Rating: 
Summary: A dazzling directorial debut from Clooney
Review: George Clooney is a fine actor and he has done excellent work in the past. However, when I heard that Clooney was going to direct, I was a bit apprehensive. There are actors who have done great work as directors (Orson Welles, Robert Redford, Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood), yet George Clooney did not strike me as one who would excel as a director. Then along comes Confessions of a Dangerous Mind to convince me otherwise. Working from a screenplay by the always-great Charlie Kaufman (scribe of Adaptation), Clooney has constructed a fabulous film that succeeds in just about every way. Clooney has the benefit of an intriguing story, based on the book by Gong Show host Chuck Barris, a great script and a fantastic cast. Sam Rockwell is a fine actor, and Confessions is probably his best work to date. Rockwell carries the movie; A daunting task, but he succeeds admirably. He brings humanity and sadness to his character and even makes him somewhat sympathetic. Hopefully he will be getting better and better parts after this one. Drew Barrymore is great as Barris' sort-of girlfriend, Clooney himself appears as the CIA recruiter who's interested in Barris, and Julia Roberts shows up as a fellow operative. George Clooney has learned much from his friend Steven Soderbergh and brings an astute sense of visual style to the film. Clooney really deserves credit for an exceptional filmmaking job. Whether or not Barris' story is true is really not of concern to me. Even if it's all fiction, then it made for a remarkable story anyway. It will give viewers something to debate after seeing the film. The real Chuck Barris shows up for a cameo at the end, in a very touching and sad moment. Indeed there's a strong element of sadness to the story as Barris realizes what he has been and what he could have been. "I'm doomed to hell" he writes. And not just for being the one responsible for The Gong Show. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was overlooked at the box office when it opened back in January. Perhaps it was the fact that George Clooney and Julia Roberts were only in small parts that kept people away. Or perhaps people were scared away by Charlie Kaufman's name, knowing it would likely be "weird". It's a shame though, because those people missed one of most unique and enjoyable films of the year. It's perhaps not for all tastes, but for those who enjoy quirky films beyond the usual Hollywood dreck, Confessions will be highly enjoyable. Hopefully with the upcoming DVD release, this wonderful film will find its audience and will be appreciated for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction, but Which Is Which?
Review: Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell) spent every conscious moment since puberty chasing women -with little success. Then he discovered the newly emerging world of television. This was something he could do. He could put on a show. He understood the public's tastes. And there were available women galore. Barris started out giving tours at a television network, and worked upward from there. He met a free-spirited woman named Penny (Drew Barrymore), whom he later married, through a one-night stand with her roommate. Penny believed in Chuck, encouraged him, and gave him all the independence he could want. Chuck rose to prominence at ABC when his "Newlywed Game" became a hit. He went on to produce "The Dating Game" and "The Gong Show", in which he also starred. But Chuck Barris led a double life. Shortly after his success with "The Dating Game", he claims to have been approached by a recruiter for the CIA (George Clooney), who told Chuck that he perfectly fit the "profile" to do contract work for the agency and that his country needed him in its battle against Communism. Chuck agreed to the job. And the CIA trained him as an assassin who would use the cover of escorting "The Dating Game"'s winning couples around the world to carry out his murderous assignments. Or was it all a fiction from the mind of this consummate entertainer? "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is based on Chuck Barris' autobiography of the same name, public records, and hundreds of hours of taped interviews. The film was directed by George Clooney in what is one of the most impressive directorial debuts ever by an actor. Charlie Kaufman, who has made a name for himself writing non-linear films, wrote the screenplay. The constraints imposed by the mostly linear nature of this film bring out the best of Kaufman's abilities, though, and result in his best screenplay yet. Chuck Barris' game shows were precursors to modern reality television and "trash tv". Sam Rockwell brilliantly conveys Barris' simultaneous inferiority and superiority complexes. He made me wonder if some of today's trash tv moguls don't suffer from the same neuroses. George Clooney employs a combination of traditional and heavily stylized techniques to bring Chuck Barris' story to the screen. The film's style gets heavy-handed as the story nears its end, but this seems an appropriate expression of Barris' eventual unraveling. The question that "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" elicits but never answers is: Is it true? Was Chuck Barris really an assassin for the CIA? The idea that we cannot know how much of this story is true and how much is fiction is probably part of the film's appeal. I am inclined to think that Barris' claims are a result of his peculiar combination of intense self-importance and acute self-loathing. But the man always knew how to entertain, and George Clooney has brought Chuck Barris' strange story to the screen with skill and ingenuity.
