Seven

Rating:
Summary: What more can you say than Wow
Review: Seven is one hell of a movie. There's not much more you can say, other than wow, or maybe oh my. If you've never seen it, just go rent it now. It pulls you through a journey of darkness, the human soul, and life.

if you have seen it, this DVD version is great! The special features (along with an alternative ending) are wonderful. Like most DVD's, the special features aren't as "special" as the producers would like you to believe. A number of still photographs and storyboards are coupled with commentary. Still, you can read the notebook, imagine what the alternative ending would look like, and listen to the actors and director discuss the making of the film.

Rating:
Summary: All other DVD's should be this good
Review: This is and excellent movie and this DVD does it justice. I have to say that this is one of the best DVD packages that's been put together in recent history.
The transfer, both audio and visual, is superb. You will really get something out of this movie if you have a good sound system to listen to it on.
What really makes this DVD, though, is all of the extras. You get a glimpse into the movie making process along with how detailed the Fincher insisted the props, such as Doe's diary, be created. The director's track is interesting to listen to as you get to go into the mind of Fincher and what he was thinking when he directed and edited the movie.
This DVD truly makes you realize why you bought that DVD player in the first place.
Take the time and watch the extras, it's worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Seven gets a "five."
Review: Top-notch thriller that falls neatly into the mold of "The Silence of the Lambs." Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman star as two cops who couldn't be bothered with each other, but they team up to find a warped serial killer. On the surface, "Seven" looks like a typical buddy-cop flick with a high body count, but it offers much more. Director David Fincher builds the suspense to an incredible climax that must be seen to be believed. The picture is as crisp as it gets and the 5.1 surround sound also stands out. Of all the extra features that are found on disc two, the deleted scenes are the real treat. Pay attention to the scene that involves the sin "Pride;" it is far gorier and more graphic than the version we saw in theatres. If you can stomach the violence and you have an appetite for a great thriller, then you can't go wrong with this one. Turn off the lights, and hold onto something.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Horror movie.
Review: As a lover of Horror films, i would have to see this is a mighty
fine film of the genre. It's about two Detectives ( Played
by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) who are after a deadly criminal
who has used the 7 deadly sins as clues for them to follow.
It's part Drama, part thriller and part Horror that will make you shiver in your bones and wretch at the same time with some of the most distrubing crime scenes to ever commit on film.

Other similar movies i would recommend: Manhunter, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Suspiria,
and L.A. Confidential.

Rating:
Summary: A Thrilling Ride
Review: Seven takes you on this pyschological thrilling ride throughout the movie. It has you on the edge of your seat ever single time you watch it.

Fincher is one of the best director's around with The Game, Fight Club, and Seven.

Brad Pitt gives his best performance ever, as well as Morgan Freeman.

I recommend this to everybody out there who wants to enjoy one of the greatest thrillers ever made.

Rating:
Summary: Makes its biggest impact on first viewing.
Review: 'Se7en' returns the crime thriller to Edgar Allen Poe, inventor of the detective story. In his tales featuring the Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin, Poe dubbed the criminal and the detective, the 'creative' and the 'resolvant' - the criminal creates a crime like a work of art; the detective analyses and interprets it like a critic. In 'Se7en', John Doe's serial killing has an aesthetical form - not only does he pattern it according to an overarching structure; not only does the method of each crime connect thematically to its sin; but each is an elaborate, meticulously-staged tableau which the detectives must read before they can understand it and proceed. The thrller hinges on whether the detectives are good critics - William Somerset, who deals in dedicated scholarship, absorbing the primary texts, is; the younger Mills, who skimps with 'Cliff's Notes', isn't.

A second model in 'Se7en' is Dante's 'Divine Comedy', which screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker reverses. Somerset is Virgil, the teacher full of cultural and ethical knowledge who should bring his student, Mills as Dante, to progressive understanding and enlightenment. Rather than moving heavenwards, however, 'Se7en' is a slow ride to Hell, beginning with the Purgatorial Sin nearest to Heaven, Gluttony, and working down through the rest. The ultimate goal facing the student is not achieving redemption but avoiding damnation. Although New York might seem like a living hell - a medieval inferno plagued by random violence, apathy, noise, decay, rain, lonely rotting lives - it is really a Purgatorial testing-ground; but Somerset is a bad teacher, Mills an inattentive student.

Then there is Borges, who, in stories such as 'Death and the Compass', used the detective format and the 'clues' to be read in Great Literature, to destroy the ethical assumptions of forms and identity.

'Se7en' is the kind of film that only seems a masterpiece on first viewing, when shock, suspense and novelty replace our critical faculties. As such, its effect is immediate and gut-wrenching, as the film flatters our intellect without making any demands on it. But as would become apparent in his later films, director Fincher always pulls back from being truly radical, and what seems to be a hopeless, dank, inexorable, anti-Hollywood apocalyptic vision is actually as reassuring as the most conservative detective novel: unlike Borges, it retains a faith in patterns, taking them to their logical conclusions, giving some sort of meaning, no matter how bleak to chaos. Despite Somerset's protests, Doe is too reassuringly, articulately psychotic to suggest a projection of inner evil, remorse or Biblical vengeance (indeed, the film might be a moral story about man's hubris in replacing God). The script contrivances (as in imaginative short-cuts, rather than failures in plausibility) become increasingly apparent.

