Rating: 
Summary: From out of nowhere.
Review: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won Oscars for Best Original Screenplay,and Robin Williams for Best Supporting Actor.A rare event it must be,when all are truly deserved,especially Williams who shines through in his role as a Psychology Professor.Matt Damon is Will Hunting,a lower working class no-hoper,with a low paid,dead end job,and a serious attitude problem.But Will is a genius,and having an incentive only to cause trouble with his mates,is going nowhere,fast.Eventually,Will lands himself behind bars.Against his better judgement,the Professor agrees to help Will.Excellent performances,script,and Direction,and a truly memorable scene in which the Hard exterior of Will Hunting crumbles down.A change from the usual Action/Kung-Fu/Zombie/Adventure films.Overall an excellent Film,transferred to DVD with a near perfect picture,and sound,and interesting extras.4.5/5.
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Summary: The DVD version is GREAT!!!
Review: For anyone who has enjoyed this movie, the DVD is a must have. Just commenting on the DVD's extras, I enjoyed going through all the options. The commentary with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and the Director was great. It gave great insight into the movie and was actually enjoyable to watch all the way through (watching the movie with all commentary). Some of the greatest movies have made boring commentaries (Example of great movies with lousy commentaries: Matrix on DVD and Meet The Parents on DVD). This one was great because it gave great insight to what the actors, writers (with this one, the main characters were the writers), and the director explained a lot about what they wanted, what they were thinking, and even why they did what they did in some scenes. Plus Matt Damon and Ben Affleck made the commentary fun to watch with side jokes. Great DVD, a must own for all Good Will Hunting fans.
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Summary: THE "LET GO" CREATES THE GENIUS.
Review: IN THIS WORLD OF COMPETITION EVERY BODY WORKS HARD BUT YOU RARELY FIND THE GENIUS ONES. THE GENIUS IS MADE WHEN ONE IS FREE AND HAPPY GO LUCKY AND PROBABLY WHEN ONE IS AS ONE WANTS TO BE THEN ENERGIES COME TO MAKE ONE INTELLIGENT AND EXTRA ORDINARY.ALSO GOOD FOR PARENTS WHO WANT TO GUIDE THEIR YOUNG CHILDREN WITHOUT DISTURBING THEIR FLOW. AND THE REAL TALENT WANTS TO REMAIN HIDDEN BUT CAN NOT POSSIBLY REMAIN UNNOTICED. THIS MOVIE IS PROBABLY THE TURNING POINT WHEN WE REALISE THAT BEING FREE IN MORE VALUABLE THAN ANYTHING ELSE.
Rating:
Summary: Good Will Hunting - an all time classic
Review: Excellent movie with brilliant performances by both Matt Damon & Robin Williams. Damon deserved an oscar for his performance. Whilst the story line was predictable these two made it surprising, moving and rememberable. One of my favourite all timers.
Rating:
Summary: Good Will
Review: Praise was universal on this first writing effort from Damon and Affleck, which is just that, a first time effort. The film starts out very unfocused and does not pull itself together until a third of the way through when Williams arrives on the scene. A more interesting story is between Williams and former roommate Skarsgard. This is a good film, nothing more.
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Summary: Good Will Hunting or Dead Poets Society?
Review: Good Will Hunting is Generation X's critique of government, academia, and corporations. It bears many similarities with Dead Poets Society. In Good Will Hunting, Will Hunting is gifted with exceptional reading and mathematical skills, but he utilizes his talent for mischief and lawlessness. His abilities are discovered by an MIT Mathematics professor who then tries to convince him to pursue a career as a mathematician. Hunting has the potential to be as accomplished as Albert Einstein. The professor enlists the assistance of a psychiatrist played by Robin Williams for that purpose. The psychiatrist's goal is to transform Will Hunting from bad to good. Bad Will Hunting is the juvenile delinquent who uses his intelligence to deprecate, traumatize, and mock people belonging to corporations, universities, and the government. For example, he maliciously burns a paper containing a mathematical proof to the dismay of his sponsoring professor. The more civilized Will Hunting is not much better than his alter ego. His transformation is the result of his sessions with his psychiatrist . There are many resemblances between the psychiatrist of this movie and Mr. Keating of Dead Poets Society. In both movies, Robin Williams plays the mentor to youths that are oppressed by society. Mr. Keating and the psychiatrist liberate these troubled youngsters by convincing them to forsake the establishment and to find their own paths to happiness. Unfortunately, neither the students of Eton nor Will Hunting regards happiness as including society's institutions. At the end of Dead Poets Society, the students defiantly stand on their desks at the risk of expulsion; Will Hunting forsakes prospects of a career in a university, the government, or a corporation to join his soul-mate living in Northern California. In both movies, there is absent the union of individualism and conformity. One is sacrificed for the other.
