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American Beauty (The Awards Edition)

American Beauty (The Awards Edition)

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A beauty all right
Review: Spacey's finest hour. This is a good film. It's unusual, not what you're expecting. It's quiet and then odd and loud, and then quiet again. Chris Cooper is amazing in his role, but is Spacey who sells this pony. Don't let the hype scare you off. This is a good flick. Well worth spending two hours on!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: How to write a script.
Review: If the screenplay for American Beauty had been submitted to one of those many silly contests (where they take your fee and give you nothing), it would have lost. It has voice overs, you see, and cardinal rule one of writing movies is no voice overs. Rule two is no voice overs. And so on.

Anyway, forget the rules. The prose in American Beauty is stunning, the observations of small moments in American life trenchant. No, this movie doesn't answer all the big questions, or maybe any of them. And, yes, it does drip with a lot of silly Hollywood attitude (like the observation that those who oppose homosexuality must be closet gays, or worse). What this movie does well is provide a snapshot into a real life (Kevin Spacey's), and gives us a lot to chew on about what passes for living in modern America. It is, at its heart, a story about the difference between society's expectations and our inner lives. And about finding ways to break free of those expectations.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best!
Review: One of the best movies of all time, in my opinion. This movie shows two typical (dysfunctional) and average families each with their own troubles and triumphs. The movie comes to a very well written climax with an interesting twist ending. A must see if you haven't already.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Dark, comedic, romantic, cruel vision into Suburban America
Review: It took me a while to right htis because my parents had heard bad things about it, and they forbid me from seeing it, but now I have and I can't believe it took me so long. This has to be one of the cleverest movies for quite some time. I loved it the first time I had watched it and every time I watch it it gets more and more interesting. It could be a timeless classic. And the fact that it is so origional is a plus...

Lester Burnam is in his 40s and has given up on life completely. He knows his wife and daughter hate him, and his job is threatened. His wife is a real estate sales woman, and one night, Lester and Carolyn attend a sort of, reception. And there, Carolyn becomes attrawcted to her competition, and Lester sneaks out and "parties" with his teenage neighbor Ricky Fittz, who has been video-taping his daughter. So Lester and Ricky become friends as Lester occasionlay checks up to get more drugs from him. And one night, at a baskeball game, Lester meets Janes best friend, Anglea, who he then finds a purpose to exist in, and she spends the night and Lester is hooked at he has wild fantasies abou ther and rose petals. So the story leads up to the conclusion where Ricky's dad, who is an ex marine core man, spys on his son and BELIEVES he is giving Lester a blow job and he wont let his son turn into a homosexual ( cleaning up the language a bit ) and tells him to get out. Mean while, Lester finds his wife chesting on him with Buddy and he doesn't really care, their marriage is for show, to show how perfect they really are, when they are any thing but, and Anglea and Jane have a fight because Angela wants to sleep with Lester, and he gets just that, almost, but, Anglea tells him that she is a virgin, and so the story goes....

The end, when Lester is talking about his life, that actually brought me to tears ( I swear to you ) and I thought it was so moving. I look back now and I still think it is extremely well written and filmed. My dad said that this resembles MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, except with no comedy. This has to be one of the top movies of the decade. People have their own oppinions, and say this movie sucked, and I will not argue, I only ask you do as the motto says, and look closer because a movie as beautiful as this deserves more than one look.....

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Blah blah blah
Review: Although "American Beauty" grossly oversimplifies the problems of suburban living, it can't come up with any oversimplified solutions. Instead, we see a bunch of one-dimensional caricatures that start off dazed and confused, and end up more dazed and more confused. At the end of the film Kevin Spacey is the first and only character to perform a decent human act, and is rewarded for his trouble with a bullet through the back of his skull. If this sort of chic Hollywood nihilism appeals to you, you'll enjoy this film immensely-what could be more fun than taking a smug, disdainful look at the crass, materialistic, and hypocritical middle class!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Superb.
Review: Great music, a compelling story, and three dimensional characters make this a classic American tale.

Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: American Truth
Review: I went through a situation in my life that was very similar to what Lester was faced with. Instead of just keeping his mouth shut like everyone else, he went unconventional. Quitting his job and lusting after a teenager while smoking pot were his way of saying "F*** You" to those who would try to keep him trapped in their expectations of what they wanted him to be. I love this film because so many people in America are trapped in mundane lives like he was at the beginning of the movie. Everyone has to live in the same kind of neighborhood, send their kids to the same school and soccer fields, go out to eat every Friday, and pretend like this makes them happy. That's why we have the highest divorce rate in the world. Sure, he was killed in the end, but he was looking back at a time when his life was so simple. Look closer at your own life. Look closer at this movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stunning and moving
Review: I was blown away by this film. Unlike some other reviewers here, I didn't find the characters stereotypical, with the exception of the repressed marine and his mousy (mentally ill?) wife - but the banality of their characters (beautifully acted, as were all the parts) serves to highlight the uniqueness of their son, Ricky, to me the most fascinating character in the film.

Ricky brings out a good deal to like in Jane Burnham, with whom I had little sympathy prior to their relationship. She seemed at first like merely another sullen, sulky teen, but Ricky is able to see something else in her - as he does with a piece of trash blowing in the wind, as he does with a pool of blood. Ricky's gift for finding beauty in some of the most repellent parts of American culture (litter, violence, even teenage disaffectedness) is at the heart of AB's themes.

Protagonist Lester takes the opposite tack, falling under the thrall of more obvious beauty in the person of Angela Hayes, only to find she's not the siren she seems, but an inexperienced young girl whom he finally treats with tenderness and respect. I could go on and on, but the acting, the characterizations, the images of the roses, the use of reds, the parallels to "Sunset Boulevard" (from the posthumous narration to the tragedy of a character living a lie, finally moved by that lie to commit murder) ... there's just so much to love about this movie. Highly recommended for mature teens and up.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: American Beauty
Review: I like this movie because there is a lot of dark humor and several pretty serious stabs were taken at the culture of consumerism.
I used to know some body like the guy, who play the act in the movie.
That is why I give a five stars,because I did uderstud the whole idea of the movie.
All the time that I was seting waching the movie i was thinking about my exneibor friend.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: a true story
Review: Radio is a true story about this man in a small south Carolnian town This is a nice family movie that tells the importance of kindness in a person. The people learn that there are things more inportantes than being smart.

Audience: 10 and older
MPAA Rating: PG
Profanity: A few bad words
Nudity/Sex: None
Alcohol/Drugs: None
Violence: Some tense moments
Release date: October 24 2004

Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr. Ed Harris.
Directed: Michael Tollin.

1 hour 49 minutes.


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