Gattaca

Rating:
Summary: Avoid the Superbit version of Gattaca!...
Review: I just picked up Gattaca (Superbit version), and I was extremely disappointed. Don't get me wrong, this film deserves 6 stars if there was such a thing, but the Superbit DVD is absolutely awful. There are no special features, only the movie and captions. No special features means no trailers, notes, commentary, or deleted scenes; just about everything that makes DVDs feel worth buying. Not to sound melodramatic or anything, but I feel so cheated and heart-broken by buying the Superbit version of Gattaca. So this is just a warning to everyone hoping to own this masterpiece on DVD: DO NOT BUY THE SUPERBIT VERSION!... BUY THE REGULAR DVD!... NOT ONLY DOES IT HAVE EXTRA FEATURES BUT IT'S ALSO CHEAPER TOO!...

Rating:
Summary: Stunning sci-fi
Review: Many science fiction films have a major flaw - their total lack of appeal to a broad range of people - yet 'Gattaca' succeeds on many levels. In we're introduced to Vincent (Ethan Hawke), a man of natural birth (or an 'in-valid') whose life expectancy is 30. Vincent longs for deep space travel but knows that he'll never amount to anything but a cleaner with his genes. So he grabs the opportunity to pass himself off as 'valid' Jerome (Jude Law) who has been crippled. However, things start to go wrong when a murder investigation and pretty co-worker Irene (Uma Thurman) get closer to figuring out the truth.

This is an immensely intriguing idea that is carried off well with both a realistic and disquieting view of the future. Never truly alone and programmed to be able to do only one specific thing means that dreams and aspirations are thrown out of the window. Among other things it also functions as an efficient thriller and love story. For these reasons it's unusual that this movie didn't do better at the box office.

As a romantic story it works a lot better than, say, 'Blade Runner' (Hawke and Thurman are married in real life) but the film is quite happy to cater to all tastes and it's difficult to pigeon-hole this as merely science-fiction. It has echoes of books such as 'Brave New World' and the incredibly realised future is at once elegant, absorbing and terrifying. Yet it never loses sight of the human spirit, with Jude Law's performance being especially mesmerising as the perfect person that has to live with his incapacity and watch a stranger live his life for him.

However, maybe the best praise for 'Gattaca' is that I loved it, and I'm not a science-fiction fan.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent "B" grade Sci Fi
Review: What can I say? I am a sucker for good "B" grade Sci Fi flicks. I love it when films try to express important ideas in simple trappings. This one is nicely done, with some interesting style touches that make it an enjoyable "Friday night" movie.

Well worth your money and time.

Rating:
Summary: Good movie, good dvd, but I don't like its message....
Review: This movie seems to be saying something about the human spirit ... you know, that there's no gene for it. It's giving us a message that genetic manipulation and cloning are bad, that the human spirit has nothing to do with science, and that human spirit is better than science. But I love the idea of cloning. And now we can clone people for real -- it's been done -- so why not take all the most capable people and clone them? Eventually, if we keep cloning the best people and leave the others alone, we'll have a really cool world filled with really capable people. But it seems the movie Gattaca doesn't want that at all.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best and most UNDERRATED movies ever
Review: during a free preview of HBO, I popped in a blank tape and recorded 3 random movies.--Gattaca being one of them. Ever since that tape, I have never viewed a film the same again. I have seen this moive at least 8 times, and honest to god, everytime I see it, new things come out to me. Do NOT see this as a sci film film. It is classified as that, but it is much more art work than anything else. There is beautiful lush imagery and symbolism througout the movie. The music by Nyman gorgeouly blends in with the themeatics and such. Simply put, this movie is incredibly deep and poignant, and will leave you shaken in drama. I would give this 10 stars if I could--it is honestly that good.

Rating:
Summary: Not remotely compelling
Review: Gattaca has a fascinating premise, but lousy execution, because the director forgot the single most important precept of movie-making: the audience must have an emotional relationship with the protagonist. There are no likable characters in this movie. Not a one. Sure, both Ethan and Uma are fantastic LOOKING, but that's the point of genetic selection anyhow. Their choices, their lives, their whining about the limitations on their priviledged life... none of it speaks to an actual human.

Brazil did it better.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Outstanding
Review: I am a biochemist, and when I saw the trailers for this film, my friends and I both laughed at how silly the movie looked based upon the marketing pitch.

However, when GATTACA was released on DVD, I decided to give it a try, and was surprised at the thoughtfulness of the plot and the execution of the message.

"There is no gene for the human spirit." Indeed, people cannot by put into a rigid box based upon their color, their size, their shape, or their DNA. The movie masterfully works with this theme without appearing too preachy or contrived in their science.

In today's world of science fiction, which means blowing up aliens with blaster guns, GATTACA quenched my thirst for a substantial, thoughtful SF movie.

Rating:
Summary: A spectacular film, but there is so much more to it...
Review: 'Gattaca' is a brilliantly made movie, starting with a superbly written script, adding a moving plot, interesting subplots, solid acting and finale-ing with a chilling message that could very well haunt our future.
Watch it and enjoy, and then spend the rest of the night pondering the message.

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Thinking Person's Sci-Fi Movie
Review: I was excited when I first saw the previews of Gattaca in '97, but still didn't know what to expect when I walked in the theatre. By the time I had walked out, I knew that I had just watched the most thought-provoking and moving sci-fi movies, or of any genre, ever made. Ethan Hawke is excellent in the role of Vincent "The Little Engine That Could" Goodfellow--a man cursed by a flawed physiology, but within which burns a fire to realize his dream, a fire that can never be snuffed. Uma Thurman is alluring as Hawke's love interest. She eventually learns that the man of her dreams is far closer to own flawed self than the perfect profile of him spewed forth by computers. Still, she remains in the background for most of the movie. Jude Law is simply superb in his portrayal of Jerome Morrow, a crippled ex-superman with whom Vincent exchanges identities for the chance to become an interstellar explorer (a feat frought with danger for both). The movie is perfection when Law and Hawke are in the same scene--with Law initially resenting Hawke for having the one trait that genetic engineering couldn't give him, the will to overcome adversity, but he eventually gains a grudging respect for Vincent's never-say-die attitude. Law's final scene is truly heartbreaking.

The soundtrack by Michael Nyman is simply the best ever composed--and that includes anything ever done by John Williams or Ennio Morricone. The sets and wardrobe are fabulous, a combination of sterile futurism and '50s retro.

Rounding out the movie were excellent performances by Gore Vidal ("You always keep your workspace so--clean, Jerome."), Loren Dean ("You know you're going to lose."), Ernest Borgnine ("You like space? Good, you can start by cleaning this space."), Alan Arkin ("I think we can assume he didn't commit suicide."), Tony Shaloub ("You two look so right together, I should double my fee."), and Elias Koteas ("Look, the only way you'll ever see the inside of a space capsule--is if you were cleaning it.").

The movie is a monument to triumphing against overwhelming odds and a cautionary tale of how this type of prejudice may one day become the proverbial "chickens coming home to roost" for us all. Not just a "must-see" movie, a "must see over and over again" movie!

Rating:
Summary: A Sci-fi Classic
Review: All I can say is that this movie is awesome.