Rating: 
Summary: Did Mel Gibson need the money that bad?
Review: It is not often that I walk out of the theater before the movie ends. In fact this is the first time I ever did in probably 25 years. After almost a very excruciating hour I just couldn't take it any longer. This is one of those movies where everyone wants to pretend to see a deeper meaning than what it really is. I enjoy independent films and films that move away from main stream Hollywood. However, this was pure garbage. Some guy narrates this movie with unyielding rhetoric only to finally jump off the roof. Mel Gibson couldn't save this movie, he was just as bad as the rest of the characters. I would give negative stars to this movie if I could. Don't waste your money and don't rent this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: brilliant
Review: The Million Dollar Hotel is yet another sign of Bono's brilliance. It's an unconventional love story told beautifully.
Music by Bono and U2 and others pulls you into it even more.
I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: Another Triumph for Wim Wenders
Review: This is one of the finest films I've seen in years. Visually stunning, it has a sense of humor which manages to be strangely uplifting -- even though the main character dies within the first five minutes of the film, and everyone in the lunatic world has a hidden agenda. Spectacular aristry of performance by the main character (I'm afraid I don't know the actor's name) and by Milla Jojovich, who manages to make fragile intelligence seem fresh instead of cliched.However, don't go in expecting it to be an easy, formula film. This is one more for the arthouse crowd than the "oooh Mel Gibson -- what a hunk" groupies. Watch for U2's Bono (co-author) in one of the crowd scenes.
Rating:
Summary: Sorry, it's junk, and almost unwatchable.
Review: This is one of those movies you pick up in the video store because it has Mel Gibson on the cover and Tim Roth in the back. Surprise, Roth is in this flick for about two seconds, and Gibson is stuck in a toned down reprise of his "Payback" role. Which means gravelly voice and none of the charm that is his speciality. The plot is fragmented, the stories are crudely stuck together and the acting is sub-par. Milla Jovovich is fun to look at, like always, but apart from her startlingly sharp cheekbones and piercing eyes, she is pretty well glamoured down.
You should be able to figure out the situation behind this movie without even watching it. It is a 2001 release that most people have never heard of. A film released straight to video with Mel Gibson? How could a studio do that to a film with such a marketable star? Remember movie executives are there to make money, if they thought there was anything even remotely worthwhile in this film then it must have been horrible. It is.
The movie drags along under the narration of Jeremy Davies' character, Tom-Tom. The lines don't explain anything, are often repetitive, and are often whispered for the sake of generating some atmosphere. The only thing they suceed in generating is annoyance. I could go on, but what's the point? Don't watch this movie, don't rent it, and certainly don't buy it. It isn't good. Plain and simple. Save your money and, instead, go and rent any of the actually good films that any one of these actors has had a part in.
Rating:
Summary: Quirky and Addictive
Review: I love this film and watch it repeatedly. I can't get enough of the ambiant forces Wenders brought to this cautionary tale of life on the down and out in America. Mel Gibson's role as Special Agent Skinner is a hoot and it has been remarked that he goofed his way through this one. So what? Wenders has been lambasted for the ad hoc feel of the film, on the one hand, and for the obsessive stylistic effects of the digital edit, on the other hand. Again, so what? Milla Jovovich is a pleasure to watch, as she flits about, and Jeremy Davies, as agitated nerd, is a mannered play on the fidgeting fool well-loved by Shakespeareans the world round.
There are numerous sendups in this piece - e.g. the John Lennon impersonations (Peter Stormare) or the swipes at Schnabel by Schnabel (via the tar paintings) - but overall there is a shimmering, magic aura around this film that won't go away. And, O that soundtrack! by Eno, Lanois, Bono et alia ...
Rating:
Summary: "Life is perfect...life is the best...."
