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The Postman

The Postman

List Price: $12.97
Your Price: $9.08
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: IF YOU LOVE WATERWORLD YOU'LL LOVE THIS MOVIE!
Review: Ok all you Waterworld bashers.....stop reading because you won't listen anyway. If you happened to love Waterworld like some of us (the ONLY realistic future based movie written because it is highly plausible with global warming) then you will love this movie. It is a great escape like Waterworld was and tells a good story. Yes it is slower than Waterworld and other movies however that is due to actual character development!! I never read the book this was based on so can't compare however know that ANY book will ALWAYS be better than a movie. Come on folks you can't cram it all in!! Buy this flick if you love hero stories and adventures. Screw all you Kevin Costner bashers this is a good one like Waterworld, Dances with Wolves, and Tin Cup.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perhaps the most underrated film ever!!!!
Review: As stated several times before, after Waterworld, critics and Costner-haters walked into the cinemas like loaded weapons ready to blast this film apart. I promise this film would have been greeted with a much friendlier audience if not for it's timing.

Not that it doesn't have short-comings. It has the Costner-esque three hour length, which probably isn't as necessary here as it was in "Dances With Wolves," and the editing is a bit choppy, and sometimes the flow and pace slacks off a little. Strip these things away and you have a solid commentary on the aspect of hope, group dynamics, and the psychology of leadership.

Costner's role is decent enough, though the film is taken away by the stellar performance of Will Patton ("Armageddon", "No Way Out," & CBS' excellent but mistakenly canceled show "The Agency"). Patton's role pushes both borders of intellect and insanity, all the while holding on to some inner-confidence which drives him.

It's so easy to jump on the wagon and label this film a disaster, when the truth is that it gets better with each viewing, and sticks with you for hours and even days after the TV is turned off. Hope is a prominent topic in the state of the modern world, and this film expertly illustrates the ideal in grand fashion.

As a victim of unfortunate timing, this film is simply one of, if not THE most underrated film in the last three decades.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Making a sow's ear out of a silk purse!
Review: Trust Kevin Costner to take a great book like Brin's 'The Postman' and turn it into this - this - piece of bargain bin garbage. Forget this movie and read the book - it's far more entertaining. If Amazon let you rate at ZERO STARS, I'd have done just that.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A sentimental 3 stars
Review: Dammit, I keep pulling for Kevin Costner. He deals in big, big themes: Waterworld, Postman, and, of course, Dances with Wolves. I like a guy that goes for the big ideas and huge Hollywood productions. But the bottom line is Mr. Costner can't edit a film worth a tinker's damn. Also, he is just plain soft at the center and shockingly politically correct, which leads to some truly god-awful dialogue. This film has, at least, an interesting performance from Will Patton, who plays the movie's villain as though constantly wired to an electric charge. The hell of it is, I have liked Costner in his smaller roles, such as the tiny gem, A Perfect World (which boasted one of Clint Eastwood's most effective and understated performances to date) and Silverado. What the hell. It's worth a rental.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great
Review: i enjoyed this movie. it was a fun if not overlong movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not Great, but not bad
Review: O.K first off I would just like to say that if the producers, directors, and actors in this movie had stuck to anything remotly resembling the book that none of this would have ever happened. Well since that didn't happen lets just review what we have.

We are introduced to Kevin Costner's a drifter who puts on one man Bard selections to win a meal. I can follow the movie up to this point. Then the plot gets hazy.

He's Drafted
Escapes
Inspires a movment he doesn't know about

decides not to lead the movement when he finds out about it
Leads the movment anyway
Saves the day.

3/4 of these people could not act their way out of a wet paper bag.
I know i'm being cruel but the Postman was a great book. To say that this movie is any way based on the book at all is like exchaning your Hamburger for a can of dogfood. Its just not a good trade.

if you're looking for a rental get Waterworld or The Day After. Now both of those are good post apocaliptic movies.

I did like the one line

Why do they call you Ford?
Ansewer-I want to drive cars.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Getting over it
Review: I hated "The Postman" when I saw it on opening day in 1997. Hated, hated, hated it. Couldn't forgive Costner for wasting my time with such a long and ridiculous movie. Spent years making fun of it, warning people away from it. Rooting for Costner to fail again. He had actually hurt my feelings. How could the man behind "Dances With Wolves" have unleashed such a dopey, awful, pretentious film? How could he do it to himself?

