Rating: 
Summary: One of the best movies in a long time!
Review: My husband and I are movie buffs and watch a lot of films. American Beauty was certainly one of the best ones we had seen in a long time. We try to make it a rule and try to avoid the hype and the critics as much as we can so we can really form our own opinion when we see a movie. Well this one is a masterpiece. It is one of the few movies that actually succesfully joined comedy with drama. It all depends on how you look at things. I above all love the brutal honesty on how this film portraits the background of a so called picture perfect family. Kevin Spaceys performance is incredible and so is the rest of the cast's. If you are prudish this certainly is not a movie for you, even though I personally do not find it sexually offensive, but instead honestly refreshing. The musical score is by far one of the best I have heard in a long time too.
Rating:
Summary: Funny as hell...
Review: Oh man! Kevin Spacey you da man!You deserved the Best Actor Oscar for this movie. Mr Spacey always give a great performance and with this material he was able to relish every single word... If ya got this family, who need enemies huh? Wife trouble, daughter trouble, work trouble.....etc etc When you've got resolve like Lester Burnham, nothing can keep ya down.... This film has the lot ~ it's a bittersweet comedy-drama, which all round great performances and one for anybody's collection. go...........buy........
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing, yet suprisingly moving
Review: This film turned out to be more than I had expected. It also haunted me long after I had watched it. This film was one of the most original ones that I have seen in a long time. Kevin Spacey and Anette Bening, and all of the teenage actors did a brilliant job with their performances. This was a very dark film about dyfunctional families and how they deal with their everyday problems as things get worse and worse throughout their lives. This film is very symbolic and many scenes are beautifully done. But, the subject material was very strong, which made this film very disturbing, and, at times, very hard to watch. Overall, this was a good film, but it is not for everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Legend
Review: This movie is an instant legend. Spacey is the perfect representation of an average American male/father/husband. I thought my family was the epitome of dysfunctional. This one makes the cake. Only a nimrod would pass this one up.
Rating: 
Summary: There's beauty in everything if you know where to look
Review: Ricky, the boy next door, is the hero of this film. He and possibly the gay couple are the only ones with their heads on straight. Lester gets there eventually. As for the film being soft on drug use, all I have to say is, lighten up! Man has always had the desire, one could even say the need, to experience altered states. Let's face it, sometimes drugs, especially entheogens, allow us to appreciate the beauty that's always around us, just ignored. There ain't nothing wrong with that! Lester, right before he is shot, comes around to the same conclusions as Ricky did and in his after-death voice-over he reiterates Ricky's monologue about beauty. Lester finally got it. So, the film actually ended on an up-note for me. What really tipped me off about the "trippy" feel to the philosophy of the movie is Lester's "gratitude" for his life. Three things I will always remember from my shroom trips as a young man are all mentioned in this film: the beauty in everything, the benevolence of it all (God? I think so), and the thanks one wants to express for being allowed to experience this world. To me, these ideas are the core of the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant.
Review: This film's title fits perfectly. "American Beauty" is, in a sense, the "Rebel Without A Cause" of our time. A look at the dark side of humanity, it delves into issues such as adultery, materialism, drugs, sex, lust, and murder. Beautifully acted with fantastic direction, the film is a moving, interesting social commentary.
Rating:
Summary: ...look closer.
Review: In this story of American angst and family degeneration, Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, father and husband, who hates his job, is getting fed up with his wife, and dislikes his life in general. One day, he snaps. He realizes how empty his life is, quits his job, and ceases to care about anything. He becomes free. First, the acting is among the best dramatic work you'll ever see in a film. Kevin Spacey (one of the best actors in film right now) and Annette Bening have some excellent performances. By now, we know that characters like Lester are the perfect roles for Spacey- cynical, attitudinal, sarcastic. The way he delivers his lines and acts is very impressive: managing to drop the subtlest notes of sarcasm and irony into his voice, being cool yet so acidic at the same time, and injecting his attitude with such cynicism and repressed emotion, he shows in this film why he's one of our best. Likewise, Annette Bening shines and is almost scary in how deeply she seems involved in her character, projecting her hyper uneasiness and the sense that she knows how pointless her life is, yet still tries to hide it. American Beauty discuss the image of the perfect American middle-class family, and the reality of it. In Lester's family and marriage, there is no American beauty. The film makes the case that true "American beauty" is probably not what you think it is- namely, not the seemingly happy family or guy with a nice job. But rather, real Beauty is to be found everywhere in life, if one simply looks for it. Lester snaps because he's intelligent: he realizes that his life holds no meaning for him, he hates his job, and his marriage is fake. Therefore, he quits, not just literally (his job), but figuratively (his former dull life), and tries to reinvigorate his life. He looks for Beauty. Likewise, Wes Bentley's neighbor, who falls in love with Lester's daughter, is an interesting and ironic character- he always looks depressed and dark, and spends his day simply recording mundane events, like a plastic bag floating in the wind. He shows footage of this meek, pathetic bag being tossed around in the wind, to Lester's daughter, because in this he finds