Rating: 
Summary: GONG!!!!
Review: Being a fan of Chick Barris' highly entertaining and bizarre autobiography, I had high hopes for the big screen incarnation. Unfortunately George Clooney's film rightfully deserves to be gonged! The main problem seems to lie with the way the book was adapted to screen, although most other reviewers would have you believe Charlie Kaufman can walk on water, the script takes a lively and humorous story and turns it into a depressing and totally unfunny campy joke. While Barris' account of his career and success in television makes it to screen as it is written in the book, everything Barris wrote about his involvement with the CIA has being dramatically altered in the movie version and come across like a camp spy B-movie. In his book Barris claims to have answered a newspaper add for "College Graduates: Free to Travel" and lied his way through an interview with a CIA recruiter, after which being sent on months and months of boring surveillance assignments before being taken to watch a hit and then sent out to perform them on his own. In the film however CIA agent Jim Byrd simply walks up to Barris on the street and tells him that he's being watching him and he fits "the profile"?! and asks him to be a CIA hitman on the spot? Ridiculous! It gets worse as we are treated to some of the most campy spy movie 'training' scenes since the ninja school in "You Only Live Twice". Not a single mission or encounter during his alleged CIA career makes it to the screen even close to the way it was written. Sure you expect a movie to stray a little from the source material, but when they made the effort to portray the tv career side of the story to the letter but rewrote the CIA exploits to the point that they don't even resemble the book is unforgivable. The movie also cowardly dodges some highly ethical issues such as assignments which had Barris infiltrate and report back on the activities of civil rights groups. Adding to the problems they have changed the Patrica character from someone Barris knew for years even before she joined the CIA to a comic strip femme fatal he meets on a mission. His elimination of her when she is revealed to be the mole has being completely changed for the movie making the books gritty and surprising climax to his CIA career appear onscreen like the season finale of a cheesy soap opera. Script problems aside, the film is gorgeous to look at and certainly captures the feeling of the book. There is some creative visuals and great editing. Acting is great with Sam Rockwell playing Chuck Barris with amazing realism, Drew Barrymore is perfectly cast as Penny Pacino nailing the tortured girlfriend character, Clooney isn't dazzling but tolerable and Rutger Hauer is superb in the role of Keeler. The only weak performance is Julia Roberts as Patricia Watson, she seems determined to prove once and for all just how terrible her acting is by providing a most lifeless and flat interpretation of an interesting and complicated character. When I saw that Maggie Gyllenhaal was in this film, I imediately pictured her playing Lucy Sue Glopp from the book, disappointingly this character never made it to the movie and Gyllenhaal appears extremely briefly as a one night stand. Overall, the film visually is well crafted but the adaptation has ruined a highly unique story. I highly recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: The Confession of "Chucky Baby" is Sadly Overlooked
Review: Nearly a year and a half after seeing this film the day it opened in theaters, I am still scatching my head at why it wasn't a big hit. While I can see it not necessarily being deemed worth of an Oscar in the Academy's eyes, it's still one of the most entertaining, bizarre, and ultimately satsifying films I've seen in quite some time. Furthermore, it was, in my honest opinion, the best picture of 2002.
I suppose a lot of people just didn't get this film. True, the thought of a gameshow pioneer such as the great Chuck Barris moonlighting as CIA assasin seems absolutely ridiculous. So that right there may have turned some people away. Then there are those who just don't think a movie about the life of Barris, be it fact or fiction, would be that entertaining.
