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Mulholland Drive

Mulholland Drive

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It`s Not My Job!!!
Review: It`s not my job to try to extract a plot from this jumbled mess of random characters and and events. My 5 year old can make movies like this because he happily jumps from one subject to subject in childlike abandon. I guess this movie is apart of the whole modernistic and postmodernistic movement that rejects fixed plots, narratives and static character identities and you know thats fine BUT you when you are attempting to pull of one those movies you have to bring it home like Fight Club did or 12 Monkeys even, but instead of bringing all of the floating elements all together in the end the story; it just wanders off into a field, lays down and dies like a dieased riddled dog. Maybe to fully appreciate this movie you have to have a degree in psychology or something but If I wanted to see a bunch of random events and a blur of characters I would flip through a photoalbum or drive down the strip or surf the net or something. Would have given it 0 stars if I could. Its just a bunch of soup to make what ever you want out of it. I can make my own soup, I come for a story. I was not impressed. Lynch had to keep the audience somehow though so there is a Very Very Hot sex scene but to bad my wife was in the room. And the spanish song was so very beautiful.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cryptic but not impossible
Review: It's easy to write off this film as another incomprehensible David Lynch movie since it has all the hallmarks of one (vicious thugs who rely on almost random violence; apparently disconnected scenes; numerous, cryptic visual clues; dialog that appears to have been "inspired" by years of uninspired Hollywood fair; mysterious characters who not only appear out of the gloaming but promise to return; recurring characters with shifting identities; lesbian sex; smoking and mystery) and the plot isn't one subject to easy interpretation. Strangely, while the film is enigmatic from the start, the first two thirds are deceptively linear:

Betty is an annoyingly perky Hollywood hopeful. Rita is an amnesiac who crawls out of a limo involved in an accident - narrowly avoiding being murdered by its driver. The two meet when Rita sneaks into Betty's aunt's house. The two fall in love, with Betty and Rita turning into detectives in the Nancy-Frew mould to uncover Rita's true identity. Meanwhile, a director is intimidated into casting a starlet named Camilla in his new movie. Betty, who appears more blonde than Sandra Dee, manages to blow everybody away with her screen test.

And then, it begins to go awry. The movie changes gears - the scenes seem more dream like and illogical, but Lynch gives us more clues. And most importantly, the characters seem to change identities completely. Rita becomes the much-desired Camilla. The much-desired Betty becomes the blowsy Diane, a one-time Hollywood hopeful whose dream ended when she lost a part to Camilla. Although still dream-like, the latter part of the film is so bleak and dispiriting that we're supposed to think it a dream more routed in reality than the beginning - with Betty's hopes and dreams becoming Diane's unachievable desires. In the second part of the film, Camilla is Diane's former lover - an affair that Diane is incapable of maintaining in her imagination (even the dream Camilla dumps Diane; when Camilla and Diane meet again, it's at dinner party where Camilla and Adam are about to announce their engagement). Diane's home is an empty husk - she lives alone and never seems to leave, except when she brings a wad of cash and Camilla's picture to a hitman. Between the dreams of hope that open this flick and the nightmares of memories that won't die in the latter half, the characters seem menaced by a blue box. (IMNSHO, the box symbolizes TV, a wasteland for those who couldn't match their dreams for movie stardom - the big plot and character shift occurs when Rita opens the box, and is sucked inside; Because Lynch makes MD an obvious elegy to a lost Hollywood, TV becomes an obvious avatar of its demise and its character's pain).

Though cryptic, it's not quite incomprehensible, and you and your friends can probably come up with dozens of your own spins on this flick's loopy twists (and you should bring along a friend - loneliness becomes very palpable here). Despite the film's consistently cryptic and creepy atmosphere, Lynch manages to work some real pain out of his dreamy characters. My favorite scene is the dinner-party scene in which we see Diane become a seemingly bottomless reservoir of pity (we see how unreachable Camilla has become to her, and we also learn that it was Camilla who essentially beat Diane to stardom). Lynch has managed to bring some of the pathos of "The Straight Story" to his trademark world of nightmares and all-nite-diners.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: GREAT MOVIE/BAD PACKAGING
Review: whats up with the lack of bonus materials? and no chapter selection?

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: First two thirds were good, but then...
Review: The first two thirds of this movie were very suspenseful, but the last third really ruins it. To date, I have not been a David Lynch fan and now I know why.

The last third of this movie did not seem to have any connection whatsoever with the rest of the film. Same cast, but different characters and a different story. It didn't make any sense to me and I didn't see any resolution to the story by the film's end.

There's a scene just before the movie takes a dive, where the two lead actresses are watching a woman sing a Roy Orbison tune in Spanish and they start crying. I think the real reason they started crying was because they figured out they were in a movie that was about to tank.

