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HBO Originals - Gia, The Rat Pack, Gotti, A Bright Shining Lie, Truman, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and RKO 281

HBO Originals - Gia, The Rat Pack, Gotti, A Bright Shining Lie, Truman, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and RKO 281

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This vhs unrated version is outstanding!
Review: I have the dvd of this movie also, but this unrated vhs is wonderful! Gia & Linda have such a powerful chemistry! On this vhs version the relationship seems more mutual between them then the dvd version! They had a real heart touching relationship! I was so glad I got this version of the movie it was so worth it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Guilty pleasure
Review: This is a high quality DVD- picture and sound are awesome.
This is a film you will want to watch when you are smashed or tanked. Slick production values.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Angelina Jolia is spectacular as Gia!
Review: This movie was absolutely wonderfully played by Angelina Jolie as Gia, and Elizabeth Mitchell as Linda! You just wanted to jump into the movie, and make it work out in the end! I was in tears trying to understand the pain Gia suffered, crying out for help, and no one knew how to help her! If they had she may have been with us today, helping people learn the dangers of drugs!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sad but true
Review: This is a really good movie. Unfortunately, it is very sad as well. Even though it could be argued Gia did not accomplish much in her short life other than modeling, she had a large effect on people. This is due mostly to her drug use, and general volatility.

Angelina Jolie doesn't look like Gia, but having substantial modeling in her background made her good for the part. Elizabeth Mitchell was excellent as her girlfriend. All the other characters were well-acted, too.

It is always sad when someone dies early in life. Gia is notable for being one of the first women to die of (drug-related) AIDS, in 1986.

No notable extras on the DVD. Get it for the movie. The last shot was a nice touch.

I'd never heard of Gia until I bought the DVD. I'm glad I did.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: OUTSTANDING MOVIE!
Review: Films certainly have gotten more realistic than when I was young. I can't really add anything to the other reviews: This is just a great movie!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Always and forever
Review: I loved this movie the very first time I watched it, and even though I love Angelina, the storyline, the cast, and everything about it.... I must say the things that made me want to watch this movie over and over is just how emotional the movie is.

I get inspiration when I am painting by watching this movie. This is one of those artistically beautiful movies that you can pause on any given moment and be able to paint the most beautiful picture on canvas.

Angelina is flawlessly gorgeous when she is all made up... and even when she is given the "drugged up" look - she still has you completely captivated.

This is a fantastic movie, the cinematography is great, the writing is RIGHT ON, and the account of Gia is truly memorable.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gia - A tragic true tale!
Review: "Gia" is quite simply the haunting but well told story of Gia Marie Carangi. Truth be told, I was not drawn to this movie at first because of the story, what drew me and I'm sure many others to it is the star Angelina Jolie. After her success in the Tomb Raider movies, I thought it would be interesting to see some of her past work, thus this movie became very interesting!

Angelina Jolie performs admirably and brilliantly in this film, almost to perfection in what I'm sure is an even greater range in her talents. The depth of the character she portrays does compel you to the character despite already knowing the tragic outcome. Praise goes to Faye Dunaway and Mercedes Ruehl for their efforts in this film as well.

This true life sad story is told well in the film; however, the director, Michael Cristofer, chose an almost cryptic style in which to tell the tragic story of Gia's life which, at times, detracts from the overall telling of the story. The score for the film does do well in what it's designed to do, augment the overall feel of the movie.

The Premise:

"Gia" is the overly tragic story of Gia Marie Carangi; a young and extremely beautiful woman from Philadelphia who suffered the break up of her parents at a young age and then in her late teens, a photographer stumbles upon her and not long thereafter the life of a supermodel overwhelms her. Incapable of dealing with separation of any form, she turns to drugs!

What follows from there is a heart wrenching and very telling true life tragedy of what happened to this beautiful young woman.

I would definitely recommend this HBO movie; one for the story itself and two for the exceptional performance by Angelina Jolie in this heartrending tale. {ssintrepid}

Special Features:

-Cast & Crew Bios
-Photo Gallery

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: tragic
Review: great work done by angelina. she is captivating, of course I had to watch more than once. great performance.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best Angelina Jolie movie . . . You have to see this!
Review: A true story, starring Angelina Jolie as Gia Marie Curangi (just call her Gia), who was one of the first American women who died from the AIDS virus.

This was filmed documentary style, which surprised me, although not too much of the documentary scenes interrupt the film. It does get annoying when this person is talking about Gia but who doesn't actually appear in Gia's life until later in the film, so you don't have a clue who they are.

Of course, Angelina Jolie stars as Gia, throwing herself so much into the role that you forget where to draw the line between Angelina and Gia. Angelina almost became Gia, and it's hard to understand why exactly this film isn't better known. Forget Tomb Raider, forget Girl, Interrupted, this should have been THE film of Angelina's career. Why it wasn't, is beyond me. The story is a stunning portrayal of a young girl thrown in at the deep end, and not knowing what to do.

Alongside Angelina, Faye Dunaway plays a small, but very much needed role in this. She stars as Gia's agent, and also her mentor. Gia will phone her in the middle of the night to talk, and when she dies, Gia is left alone and lost. Thus begins her downward spiral into the fatal world of drugs.

By the back cover of the DVD, you know Gia's character dies, so you're expecting that. What you don't expect is how drawn out it is, but how fast the film goes. At just under 2 hours long, it was over before I knew it. Once she's discovered as having AIDS, the film quickly progresses into a drugs/AIDS story, and its horrifying. The end scenes of Angelina show how great an actress she is, and just what drugs can do to you.

There is a lot of nudity in this film. But it's done very well - or as well as it can be, when there are almost full frontal shots, but from far away. You would think this would turn you off the film, but it really attributes to what the film is. Angelina seems to have no qualms about her body and flaunted it to the max in this. She also flaunted her (small) collection of tattoos, but no Billy Bob scrawled across her upper arm, as this was before he came on the scene.

Angelina is one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood at the moment. She's not your classic beauty - as Gia says in the film, "a woman isn't a woman unless she's blonde". But Angelina is beautiful; there's no doubt about it. She's one of these lucky women who look good without any makeup - not that I'm jealous of course!

Gia's character almost seemed schizophrenic at some points, and this could have been because of the drugs, but she's also very insecure about her various relationships. It was hard to see her change from a happy, smiley young girl, to an angry, crying woman, throwing stuff around.

I've never heard of Gia before this, but now I'm pleased I have this movie, and I can watch it whenever I want to. She was only 26 when she died, which is horrifying, considering how much she did in her short life. And she started modelling when she was 17, and started taking drugs soon after. But the people in the modelling world didn't seem to care that one of their finest models was doing drugs, as shown in the movie.

HIV can take a while to develop into AIDS, but the doctors said in the film, that it could have been from sharing a needle. You see very graphically the first time Gia injects herself, whereas before she was just sniffing. You don't see her injecting again after this, which made me think this was when she got HIV then.

It's quite scary as the film goes on, before you realise there is anything wrong with her, because you notice her hair getting greyer and greyer, and bags appearing under her eyes.

The very start, when you see Gia getting makeup put on her, is a bit freaky, but I won't explain why, you have to watch the end, as the scenes get repeated.

All in all, a great film, and definitely re-watchable. It will shock you to the core and one of Angelina's best performances yet.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gia
Review: I saw this movie about 10 years ago on HBO, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. This is definetly one of the best movies I have ever seen, i highly recommend it. Don't go another week without seeing this.


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