Rating: 
Summary: Noteable Only for its Strong Performances
Review: The only aspects of this film that don't feel amateurish are the performances. The story is intensely dramatic, so much so that it loses the realism it struggle so hard to achieve. The circumstance that brings together the central romance is clearly meant to devastate the audience and bring them to tears, but all it does is disappoint.
(...)
By the end of the film, the audience is perplexed as to whether or not they were meant to believe in the characters, or dislike them. Every twist imaginable occurs, most of which are quite predictible. The only noteable thing are the performances.
And what performances they are! With a film like this, poor performances would have destroyed any impact the film could have earned, but everyone here is at the top of their game, from Oscar winning Halle Berry to the critically ignored Heath Ledger, giving a career high performance. But how can anyone mention Ledter when the two leading actors - Billy Bob Thornthon and Berry - are so strong and appealing. I have to admit that I had been rooting for Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge the year Ms. Berry won for this, but after seeing the film, it was a well-earned award. Her performance is the stuff of legends, unlike the film it is contained in.
Unless you are a film fanatic with a strong attention span, this slow, depressing look at "life in the south" is one to skip. Noteable only for its performances, Monster's Ball is easily one of the most disappointing good movies made in a long time. It's a shame, too - because these performances would otherwise have been remembered for decades.
Rating: 
Summary: Poetic and Beautiful!
Review: "Monster's Ball" is a great film with an uplifting message for anyone who has the intelligence to pay attention to it.On the other hand, whoever would rent this movie and expect it to be the sort of family fare to watch while munching popcorn on the couch with Mom and the kids must have rocks in his head. While I am sympathetic that someone might be offended by some of the nudity and/or situations presented in "Monster's Ball", I can't help but wonder why someone with that sort of dispostion would ever rent this movie in the first place. My suggestion: Try reading the liner notes on the dvd cover, instead of just the title. That way, your chances of ending up with something you find offensive will be a lot less. Believe me, I've been to the video rental store lots of times and this technique really works. We need more films with adult-oriented themes and less teenage-oriented garbage. Our culture is awash with corporations that generate mindless garbage and pander to a dopey public in order to make a fast buck. I'm sick of seeing films like "Ernest goes to Jail III" and "Bruce Willis vs. Godzilla" get promoted to death. Halle Berry's delivery was awsome, and the story was fresh. The characters weren't tremendously likeable, but they behaved in understandable terms. In other words, the decisions the characters made, and the consequences of their actions, set in motion a series of events that made the story convincing. The only problem I had with the film was that someone as glamorous-looking as Halle Berry probably wouldn't be living such a bummy existence, not even in the deep South. But, that's poetic license. The casting of Halle Berry made the part more believeable. The expression on her face at the film's end contributed to an ending that was powerful, poetic, and hopeful. I thought the ending to the story was both appropriate and beautiful. It's refreshing to see something that's creative for a change. I don't always agree with the Academy of American Cinema, but I can't say enough about how great I think this film is.
Rating:
Summary: Not for weak minds...
Review: Whoever would rent this movie to watch on Friday night with a bowl of popcorn, like it was going to be family entertainment, must either be a slow learner or have rocks in his head. My suggestion: Next time, try reading the liner notes on the dvd cover, instead of just the title. That way, your chances of ending up with a pornographic film will be a lot less. Believe me, I've been to the video rental store lots of times and this technique really works. If nothing else, "The adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle", or better yet, "The Cat in the Hat" may be your next best bets - if you don't want to be in the "dog house" for weeks to come. And while I can understand how someone might be offended by some of the situations presented in "Monster's Ball" I can't fathom how watching it - even by accident - would transpose a viable relationship into a source of frigid response - for weeks! I have no problems with adult-oriented themes. Our culture is awash with corporations that generate mindless garbage and pander to a dopey public in order to make a fast buck. It's refreshing to see something that's creative for a change. "Monster's Ball" is a great film with an uplifting message for anyone who has the intelligence to pay attention to it.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Overrated
Review: Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton) is a prison guard. He works with his son, Sonny (Heath Ledger) and lives at home with his racist father, Buck (Peter Boyle). Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs) has just been executed and a horrible tragedy has happened at home. Now, Hank has just met Leticia (Halle Berry), a young black woman struggling to make ends meet and they quickly fall in love to ease each other's pains. If only he knew that Leticia is Musgrove's widow...
