Rating: 
Summary: The future of film
Review: American Beauty represents the potential of American film. An intelligent, suspenseful, funny, charming, and intensely significant character driven movie, American Beauty shines. Its poignant and accurate portrayal of all the facets of suburbia in an American microcosm, the film explores self-knowledge and the transformation of self as well as smoking pot at 40. American Beauty is Sam Mendes' masterpiece. I would love to single out Kevin Spacey's absolutely masterful performance, but the truth is that every character deserved an Oscar. It should be required for every American to see this movie. Particularly as a teen, the portrayal of what it means to come of age (and back again) is brilliant. The power of the movie lies in its ability to take countless themes and ideas and piece them together as one. You will never think about your life in the same way again.
Rating:
Summary: What a 'beautiful' movie
Review: This is the best movie I have seen in a while. Kevin Spacey does an excellent job showing how screwed his character, Lester Burnham, has become. The two young females, Mena Suvari and Thora Birch, are as beautiful and as talented as they come. Everything in the movie is 'beautiful.'
Rating: 
Summary: There was a good message somewhere, but...
Review: Look closer... at what? With all of the aclaim that _American Beauty_ has gotten, I was really expecting a great movie, complete with moving characters, a profound message, and a story line to stay with you long after the movie is over. Most of these things are in _American Beauty_, except there is one glaring hole... the story line is sick and contrived making life seem like a whole soap opera-ish mess. Kevin Spacey's character starts the movie by telling us he's dead. This is a surprise, not many movies are told from the grave. Then we are taken to the shower scene where Spacey's Lester Burnham is "saying hello to his monster." In Lester's own words, it goes downhill from there (he may be talking about his day, I'm talking about the movie). Lester's family is a complete wreck. He's a wimp, his wife's an overzealous realator who's hopelessly miserable, and their daughter, Jane is the only normal person in the house. She's a teenager going through the most aweful time of her life, so, needless to say, she doesn't help the family atmosphere too much. Life gets a little more interesting for Les when he discovers his daughter's friend, Angela, and starts lusting after her. Some say he falls in love, and I wonder where they got this idea. Anyway, the movie goes on and on, Les drooling over Angelina, Jane falling in love with the interesting drug dealer next door, and Annet Benning's character finding that the way to wind down after a long day at work is to go to the shooting range and fire off a couple of rounds. There was no point to the story line. Most of the movie just depicts suburbia as a miserable place where no one is ever happy, and when they are, they are wishing they could screw a girl young enough to be their daughter.The only, ONLY, redeeming thing about this movie is the message about beauty in our world. The drug dealer next door sure got it right, but I really hope that there's not a message going out that the only way you'll really see beauty is if you're constantly high and you have a camera glued to your eye. Seriously though, the filming the dead bird because it was "beautiful" was very touching and that will probably stay with you for at least a little while. Probably the best part of the movie was that short scene with the little plastice bag dancing in the breeze. If _American Beauty_ had focoused more on the beauty in the world then on the hate of one strange little town, it definitely would have been five star material. All the actors and actresses were wonderful and really fulfilled their roles well. And, the tiny message snuck in about beauty was wonderful. However, all of these things did not make up for the strange and extremely lacking plot line. If there had been something to care about and people that were interesting, _American Beauty_ would have been much better. Save your money and your time. If you wnat a message about true beauty, open your eyes a little more... this movie is not the way to get it. If you think that way, I really feel sorry for you.
Rating:
Summary: What a Movie!!
Review: What a Movie! A great blend of Characters and plot twists. Kevin Spacey was superb in it. It had to be one of the best movies I've seen in my life. If you don't own this movie, or even seen it well . . . GET IT!!
Rating:
Summary: Glorious! The best film ever made!
Review: American Beauty is the most captivating, disturbing, dramatic, funniest and glorious film I have ever seen. I've seen this film over 15 times by now, and ever time I watch it, I realize there's still more to the film. The first time I saw, it, I felt it was undoubtedly the funniest film I had ever seen. It was very depressing at the same time. It took me a few more times to really absorb how dark and sad it really was. This film makes you life and smacks you in the face with the harsh realities of life at the same time. The screenplay by Alan Ball is the most spectacular work of literature since Catcher in the Rye. His acerbic wit, and gentle heart in his writing are a perfect match for the film. With brilliant performances by Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, Wes Bentley, Peter Gallagher and Allison Janney, this film delivers the best ensemble cast you have ever seen. Kevin Spacey shines as the deeply confused Lester Burnham who is trapped in the harsh realities of the world. From his facial expressions to the sarcastic wit in his voice, Spacey delivers like he always does, but this time, not only does he leave a mark in cinematic history, but a mark in the hearts of the movie goers. Sam Mendes proves that first time is the charm in his debut effort. He never has to make a movie again after this. And if he does, bless him for it, but I tell him to never compete with American Beauty, for nothing can beat it. American Beauty is more than just a film. It's art. It's a masterpiece! Conrad Hall delivers cinematography that will amaze you. His smart cloes-ups, and voyeuristic shots make this film even more fun. This film really did show me the beauty in our world, and at the same time, the beauty in cinema. If only all films were as powerful and dare I say, beautiful, as this movie, our lives would be better. If you haven't seen American Beauty, something's wrong with you. But don't worry, you still have time to redeem yourself! Get down to the video stores immediately and start laughing untill you cry, and at the same time, cry untill your laughing.
