Tape

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: I was totally blown away after watching this movie. Everything about it was amazing. The acting was amazing, lead by an incredible performance from Ethan Hawke. I really loved all the camera angles used throughout the whole film. Richard Linklater shows through this film that he is truly a great director, and probably the best independant film maker of our time. I highly recommend this movie to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: 'Tape' = Linklater at his Best
Review: If there could be a number eleven on my top ten films of 2001, this would be it. This claustrophobic film, based on Stphen Belbar's Off-Broadway play, features dynamite acting, icluding Gen-X actor and recent Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke's best performance EVER!
Set in a hotel room, 'Tape' revolves around three high school friends(Mr. Hawke, Uma Thurman, and Robert Sean Leonard) who come togther once again ten years after graduating from school and saying goodbye to each other.
The film heats up when an accusation is made: A drug dealer(Hawke) blames his best friend(Leonard)of raping his high school girlfriend and the love of his life(Thurman). You'll have to find out if it is true or not by watching, because my lips are sealed.
Performances like Mr. Hawke's make you wonder if he got his Oscar nod for the wrong movie. Plus, this film has a killer ending. So get off your ass, go to Borders.com, and order 'Tape' today! -James R. Louison

Rating:
Summary: For film students only
Review: If you enjoy dissecting camera angles and critiquing actors, then you may enjoy this film. The set and cast are limited, so there is a lot of time to concentrate on those subtle points.

But for the rest of us, the dialog was completely unbelievable. If you are looking for entertainment, try something else. Linklater did a lot better with "Slacker".

Rating:
Summary: THE GATTACA REUNION, BUT LESS OF HOLLYWOOD THAN U'D IMAGINE
Review: If you're crazy about Ethan Hawke and Uma Therman, as I am, this off-beat Linklater endeavour may be worth a ride. Just don't expect any big screen histrionics and be prepared for incessant chit-chat with lots of "Why?" and "WHat?" and other logic-numbing trivia, and you'll do fine.

But first, the good. Really, hats off to Hawke and Therman (and that other guy) for having the courage to do something like this, all in candid videocam, warts and all. Sans any make up, sans any Gattaca-style golden Fuji reel etc. Just raw dialog between old friends, about an old grudge, in a shoddy motel room.

The whole movie veers around a lot of talking in circles, friends questioning perceptions of each other over a shared girlfriend fling in senior year over a decade ago. Frankly, this would have been ok in a theatrical production, but this film errs with its painful camera moves, for e.g., frequent switches to and fro faces of people standing opposite each other, which means you get treated to a lot of viewpoint swings.

Secondly, and more importantly, a little bit of unpredictability would have been nice. Anyone with a couple of brain cells could have figured out what was to happen 15 minutes ahead, which is not exactly a very favorable point for a movie.

For a full grinding hour, Ethan Hawke and Bob Leonard keep exchanging grinding blither blather, until Ms. Therman slides into the picture (what a respite!) and makes things a little interesting. I cannot imagine any other actress making the theme more watchable than she does, a simple twitch of an eye from her speaks volumes.

Yet, overall this film is a grating experience and though the acting is fabulous (I do not imagine too many retakes et al) perhaps Linklater needs to contemplate this abhorrent creation and think about what makes cinema a different medium than stage.

Rating:
Summary: Linklater doubles up and scores twice!
Review: In a year that saw Richard Linklater release an excellent animated film-WAKING LIFE, he also released this smaller, but tenacious film-and both are very good. It's hard not to compare this to other single-room films(a very specific subgenre) like ROPE, SECRET HONOR, or maybe COMING APART, but it still holds up pretty well. Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard are old friends in real life and I think that really helps contribute to this being a believeable and engaging view. It's a really well written film(using Stephen Belber's play), and Linklater gets creative with his two-digital camera set-up. I was suprised that the dvd commentary wasn't really mentioned on the front of the disc(on the back it says "Production Commentary"). The commentary features Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke-both have many interesting things to say(although it seems that the commentaries were recorded at different times and cut together). I like this trend of Linklater filming plays. Maybe he'll take an Altman-like turn and do several more(Altman's play-adaptions are pretty cool-I have to cite STREAMERS, FOOL FOR LOVE and COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN as a few that I really enjoyed).