Whether the stuff about the CIA is true or not is neither here nor there. If Barris was in fact a CIA hitman, that is quite shocking and amazing...Hey- you never know! If he did in fact make the whole thing up, I think that's equally shocking and amazing and further proves just how insanely talented Barris is (as good as this film is, the book is even 100 times better!).
In the hands of excellent first-time director George Clooney, Barris' "unauthorized autobiography" is a film which greatly mixes various cinematic styles and genres. There is plenty in the plot to keep most interested, whether its Barris' gory escapades with the agency, or his rise and fall in Hollywood.
Clooney has no problem "borrowing" techniques of great directors he's worked with in the past like Joel & Ethan Coen and Steven Soderbergh. He manages, though, to put his own stamp on certain scenes. While many scenes stand out, there is a great montage towards the end of the film where Barris' paranoia is spiraling out of control and he begins to suffer a breakdown on the set of "The Gong Show." In this one scene alone, which is spooky and hilarious at the same time, Clooney proves himself as an excellent director.
Sam Rockwell is absolutely perfect as Barris, capturing the range of emotions he goes through on his thirty year rollercoaster ride in Hollywood. Together with Clooney's direction, Rockwell paints a sympathetic portrait of a paranoid, womanizing loner who struggled with his eventual fame.
Strong support comes from Drew Barrymore as Penny, Barris' long suffering girlfriend and Julia Roberts as a sultry Mata Hari-esque spy.
Onca again, whether half of this movie is true or not is of no consequence. This is an amazing film requires repeated viewing.
Rating: 
Summary: Truth, shaggy dog story---who cares? Brilliant.
Review: George Clooney marks his directorial debut with a subtle, fast-paced, fancifully shot and whimsically paced bang. Sam Rockwell does a masterful job in portraying Chuck Barris. You remember Chuck Barris, right? High-toned, high spirited, pedal-to-the-metal host and writer and developer and uber-brain behind some of American television's most mind-rotting game shows, including "The Newlywed Game", "The Dating Game", and "The Gong Show". Oh, and according to his autobiographical "unauthorized" biography, a CIA assassin. CIA Assassin? Absolutely. According to Barris, while he was concocting runaway hits like "The Gong Show", he was serving his country and working with the fight to make the World Safe for Democracy by offing Russian agents and KGB lackeys. "Dating Game" super-sexy trip to West Berlin? Nonsense---it just provided Special Agent Chuck with the opportunity to play a Cold War version of 'whack-a-mole', literally and figuratively. Clooney has solid directorial chops, and moves the film rapidly from the playful realm of whimsy, where characters are illuminated and shaded by filters and too much lighting, to the cold, grey world of Barris's nightmarish reality, where, as an aging, isolated CIA spook and killer, he's being stalked by operatives, assassins and thugs. Clooney is good in using music, set design, and dialogue to steer the film from the realm of comedy to stark terror in a matter of minutes. In addition to being masterfully shot and scripted (with cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel, who did the camera work for both X-men movies and "Apt Pupil"), Clooney is adept in moving what begins as a nearly slapstick comedy into a taut, horrific little spy-game where Barris literally fights for his life. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is studded with first-rate actors and first-rate acting: Drew Barrymore plays Penny, Chuck's starry-eyed and long-suffering lover; Julia Roberts shines as mysteriuos secret agent Patricia, who reinvents the term "Man-eater"; Rutger Hauer brings the lustre of "Blade Runner" to his role as a West German assassin and spymaster; and Matt Damon and Brad Pitt are note-perfect as spurned bachelors on "The Dating Game". And best of all, the 'mockumentary' feel of "Confessions" is accentuated by candid appearances from Dick Clarke, Jaye P. Morgan, and even Chuck Barris himself, who provides a grim coda to the festivities. Clooney is also superb as Barris's CIA handler, and serves as a perfect accent to this psychedelic Cold War chess game. And make no mistake: "Confessions" is hysterically funny, even as this most dangerous game becomes increasingly serious and deadly. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is a stellar, wickedly and consumptively absorbing debut by Clooney, and it's a fine tale well told. True story? Shaggy dog story? With this much style, who cares? Pop this on the DVD hopper, watch out for that guy down the hall in the trenchcoat, and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: He's Back With More......STUFF!!