For the David Lynch fans, if you enjoyed this film (and understood it), more power to you. I, however, did not.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You start knowing nothing, and end up knowing nothing
Review: Sounds odd doesnt it? It makes you wonder how this could be a good movie, if you dont know what the hell happens in the end. well my answer to that, is the same answer for every question that arises about this masterpiece....that answer is, i dont know. Its labeled a thriller, and at that ir excells. Its a thriller, suspsenful and the biggest mystery movie ever to grace this earth. If you like lynch films youll love this, if you never saw a lynch film, its a aquired taste of sorts. Some will like it, some will loath it. Its abstract to say the lest. But what really sends chills down your spine is the fact that by the time the closeing credits role around, you still cant figure it out, yet your drawn ever so further into for that same reason. Theres something about the movie that doesnt sit well, its dsiturbting but for reasons unkown...and all this will lead you to watching the movie over and over.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Give Up
Review: What's happening? What's it all about(Alfie)? Who's that? Who's she? Why is she now her? What did that guy have to do with anything? Just a few of the many questions asked about this film. Personally, I don't think you're supposed to give yourself a headache trying to figure everything out. I really don't think there is much to figure out. I guess I cop out a little and just assume that this movie was all a dream coz it seems to follow dream logic(as well as Lost Highway). It entertained me though. Though the big complaint from people is that this movie makes no sense(and to skeptical rebellious intellectuals, it's just show-off artsy fartsy crud trying to pass as art), but almost everyone who watches it, no matter how confused, has watched it all the way to the end. That says to me that everyone has found some entertainment value in this film. Positive or negative, it was compelling and bizarre enough to sit through. It's certainly never boring. My advice is not trying to be so logical when you watch it. Why try to figure it out? You're probably not going to get anywhere. I think Lynch sometimes throws random weirdness in to send you on a wild goose chase. When I asked him about a confusing plot point in one of his films, he gave me a joke answer. So, I know he's got a sense of humor about his stuff, and it wouldn't surprise me if he was mixing alot of red herrings in with his story. Then again, if he had actually made this into a series, we might have more answers. Might, that is. But, if you're one of those people who just can't stand viewing a film without any kind of solid closure at the end, check out the review below mine. That's probably one of the best explanations you're likely to find. Otherwise, just sit back, relax and watch the friggin' movie for goodness sake, and say to yourself, "the hell with logic."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: For those who enjoy a little thinking...
Review: ...this is the film for you. It's typical Lynch, with bizarre characters, no straight order of events, very surreal. Still, it's much more focused than Lost Highway... dare I say, much more "understandable". Reminds me of Twin Peaks, for you die to know what the hell is going on. It's really fun to try to figure out what is it all about, come up with all the weirdest theories to try to explain the movie. C'mon, don't you hate movies that give you ALL the information? It's like "you're dumb, I'll tell you everything, bit by bit." Fortunately, people like David Lynch gives our brains a litlle credit.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Best Picture? Please!
Review: Ok, so I read a review here that explained most of the things in the movie. I appreciate the effort. But my question here is how is the ordinary movie goer, someone with an average intellect, supposed figure all of this out on his own? Please, give me a break. This is an artsy, film noir, Cannes-like picture from start to finish. I can gurantee you that 95% of those watching this movie in a theatre were saying to their partner "what the hell is going on"? There must have been more sssshhh's in movie theaters around the country when this was released then at any other time since that The Cell was released. I give it 2 stars only because the film is beautiful to look at. If it werent for that brief lesbian love scene and a quickie masturbation bit Lynch threw in I probably would have been asleep on the couch by the time she opened that damn blue box. A blue box by the way that we have no idea where she gets. You can keep movies like this. If I want intrigue and puzzles to solve I'll rent The Game.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: haunting
Review: Haunting,Dreamlike,Mesmerising...........words cannot describe this film...........see it twice,at least.............probably 4 or 5 viewings will clarify a few things......just a few...
dreams,nightmares...............i don't know........i really don't know

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: When style CAN work over substance
Review: If you see this film a lot of times, and try really, really, really hard to make sense of it, it can be done. It might not be the correct view, because there might be no such thing, but it can be a view you can live with. On the other hand, if you do not want to go through all this trouble, it's much easier to find a movie that will explain it all to you. For those, I hear they're planning to film "Rocky VI".

This is one of the few films where I'll form the opinion that style over substance CAN be a good thing. There might be substance to this film, and you can go through the drill described in the preceding paragraph to dig it out, but for those that also like to just drink up film technique, this movie is loaded with it. Practically every scene, even if it doesn't make sense, right away or ever holds your interest and begs repeated viewing.

Those that give it more chances are rewarded as things become at least a bit more clear. It doesn't matter that you know the ending, because arguably, there is no real ending. In fact, it's fun to give it repeated viewings because you can take care of a few of those "Huh?"s you will encounter on the first few viewings.

The only problem I have with it is that the characters are so fascinating I want to see more of them or where they could have gone. Betty and the director have instant chemistry, and it would have been great to see it develop. Actually, the "Betty" character is so sweet I could see a completely new movie with her. As that probably won't happen, I'll just resort to more viewings, where I'll no doubt learn more


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