Rating: 
Summary: One Star for Direction
Review: The director deserves credit for the usual things a director must do to complete a movie. And my accolades stop there.
This is, on my personal list, the #2 worse movie I've seen in the last 10 years. If you are a person of morals and think Hollywood is morally bankrupt and celebrate their immorality then this movie is proof of that belief. It is a microcosm of liberalism where all the "hero" or "good" characters are disfunctional (drug users, adulterers, liars, blackmailers, voyeurs, etc). This movie won Best Picture for one reason -- payback for Forrest Gump which was widely hated by the Hollywood elite for it's virtues. Watch at your own risk, but be wary of impressionable children and teenagers watching.
Rating: 
Summary: The deserving winner
Review: Not the best film of the year but certainly the best of the five nominated. It deserved every award it earned with the exception of best original screenplay. Spacy is hilarious, the dialouge witty, and the symbolism beautiful. Perhaps the only film to win best picture since "Rain Man" that deserved it.
Rating: 
Summary: what happend to my review?
Review: I typed up a review over a week ago and it never got posted, why is that? Anyway, I'll try again so here goes.American Beauty is perhaps one of the best films I've ever seen. The main theme of the movie was beauty and how a seemingly typical surburban family went about looking for it in the wrong way. Kevin Spacey's monologue at the end of the picture along with the part with the plastic bag blowing in the wind is a playing out of the statements: "there is beauty in simplicity" - unknown. "matters of great concern should be taken lightly and matters of little concern should be taken seriously" - Hagakure Book of the Samurai. In other words, beauty is not how much money you have in your wallet, what kind of car you drive, getting high, and a good-looking high school girl. Beauty is all around us in seemingly mundane things from a plastic bag blowing in the wind to the clouds in the sky. I think that the people who will reflect on this film and act on it's message are not your typical suburbanites, but people who are already living fairly humble lives. This is unfortuate, but most people are too caught up in materialism, sex and drugs to take a movie like this all that seriously. I have to say that people who didn't like this film or just considered it "OK" are very superficial people.
Rating:
Summary: This dvd won't play on my player.
Review: I saw this film in the cinema here in the UK and loved it, hence my decision to buy the dvd, BUT.. It doesn't want to play on my dvd player (a Wharfedale DVD-750, bought March 2000)! I get the opening menu, offering me the choice between DTS and Dolby 5.1 sound, and whichever I choose the whole thing just freezes. I've played dozens of dvd's on this player, including at least ten region one discs, and this is the first time I've had any trouble. Having read the other reviews, it seems that I'm not the only one to have technical difficulties with this disc. Has anyone else had this particular problem? Does anyone have a solution?? My e-mail address is nickm@icp.uk.com.
Rating:
Summary: Among the Best Films Ever
Review: To me, this audacious work of art was a kind of "State of the Union Address" for society at large. It contains the everyday, ordinary career Jones, the right wing family, the conservative gay couple, the frigid female, youth in three distinct varieties. All of the characters "could" exist, alone perhaps, but the combination here is obviously surreal, barely believeable, but somehow perfectly palatable. Together they symbolically express America's current state of travail, from the breakdown of the family to the criminalization of marijuana to the dread, morbid fear that it is not just them, but us too, who are "ordinary". I loved this film, it was always implying devastatingly useful insights -- but gently, so that one was more likely to draw from it friendly insights that agree with one's point of view. It combines outlooks from both sides of the political spectrum, and somehow I fear it might be difficult for conservatives to swallow. I think Spacey's "Pay it Forward" was much more simplistic -- maybe he was afraid that he confused us too much with "American Beauty" and wanted to backpedal a bit. I certainly hope we were not confused by American Beauty. This isn't a movie just for us ethical philosophers, liberals, and recreational drug users. I think every American should watch it and draw their own conclusions. On a final note, the sound track was excellent, the theme music haunting yet friendly. I watched the credits just to listen to it at length. See this movie!
Rating:
Summary: Simple movie about the beauty of life!!
Review: This movie is wonderful in that it so simply states what it is. It is a movie about what is beautiful in the world. It is a bit bizarre, but the theme is wonderfully put on screen. It is fascinating to see what this movies describes as beautiful. It takes everyday things that most people take for granted and shows what is so beautiful about them. It takes things that most would consider ugly and explains it's beauty. Very interesting and Kevin Spacey is wonderful. I definitely recommend this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes there is so much beauty in this world.
Review: As I sat in the theater, I didnt know what to expect from this movie that had gotten such great reviews. I was used to seeing really good movies but none that truly moved me to cry. This movie, with its realizum and deeply sensetive characters made me realize that people can still write some damn good screan plays. The one break through preformance that stood out, was Wes Bentley (he played Ricky Fitts, the next door neighbor). The words that he spoke when watching "the most beautiful thing" he has ever seen (a plastic bag blowing in the wind)made tears strem down my cheaks. And it seems that everytime I watch the movie it makes me cry. The way it was filmed was stunning. The bright crimson rose petles falling from the ceiling, all I can say is that there are so many beautiful things in that movie I am far to young to understand the genious behind it.
Rating:
Summary: Resonates with the deflated male
Review: In brief, American Beauty is the tale of families that are in transition as each member seeks to leave his/her unfufilling present and move to a brighter future. I am sure that a movie this complex will having different meanings to many people. Each individual character is well developed and interesting. My personal favourite character is Lester, the father of a rebellious teen age daughter and husband to an aggressive, domineering wife. Lester has successfully pursued his career, built a house and a family and is looking back of the joys of his youth, wistfully wishing for a second shot. This is not a new character archetype, however, it has been modernized. The conflicts that Lester experiences are very in tune with those that my peers in their 30-40s experience: competing with his wife for success, empathizing more with his neighbours drug dealing son than with the neighbours 1950s morality and being overwhelmed by the blantant sexuality of today's teens. I am sure that other viewers could easily identify with characters other than Lester, he just happens to be my favourite. As a DVD purchase, it is an ok bet. The sound quality is good but not overwhelming and the same can be said for the video. For a movie this complex, I found the director's commentary interesting and the best reason to buy the DVD. The making of featurette is just a 20 min commercial for a film that you have already seen and I have never understood why the theatrical trailers are included.
Rating:
Summary: Overwhelming, Brilliant.
Review: Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a man going through a mid-life crisis. His wife won't have sex with him anymore, and his daughter thinks he is a loser. That is when Lester gets inspired by Jane's best friend Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) to break free and turn his life around, and a result, turning everyone else's lives upside down. American Beauty fulfills all areas to perfection. The acting is overwhelming, the screenplay is original and clever, the direction is amazing and the music is stunning. Congratulations to everyone involved in the making of American Beauty; you've just made the best film of all time.
Rating: 
Summary: Where are the outtakes?
Review: How cruel to mention the outtakes several times during the commentary by Sam Mendes and Alan Ball, and yet not to include them in the DVD. What were the publishers thinking? Anyway, great movie, worth buying the DVD, but where are those blasted outtakes?
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