that they love each other, and their relationship seems more a product of mutual need. I think this is realistic - two people in difficult situations, not necessarily in love but keeping each other company. Company is often vastly underrated. I feel this is a film about company in the worst situations.