Rating: 
Summary: Another film converting me to DVD
Review: I first saw this when it first came out, at a theatre. Others have gone over the story. Suffice it to say that Nicholson plays Warren Schmidt, an aging Nebraskan whose life has been pretty meaningless. For the rest of the story, read the other reviews. But the acting was superb. Schmidt's soon-to-be son-in-law is a waterbed salesman. I've never seen the actor before but he was well cast. And his family is a blast, especially--was it is brother, who looks like he's half buzzed?Kathy Bates, as usual, can't be beat. She's flamboyant, inconsiderate, opinionated--and at the wedding wears an outfit that rivals the threads worn by Woopie Goldberg in "Ghost." Oh, and in the hot tub scene she's nude, busting anyone's porn fantasies. What I like about the DVD, though, is that the additional footage is relevant! There were scenes cut from the final, and the director describes why the scenes were cut. In the case of one, it was a little too "film schooly" for his tastes. And, for once, I now know what he's talking about. A bit of a Luddite at heart, I've been reluctant to convert to DVD. Sure, it's just another marketing ploy. But when relevant footage is added to an already excellent film, the DVD is worth it. Don't miss the film; it'll easily reach the realm of "classic." And, again, the additional DVD footage is great for anyone interested in how a film is made, edited, etc. Enjoy it, again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Warren, You are me !!!
Review: Nichoson is at his finest in this movie and I relate to this character and will admit that I am going through the same pathos at this very time. This is a flick that all working stiffs should see and understand what this life is all about; like not about money, fame or marital status but about love, forgiveness and peace. Of course, all of that is the stuff of life. Anyway, all of you hot shots out there.....remember, you can be replaced at any time no matter how high you may be. View this masterpiece of one man's life portrayed by Mr. Nicholson and think about it for the next 40 or so years during your working career.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly restrained--and enjoyable.
Review: Horror films drive viewers to heights of emotion by easing tense-but-quiet violins into the background, by dimming the lights, and by isolating characters for long periods of time. Then they deliver the wallop: the knife to the noggin, the corpse in the closet, the witch in the woods. Comedies get audiences to laugh by priming them for something funny to happen. You get to know the goofy characters and their traits so that when they do something particularly crass, embarrassing, or outrageous, you can laugh along with them. Even if the particular joke or stunt isn't telegraphed, you're still set up to expect something funny to happen. Perhaps the most fascinating thing about About Schmidt is that it continually seems to set up some familiar dramatic scene, some caper, some revelation or bombshell, but almost never delivers. Though rife with both humor and drama, the keel on the film stays even. Several times during the movie, the Mrs. and I tried to predict what was about to happen. "He's going to steal his car." "He's about to tell off all those people." "She's going to seduce him." Each time, we were wrong. No bombshells. Well, there were some surprises, just not anywhere we expected them. And they were the quiet kind, not flashy, melodramatic kicks, but regular life events or revelations that had just enough impact to change the course of the main character, Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson). Paradoxically, there is a surprise ending of sorts, but it's so subtle, that you may miss it. The twist is that what you'd expect to happen under normal conditions really does happen. The twist is that there is no twist. My expectations as a viewer were foiled because, since this is a movie with Jack Nicholson, I expected something a lot wilder to happen. The only thing that keeps About Schmidt from being a celebration of normality is that normality isn't much into celebrations. Though a few characters are "hyper-normal," verging on satire of WASP culture, the scenario mainly stays in recognizable territory. Warren Schmidt has turned 66 and is retiring from the insurance game. A depressingly staid dinner, albeit well-intentioned, is held in his honor; and a friend of his, getting drunk, delivers a toast which almost becomes an embarrassingly maudlin rant, as you might find in an uproarious comedy, but doesn't. Schmidt settles into his boring retired life, and, while watching teevee, is moved to sponsor an African orphan with $22 per month. When his packet arrives from the foundation, he is inspired to write a long, personal letter to Ndugu in Tanzania. His occasional letters to Ndugu reveal his internal monologue in contrast to his external surroundings. Inside, his colorless, passionless life has left him bitter and sad. Externally, he must deal with a funeral and the sub-optimal marriage of his daughter. Schmidt takes to his RV, trekking from Omaha to Denver to stop the wedding, and along the way, he reveals a lot about himself through small, awkward encounters. His in-laws-to-be turn out to be every bit as dysfunctional as his own family was. Through its portrayals of typical middle-American events and values, About Schmidt tells a tale of quiet desperation and nihilism. It doesn't harp on satire, and, in case you were worried about Nicholson going soft, it is far too cynical to be precious. In the end, however, it is Schmidt's inexplicable good deed done halfway around the world that offers the only real hint of salvation for the character. And as the sole ray of light in a life otherwise obscured with miserliness and withholding, it saves him. I have to say that Jack Nicholson is a very good actor. Unlike Ed Norton, John Cusack, Bruce Willis, and about two dozen other actors I could name, Nicholson never lets his own personality as a celebrity interfere with his portrayal of his character. You never see him peek around the dullard Schmidt to say, "Hey, look, it's really me, the notorious Jack Nicholson." That's quite a feat considering how low-key Schmidt is. Kathy Bates also turns in a well-textured performance. The Mrs., as I've mentioned, was rolling on the floor laughing at some scenes. I didn't find it ROTFL-funny, but I was charmed by it in general. I'd recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: About a thought provoking performance by great actor
