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Dragonfly (Fullscreen)

Dragonfly (Fullscreen)

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Non-Violent, Enjoyable Movie
Review: Loved it! If you like stories about life after death, you will like this movie. The storyline was good and it took a few twists you might not expect so it has you guessing. I like it far better than Ghost (maybe because Kevin Cosner can act unlike Patrick Szwaze) and I did not hear much about it prior to seeing it so my expectations weren't as high as with Ghost. It is definitely more of woman's movie (even without Kevin). I recommend it and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: MAGIC FOR THE HEART
Review: DRAGONFLY IS A BEAUTIFUL AND SIMPLE EXPRESSION OF FAITH BORN OF LOVE. IT IS ABOUT THE ENDURANCE OF LOVE BEYOND DEATH. THE ENDING SURPRISED AND DELIGHTED ME. THE PLOT KEPT MY INTEREST THROUGHOUT. THE CRITICS OBVIOUSLY CANNOT APPRECIATE ANYTHING ABOVE SEX, VIOLENCE OR A DISTURBED PSYCHE - IF IT'S NOT DOWN AND DIRTY, IF IT'S NOT DEGRADED - THEY DON'T CARE FOR IT. DON'T LISTEN TO THEM - SEE DRAGONFLY AND GET CAUGHT UP IN IT.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dragonfly delves into the ultimate mystery of life and death
Review: The death of Dr. Joe Darrow's (Kevin Costner) pregnant wife Emily brings him face to face with perhaps the most troubling existential question of all time. Is there a life after death? Was the morose Macbeth right to describe life as nothing more than "a tale, told by on idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing?" Emily (Susanna Thompson) was also a doctor and devoted much of her efforts to saving the poverty stricken people of the destitute areas of the world. She dies in a mud slide that pushes her bus over a waterfall. Joe is an avowed atheist convinced that Emily's personality has been utterly extinguished. He will mourn her passing, but life must go on.

A friend of the family Miriam (Kathy Bates) tries to console Joe and help him to adjust to the reality of Emily's death. Joe, however, is confronted with unexplained occurrence which hint that Emily is reaching out to him from her unknown grave. A young boy Ben who suffers from a severe heart aliment undergoes countless alleged near death experiences. Ben informs Joe that Emily has a message for him. Should Joe take the youngster seriously? Might not after death experiences merely be the tricks the brain plays on a human being as they are slipping away from this world? Joe repeatedly comes across a figure appearing to be a dragonfly. What does it mean? Does it have any real significance, or is it added proof that Joe might be going off the deep end? Joe even seeks out Sister Madeline (Linda Hunt) who has studied this most unconventional academic subject matter. Sister Madeline shares her insights that seemingly contradict official Catholic teaching. Nonetheless, they sound somewhat plausible and offer Joe further hope that Emily still exists in some sort of fashion.

We travel with Joe to an unnamed Central American country. Will he unravel the meaning behind the mysterious dragonfly looking symbol? Is Emily attempting to lead Joe to a greater truth? Is the possibility of life after death empirically provable? Are we able to somehow communicate with those who have left this vale of tears? Do the indigenous natives possess profound insights alien to our Western philosophical traditions? Director Tom Shadyac does fairly well in putting together a good story that probes the awkward and uneasy topic of death. I think it's worth seeing. It doesn't quite earn a five star recommendation, but it deserves a very strong four.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Kevin Costner play a excellent role
Review: Dragonfly is a slow moving movie, keeps you guessing about the wife and what really happens to her, I would see it again.
Has some frightening parts, puts overall its good.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I recommend it...
Review: Wonderfully done. I wasn't sure how the outcome for this movie was going to be. So therefore, it surprised me. Joseph Darrow is a doctor in the ER, his wife is a doctor on pedi Oncology. One of her loves is to go overseas and help in under-developed countries. And so she does. While working in the under-developed countries-the rain begins to pour, it creates mudslides and her and her crew are swept away.

Meanwhile, upon hearing the news, Joe Darrow's life is turned upside down-his wife is trying to contact him, everyone thinks he's nuts and he needs time off. He decides to check on her patient's for her, as that's what he promised to do. And while doing so, finds that her patients are in contact with her "up there" and tries to relay a message to him.