Rating:
Summary: American Beauty a Beauty
Review: See this movie. It will amuse you, shock you, amaze you; mostly, it will remind you to notice the beauty that surrounds you. Marvelous performances by the actors will keep you entertained. This movie will also leave you thinking about and appreciating the ordinary aspects of your life. It may also prompt some people to make necessary changes in jobs, relationships, and selves. That's good, too....Don't be afraid of change.
Rating:
Summary: Visually stunning and utterly repellent.
Review: There's a scene in American Beauty in which a teenaged boy is found filming a dead bird by two girls his age. They ask him why, and he explains, "Because it's beautiful." That's one opinion: another, which also applies to "American Beauty," is that no matter how beautifully you light, film and score it, something foul and rotten is still foul and rotten. Director Sam Mendes is clearly gifted; cinematographer Conrad Hall's use of color and light is stunning; the music is haunting, and the cast talented, and even Alan Ball's script shows a deliberate intelligence too many movies lack. But none of these elements can disguise the fact that this movie is sad, cynical and sick at heart. It's a mean-spirited chronicle of suburbia as hell which tries to patch itself over with a feel-good moral and fails utterly. With the possible exception of one semi-redeeming choice Kevin Spacey's character makes at the end of the film, none of the main characters exhibit any likeable or even remotely worthwhile traits. Spacey's Lester Burnham goes from being a wimp to an arrogant lecher; Annette Benning as his wife is a shrill Martha Stewart caricature; Mena Suvari, as Burnham's teenaged lust object, is profoundly unlikeable; Thora Birch's daughter character is selfish and sullen; her creepy love interest, boy-next-door Wes Bentley, deals drugs when he's not filming her obsessively. Then there's Bentley's abusive ex-Marine dad... the list goes on and on. No one is having a good time in American Beauty. Everyone is miserable. And the one person who figures out a way to escape that misery is horribly dead soon after. There is a worthwhile message in American Beauty, as well as one utterly lovely scene involving nothing more than a videotape of a windblown plastic bag. But the brighter elements of this movie feel hastily tacked on to its warped, unrealistically dark world view, and in the end they cannot compensate for the utter, gaping landfill where this film's moral center ought to be.
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelivevably Insipid, Vapid, and BAD
Review: With a half hour left, and realizing that Kevin Spacey's death was imminnent, my wife and I both decided we could turn the movie off and not really care what happened in the rest of the movie. It plods along, and you wait for something - ANYTHING - of any substance to happen to draw you in and keep you hooked, but nothing ever does. If you look back at the trailers, the trailers show every (and the only) funny scenes in the movie, setting up the movie to look like a comedy! Spacey catching his cheating wife at the drive-thru window, Spacey: "I rule!", Spacey throwing plate across room -- all (and the only) funny scenes in the movie, all of which appear in the trailer! Is the movie a comedy? From the trailer you think it is - and when the movie starts and Kevin Spacey announces he's dead, and the movie is the events leading up to death, you say, "If he's already dead, why should I even care?" And the penutlimate exchange with Kevin Spacey and the next door neighbor is painfully insipid. After the end of the movie, you look back to that scene, and say to yourself, "What a moron. If he had just used a different word or explained himself or had not been so vague, maybe Kevin Spacey wouldn't have died." I likened it to every Three's Company plot - a simple misunderstanding in commmunication leads to hilarious consequences. If only he had explained himself and used real-people words instead of movie-people words, the outcome would not have been the same. Nothing of substance, this movie is all hype.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie, very poor DVD encoding
Review: All the raving about the film itself is well deserved. If you're looking for great DVD picture quality, however, you'd best stay away from this one. The encoding job is horrible, and glitches pop up all over the place. Note the flickering mini-blinds in the for-sale house, jerkily-moving backgrounds during various pans, mirage-like effects on supposedly straight lines. If you're a purist and care about picture quality, you should wait until they distribute a better version. This disc demonstrates how DVD technology is not yet ready for prime time.
Rating:
Summary: Perfection
Review: I've enjoyed many, many films over the years, but none as much as American Beauty. Beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, with a story that is as deep as it is relevant -- this film is sheer perfection. American Beauty deserves all of its accolades -- and perhaps a few more.
|