Review: Was Gong Show Host/Creator Chuck Barris really a CIA Assassin with over 33 kills to his credit? Or is he just a little bit insane? Confessions of a Dangerous Mind makes it possible to embrace either possibility.... Starting with his childhood as a pervert-in-the-making, and going all the way until his actual writing of his "Unauthorized Autobiography" in the early eighties, Confessions traces the life of Barris, including his creation of "The Dating Game", "The Newlywed Game", and "The Gong Show", his recruitment and training into the CIA, and his mental breakdown following his career collapse. Sam Rockwell portrays Barris, and does one hell of a job. He has all of the mannerisms and body language down cold; Rockwell deserves an Oscar nomination for his performance. The film is directed by George Clooney, and he puts his years of acting experience to good use; His Directing is flawless, and he fills the screen with surreal images and casts several familiar faces in supporting roles and cameos. So was Barris REALLY an assassin...? Probably not, but the film made me wonder just how implausible that notion really is....
Rating:
Summary: Impressive! - Actually, This Was OFF THE CHAIN!!!!!
Review: I vividly remember watching the "Gong Show" from the 70s and no one took it seriously for a minute. It was just fun mostly because Barris was such a lovable personality. It is exactly this premise that makes this movie work so very well. The performances are top-notch, the plot quite interesting, and the movie is visually quite interesting. But none of the elements work like this one underlying question: Does ANY of this have any merit? This is truly where the movie succeeds. As one of the claims in the book about Barris were substantiated, neither were they disproved. The first thing that comes to your mind is "Who in their right mind is gonna believe this guy worked for the CIA?!!!!!!" And if the CIA stooped to recruiting the likes of Chuck Barris, no wonder they have such a problem with credibility!!!! If it sin't true, it makes for wonderful speculation. If it is true, it results in one of the most fantasctic stories ever told. Peppered with caemos from the likes of everyone from Julia Roberts to Gladys Knight, I found this to be a totally enjoyable experience but still cannot shake the feeling that maybe he actually did.....naw......not possible.... Finally, you let it go and realize, who cares....it was a great movie and is most fun and adds a certain spice to any movie collection.
Rating:
Summary: Assassination as a Metaphor
Review: I didn't care much for this movie when I first saw it in the theater, but I knew I would need to rewatch it, review my first impression, when it came to video (I also saw it in a theater that didn't seem to have a wide enough screen to show the complete frame -- and this film has a great deal of the action on the very edge of the screen). And to be honest, I didn't want to take seriously a movie directed by George Clooney (though I didn't have anything personally against him, and liked several movies he's been in) -- yet I also knew the film should be given some credibility for having a Charlie Kaufman screenplay. It's a movie that grows on you and improves with each viewing. It's an honest look at a life that can only be evaluated through an incredible lie, and requires that the lie be given equal weight with the biographical sections of the story. Contradiction? That's what art and storytelling are all about. Much of the movie takes on the appearance a colorized black and white movie, using subdued pastel colors as one of the disjointing elements in the film, the color appearing to have faded by the passage of time (the espionage sections are almost black and white, much of the time looking very film noir). Other disjointing elements are the faces shown on extreme edges of the film and long silent shots of the Sam Rockwell's character of Chuck Barris partially off the screen, usually when the character has been thrown out of sync by an event in the film. Though we are watching a movie about one of the great American success stories, it becomes apparent by the disjointed form taken and specific content selected that we are witnessing a life that never quite gelled, a life that was stuck in a cynical outlook of human beings and their institutions and became complacent in never becoming too comfortable with other people and what motivated them, always finding a way to expose everyone's self-interest, particularly self-interest grotesque enough to keep our attention. And it was executing this work, the work of exposing our moral and intellectual inadequacies, that made Chuck Barris who he really was. This is emphasized by allowing the most colorful sections in the movie to be during the scenes showing the taping of "The Gong Show", as well as the scenes showing the taping of "The Dating Game" (after it was picked up for daytime TV) and during the auditions that lead up to "The Gong Show". As "American Psycho" used serial killing as a metaphor for the business of Wall Street