Rating: 
Summary: The most truthful acting on the silver screen!
Review: This is my favorite movie. Some how this movie makes me cry every single time I've watched it over the past 15 years. The characters are too believable and have wonderful chemistry. Wonderfully written, depicting real life, addressing real life issues. Just like life, there is comedy, seriousness, and sadness. If you want to see truth, this is a must see.
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Summary: Jack is Great
Review: I liked this movie. The story line was excellent, as was the acting. I especially liked Jack Nicholson - no one can play a lecher like he does, and no one can say those lecherous-type lines like him. The most memorable part of the movie for me was seeing him driving his corvette, steering with his feet. This is a good movie regardless, but it is worth seeing if only to watch how good Mr. Nicholson is. I thought he was better here than in "As Good as it Gets."
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Summary: COMING TO TERMS WITH PARAMOUNT DVD!
Review: By all accounts Debra Winger wasn't easy to get along with either on or off the set. But before she disappeared from Hollywood she proved that she was, among other things, one hell of a good actress. In "Terms of Endearment" she plays Emma, a newlywed, stricken with cancer and forced to grapple with the antics of her philandering husband, Flap (Jeff Daniels). The film is a potpourri of finely wrought performances and it really gets to the heart of the oddly confrontational relationship between a mother and daughter. On this occasion Emma's mother, Aurora Greenwood is played by Shirley MacLaine. As the grieving, scheming, ultra-concerned, overly protective and manipulative mother, MacLaine is superb. It's really no wonder or surprise that she took home the Oscar for this performance. Jack Nicholson costars as has been astronaut, Garrett Breedlove, known more for his roving eye and noncommittal, devil-may-care attitude toward the ladies than his prowess in the cockpit. His love/hate stance with Aurora blossoms into a genuinely poignant relationship as the film progresses. Danny Devito also appears in a cameo as one of Aurora's potential suitors.Paramount Home Video has issued this movie in anamorphic widescreen. Colors are well balanced, though details get lost in darker scenes. The characteristic of the picture, overall, is one of dated 80s quality with film grain, grit and some smearing of colors and fading of fine details. Still, it's free of pixelization, edge enhancement and shimmering artifacts. The sound is flat but nicely restored. There are no extras.
BOTTOM LINE: GREAT MOVIE! GOOD BUY! SOME WORK LEFT TO BE DONE OVER AT THE 'MOUTAIN'!
Rating:
Summary: Love at First Sight; Spectacular Movie
Review: From the first time I saw this film in 1984, it was one of my favorites, and it only gets better with age. The adaptation of Larry McMurty's novel has been done amazingly well; the film won five Academy Awards, including the Best Adapted Screenplay Award, as well as Best Picture, Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine), Best Director (James Brooks), and Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson). The cast includes a wealth of Hollywood celebrities -- Debra Winger, John Lithgow, Jeff Daniels, Danny DeVito -- and the performances are outstanding throughout the film. The story is one of a mother and daughter and how their relationship develops over the years, from the day that their husband/father dies until the daughter dies, leaving the mother to carry on with the daughter's family. Jack Nicholson plays the sly, lecherous next-door neighbor who manages to enter into the life of the widow who had long since abandoned the idea of having a man in her life -- almost a stereotypical notion, but in the film, it works like a charm. The most unforgettable scene in the film is the one in which Shirley MacLaine approaches the nurses' station in the hospital at 10pm to tell the nurses to give her daughter her pain shot. As is very typical in all too many medical institutions, the nurses are preoccupied with their internal bureaucracy and not with relieving the suffering of the patients. That is enough to make Shirley MacLaine go ballistic, and she starts to run around the station, screaming at the top of her lungs. The histrionics alone were worthy of the Oscar. Definitely not to be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: I seem to prefer Brooks' TV work better...
Review: I really had a problem with this movie when it was released in 1983, and I still do. While I like James L. Brooks' TV work ("Mary Tyler Moore Show", "The Simpsons") I don't seem to love all his movies.
When "Terms" first came out, it was praised as being SO moving and SO funny and SO real, you'll just die as fast as Debra Winger (and her subsequent career)... Well, that was just typical early-80s hyperbole, but this movie is about as real and as poignant as an episode of "Little House on the Prairie"--- and about as funny.
I suppose it's harmless enough, but there is nothing-- NOTHING-- superlative about it. (I will be in the minority here, I realize).
