Rating: 
Summary: Black, Off Track Comedy
Review: In whole, Masked is very well done. The movie was perfectly cast to the tee. Yes, a little off beat but very funny and raw. One of the best parts of Masked is the flash back to the early 60's with the president and his mistress. Very good stunt driving with the 60's Cadillac Limo.
Rating:
Summary: For an audience bereft of political views
Review: I don't see much television or many movies, since action sequences only excite me when I have substantial reasons to link them to reality. Also, the forms of sentimentality that are more mainstream than comedy fail to connect with my sense of the world except in moments that are tearjerkers, and I don't feel that I need to spend big bucks to subject myself to that. Anyone whose main concern is for literary highs achieved by observing entertainment values might be too sympathetic to the reporter played by Jeff Bridges in this film. He strives to understand the world as whatever was making sense when Jimi Hendrix played the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock, but Jack Fate does not play along with this by giving him a quote that any writer would be glad to share with readers. The actual events of "Masked and Anonymous" would make a poor story, even in the hands of the worn-out editor played by Bruce Dern. Jack Fate has been around long enough for a news reporter to expect some kind of response for the fall of everything, which seems more drastic in the settings of this movie than in the suburban world where people listen to recordings and might be familiar with the songs on the soundtrack of this movie.Having so many familiar songs sung in a foreign language might be a clue to how far this movie is stretching the reality assumed by the viewers most likely to appreciate these songs. Maybe this movie is trying to say that any revolution would be unworthy of the greatest songs of it age, considering how poorly revolutionary activities play on the big screen as incidents on a bus trip or in a television studio. The most unreal aspect of the movie is the attitude which all of its characters discreetly avoid saying aloud about the government, which has a president hanging onto life by a thread, while the second-in-command is itching to mess things up big time as soon as he can take charge. Jack Fate was in prison in the beginning of the movie, appearing first in a cell that might more appropriately be described as a hole, and those who convince themselves that this movie does have a plot might expect Jack Fate to be heading back to jail at the end, not on account of everything that happened, but just because of a few tiny incidents that hardly anyone was capable of believing when they saw them the first time. You might want to plan to see this movie twice, just to see if the same things keep happening after the movie as during the movie, but why wouldn't they? Well you might ask. I didn't hear any new music in this movie, but none of the music was exactly the way I heard it the first time. I listen to my Bob Dylan albums, more to the studio versions than to live albums, but with a camera close in on the band, and a cardboard box instead of drums on some early songs, the music never had a concert sound; I love theater speakers and the music sounded like it had the audience sitting right in the middle of the band. The introduction to a few songs preceded the scene in which they started to make sense, but "Cold Irons Bound" was the song that matched the feel of the movie best. You might not consider this very entertaining. You might even find some aspect of the movie boring. My life is most boring when I am wondering if there will ever be a time and place where and when the things I think will make sense. "Masked and Anonymous" is the kind of movie where I hear a song coming as soon as the introduction gets into the soundtrack, and I can't help but feel, "It's about time; I always wanted to hear that song right now, and the movie makes it that time perfectly."
Rating:
Summary: I still think about this movie everyday
Review: This movie is about human nature, human interaction, and the trials of people. There is a lot of wisdom in this movie. Most people who didn't like this movie probably didn't understand what Bob and the cast were conveying to us. There are no car chases or explosions. It is a work of art. It is Bob's poetry on film. Just slow down, take a couple of deep breaths, listen and pay attention! The live performances are incredible, too.
Rating:
Summary: Don't miss it!
Review: It's the feel-good hit of the summer!!!
Rating:
Summary: Yikes!
Review: It's SO horribly Bad that it's Good. I'll even buy
the DVD to torture myself. For those thinking this is a movie,,
you are wrong. It's not. It's not a film, it's not a movie, it's not acting.
If you like Kandinsky, you'll eat this right up.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: You would probably have to go back to early Godard to find a movie as audacious, shockingly funny and brilliantly incisive in its analysis of the uneasy alliance between art and commerce as the sci-fi/film noir/spaghetti-western/Shakespearean musical-tragicomedy, Masked and Anonymous, the new movie from Bob Dylan and Larry Charles. As with some Godard, I can't say whether it's a comedy or a tragedy - but it's definitely a masterpiece.
To direct the Hollywood cast to speak in the script's poetic, ornate language could not have been easy but the actors do an exemplary job. Nearly all of them manage to hit just the right note of cartoonish hysteria to give the film a sense of unity and harmony. Except, that is, for Bob Dylan. His character, Jack Fate, is the calm in the eye of the storm, the one rational character surrounded by a world of swirling insanity and director Charles gets a lot of comic mileage out of the contrast
between Dylan's deadpan delivery and the over-the-top performances of nearly everyone else; it's like taking a Humphrey Bogart character out of the '40's and plunking him down in the middle of a massively absurd science-fiction landscape - the resignation and world-weariness of the film noir hero remains hilariously intact. The very idea is inspired and the execution is flawless.