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Summary: Deceptively ambitous in concept, near perfect in execution
Review: This is a much more ambitious project than would appear at first glance. Given the benefit of hindsight, it would seem like a no-brainer to let Ben and Matt try their hands at writing a buddy movie with lots of male bonding and weepy emotion. But coming from two unknown commodities, it really is a startling achievement. Their script goes down several paths that seasoned scriptwriters don't dare tread, for if they are not done perfectly they tend to collapse like a house of cards on a waterbed. First, we get the working class buddies. Affleck, his brother Casey, Cole Hauser, and Damon have wonderful and believable chemistry together as a bunch of South Boston wiseguys. We see them cruising for burgers and chicks, picking fights, and going to work, with a habit of ease obviously built over years and years. Later on, someone says of Affleck's character's relationship with Damon's: "Chuckie's family, he'd lie down in...traffic for you." The line becomes superfluous, a validation of things we've already seen for ourselves. Second, we get the tortured genius/prodigy. The credit here must be split in two places. First, the script takes great pains in its authenticity. Apparently the theorems that Will solves are as complex as portrayed, and are solved in the appropriate manner. Most movie portrayals of genius tend to fudge that part of the equation, hoping that the audience is dumb enough to not recognize that the guitar virtuoso is not really playing the song (a problem that I found distracting in Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown") or that the great writer's words are not up to snuff (as is the problem in director Van Sant's later film "Finding Forrester"). Second, Damon himself does a wonderful job in showing both the ease at which this math comes to him, and the coiled frustration that it burdens him with. Third, we get the mentors. Stellan Skarsgard, as the mathematician who discovers Will, could have easily settled for being a two-dimensional villain. But his Prof. Lambeau is believably flawed, and his displaced ambition never becomes cartoonish or unredeemably destructive. Robin Williams, as the psychologist Will is court-ordered to see, manages nary a moment of his patented over-the-top showmanship. Rather, his Sean is reserved, anguished, and powerful, but always in very subtle ways. Williams does his best work portraying Sean's grief, calling it up in a matter-of-fact way until it needs to boil over and lash out to protect itself, as it does in his first scene with Will. Their relationship ends up strengthening over time, culminating in one final scene of catharsis that if portrayed by lesser actors with a lesser script, would come across as schmaltzy, but here is very real and very moving. Fourth, we get the girl. I remember when this movie first came out, Minnie Driver's character took a lot of flak for throwing herself so shamelessly at Will, who obviously wasn't capable at giving her anything back. On looking at the movie again, it is astounding to me that this act of courage could be criticized so. Her Skylar -- Driver does a wonderful job at portraying her joie de vivre, as well as her self-consciousness -- is set up for life, both in her education and in her finances, so she doesn't really need a hardship case like Will. And yet she loves him, and repeatedly tells him so, knowing full well that he's not going to say it back. Sure, for the most part it's borderline masochistic, and she puts herself through a needless amount of torture, but wouldn't an easier road be less satisfying? And wouldn't a less complex character for boy genius Will to be confronted with just become easy prey? Yes and yes, I say. These four items, combined with its flair for solid and sometimes flashy dialogue ("How do you like them apples?"), make up a wonderful film. It makes good on all its promises, and manages to be entertaining, emotional, and assuredly worthwhile.
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Summary: Amazing Film
Review: This movie is one of the most incredible films I have ever seen. Written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck; who also star in the movie; the story focuses around Damon's character; Will Hunting; and how he deals with life and issues from his past. With his friends; including Ben Affleck; and his girlfriend; played by Minnie Driver; he deals with life. He is helped along by a psychiatrist; played by Robin Wiliams; who came from the same area of Boston. The movie has some downsides, but the ending and acting more than make up for any problems. Gritty, realistic, and captivating, this is well worth the money.
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Summary: Damon and Affleck hit the mark
Review: A touching and funny movie about a troubled young man coming to terms with his extraordinary genius and the world around him. Will Hunting (Matt Damon) has only known pain and rejection. He hangs out with a bunch of losers and works as a janitor at MIT. His brillance is discovered by a MIT math professor (Stellan Skarsgard in a wonderful performance). Will begins to work with the professor and to see a therapist. The therapist is Robin Williams. Williams deserved the Oscar he won for playing the intense but contained Jr. College Psychology teacher who tries to lead Will to a sense of self-awareness and wholeness. Williams plays the role straight. None of his usual stream-of-conciousness comedic antics. No impersonations. Just great acting. Matt Damon does well with a complex and conflicted character. Good Will Hunting is one of the few movies I would have been happy to watch if it had been 1/2 hour longer. The ending is a bit abrupt and needs development. Good Will Hunting is about healing pain, learning to love, trusting people who care and want to help, appreciating gifts, finding oneself and finding direction. One of the best movies in recent years.
Rating:
Summary: Matt Damon is Will Hunting
Review: GOOD WILL HUNTING
Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, 1997 Synopsis
The story of my life (just kidding). A young self taught mathematics genius (Damon), is caught up with the wrong crowd, and gets into trouble often with his three friends. After an MIT professor sees his talent, he asks a long time friend and psychologist (Williams) to try to help him recognize his potential in life. My Review
The movie starts out as a group of friends having a good time, but them Robin Williams steps in and completely makes this film. He is superb and by the end of the movie, you want to tell all your friends about it. Damon and Affleck wrote the script as well.
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