Rating:
Summary: a true classic, Shirley MacLaine is riveting
Review: Laugh and cry with Aurora Greenway and her daughter Emma in the Academy Award-winning classic TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. Aurora (Shirley MacLaine) and Emma (Debra Winger) share a strong mother-daughter bond. Since the death of her husband, Aurora greatly values and appreciates Emma's presence in her life.
When Emma marries Flap (Jeff Daniels) and moves interstate to cultivate her young family, Aurora busies herself with a string of gentleman friends and endless dinner parties. A romance with the charming, womanising astronaught Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson) keeps Aurora on her toes (including an hilarious lunch-date). Emma's marriage quickly hits the skids and so she bundles up young Tommy, Teddy and baby Melanie and heads for home. Through all the heartache and laughter is the remarkable bond between Aurora and Emma.
This film simply gets better with age. Shirley MacLaine's Oscar-winning turn as Aurora is a master class in acting. Jack Nicholson is a scream in his Oscar-winning performance as Garrett. And Debra Winger simply glows as Emma. Followed by THE EVENING STAR.
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Summary: Good chemistry. Fascinating and satisfying.
Review: It captured my attention from the first and held it all the way through. Not only the chemistry between characters, but also between the musical score and the video, makes this one of my all-time favorites. The music stays with me long after seeing the movie, like the music in Truffaut's "Shoot the Piano Player."
Men and women both love it.
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Summary: Best Picture of 1983.
Review: This film won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress(Shirley MacLaine), Best Director(James Brooks), and Best Supporting Actor(Jack Nicholson). The script is outstanding, based Larry McMurty's novel, with each and every character coming across as very believable and very human(i.e. "flawed"). It is so easy to identify with all of these characters, with the entire cast of actors showing up for even the smallest of roles and nailing the part. Included in the cast are Debra Winger, John Lithgow, Jeff Daniels, and Danny DeVito; but the entire cast shines (even the checkout girl in the shopping market) which makes this film especially noteworthy. But the shining stars of this film are undeniably Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson. Shirley MacLaine finally recieved an Academy Award for her incredible work here showing amazing depth of character development. Jack is, well, charming as usual; devilish and sly, and has many of the best lines in the film. When Shirley and Jack have scenes together, however, they show some unparalleled chemistry and some of the finest character interplay ever brought to the movie screen. They are simply superb! Director James Brooks shows for the first time how he can manipulate actors to give fantastic performances. In 1987 he did it again with "Broadcast News," which received 7 Oscar nominations(3 for acting), and in 1997 he brought home Oscars for Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson (again) for "As Good as it Gets" (Greg Kinnear received a nomination, as well). If you love great acting then "Terms of Endearment" should be in your collection. This is an exceptional film.
Rating:
Summary: A QUIRKY, SPRIGHTLY, HEARTWARMING CLASSIC.
Review: Terms of Endearment so immaculately sketches its sprawling arc of idiosynchratic characters and moods that it is nothing if not a wholesome epic due to its sheer dramatic scope. Right up there whenever I think of memorable gems of all time.
We ambitiously traverse a daunting 25 years or so of a vagarious (and hence normal, loving) relationship between mother and daughter, some of which I admit are wrought with thinly veiled tear-jerking cliches, but the film does remarkably well with its intelligent pacing and a liberal sprinkling of good cheer.
Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Shirley Mclaine: need one say more! The riveting chemistry between a wine-n-women Nicholson and an eccentric Mclaine is reason enough to grab your own copy of this sprightly romp. Winger is ebulliently witty and sharp as ever. The twists and turns of the plot along with its razor-sharp dialogue more than make up for the occasional feather-weight moment that sneaked in.
Some reviewers make it sound like a four-hanky chickflick. I disagree, it's topnotch heartwarming drama with some fabulous performances from best stars of our time at the top of their game. I have seen it over half a dozen times and gone weak in the knees every single time. My vote: a true classic that deserves a proud slot in any self-respecting collection.
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat cold, but still wonderful.
Review: I saw this movie after I had seen Steel Magnolias, and to be honest it did not impress me as much as Steel Magnolias did. They are both classics in the film world, but I found Magnolias better and more heartwarming. Shirley Maclaine did a wonderful job acting in this film as the troubled mother of a sickly daughter. The movie comes together in the end but at some points the movie lacked that sense of heart and home that Steel Magnolias had. See it and make the judgment for yourself. I do reccomend it.
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