OK. I'm now older and I think a little wiser about film. I saw Costner sink to the depths of his career with that terrible Elvis impersonator flick and also "For Love of the Game." One night I saw "The Postman" in the cheap DVD bin and, for no reason at all, snatched it up. Couldn't wait to see it again. Watched it all the way through. Still didn't like it ... but my loathing had gone away.

This is a bad movie, no question. I had not been incorrect in my initial response. There are major things wrong with it, from the script to Costner's direction to his performance to the editing to the photography to the story to the .... you get the idea. It has about an hour's worth of plot stretched out over an interminable three hours. It is syrupy, corny, unintentionally hilarious. Worse, it is self-indulgent to the point of idiocy. Somebody should have whacked Kev upside the head before it got out of control.

All of that said ... it is something of a noble failure. Costner was trying to get at something here that was no less ambitious than "Forrest Gump" or his own "Dances With Wolves." Maybe he wanted to do a "Braveheart" updated for modern times, with his postman representing a futuristic, Westernized William Wallace. There is a faint thread of the classic heroic theme here. And there's no question that Costner intended to make a Western; there sure are a lot of horses.

I am no longer angry with Costner for making "The Postman," and today I look on the movie as an anomaly, since "Open Range" has more than redeemed the star's directing career. In fact, I think Costner should direct more films. Maybe he had to get "The Postman" out of his system and start from scratch.

What's strange is that the movie now has an appeal for me that I can't explain. I guess it has become a guilty pleasure, a conversation piece, an enigma on DVD. In fact, I might rather watch "The Postman" than "Field of Dreams," another syrupy and bizzare Costner flick.

Movies are forever. Maybe 10 years from now, we'll have a completely different perception of "The Postman," and perhaps then, Costner will be vindicated. I sort of doubt it, but you never know.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A overlooked classic
Review: Most persons nowadays are too cynical, impatient, or perhaps taking too many stimulants or anti-depressants to see what is this movie is trying to say and make the observer feel. Any clear thinking person can see this is a classic.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not great, not a disaster
Review: Make no mistake: there are some profoundly goofy moments in this film. Will Patton, as the evil General Bethlehem, declaims lines with an apparent conviction that the audience is deaf. And Costner grunts through the scene where he discovers the Postal Carrier's gear: he repeats "Uhh-uhhh-ahh-aaah-unhhh-unhh-unhhh" for about three minutes. And the less I say about the two actors throwing Shakespeare at each other -- one after a lithium dose, the other after a three-day coke binge -- the better.

It's also clear Costner still hasn't solved the pacing problem that's dogged him since 'Dances with Wolves': the early scenes go on way too long and individual pieces cry out for editing. But if you can accept the pace, this is a decent film with a very interesting concept of postal carriers uniting a group of mutually suspicious post-apocalyptic survivalist communities. Yeah, when I first saw the trailer for this movie in 1997, I laughed, and the critical reaction to the film was partially justified. But the action scenes are done very well, and the actors make it hold together (particularly Larenz Tate as Costner's second-in-command). And despite its sillier moments, the script never ventures completely into the unbelievable.

You could do worse: Costner's movies, at least, attempt to create a mythology for their heroes to inhabit, and he has a knack for transporting the viewer into a convincing version of another time. It's not John Ford, but it's not bad.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not as bad as critics make it out to be
Review: I recently watched The Postman for the first time. I have always been hesitant about watching this movie because of all the bad reviews the film recieved when it was released. However, what I have usually found is that many times critics and I disagree on what makes a good movie. I think this is why it is often advisable to not look too much at reviews before seeing a movie. I found this movie, for the most part, very enjoyable.

Kevin Costner plays a drifter who leads a group of people against a general by calling together the refugees of his revitalized post office system (sure, it's a little far-fetched, but it is set in a postapocolyptic society which, perhaps, gives it some credibility). As he comes to a town, he becomes to be known a legend known as "the Postman", responsible for not only delivering mail to the local villages, but also hope. Eventually, with the help of a young man, he forms a group that take part in his cause.

One of the major problems of this movie is time length. Certainly this movie could have been cut down to 2 hours or less. Instead, it goes on a bit too long (about 2 hrs. 50 mins), and loses some of its vigor while we wait for a climatic finish.

It is the kind of movie that is not as bad as people make it out to be. Sure, it does take a very odd plot idea and run with it. The idea of a futuristic post office system going against tyrants who are unpatriotic is certainly unique in its own right. And, it is no "Dances With Wolves." However, the movie's message of having a sense of patriotism and following a goal to the end makes it worthy of some credit. If you do watch, make sure you have some time on your hands.

Overall I think it is a so-so effort. It may not be great, but it is better than half the junk that is out there for rental.


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