This movie makes you jump, makes you laugh and makes you calmly smile and grin. Wonderful treat, as a person who works in a hospital and deals with death...it is soothing to the soul as well. A 4.5 movie...I highly recommend it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dragonfly
Review: From beginning to end I thought this movie was well written and well played. It kept my interest throughout. It had some very suspenseful moments that were played up to thier full advantage without going overboard. I went in expecting to be disapointed due to Costner's latest movie offerings and was very pleased at how enjoyable the movie was...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Enjoyable Film... worth watching
Review: Ok..lets get this out right up front...Dragonfly is not comparable to The Sixth Sense... with that said I found it to be a well crafted movie, that while not suspenseful is still good storytelling. It is more of a love story than a ghost story and the ending is one of the best in a recent film. Kevin Costner is unfairly lambasted by critics, and while his choice in movies can be questioned, his acting skills remain sharp. He was believable in his part as the grief striken doctor. Ignore the critical bashing this movie has been getting, it is an enjoyable, if somewhat under developed film.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I was reaching for a can of Raid.
Review: "Dragonfly," for all its attempts at touching our hearts and our hidden fears, is little more than director Tom Shadyac's brain-numbing recipe that essentially tosses elements of "The Sixth Sense," "The Others," "The Haunting," and "Angel Eyes" into a blender and hits puree. It's a cross between a thriller and a human drama, one so confident that its style and shocks will mask its blatantly unoriginal story, that in the end, all we feel it cheated out of time and money.

It's a shame, given the movie's promising start. We bear witness to a horrible accident in a South American country involving an avalanche and a bus full of people, one of whom is Emily Darrow (Kathryn Erbe), a devoted doctor whose husband, Joe (Kevin Costner), is left with his own avalanche of grief over the loss of his wife. Believing his unwillingness to accept her death is clouding his good judgment, his superiors ask him to take time off from his duties, to which he reluctantly agrees.

Then one night, he receives a package Emily had ordered before her death, a crib mobile made up of glistening dragonflies, revealing to us that A) she was with child, and B) she had a thing for dragonflies ("her own personal totem," as Joe describes it). Soon, he begins paying visits to Emily's former patients still in the hospital, children who, after near-death experiences, have begun to draw countless pictures of what looks like a "crucifix made out of Jell-O." They begin telling Joe of encounters they have had with Emily, leading him to believe that A) his wife is trying to tell him something, and B), "she's becoming desperate."

About the only thing desperate in this film is director Shadyac's attempts to conceal his lack of original material with some cheap shocks and underlying tension. Sometimes, this is effective, as shown in a scene where Joe is packing Emily's belongings into a box, including a paperweight with a dragonfly, and a closet full of dresses. There is a noise; he goes downstairs, only to hear another noise and rush back upstairs to find the paperweight on the table once again, and the clothes hanging in the closet. This scene shows the promise of a better movie, something that Shadyac fails to capitalize on.

And then we have the more predictable and hammy scenes and subplots, including his admission that his pet parrot would greet Emily when she came home every night (wouldn't you know, that parrot is going to say "Honey, I'm home!" at some point during the film), and a dead organ donor who begins speaking Joe's name in Emily's voice. By the time the question of whether or not Emily is really dead comes into play, we've been subjected to so many squiggly drawings, bump-in-the-night scenarios, and close-ups of Costner's fear-drained face, that it's just one more fly in the ointment.

It is Costner, however, who proves to be the film's biggest disappointment. As Joe, he is required to carry much of the movie's weight on his shoulders, but through it all, he can't breathe one bit of believable emotion into his character. He makes Joe into a stern, at times harsh character who, at one point, turns away a suicide in favor of a six-month pregnant dead woman as a result of his grief. This is followed by his revelation to the suicide patient that his belief in Heaven is non-existent; though this conversation is supposed to define his character, it only serves to add to our disdain for his attitude.

Add to this another slap in the face when Kathy Bates and Linda Hunt find themselves filling cliché-riddled supporting characters for less than five minutes of screen time. Bates plays Joe's neighbor, the standard attorney/lesbian/support provider who spends her time trying to bring Joe back into reality. Hunt is cast as a nun with a smeared reputation, whose work with children in near-death situations brings her to Joe's attention, as well as bringing the standard "she's-trying-to-reach-you" speech out of retirement.

Once the movie reaches its recycled conclusion, your own premonitions about where the story will end up will be confirmed, as will your doubts about Costner ever starring in a credible role again. What begins with promise quickly spirals into talk of "rainbows" and "tunnels," and Shadyac's faith that drawings and shadows will be enough to bring his movie out of the depths of its own ludicrousness. Don't be too surprised if you find yourself "literally going buggy" while watching "Dragonfly;" by the time it was all over, I was reaching for a can of Raid.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dragonfly
Review: Kevin Costner has done it again! He is such an incredible actor. He has taken what would have been a not-so-great movie and turned it into one that captivates the audience. He is the reason that I am giving this 4 stars. The movie is slightly under-developed, but it is well worth watching for the suprise ending.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great movie, drama, suspense, fantastic ending!
Review: This movie was really good. It is suspenseful and has a few small funny parts, but mostly is about the drama Kevin Costner goes through after his wife dies in an accident in Venezuela. Some parts made the hair on my neck stand up! But it was great, very intense and interesting. The acting is good, and plot moves along. It had many great elements that pulled it together and worked to carry the story. It will make you think about the after life. A feel good thriller!


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