JFK (Director's Cut Two-Disc Special Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Duh
Review: A truely genious movie with any other way, my attention is distracted by the terribly unlogical music that creates a disturbing contract between the music and the spirit of the scenes, making it bearly watchable. Sorry, it just bugs me, and that's how I saw it!

Rating:
Summary: One of Oliver Stone's best films
Review: I liked this version of JFK better than the original version because the extra footage helped to explore the conspiracy of President Kennedy's death and Jim Garrison's attempts to uncover the truth.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful Filmmaking, A Riveting Film!
Review: A triumph for everyone involved. But this is Oliver Stone's picture all the way, you can clearly see that he is also obsessed with the Kennedy assassination and that's where the film gets it's passion and it's unstoppable search for the truth. He took as a premise, the case of Jim Garrison, the only lawyer to ever take the Kennedy assassination to court. This is only the excuse for Stone to bombard us with fascinating and dangerous information that may or may not be true, but we all know that something fishy was going on. Besides being a directorial triumph it is also a technical landmark with outstanding editing, probably among the best ever. A terrific all-star cast bring all these characters to life. Some we pity, others we despise and some we respect. Kevin Costner gives a dramatically powerful and effective performance as Jim Garrison, he's got the All-American look stamped on his face. An extremely good supporting cast filled with heavy-hitters. Tommy Lee Jones is brilliant as Clay Shaw (Clay Bertrand). Gary Oldman is quietly effective as the patsy himself, Lee Harvey Oswald. Joe Pesci, Kevin Bacon and John Candy are also great. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau appear in yet another film together, and both deliver good performances. But it is Donald Sutherland's cameo as Mr. 'X' that is really gripping, those few scenes he is in, you can't blink. A brilliant and truly important film. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 9!

Rating:
Summary: Director's Cut Worse Than Original Print Released
Review: In the director's cut, James Garrison (Kevin Costner) ends a scene by telling an aide (Jay O. Sanders) that they're going to have to bring in Clay Shaw for questioning--BEFORE Garrison learns that the real name of Clay Bertrand is Clay Shaw! This makes no sense. The added 17 or so minutes do not enhance the film, which was terrific in its initial release. Sorry, Oliver Stone, but whoever persuaded you to drop those minutes & alter sequences was right. Bring back the print first released: it was a great film.

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: This movie was one of the best movie's ever! Although they don't really give you an answer of what happened. The depiction was SUPERB! Kevin Costner, Joe Pesci, John Candy, etc. They were fantastic in this movie! A little long...But you know what? Over thirty years later, people are still trying to figure it out...So I think 3 hours to explain what happened is fantastic!

Rating:
Summary: A Mind-Blowing Experience!
Review: If not the best film of the 90's, it's certainly the most important one. When I first saw this film in the theaters during its initial release, I was just totally blown away, I sat there in my seat after the final credits and tried to gather my thoughts together after what I had witnessed. I was astonished at the sheer brilliance of the filmmaking, JFK has to rank as the best edited film of all time. Technically, the film is brillant and breathtaking. A richly textured and dazzling cinematic experience. However, this is not style over substance. Stone presents us with a huge amount of information: names, dates, different theories, flashbacks, flashbacks within flashbacks, ect... It's incredible how much information, how many ideas Stone packs into his film, but his direction is so assured that we are NEVER for one moment confused or lost in the material. He and his co workers have masterfully assembled all this material into a hypnotic tapestry (his use of the Zapruder footage in the film is brilliant). The assassination of JFK is one of the most tragic events in modern American history. I've never subscribed to the Warren Commission explanation, and Stone does a masterful job illustrating his ideas and theories. It's important to remember that this is NOT a documentary, its one filmmakers exploration of a pivotal moment in U.S. history. Even if you dont subscribe to Stone's theory, you gotta admit, it's a breathtaking film. This film will scare you, inspire you, and force you to think and act. It's so refreshing to see an American film that is SO political and thought provoking. It's over 3 1/2 hours, but you'd never know. A MUST SEE!

Rating:
Summary: Good Movie, Poor Labeling
Review: I enjoyed this movie immensely when it came out so I decided to purchase the DVD. When I played it on my DVD player I noticed that I wasn't getting a Dolby Digital 5:1 sound field. I immediately checked the box and at the bottom of the box on the back it says that this is encoded in Dolby Digital 5:1. So I then checked Amazon's listing for this movie. Sure enough, Amazon says that this movie is encoded in Dolby 2.0 and , furthermore in their "Sound Quality" review they give it a rating of 4.5 saying.."The Dolby® Digital matrix surround DVD soundtrack has an excellent sense of surround envelopment". This is entirely untrue, as I found the sound field to be terrible. Yes, I did double check and triple check to see that I had all my settings correct on my equipment, and I had. Furthermore, the box says that in the interactive menus there are production notes, of which there are absolutely none. Also, as Amazon has pointed out, the box mistakenly says that this DVD is set up for 16:9, which it is not also. So come on you big studios. We consumers deserve better than this, especially with a movie as fine a this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Historical Document
Review: Forget about the fact that Oliver Stone's bias skewed some of the facts in the film. Forget the fact that occasionally Kevin Costner's suthun' accent slips a little bit. Forget that fact that your bum may ache a little after sitting through this film's epic running time. The one fact that remains is that when all is said and done, this is one heck of an ambitious and (above all) endlessly intriguing masterpiece that has effectively dramatized one of the most enduring passions of Americans for the past forty years, and it stands as a towering triumph and call to arms for the simple advocacy of something that our government (including the present, past, and probably future administrations) consistently chooses to keep from the citizens of this nation: T-R-U-T-H. In the years to come, regardless of a few historical machinations, it is my hope that this film is shown in classrooms across the nation along with classics like "Schindler's List" or "Glory." 5 stars (of 5)

Rating:
Summary: Tedium
Review: This was one of the most boring and uninteresting movies that I have ever sat through. The message was just as dubious. "Is the government worth preserving when it lies to the people?" My answer: "Since when have governments ever done anything else?" It was just a big waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: JFK is brilliant
Review: Not to be confused for a documentary, JFK is a brilliant technical achievement for Stone.Music by John Williams is powerful, tense and exciting.Acting by a cast-of-a thousands works on all thrusters!This film also won a well-deserved oscar for editing and cinematography.