Rating: 
Summary: Ego on display
Review: A brilliant screenplay about ego. Those with paralyzing self-doubt who think of themselves with superior awareness of the human condition often obsess about how others see them. To the point of delusion. Interaction that doesn't exist. Characters in the film are billboards to this point. John LaRouch (Chris Cooper) is one of a kind. He is at the other extreme of having total confidence of himself. Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) is of self-awareness but dispassionate. So much so as to be jealous of those with passion like LaRouch. Charles Kaufman who wrote "Being John Malovich" wrote himself into the story of Susan Orlean's book "The Orchid Thief." Kaufman supplies a character of his twin to be what he is not. Projected as dim and unaware, but in the in end more in touch. If you are looking for another mind numbing two hours of spirit crushing Hollywood Julia Roberts-esque cookbook drama, this film isn't for you. But if you want to be challenged and think (not in the who-done-it sense) about yourself and your place in in the scheme of things and life...this is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: A Hypocritical, Indulgent Waste of Two Hours
Review: "Adaptation," as I saw it, is divided into two sections. The first section is the part in which Charlie Kaufman struggles to write his screenplay based upon the book "The Orchid Thief." He is aiming to create a work of art, a simple yet beautiful movie that shows the magnificence of flowers. Meanwhile, his brother Donald is writing a generic, uncreative formula script, much to the distaste of his brother.
In the second part of the movie, "Adaptation" becomes the generic, uncreative formula script, which it had so mocked, in its first hour. It degrades into sex, drugs, violence, and death, leaving its characters with an incredibly cliché "life-changing experience." "Adaptation" passes the line between cynical duplication and untalented conformity. I would have given it two stars, if it had not built me up with the first half of the movie. The first half left me expecting what Charlie Kaufman was striving for, a beautiful, simple screenplay, but instead became what Donald Kaufman wrote, a typical, horrendous Hollywood stereotype, and for this, I award "Adaptation" one star.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Original!!
Review: Adaptation has one of the most original plots I have ever seen in a movie. With the talent of Nicholas Cage, who plays two twin brothers: Charlie and Donald Kaufman; as a struggling script writer and a talented script writer, whose talent is overlooked and ignored by his brother and the original plot of the movie, both combine to create a very very original film that was a pleasure to watch. Partly based on the book: "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean, the film "Adaptation" is based on the story of making a movie out of this book except that the resulting work combines a far more interesting plot than just that of an Orchid Thief. Excellent film. I only gave it four stars out of five because at the end I felt that it got a bit cheesy and "Hollywood style" and thus slightly ruined the plot. Other than that, great film. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Being Charlie Kaufman
Review: "Adaptation" is a sorta-kinda sequel to "Being John Malkovich," an odd and intriguing movie by the same director, Spike Jonze. In this movie, the screenwriter who wrote BJM, Charlie Kaufman, is trying to write a filmscript based on a non-fiction book about a man who removes rare orchids from nature preserves. But Charlie is stuck, so he turns to writing about himself. Eventually, you realize that the movie Charlie is struggling to create is the movie you're watching! This is an interesting concept, and the actors do their best to make it work. And it does ... sorta. However, its self-referential nature and choppy storyline make it difficult to follow at times, and in the end "Adaptation" winds up feeling kind of hollow ... a movie about itself. Definitely worth watching, but it's not the masterpiece that some reviewers have proclaimed it to be. As long as you're not expecting too much, check it out and just go along for the ride!
Rating:
Summary: Irredeemably awful movie. Buy or rent at your peril!
Review: Having enjoyed "Being John Malkovich" I was ready for an offbeat, untidy but funny movie. What this high-powered team delivered instead was a meandering, pointless, self-indulgent movie. They kept trying to tell the story from different perspectives, but this is no Rashomon and Jonze is no Kurosawa. Anyway, as you can see from the other reviews here, others felt very differently. All I can say is (1) you've been warned! (;-) and (2) if you nevertheless rent or buy it and find that you hate the first 15 minutes, PLEASE just turn it off at that point and go off and do something more productive and enjoyable. Which would be almost anything you can think of!