The performance footage of course is terrific. Dylan and His Band play eight songs live on camera and there is a warmth, an intimacy and a relaxed quality to the performances that you will only see at Dylan's best club shows. Although none of the songs are heard in their entirety, these sequences are nonetheless beautifully filmed. There is none of the rapid-fire editing and pointlessly roving camera that mars the filmed footage of so many live musical performances. Instead, Charles' strategy is to have the band crowd together and film them in close-up with a wide-angle lens. There are numerous long takes in which all of the band members can be seen and when the camera does move, it's deliberate and meaningful.
In a recent interview, Larry Charles said he never worried about
finding a distributor for the film and that Dylan had told him long ago not to worry about the film "in the short term." However the film _is_ received in the short term, the richly orchestrated tapestry of sound and image that is Masked and Anonymous is sure to keep Dylanologists and film fans alike busy for decades.
Rating: 
Summary: IT IS WORTH A WATCHING
Review: I've been a Dylan fan since the early 60's, when I was in diapers.
As popular or unpopular it has been over the years. If I've got some Dylan playing and you don't like it, leave! I saw this at the video store, thought I'd give it a shot. Lots of famous folks, to round off a great cast of support. From the beginning you can tell the script is pulled from almost every Dylan song imaginable. So it's more of a film then a movie. My question is: Are all these actors acting so horrible to make Bob look good? Please don't anyone say he's a great actor?
It is a fun movie to watch, again someday.
Dylan play's some traditional music that sets the movie up a few notches. Over all a 3 star movie, not because of Bob playing a tough guy, lmao!!
Rating:
Summary: Anothe Excellent Work, But In A New Medium
Review:
If you are familiar with Bob Dylan's history and the songs he wrote, you will understand that "Masked and Anonymous" was not intended to be typical Hollywood fare. Dylan continues to express himself, but this time in a movie. "Masked and Anonymous" is just the type of movie I would expect from Dylan; it is excellent! He made the movie to express his viewpoint and to show his style of moviemaking. There is a message in the movie just as there are messages in his songs. The movie was not intended to be a huge commercial success, just as he never wrote a song intending it to be a huge commercial success.
Keep in mind Dylan has received two honorary PhD's including one from Princeton. He has also been nominated many times for the Nobel Prize in Literature and Poetry. If you want lighthearted top 40 tunes or cookie cutter box office success movies, look elsewhere.
I also highly recommend Dylan's new autobiography "Chronicles."
Rating:
Summary: It's simple...
Review:
Intelligent people will appreciate, maybe even love, this movie. Those of lesser intelligence will be bored and confused, as the film is dense with symbolism and thematic storytelling rather than popular, "traditional" storytelling.
For Dylan fans, this is a must.
Rating: 
Summary: bashed by critics, but a gem
Review: I am of the opinion that the images and words that come from film should be, in essence, like a song - wholly unique in cadence, tone, and rhythm. Or at least I am after watching Masked and Anonymous. From Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams to Wes Anderson, artists writing for visual adaptation must all posses their own sense of "song writing." Bob Dylan is a masterful musician who speaks with such soul, depth, and rhythm that he has become a legend. Surrounded with mystery, the man has an almost religious following (don't believe me? Just take a look at all the big name actors that lined up just to work with him in this one). Masked and Anonymous captures the soul of Dylan with its cryptic poeticism, and distinct political messages. Add to the mix the real Dylan and six original songs debuted in the film, and you have created a cinematic world like none you have seen before.
Most critics bashed the movie, calling it brainless and empty - a sort of masturbation act for Dylan and the actors who blindly signed up to work in a "Dylan Movie." I don't care. Masked and Anonymous had me from its opening frames. The movie created a surreal and unique world that I desperately wanted to explore (in addition to being the only "the nation is run by gangsters" type gritty movie that didn't annoy me to death).
Movies that implore me to keep my eyes peeled so as to more fully understand the world I am inhabiting for a couple of hours, that cause me to breathe the air that it is breathing, those are the films that contain the magic of a cinema that is alive. This movie understands that magic through and through (the two other films this year that really created this alternate reality for me as a viewer were Finding Nemo and Down With Love). Masked and Anonymous offers one of those truly unique experiences - a telephone line into the heart of a poet - while still remaining as cryptic and mysterious as ever. But hey, that's what great song writing is all about, right?
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