Review: If your looking for a fast-paced, upbeat, silly movie, this is not the movie for you. About Schmidt is not a happy flim (the only real smile Warren makes is at the end). This isn't a date movie. Its not a movie to watch on a Friday night with the fellas. But it really does makes you think. This film is realistic, funny as hell at times, and its another great performance by Jack (he nails the part of Schmidt). Watching this movie is like watching reality TV, without the fakeness of reality TV. And it really is a character study; check out the Randall character for example...he's such a loser, but look at where he lives (there's alot more to this film than meets the eye). Check this flick out and listen to the characters..it really is a comedy.
Rating: 
Summary: About an ordinary man
Review: Jack Nicholson stars as Warren Schmidt, recently retired, recently widowed, and currently very unhappy with his life. On a whim, he starts sponsoring Ndugu, a foster child in Tanzania, and his letters to Ndugu provide narration for the film. He takes off in his motor home for a road trip of discovery, meeting an odd assortment of people along the way. His destination is Denver, where he hopes to convince his daughter that marrying her n'er-do-well fiance would be a disaster. Schmidt ends up realizing he wasn't much of a husband or father, but at least he is helping his little foster child to have a better life. Nicholson gives a very restrained and low-key performance. He conveys the confusion, frustration, and helplessness that retirement and widowhood can bring. He is very good in this role and I also enjoyed Kathy Bates as his free-thinking future in-law. The drawback to this movie is that it is about a common man to whom nothing very interesting happens. It is a good character study, but misses the mark of being a great one. There are no new insights into loneliness, no lessons to be learned, no epiphany of self-discovery. Devoted fans of Jack Nicholson will enjoy the film, I'm sure; the rest of us would be better off rewatching "The Shining."
Rating:
Summary: "It's a Wonderless Life"
Review: This film works only because of Jack Nicholson, but work it does, and well. The plot has been well summarized in other reviews, though this movie is not remotely about plot. It is really about Thoreau's thesis that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation", and how that desperation is internalized in modern society until it consumes us from the inside and turns us into hollow husks. The genius of the film is in its choice of Nicholson to play Schmidt. Jack Nicholson is a man who has never lived life quietly. Even at his most desperate, he has not gone about it quietly. Whether playing McMurphy in Cuckoo's Nest, Bobby Dupea in Five Easy Pieces, or even the Joker in Batman, his response to life's iniquities has been a finger held high in both hands. The key to his effectiveness as Schmidt is our very knowledge of his past roles. We keep expecting him to break out of his morass and puncture the stupid people around him with one of his devastating bon mots. What we get instead is a perfectly pitched performance that is played true to character. There is an honesty about this film that is refreshing coming as it does from the Hollywood mill. Schmidt is first shown to us as a pathetic middle manager literally counting down the seconds to his retirement. The retirement dinner speeches are carefully divided between the platitudes of his successor and the bitter but heartfelt tribute of his best friend. Later, this same best friend seems more devastated by the loss of Schmidt's wife than Schmidt, and the reason comes as a revelation in a later scene. The daughter is another character that hews closely to life. She seems bitter and remote, hardly the golden girl of her father's reminiscences and undeserving of the love he feels for her, until we see the way he tries to manipulate her after the funeral and then a confrontation before her wedding when she throws in his face his belated and ill-timed interest in her life. Every step of the way, our sympathy for this man is tempered by an understanding of the ways he has failed himself and those around him. Schmidt grows over the course of this film, but not in the usual Hollywood fashion. He has been a quietly desperate man for so long he cannot remember otherwise, and his growth is one befitting such a man. He finds it within himself to forgive, first others, then himself. He grows from quiet desperation to quiet acceptance--perhaps all that can be expected of a man who has waited too long and wasted too much of life. And when he fails to dissuade his daughter from going through with her marriage to "this nincompoop" whom he despises, he stumbles upon his epiphany. This is where the past personas of Jack Nicholson loom before us. With the eyes of the wedding party all turned to him, with the chance to tell them what he really thinks, with us half anticipating, half bracing for a classic Nicholson barb, he stands up, looks them in the eyes, and gives his daughter the only gift he has left to give: a moment of pure joy. "About Schmidt" is the antithesis of "It's a Wonderful Life" and Warren Schmidt is the man George Bailey would have been had he worked in the real world. George Bailey never made it out of Bedford Falls and Warren Schmidt never really makes it out of Omaha Nebraska. Both are great movies, but "About Schmidt" is the more honest, exploring the life of a man who really has made no difference in any of the ways he set out to make, but who finally discovers that he still has gifts within his power to give, and that a measure of redemption still awaits him in the end. Clearly, this film will not appeal to everyone. View it only if you have a taste for small mercies.
