Rating: 
Summary: Life in these United States
Review: The beginning of this movie scared me a bit: Wasn't this just a heap of clichés thrown together? Would we have to watch two hours of a middle aged man's pining for a teenage girl? Then all of a sudden the clichés came alive and turned out to be real characters. Maybe this came about only because one of them chose to finally say what he thought and do what he felt like. It is quite surprising to see that a "loser" is no longer a loser once he stops trying to be what he is not. It is tremendous fun watching how the American fear of being a "loser" or a "deviant" person is being exploded from within. Refusing to go on with the common hipocrisy seems to be a thoroughly exhilarating experience. Maybe we should all trade our offices for hamburger joints? It will make you laugh, it will make you think, it will make you (almost) cry.
Rating:
Summary: American Beauty
Review: Perspective is the key to this movie. Just when you think you know what you are seeing, it changes and you see it from a new perspective. We were fortunate enough to see the movie and have a Q and A session with Kevin Spacey afterwards in the theatre. He and this movie are fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: simply the best
Review: This is easily the best film of 1999 and far outshines any previous best picture winner as well. It blows up in your face the first time you see it but if you see it repeatedly, as I have, there is even more depth to it than You see the first few times. For example to tie in the American part of "American Beauty" you will notice beautiful art direction with the wonderful use of color in this film. The first time you may notice alot of red but if you "look closer" you will see that the three dominant colors are red, white, and blue. An examplke of this is when Ricky Fitts is getting a ride to school from Mrs. Burnham and the shirts that vthey are wearing are red, white and blue. This also happens in the picture of the Burnhams family, the shirts are red, white and blue. This again happens in Ricky's room with the video camera scene, the candles in the background are red, white and blue. This is a common theme throughout the film. If you have not seen it, see it, if you have and did not pick up on the beautiful use of color, it is definately worth it to see it again. Its easily the best film ever.
Rating: 
Summary: Unmistakably American ¿ but not really a Beauty
Review: It's hard to understand why this movie won a whole bunch of Oscar's. Says a lot about the Pseudoacademic Academy, I guess. Above all, »American Beauty« is a comedy. There a quite a lot of good laughs in it. The quality of the acting differs a lot from actor to actor, but is generally very good. But the structure of the movie lacks stability. The story does not find itself. Instead, it's a bunch of half-done sidestories which are all typically exagerrated and unrealistic American clichés. I'm afraid the people behind »American Beauty« wanted to create a mixture between »Sunset Boulevard« and »Lolita«. They do not succeed in this either!
Rating:
Summary: The beauty is in the message
Review: The first reason why I enjoyed "American Beauty" is that much of it really gave me a good laugh. Granted, at first sight, the movie doesn't necessarily come across as a comedy: we are presented with dysfunctional couples which are terrible role models for their children, with the blatant irresponsibility of the protagonist, with the frequent absence of moral values, with the complete phoniness of the protagonist's wife, with the casual delinquency of the neighbor's son, and with the rather serious psychiatric problems of the neighbor and his wife. The big picture is therefore far from pretty (with the notable exception of the homosexual couple, which seems almost oddly healthy). But aside from all this bleakness, what irresistible humor! I will only mention the scene where Kevin Spacey is caught masturbating by his wife, and then decides to admit it with a vengeance... I also liked the rush of freedom which allows the protagonist to regain his taste for life. Of particular interest, I found, was the way in which he abandons all that to which he previously attached an undeserved amount of importance, and reorients himself toward new priorities that are much more meaningful to him. As such, he delivers himself of a lot of the pressure which society used to put on him. And in his getting beyond what previously determined his behavior, he begets the power which comes with the knowledge that he has in fact nothing to lose, and becomes truly able to exercise free will. Even his uptight and overly materialistic wife gets a taste of this newly found freedom when she finds out, as per her lover's recommendation, that she enjoys shooting a gun. Unfortunately, this discovery is far from sufficient to allow her to really make progress toward self-actualization and fulfillment, and her identity remains fundamentally truncated and full of conflict, as shown in the two scenes where she slaps herself when she cannot help crying. The protagonist himself doesn't make much progress as a person, as he actually regresses back to an idealized version of his late teenage years (made of sexual fantasies and/or conquests, equally sexy cars, masculinity-enhancing workouts, pleasure-inducing dope, and above all the least possible amount of burdensome responsibility). It is only when he relinquishes the prize of the beautiful blonde's virginity, and when, only seconds before his violent death, he rediscovers the picture of his family taken some ten years earlier, that he starts longing for a more adult life. In fact, the character who seems the furthest ahead along the path of this interior freedom is none other than the neighbor's son, Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley), in the sense that he is the one who is most authentically himself. He is master of his emotions, and is not