financiers, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" uses the political assassin as the metaphor for television producer, and how specifically Chuck Barris used people in creating his shows, as well as how he used people in his personal life. There are too many clues in the movie not to accept assassination as a metaphor (I'll admit Chuck Barris's book was more convincing, though not ultimately convincing). And I don't want to ruin the fun of finding the clues by pointing them out. But it's important to note that the "hit man" (maker of "hit" TV shows) was a political assassin, hired and trained by the U. S. Government, and not a hit man for organized crime, since what Chuck Barris did was nothing but live the all-American success story. It was: give the people what they want and reap the rewards. What could be more American? And even altruistic -- bringing joy and laughter to millions -- reverberated in the repeated use of the song "If I Had a Hammer". And what makes the story of Chuck Barris so interesting -- a man who appears to have done nothing since the 1970s but write a creative autobiography -- is how timely the story is. Chuck Barris may not be in operation, but the assassins are still with us: bigger and more powerful assassins, more ubiquitous than ever. Our sensibilities are constantly being subjected to a barrage of "loathsome views of humanity", though we call it "reality TV" and not game shows: a change in semantics which affords several more forums where can see mocked "some poor lonely people who are just craving a little attention in their lives" and "destroy them". In our day and age Chuck Barris would be a mere lightweight in this arena, for we a have a darker, more "insidious, despicable force" currently controlling our airwaves. In comparison he might have really given us shows that brought joy and laughter. At least he was more original. To see so much trash on, redundant trash -- bad ideas spawned from other bad ideas --, night after night and then to see some pretty decent shows, like "Wonderfalls" and "Firefly", canceled to make room for more garbage . . . it is pure frustration for a media junkie, like myself. George Clooney has given us a really good film: "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind". If he never directs another movie -- I'm not sure if he has, is, or plans to direct another --, sort of like Charles Laughton's "Night of the Hunter", time will show that this one film was a real success.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Worthwhile: Intelligently Written & Brliliantly Acted
Review: Chuck Barris was an extremely successful TV producer who, in the 1960s and '70s devised some of the most successful, to say nothing of tasteless and unpleasant, game show formats in television history. In 1984, he published an autobiography, 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind' describing his television career. This book also outlines a quite different career, as a CIA assassin, travelling the world doing covert 'wet jobs' for Uncle Sam. Whether Mr Barris really lived some kind of twilight existence working undercover for the Government or whether he was just a hopeless, attention-seeking fantasist remains anyone's guess. This movie tells both stories, the successful but reviled TV executive and the international man of mystery... It's pretty good. Two main reasons. The first is the script by Charlie Kaufman. I liked this more than the much more celebrated 'Being John Malkovich' and 'Adaptation' as it had all the intelligence of these other screenplays but without their pretentiousness. It's a nice, complex script that is successfully at once very dark, very comic and very sharp. The second is Sam Rockwell who gives a really brilliant reptilian performance as this horrible, cynical monster that is Barris. The rest is OK too. Drew Barrymore is excellent as Baris's longsuffering girlfriend; George Clooney acquits himself well in his directorial debut; and even Julia Roberts is a significantly less annoying than usual.
Rating:
Summary: Very Ordinary
Review: George Clooney continues his run of outs with this effort following on from the dismal Solaris. This time although the movie is less of a dud, he (as director) must take more of the blame. On the surface of it, this movie has all the makings of success combining good actors, an intriguing story and plenty of adult concepts. I was really looking forward to this telling of the quirky life (real or imagined) of Chuck Barris. Despite the promise, this movie simply does not engage. There is no real excitement at any point and you simply cannot relate or empathise with the main character. Others will disagree, but for me this movie just meanders along. Delving a bit deeper, the soundtrack is completely poor also, and this does not help to add any vigour to the wishy-washy plot. Overall, the movie is not a complete waste of time, but you have to feel disappointed knowing what could have been achieved with this raw material.
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