Beauty. He is comforted by the idea that all of us, like the bag, are being tossed around in life, but that it's all in God's hands. I must mention how skillfully the film/script handles its teenage characters- they aren't stupid or caricatured, and they don't just mindly hate their parents for no reason, or anything like that. They are given personalities, and credibility (for we see, looking at Lester and his wife, that there may be a very good reason they don't want to be like them). This is part dark comedy and part drama, and I'm glad that, at the point when Lester decides to quit and do whatever he wants to do, it doesn't become a full-blown, cheesy comedy about a guy "letting it all go." The film could've easily done that and turned into a series of comedy sketches involving Lester doing silly and wacky things with his freedom, but it didn't. (There are some times when it comes close, though.) Instead, it decides to create great drama out of it. This film makes a statement about American life and what it could turn into in extreme cases. It's about gaining freedom from an ugly, empty life, about appearances and the reality behind them. Take Mrs. Burnham. She's a real-estate agent, and she spends days tidying up a house in order to get a sale from someone; and when she doesn't, she breaks down. She's always busy doing something- cleaning, dusting, trimming the flowers, etc.- to keep herself occupied so that she doesn't realize the truth: that her life is empty. She never stops denying it to herself until the exciting climax. Lester, her husband, realizes it sooner; he comes to the conclusion that their marriage is simply an advertisement, a message to the world saying "Hey, look at us, we're married, we're happy!" And ironically, Lester's job (before he quit) was in advertising. Even his neighbor, the homophobic, strict, angry ex-colonel, has something repressed inside him. I must mention the excellent direction and cinematography for this film, which are impressive, from the sweeping pans of the camera to the surreal dream sequences Lester has when fantasizing about his daughter's cheerleader friend (rose petals, which come to symbolize the passion that has left Lester's life, swirl around her whenever he thinks of her). In short, the central theme of this film is "look closer." If you think you see American beauty in our culture today, or if you think there is no real beauty left in the world today, look closer. Behind the advertisements, behind all the ugliness in this culture and life, look closer to find real American Beauty.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful strong satire dramatic comedy.
Review: The plot:Lester Burnham(Kevin Spacey in a great oscar performance) is a lonely man, who`s has unhappy wife Carolyn(Annette Bening) and an confused tennage daughter Janie(Thora Birch), they are all unhappy people living in the suburbia. Lester has the feeling of losing something he had, once he met Janie friend`s Angela(Mena Suvari), his world has turn around into an wild man, he has an feeling to be free and young again. His goal to get the girl of his dreams, Angela. Thier next door neighbor, an strange odd 18 year-old, Ricky(Wes Bentley in a standout performance) has a crash and he wants to know his next door neighbor Janie but he has problems with broodling father(Sam Cooper). The father gives his son a hard time in life. But all these people are going to different changes in life, it could be good, bad or both. DVD`s has a clear picture quality 2.35:1 widescreen format and Three different sound quality DTS 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and Dolby Surround 2.0 Sound. An fine but short behind the scenes footage, an intersting fine commentary track by the director and writer. Storyboards commentary by the director and director of photography and DVD-ROM extras. Fans of the film(Like Myself), who love this DVD more than anyone else. Those who have a home theater is great on the audio sound. Great music score by Thomas Newman(The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile). One of the few great surprise of the ninties. Grade:A. Super 35.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't be fooled
Review: Here is a film in which the members of The Academy clearly jumped on the band wagon and voted it a great film without justice. Although the movie suggest layers of profund meaning (e.g. beauty in the ordinary) there isn't anything in this movie that hasn't been explored before. Infact many of the themes have been explored to death (i.e. mid-life crises of a typical American guy). In the commentary track -- available on dvd the director and producer "ooh and ahhh" about how great the slow pan of the camera or how cleverly they "cage" the protagonist (Keven Spacey) behind the spreadsheet on the computer monitor -- oh how deep!....Big deal. This movie is nothing more than a made for tv movie with a made for tv story. It's the sort of movie that a group of friends will walk out of the theatre, not knowing what to think so instead every just says how great it is...for fear of "not GETTING it". The truth of the matter is there IS NOTHING TO it. Don't be fooled. This film is an insult to the great films that preceded it.
Rating:
Summary: Don't be fooled
Review: Here is a film in which the members of The Academy clearly jumped on the band wagon and voted it a great film without justice. Although the movie suggest layers profund meaning (e.g. beauty in the ordinary) there isn't anything in this movie that hasn't been explored before. Infact many of the themes have been explored to death (i.e. mid-life crises of a typical American guy). In the commentary track -- available on dvd the director and producer "ooh and ahhh" about how great the slow pan of the camera or how cleverly they "cage" the protagonist (Keven Spacey) behind the spreadsheet on the computer monitor -- oh how deep!....Big deal. This movie is nothing more than a made for tv movie with a made for tv story. It's the sort of movie that a group of friends will walk out of the theatre, not knowing what to think so instead every just says how great it is...for fear of "not GETTING it". The truth of the matter is there IS NOTHING TO it. Don't be fooled. This film is an insult to the great films that preceded it.
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