Review: It's full of magic and beauty and oppurtunity and television, and surprises, lots of surprises yeah. And then theres that stuff that everybody longs for...but you don't really feel until its gone." I reccommend this movie, not just because I like it, and Jeremy Davies' acting was phenomenal, but because the story is one of the best I've ever seen! It's truly full of beauty and oppurtunity, and *Television, that special treat is the way Tom-Tom says Television*...its a mystery, an independent, and it's also very funny as hell! If you really wanna know, it makes you cry at times, I don't like love stories, but Eloise and Tom-Tom's relationship just made me glow. You definetly have to see this movie!! TOM-TOM I'LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU!! "I am the walrus and God's just the middleman!" ~Dixie
Rating:
Summary: A Little Crazy, But Very Sweet
Review: I loved this DVD. Million Dollar Hotel is an art film. One can't come to this movie with James Bond expectations. The film is jam-packed with stars. Jeremy Davies is breathtaking as Tom-Tom. He literally dances his part with springs and leaps substituting for steps, and gestures borrowed from a Japanese Kabuki play. His portrayal of a mentally-challenged person is pure cinematic poetry. The love story is very simple, very pure, very odd, but totally engaging. Mel Gibson as the ex-freak who used to have a hand growing out of his back must have wanted to work with Wim Wenders. We lose much of the humor we usually get from his performances. Amanda Plummer and Bud Cort as two of the residents of Million Dollar Hotel shine. Plummer is particularly touching as she goes up to the millionaire father of the dead man and introduces herself as his fiance by throwing her arms around him and saying, "Dad!" Jimmy Smits was on holiday in the movie as Geronimo, the artist who paints in tar and tries to scam the art world. Wenders' stately style gives a sense of poetry to the mentally ill. The film might seem to drag a bit. Davies' performance and the bizarre editing cuts propel the film. Bono's soundtrack blends well. If you are looking for something a bit different, discover this gem.
Rating: 
Summary: to dream of love
Review: This movie is unique and beautiful. Especially the character Tom (played by Jeremy Davies). Still reeling from its beauty, which really, was in all the little details. It was made like a dream, some characters over the top, some more real than real. See it if you can.
Rating:
Summary: don't see this movie
Review: this movie is possibly the worst movie i have ever seen. It would have probly been better if you could hear the words the people were saying half of the time. And don't use any of that i am shallow i don't get it ... because i get alot of things and i find depressing movies with hard to follow storylines easy to understand. but this is awful. it has no point and if you buy it you would surely be wasting your money. the music is awuful and the plot is teriible. i can understand why some people gave it bad raitings but not why some gave it good ones. do not buy this movie or watse you money on renting it. I am saving you from a huge dissapointment. I wish i could have gieven it zero stars.
Rating:
Summary: Pride cometh before a fall
Review: I would gladly have given this movie 5 stars if not for one thing. After all, the cinematography was gorgeous and inventive; Davies and Jovovich were marvelous and creative and experimental; the first several minutes of the film, anchored by U2's "The First Time," are so beautiful and painful as to almost demand a pause before the rest of the movie can continue. This one thing, though, mars the film: Mel Gibson. It has been noted by several reviewers here that Gibson bad-mouthed the film before an American distributor had the chance to pick it up. For once, Gibson was remarkably perceptive about his role in the film, though he mistakenly laid the blame on others involved in the production. I think his subconscious recognition was that his own performance was truly awful. His violent antics are completely unconvincing, as is the most embarrassing scene in the movie, his explanation of his backbrace. Part of this may be Wenders fault. He clearly put too much confidence in Gibson's ability to pull off the scene and the role in general. The bulk of blame, though, goes to Gibson himself--too arrogant to recognize that the reason the film doesn't completely succeed is because he failed to bring a belief in his own role to the screen. I am shocked that so many reviewers laud his half-hearted, disinterested, all-smoke-and-no-fire performance as being anything more than the farce it is. He is a pop star; his successful movies, even when they are very good films (like Braveheart), are POP 'flicks.' Million Dollar Hotel is not a pop film; it's destiny, much like the current release AI, is not to sweep pop culture off its feet, but to subtly make a comment about the beauty of faith and love in a world that is falling apart. How disappointing that Wenders should be shamed for delicately and lovingly delivering this message by one of the most notoriously spoiled brats of pop cinema. Mr. Gibson can go back and make a Lethal Weapon 5 for all I care; he did nothing for THIS great film.
| 