Halle Berry gives a good, credible performance but it is no way worth an Oscar or a nomination. The sex in the movie was unnecessary and it seemed that it was only added for filler.
Rating:
Summary: Very overrated, not that sexy, kinda dull
Review: A very, very overrated movie. In retrospect, I think Halle Berry --a beautiful and talented actress -- should have gotten an Oscar, but not for this role. She is utterly miscast as a down-and-out waitress whose husband is executed and whose grotesquely fat little boy is run over by a car. Sorry folks, but there is no way, no how, in no universe that a woman who looks like Halle would ever be in this situation. This is the "trap" many gorgeous starlettes find themselves in....they want to play serious parts, but their looks make a serious part as a poor waitress or lowlife impossible to believe. (Think of Michelle Pfieffer in "Frankie and Johnnie".) With her gorgeous face (even sans makeup), stunning body, delicate Caucasian-looking facial features and perfectly straight hair, she does not look like the average African American woman, let alone one living in wretched poverty in the Deep South. She looks like what she is -- a beautiful movie star! This alone makes this psuedo-naturalistic movie a kind of bad joke. Billy Bob Thornton is fine as the bigoted prison guard who falls in love with a black woman and undergoes a big personal transformation, but the role isn't much of a stretch for him. He's very low key in the part, which is OK but not special. Peter Boyle is kinda reprising his "Everbody Loves Raymond" role, only in a particularly malevolent way. I do have to say I feel a lot of doubts about the film's message that the surly old man is best off bundled away in a crummy nursing home, than living with his son...this certainly doesn't send a pro-family, pro-social responsibility message for a film that is supposed to be so upright. The only big surprise here to me was Heath Ledger. I thought of him mostly as a one-note, teen heartthrob with good looks but little talent. He was surprisingly good here, sensitive and even touching. A lot of energy goes out of the film after his suicide. I think the film might have worked better if it had been his character, Sonny, who had bonded with a local African American woman, rather than his father's. Sonny is the one presented as being more open and less predjudiced than the two older men. Lastly, the "big sex scene". Way overrated. You will be disappointed. It's a bit more graphic than the usual under-the-sheets, wearing underwear sex scenes you get in some movies, but it's ABSOLUTELY NOT PORN, despite some comments on this site. If anything, it's rather grim and depressing. The characters just seem sad and energyless, and so is the sex -- graphic but joyless, not sensual and no one really seems to be having a good time. Kinda like the audience.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing more than SOFT PORN
Review: I can't imagine why Halle Berry won an Oscar for this one, other than the fact that she got naked. I think it was repulsive. I found the sex scenes to be very vulgar. I had heard that it was a good movie - by all the reviews that I had seen, so I rented the movie and my wife and I proceeded to put in our popcorn, and settle in for a little bit of "Friday Night" movie watching. I was embarrassed to let my wife watch this with me - and was in the "dog house" for weeks to come, after watching this flick. Who in the WORLD are these "critics" that said this was a GREAT FLICK? I am confused. Young women stripping down and exploiting themselves for CASH - while calling it "acting". Isn't that what PORN is for? Halle - Have some class girl.
Rating: 
Summary: two messed up people
Review: Take away all the hype about race and bigotry and in the end you have an intense little movie about two messed up people and the love that changes their lives and saves them. It features remarkable performances by Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry who of course won the Oscar. Billy Bob Thornton's character is unhappy in his job as a prison guard, unhappy as a son to revolting father, and unhappy as a father to a messed up son. Leticia is a woman who's had a hard life. Her husband was just executed for murder, she's too fond of sipping on liquor miniatures and she's failed as a mother to her deeply unhappy son. Any discussion about Monster's Ball eventually gets to the sex scene. Yes, it's raw. There's no romantic lighting or sex scene music. There's no attempt to make the actors look glamorous. It's just two sad people going at it in an attempt to forget their lives for a bit. It's the most unerotic sex scene you've ever seen in a movie and to tell the truth, it could've been a lot shorter or skipped altogether. The movie has a couple of other flaws. Every human obstacle to the couple's relationship is conveniently done away with. Leticia's husband and son die. Hank's son dies and he packs his bigoted, foul mouthed father off to a black owned nursing home. In real life things don't work out this way and that was the films major hype point: it's supposed raw reality. Nonster's Ball is not as controversial or as great as the media makes it seem but it is a good movie. It's not something I'd want to watch every week but I'm glad I bought it.