the plaything of neurotic anxieties (in his relation to authority, to women, to the forbidden...); he consciously chooses what deserves importance in his eyes and, as such, he has his own set of values (he does deal drugs, but not hard ones); also, his outlook on the world is wholly his own, and he knows how to cultivate it. This outlook happens to be very interesting, because I think it gives a philosophical dimension to the movie. Let's briefly review the facts: 1) he films a dead bird because he finds it "beautiful", 2) the day he found a homeless man who had frozen to death on the street, he found that beautiful too, and he even felt that God was looking at him through this dead body, and 3) according to him, the most beautiful thing he has ever seen is a plastic bag whirling around in the wind. It seems that what he finds beautiful in the physical confrontation with death is the fact that it allows him to appreciate more than at any other time the real value of its absolute opposite: life. This character actually finds in the vision of a corpse a source of deep wonder at the unfathomable mystery of life, which one day sprung out of nothingness, and one day goes back to it. The bag which dances in the wind is possibly even more beautiful, in that it is the gratuitous and fortuitous expression of the creative spirit which has the power to give life. What was beautiful to me as a spectator, was to hear the character say that his intimate perception of the existence of such a benevolent force in the world had allowed him no longer to be afraid - to free his life from fear. What we catch a glimpse of here, then, is a particularly liberating form of therapy through spirituality... Clearly though, this is not meant to suggest that we adopt the same definition of beauty for ourselves - Ricky Fitts remains definitely too strange to be seen as a model character -, but rather it seems to be an open invitation for each of us to search for what, in this whole wide world, has the ability to touch our soul, and to make us feel more alive. It doesn't really matter if this quest brings us to film plastic bags, as long we individually find this sensation of being vibrantly alive, and that we share this experience with our loved ones, as does the character with his girlfriend. Otherwise, we are meant to understand, we run the risk of eventually saying the same words as Kevin Spacey: "In one year I'll be dead, and, in a way, I already am".
Rating:
Summary: NOT A BEST PICTURE
Review: I have seen many movies in my life, I have seen every film that has one best picture over the last 70 years.American beauty,while being a good movie has to be the worst film ever to win best picture, next to Annie Hall. I have seen every film that was nominated this past year and I would have to say that The Green Mile was by far the Best Picture of the year. American Beauty was entertaining, and mediocre.C
Rating:
Summary: This Movie Is My Best Friend
Review: Magical - this movie is a gift from director Sam Mendes and screenwriter Alan Ball. It's a gift to all of us, to everyone who at some point has forgotten how important it is to stop and smell the roses. Kevin Spacey is human - he's you and me - and I couldn't hav asked for anything more. Wes Bentley is our eyes, seeing true beauty for the first time. Whatever you take from this movie, make it yours. I'm listening to the soundtrack right now, and I can't but help smile.
Rating:
Summary: Don't 'look closer', you will be disappointed
Review: American Beauty certainly isn't a bad movie, in fact parts of it are hilarious. It just isn't as profound as it would like to be. The "message" is that sometimes things are not what they appear. Yeah, I think we all know that, big deal. If American Beauty had just been a comedy, it could have been great, but it has an awkward tone that ruins everything. Another flaw is that it isn't nearly as shocking as the filmmakers would like to think it is. It is like if Todd Solondz's Happiness was sanitized and watered down for mass consumption, removing anything interesting or thought provoking. American Beauty seems like it is a sitcom with profanity in it, and ironically, it was written by a former sitcom writer. The acting is very good but not Oscar worthy (Russell Crowe deserved to win, without a doubt). All in all, you might as well watch it, just to see what all the fuss is about, but I don't think it is worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: For a Drama it doesn't get Any better
Review: I thought this movie was too good. I was glad to see that it won the awards that it did. If you are looking for a dark drama to show you how life can be and be changed, buy this today. I think the movie is almost inspiring in a sense that if you are not happy with your station in life you can always change it. Kevin Spacy is too good as he accurately plays the working suburb man. As for the color and camera angles the movie was very creative and playfull.
Rating: 
Summary: MPAA and AMPAS must be crazy
Review: AMPAS is nuts giving "American Beauty" the Oscar for Best Picture. The MPAA is nuts giving "American Beauty" an "R" rating. If anything, this movie should be rated "NC-17". This movie was too much to handle, even for a "see-anything-once" moviegoer like me. I mean, over-the-top black comedy, bare breasts and masterbating sequences makes this movie all the more unfair for its rating. And the ending was so bloody and disturbing, I could barely lay my eyes on the screen. There are many people out there who should NOT see this movie; if you are anywhere under 18 or the type who cringes just by pouring ketchup on your fries or taking off a calculator cover, I recommend to the highest extent you not see this movie. This is unacceptable material to hit theatres or video, it strays far from it's innocent image. Whatever age you are, don't see this movie. You'll be glad you didn't.
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