Rating:
Summary: A Reunion of Sorts
Review: It's not easy to make a film work when the whole thing takes place in a single room, but Linklater and Hawke make it happen in TAPE. It's the story of two old high school buddies who meet up in a hotel room and discuss their friendship and then their rivalry. Ethan Hawke is still angry that Robert Sean Leonard made some whoopee with Hawke's high school girlfriend, Uma Thurman and Hawke wants Leonard to admit that it was rape. They go so far as to invite Thurman to the hotel room and discuss it with her. Did he or didn't he?

Director Richard Linklater handles the material well, it was based on a stage play, and the actors hold their own. Hawke and Leonard, you'll remember were roommates in Dead Poet's Society and Thurman is married to the Hawke, so it is quite a labor of love among friends. I enjoyed the film all the way through but it isn't something I am likely to watch again. A nice one-time event.

Rating:
Summary: Stripped down video
Review: It's really a shame that a movie like this gets so little hype. "Tape" is completely stripped down. Three actors, one motel room, and no CGI dream sequences. This movie defines the term "dialogue-driven". There is more violence and invasion in the plan hatched by Hawke's character than in big-budget "thrillers". It has a lot to say about how personalities and memory work to lend differing degrees of significance to events that happened years ago. These characters struggle with their past relationships to each other, while at the same time trying to figure out how (or if) they relate to each other after years of being apart. I was captivated by seeing these characters work out their dramas with each other. The camera-work is claustrophobic, the dialogue and situations are relatively believable, and the suspense and perfromances are riveting. If you think that you can watch a whole film that lacks physical violence, nudity and eye candy, then give it a whirl.

Rating:
Summary: An experiment that works
Review: Oftentimes when you get a few famous people together for a small digital picture, it winds up being a vanity project without much value (e.g., The Anniversary Party). This movie, however, works. Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard play two high-school pals whose lives have taken radically different paths. They reunite in a Michigan hotel room, which is where the entire movie takes place. Both actors do a good job--they're just natural enough to make you feel that you're really spying on a private conversation. In particular, Ethan Hawke--of whom I've never been a fan in the past--plays a role radically different from anything he's done before and pulls it off fantastically. The film does a great job of exploring how complicated friendships can be, and also generates some humor and suspense. My only complaint is that Linklater chose Uma Thurman to play another high-school friend who shows up later in the movie. Obviously, the fact that she's Hawke's wife made her a convenient choice, but she's not exactly a master thespian, and her presence adds a Hollywood gloss that she seems unable to overcome and that's seriously out of place in this film. However, this flaw aside, "Tape" is definitely a fascinating, unique movie, one I can imagine watching again and again. If only more cinematic experiments worked out so well. By the way--although it doesn't seem to be listed here, this DVD does contain audio commentary by both Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater.

Rating:
Summary: Essentially a Taped Play, But a Good One
Review: Richard Linklater does more with just three characters in one set that most filmmakers do with so much more. In TAPE he has crafted an often engaging story of three school friends who meet in a seedy motel room. The piece never gets past its obvious stage origins, but Linklater manages quite admirally to keep the dramatic tension up throughout the piece.

Shot on tape, the project has a very cheesy look which makes it seem almost like a surveillance tape. Along with the intensity and rawness of the performances, you feel like you're eavesdropping. While not slick by any means, TAPE is a very engaging work. If you want to see something smart with a bit of an edge, check out TAPE.

Rating:
Summary: Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard together again
Review: Richard Linklater(School Of Rock, Suburbia, Dazed and Confused) directs this powerful and in your face experience about three friends who come back in their lives and then things start heating up. Hawke is a drug dealer, who blames Leonard for raping Thurman way back when. When the tensing and the sparks fly between the 3, its great acting and to the 3 actors its probably one of the best performances of the leads in their careers. one of the best movies of 2001, period. a movie not to be missed