Rating: 
Summary: "Just make me feel goooyddd...arghhh!"
Review: I'd say that Halle probably deserved the Oscar for this performance. haw haw Aw man, this movie is so offensive on so many levels I just dont know where to start. However, since I grew up in the South I'd like to speak for all my conflicted, tortured, bigoted, and parentally abused brothers when I say.....What the hell was the point of this mess? But when you get past the silly sterotypes and disturbing messages, this film is actually quite humorous. OK, it's really funny. There I said it...shoot me. Bwaaahaahaaa. 3 hoods
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Good
Review: It's been a while since I've seen this movie, but a well-deserved oscar was awarded to Halle Berry for her performance in this film. I'll have to admit she was not the only one deserving. This is one of the few movies I've seen where the entire cast, including the extras, made brilliant performances. It was both refreshing and impressive to see Peter Boyle break away from his loveable Grandfather figure in "Everybody Loves Raymond" to play a cold-hearted, unrelenting bigot who had no regard for male weakness in any form, especially in his family. Billy Bob Thornton was briliiant as always. Heath Ledger did well. Puff Daddy was surprisingly good, but I'll say I was most impressed by the performance by Mos Def. His easy laid-back Southern demeanor made for such natural acting. He made it look so easy. I enjoyed this performance much more than his role in the remake of the Italian Job with Mark Wahlberg. Of course, who could pass up a review on "Monster's Ball" without mentioning the passionately raw sex scene. I'll have to admit it's one of the best I've seen on screen. Is this the reason why this DVD is currently out of stock? Basic Instinct seems like a half-baked choreagraph compared to this one single scene. It was raw and powerfully engaging. You could feel the inner tensions being released as the two chracters hungrily sought each other. Many felt that Halle Berry had sold herself to the dark side doing this movie. I felt she has actually stepped up a level in her acting career. She has stretched her acting muscles on someting quite outside of her character. Luckily she had both a good script and director to enhance that skill. I believe that for an actor to be truly successful, you have to break away from your typical mold and engage in roles that you are not normally used to without having to be overly eccentric or weird. This type of formula is typically a money maker in Hollywood and highly stereotypical, but it doesn't really contribute to engaging character development which is where the real power of films comes from. Well, done Halle. You broke the mold. This is definitely not a movie for children under the age of 18. The violence and sex is quite explicit. Nonetheless, a good film.
Rating:
Summary: THE WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN!
Review: THIS MOVIE WAS THE WORST I HAVE EVER SEEN. I LOST ALL RESPECT FOR HALLE BERRY (WHO THE WORLD OF ENTERTAINMENT CALLS, "THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMAN IN THE WORLD")WHO COULD OF FOUND I BETTER ROLE THAN THIS. SHE PROCLAIMED THAT SHE HAD TO FIGHT TO GET THIS ROLE!! PLEASE!!IT WAS TO MUCH SEX, DRAMA, BAD ACTING, AND HIGHLY UNREALISTIC! I CAN'T BELIEVE THE ACADEMIES GAVE HER AND OSCAR FOR IT!!! THEY HAD TO LET HER BE THE FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMAN TO WHEN A BEST ACTRESS AWARD PLEASE, WHOOPI GOLDBERG (THE COLOR PURPLE) OR ANGELA BASSETT (WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT) DESERVE THIS AWARD, WAY BEFORE HER! SAVE YOUR MONEY, BECAUSE THIS MOVIE IS NOT WORTH IT!!!!
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