The best directors - from Hitchcock to Ray to Soderbergh - are also Critics, interrogating the scripts they film, but Fincher seems content to reproduce Walker's pretentious gloom and thematic timidity - even the grungiest scenes are filmed with exquisite symmetry and loving detail. The script itself queasily reproduces Doe's moral censoriousness, punishing in kind a woman who simply contemplated abortion. The film is full of beautiful compositions (the brutally ironic torchlights in the opening investigation; the neon blue as they check out the 'Help Me' fingerprints); exciting set-pieces (the first chase of Doe; the wracking final 20 minutes); and gruesome moments (the jerk of a flayed victim). The acting is terrific, especially Brad Pitt in his first great performance, using his good-looking cockiness to devastating effect, in many ways more complex and sympathetic than Morgan Freeman's earnest elder cop, with his intriguingly failed past and sterile present. As a whole, however, I don't think 'Se7en' holds up.

Rating:
Summary: Tense Thriller
Review: Seven is a tense, taut, psychological thriller that is intensely gripping. Brad Pitt plays a new New York City detective, David Mills, who partners up with a grizzled veteran ,William Somerset, played by Morgan Freeman. Somerset is leaving the force, but Mills persuades him to on for just a little while longer to investigate a bizarre murder case set around the seven deadly sins. The victims have no clear connection to another and the detectives keep coming up with dead ends in their investigation. Mills is a hothead, who is impulsive and Somerset is exacting and thorough, a voice of reason. After finally finding the killer's apartment, the killer appears and gets into a chase sequence with Mills through the apartment building and out into a driving rain. It is a superb cat and mouse chase scene with the killer escaping but not before he smacks Mills around with a tire iron, puts a gun to his head before sparing him and fleeing. (...) The final scene played out in a deserted field outside NYC provides a shocking and disturbing finale. Mr. Pitt is at his best as the Mills, but Mr. Freeman commands the screen with his icy cool performance. Gwenyth Paltrow has a small, but pivotal role as Mills' wife and Richard Roundtree has a brief appearance as Mills and Somerset's department head. The film has some gory and graphic scenes that might turn some weak stomachs, but it has everything you'd want from a thriller: mystery, suspense, a great plot, great acting and a great, shocking and surprising ending.

Rating:
Summary: A FLAWLESS MOVIE
Review: I would never dream of comparing anyone to Alfred Hitchcock. But, David Fincher, comes damn close. They have a lot of similarities, but the biggest one that I see is the desire to be precise and perfect.

Seven is Fincher's second movie! His first being an underrated Alien 3. In his second effort, Fincher crafted, what I think, to be the best suspense/thriller in thirty-years. Unique. Gut churning. Awesomely acted. Every shot compliments the next. Every shot is perfect. The sound track was perfectly thought out. Like Hitchcock... the script was well-fleshed out, everything was perfect BEFORE HAND, and everything was perfect afterward.

In a sess-pool of cookie-cutter "yes" men that are succeeding in the movie business, Fincher emerged and did it his way. Thankfully, he continues to do it his way. Following "Seven", he continued to do masterful work with well-written movies like "The Game" and "Fight Club". "The Panic Room" is coming out soon and I can't wait.

It isn't quantity that counts... it's quality. Fincher takes his time and makes sure it's done RIGHT.

SEVEN.... I think, was and is one the most underrated movies ever. It will be a classic and is one the best movies ever made.

Rating:
Summary: A descent into self-indulgent nihilism
Review: First we're supposed to believe that Matt Damon's character is smart enough (albeit with the guidance of Morgan Freedman's character) to harass and catch a serial killer - and then we're supposed to believe that he's stupid enough to fall for the killer's trap at the end. A grotesque carnival of sickness... a horror movie... not uplifting entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: Best direction of all time
Review: Se7en is, in my opinion, the best directed film ever. Perhaps had the subject matter been less grisly, multiple awards would've been won. ...

The gruesome story about a serial killer who murders by the seven deadly sins is an incredibly smart film that no doubt was intensely researched. Andrew Kevin Walker's script is rife with great dialog, interesting twists, and very well researched pathology and literatue references.

David Fincher had a highly successful music video career before this, but this film truly showed his brilliance. Everything is dark and haunting. The camerawork fits the situation perfectly, from the steady flowing shots in the calm before the storm to the highspeed handhelds in the chases and intense sequences. He is a master of his surroundings and the direction is a terrific showcase of the dark territory this film moves into.

The performances are equally impressive. Morgan Freeman turns in his usual great job, but Brad Pitt is truly an awesome force. At first I thought that a lot of his acting in certain scenes was slightly cheesy, but in subsequent viewings it's easy to see where every bit of acting came from. This is his show all the way. Gwyneth Paltrow is warm and gives the right amount of emotion that is needed to counteract the gruesome parts of the movie. Having truly earned his reputation for playing psychos through this film, Kevin Spacey is menacing in a very intellectual way, and it is perfect for the role. He's smart and calculating, but you can see that's his character is just a powder keg waiting to explode.

Overall this is an incredible film. It has great direction, acting writing, and especially production design. The film is haunting and dark. Everything is cluttered in the right ways and sparce where it needs to be. David Fincher should be commended. He has made a truly excellent film. It would be a shame to pass this one up because of its subject matter.