Rating:
Summary: Read the professional reviews instead of those on Amazon.com
Review: Spike Jonze has done it once again. From the creators of Being John Malcovich, which Roger Ebert titles "the best film of the year," comes this utterly bizarre, hauntingly comical, and depressingly real story. To understand the basic premise of this film is to interactively explore its own creation through multiple perspectives - a grimy orchid hunter/professional botanical lecturer (John Laroche), a New Yorker journalist adapting her column into a book about Laroche (Susan Orlean), a self-restricting screenwriter adapting Orlean's book into a film (Charlie Kaufman), and Charlie's twin brother Donald who enters the film as an antagonist but dramatically exits as yet another brilliant form of adaptation into Charlie's twisted life. This does not begin to scratch the multiple surfaces of Adaptation, however, because all of these characters exist in real life yet are played by actors. For the reviewers who analyzed this as some sort of "mystery" which only needs "solving," a disappointing film because it was "depressing," or that didn't deliver because it "suffered from points of incoherence that could not be saved by even Meryl Streep," perhaps you should check out The Fast and The Furious or Battlefield Earth. A good acting performance should be defined by how true to life it is and not by how true it is to a formulaic situational comedy or an expensive shoot-em-up piece of eye candy. Life does not play out like an episode of friends, nor like a film made recently by Lucas Arts. If you are looking to be dazzled by a film yet to not have to think about it after the 115 min. duration, then Adaptation is probably is not for you. If you were remotely entertained or intrigued by Being John Malcovich, then you should not miss this film.
Rating:
Summary: More Hollywood Schlock
Review: Yet another braindead, hollow, formulaic Hollywood concoction with the standard ingedients: load up on bankable stars, throw tons-o-money at it, pump up the "buzz" and voila!, another Hollywood blockbuster. I can't believe all the hype surrounding this movie. An inane script with absolutely nothing important to say about anything. And what's with all the buzz surrounding the Kaufman's? You'd think they were the Next Coming the way critics go on and on about their supposed brilliance. It amazes me to see how much praise is bestowed upon writers whose only strength is their cleverness. As if being clever constitutes great screenwriting. Does "Memento" ring a bell?
Rating:
Summary: Breaking Rules with Style
Review: This is a long, twisted, and deviously funny joke for anyone who has ever struggled to create something and just gotten frustrated. "Adaptation" is clever, bizarre, and smug, as many reviewers will tell you. What makes it so good, then, is that it is all of these things in an unapologetic way. Yes, at times the action moves with all the forward momentum of a tree sloth in a bubblegum factory, but at other times it is as fast and playful as a caffinated three-year-old on a jungle gym. Particular highlights are Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper doing their imitation of a dial tone while fried out of their gourds and Cage's character Charlie writing himself into his own work much to his chagrin. But all the playful moments aside, this movie is thoughtful as well. It is constructing itself with every new frame. When Charlie--in spiteful awe of his fictional brother's success as a pop movie screenwriter--attends a clinic on the subject, he learns some "rules" for writing. The movie then sets out to break these rules in every way. It is hard to imagine many screenwriters being so audacious, but Kaufman/Cage does a fantastic job in this latest gem from Spike Jonze. Even in the movie's more ponderous moments, the viewer can always find something for his or her visual pallete. It's not a perfect movie, but then it certainly blows some of the unimaginative claptrap out there away. The neuroses of the "creative elite" make it hard to turn away from the screen, even when they are sometimes unsavory. Watch it once to decide for yourself, but don't be surprised if you walk away fiending to see it again. Or cursing its very existence.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and sooo different...
Review: I will admit that when I first started watching this movie I thought.."Oh No..this is going to be a boring one.."...I was so wrong. Give this movie a chance because once it begins to really build its momentum..it just keeps getting wilder and wilder. I found it interesting that it was sort of like a movie within a movie, and though I havent been pleased with his work lately, I think that Nicholas Cage was phenomenal in this flick. I highly recommend this. I can guaraantee that it is unlike anything that you have ever seen.
Rating:
Summary: If You Liked Orchid Hunter, you probably will hate the movie
Review: Movie dwells on a Woody Allen type screenwriter who rants about how stupid he is and what a pitiful life he leads. Not what I want for my precious leisure time. The book was intelligent and intriquing. The movie sinks to sleeze: drugs and sex and disgusting people. Sorry-this is the worse adaptation I've seen.
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