Rating: 
Summary: AWFUL!!!
Review: This was the most depressing, miserable, boring movie. The music overpowers the narrative. The story line is long and boring and DEPRESSING. I realize that some movies are sad, but this movie was incredibly boring. I'll give it this much, it is realistic. BUT who wants realistically boring and depressing when watching a movie. I could have watched paint dry at a nursing home and been more entertained.
Rating:
Summary: TWO AND A HALF HOURS OF SHEER TORTURE
Review: We rented this movie looking for guaranteed entertainment. Hey its got Jack Nicholson and Kathy Bates so how could we go wrong? Yet it is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. And yes, I got all the deep undertones. Nicholson plays sixty-six year old Warren Schmidt, an insurance VP who reluctantly retires from a career which has consumed and defined him. He personifies the executive who sacrifices family relationships to further career and personal satisfaction. After his wife dies unexpectedly, Schmidt's financial sponsorship of a young Tanzanian orphan becomes his anchor. His letters to the boy serve as a vehicle to convey his own misgivings and repressed emotions. Nicholson is always dependable but I kept rejecting him as Warren Schmidt. This was a role tailor made for an actor like the late Hume Cronyn, not bad boy Jack. The character of Schmidt is boring, self absorbed, and completely unlikeable. His passive-aggressive behavior toward his long suffering yet upbeat wife does nothing to endear him to the audience. The scene where he urinates "hands-free" into his late wife's pristine toilet and indeed onto the walls is sick. Kathy Bates is excellent as a sixty year old flower child but the scenes which were supposed to be funny ended up being shockingly grotesque, i.e. the infamous hot tub scene and her revelations about youthful orgasms. Schmidt's road trip adventures were equally unsatisfying. He resembled a geriatric Forrest Gump traveling through his hometown and various historic sites, trying to "find" himself. The road trip was like a montage of nightmares, none of which were particularly enlightening and definitely not entertaining. In the end Schmidt realizes his past follies and reacts with cathartic emotion to a sweet, hand drawn picture from his international foster child. And then, mercifully, the screen fades to black. This movie had a few genuine moments but they were overshadowed by a poor script and general malaise throughout. The comedic moments were buried like the proverbial needle in the haystack. Not surprisingly, this went straight to video. As for Warren Schmidt, I do hope that all goes well - but I won't be joining him on any future journeys.
Rating:
Summary: About Sh&t.....
Review: After watching this all I could think to myself is "now I'm two hours older"...what a waste of time.
Enter "Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" in the search box if you want a Nicholson movie to laugh, cry and reflect upon.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Film
Review: This is a great film. If you also enjoyed, "As Good as it Gets" or "The Pledge" you will probably like this. I think these 3 films are by far Jack's best. He wouldn't have done them if he didn't think so himself. Yes it's depressing, but it's also uplifting. I watched this film and by the end I thought - what the hell was that. Then I watched it again. The things that I got out of this film were as follows - 1) life is short 2) if you understand that, you're probably going to reallize that they wasted some of yours worrying about trivial [stuff] 3) Jack Nicholson is the greatest movie actor alive
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