Rating: 
Summary: There should be a six star option!
Review: Great. Fantastic. Emotional. Enjoyable. American Beauty... look closer.Kevin Spacey is unbelievable. Annette is magnificent. Thora Birch is beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: A stunning masterpiece.
Review: The care and detail in which American Beauty was crafted should be the standard of quality for all films being made. Kevin Spacey, alone could very well be responsible for a dramatic change in the way that characters are portrayed on film. He is quite simply the consumate performer. Don't watch this film passively, watch it with your eyes, ears, AND heart open.
Rating:
Summary: An American Masterpiece
Review: This movie was the best movie i have seen.I like Kevin Spacey as an actor and knowing he was in this movie i wanted to see it.THen when i saw all the other actors and actresses in this movie i realized they did a good job too.This movie i liked so much because it resembeled my life.My family and i cant get along.I then decided to change by how Kevin Spacey does in the movie.I am a freshman in highschool and i'm now going out with a 7th grader you know why because i like her and i dont care what other people say.Kevin Spacey sends a message out in this movie to do stuff that makes you happy and thats what he did.The day this movie comes out i'm buying it.I recomend everyone to see this.This was a masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: American Beauty
Review: My heart aches from being broken on so many levels. The beauty that comes from anguish and freedom is fantastically brought to light in this masterpiece. A finely wrought tale of suburban angst, the loss and finding of dreams, the varied nature of love and what liberation there is in giving yourself freedom to be who and what you really are and can be. I related to each and every character at some level -- whether it was the recognition of something within me or someone I know. Open your minds and your heart will be touched by beauty.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the Wait
Review: I waited a year to see this on video... I love Kevin Spacey andthe hype for this movie was tremendous, so it was hard to not find outthe plot... When I finally saw it, I understood that it was a smaller movie than I was expecting, in every sense...the time they take over the "dancing bag" expresses this...but funny, and not cruel. I was, I admit, slightly disappointed that I wasn't getting the performance of Kevin Spacey's lifetime here (... there is, to my mind, more complexity to other parts in other movies) but he is dead-on ... as Lester and very, very human. Entire supporting cast should receive separate Oscar as a group for total excellence. All of them were phenomenal. This film is a change from last year's Titanic. I am glad to see that a movie, smaller in scale, like American Beauty, can be made and win awards...Reminding us that we are human and nothing is guaranteed. To caution us with stylish humor how precious life is, is not a bad thing, once in a while. It keeps a perspective on what's really important, doesn't it? Watch this movie. I think possibly it will change some of us in some imperceptible manner, no matter our ages, in our attitude toward what is going to come first when we get up every morning. And how we go through the rest of the day, as well.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking and Brilliant
Review: It's a well-explored format: Man has mid-life crisis and his world goes awry. Son fights for the love of his father. We've all seen it before... but Sam Mendes, Alan Ball, and the legend-bound cast of American Beauty have so perfectly captured the purely human side of life, one must step back and give this masterpiece its due credit. The direction was gorgeously innovative, the acting was chill-inducing and the writing could've only been inspired by a muse. Alan Ball's version of suburbian crises and life as many live it was thought-provoking and hauntingly recognizable. I must insert a thought about the incomparable Kevin Spacey: The man's simply a genius - both inspiring and mind-blowing. Kevin, if you're reading this, thank you for raising the bar... from one actor to another.
Rating:
Summary: A Real American Beauty
Review: It's hard to describe this movie to the uninitiated...but I'll do my best. It is the story of Lester Burnham, a middle aged suburbanite, and the neighborhood he lives in. Lester's wife is a relentlessly self-improving real estate agent who is both envious of and lusts after her competition (with results so hilarious her's could be counted as one of the greatest lines in all of movie history.) Lester has no real relationship with his daughter any longer and secretly lusts after her "best" friend Angela...and this is just the beginning. From the introverted boy next door who films everything and his militant father to the two Jims living on the other side of the Burnham residence, this movie rarely goes where you expect it to and provides scenes and speaches that are both heartwrenching and hilarious. Look closer, and perhaps by the end of the movie you'll agree with the boy next door: There is so much beauty in the world. Whether the beauty is in the joyous or the tragic, it is there. And in this movie. As I've stated, this movie defies description...So take from this feeble attempt what you will.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but yikes, how [...messed] up can one family be?
Review: Many years ago, a famous columnist (Erma Bombeck or Ann Landers) said that if you could string up all your troubles on the back yard clothes line - and view all your neighbor's problems out there in the open - at the end of the day, you'd want to take back in your own problems. You wouldn't want to be in anyone else's shoes. I think that's a major theme in this movie. These families had deep, jarring, jugular issues. Yet they all managed - even worked to present a surface appearance of a normal, relatively happy American family. Underneath those smiley facades were dysfunction, frustration, regret, misery, etc. It's a movie about life in our modern times. Maybe that's why some are calling "American Beauty" a modern tragedy. A caveat - it is a dark story. Adultery, promiscuity, casual profanity - it's not a film for anyone under 18. And the characters apparently have no morals or self-control. It's an interesting movie, but in a voyeristic kind of way.
Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTLY ASTOUNDING
Review: Well, I almost have to cry when I read reviews that speak negatively of this undisputed masterpiece. Before you say another thing: no, this movie is not about a man fantasizing over a 16 year old girl. In fact, the movie has almost nothing to do with that aspect when you stand back and ''look closer.'' Sometimes I can't find words to describe how I feel about this extrordinary film...and on that same point, I shouldn't be able to. The movie is an expirience, a journey, that every person can take for himself. One person may take it differently then another, but by no means does should it lead to a neagative conclusion. THERE IS NO NEGATIVE CONCLUSION TO GO ALONG WITH THIS FILM! I'm sorry that some of you can't understand, because let me asure you that you missing out on an expirence that won't be replicated in a long time....or ever.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty is what you see when you look closer
Review: buy it. look closer. find yourself looking back. not a film for the weak of mind and the quick to judge. let yourself find yourself dance with the bag, fear being ordinary, bring your secrets to light. look through the lens to seperate yourself loose yourself in being anything but what you are. stop and enjoy the roses. american beauty. (if this doesn't make sense, see the movie.)
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