Rating: 
Summary: A MASTERPIECE
Review: This brilliantly funny and touching film could be one of the best of all time. The surprising and eye-opening plot, the all-star acting, the depth and warmth of the movie can be summed up in one word: GENIUS. I could go on forever, but there's no need simply because this movie is one of those things you can't explain. You just ahve to experience it.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost the best movie of 1999...
Review: American Beauty is filled with superb acting (Kevin Spacey is simply brilliant), beautiful cinematography, and very clever dialogue. It is also a fine critique of American society. This is clearly one of the best movies of 1999.It is not the best, because its critique of American society is not all that original (it is derivative of many movies from the sixties) and it does not go deep enough (it merely paints a landscape of suburbia). It is still head and shoulders above any Oscar-winning picture of the past decade.
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Summary: Wonderful Movie, You should definantly own a copy.
Review: This is an extraordinarily good film that makes me remember how great the world really is, because alot of times I get caught up in things and I forget to slow down and smell the roses. I noticed that a few people gave this movie bad reviews on the basis that some of the events were offensive and non-realistic. It is not hyper-typical, but certainly not uncommon. I am an average American 18 year old girl. I have had jobs that I hated, I masterbate everyday, I smoke marijuana occasionally, I've fallen in love with very bizarre boys, I've lusted after other teenage girls... I'm also very kind and polite. I love my family very much. I volunteer at our local nursing home. I'm an extremely hard worker. I'm very happy and content. I'm also very beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: American Beauty lives up to name!
Review: American Beauty is possibly the best movie is the past decade. The way we got to learn about Lester Burnham and his faults, yet still love him is wonderful. This movie made me think, not as in "What did you think about this movie?", but as in questioning myself and everyone around me. It was so provocative, this movie haunted me. Literaly. I start seeing many, including myself, to be Lester. I guarantee, that if you are mature enough to remove your protective bubble and see what the world really is, you will absolutley, positively LOVE this movie. Correction, master piece.
Rating:
Summary: Can somebody say Oscar?
Review: Wow, wow, wow. This is truly remarkable. I still don't know if this is a movie or a scene from somebody else's actual life. The performances are flawless - especially from Kevin Spacey, who deservingly received his 2nd academy award - his indifference to all the twisted stuff that happens around him is magnificent; I'd swear to God that's me in 30 years time. What makes this piece so interesting though is the myriad of characters that could be described as 'quirky', they're so much fun to watch. You have the average Joe (Spacey), the wife nobody would want (Annette Bening), the teenage blonde (Mena Suvari) etc. Everybody is so weird that it's safe to say that the gay neighbours are the most normal characters in the whole movie. This, along with Magnolia, made 1999 a fantastic year for ensemble pieces. Both were wonderful movies, but this one is better in that it doesn't get weighed down by its ambition, and was mesmerizing in that the direction, the performances, and the screenplay really geled together. Everybody who was involved deserves to give themselves a pat on the back.
Rating:
Summary: ( Look Closer at ) THE RARE BEAUTY
Review: First of all, American Beauty is the best film of 1999. Secondly, Mr. Sam Mendes as its director was so talented in THAT he knew WHAT he wanted the film to come out to be:its directions, its feels and ambience , et al, and also successfully got the best out of those characters in the film via sublime performance rendered by the whole bunch of brilliant cast collectively. The whole story of American Beauty was told from what the spirit of the dead Lester Burnham ( Kevin Spacey ) had seen through the last year of his life. In a peaceful suburban neighborhoood where his house was located in, it all began with the depressed feelings for his middle-life crisis; the day-by-day gradual distance kept to each other by him and his once-so-lovely-and-shiny wife, Carolyn Burnham ( Annette Bening ), whose life-long ambition was to be the most successful and respectable residential realtor who was willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING in life just to get there; their ungrateful teen daughter who always blamed on her parents for ruining her life; his own going-nowhere publication job..... Not only everyone in his house was revolving around his self but also the other two households nearby: the gay couple and the retired US marine Colonel Frank Fitts and his family. Every character in this film more or less successfully manipulated others' perceptions towards him or her and in return his or her own perception was successfully manipulated, which the film was intended to show how powerful and dangerous SUBJECTIVE perception could negatively affect one' s life. For instance, the image of Angela Hayes as a chic, fly girl who hated to be perceived as an ordinary, boring one; Carolyn Burnham who always felt the need to project the image of success ( Personally, as a former realtor, I really felt for her as if I were in her shoes in the film ) despite the fact that she was so miserable; Ricky Fitts who' d successfully convinced his pop that he could afford all of his latest hi-tech audio-visual systems in his room with his table-waiting job - Memorable quote: Never underestimate the Power of Denial....; et al. The film also wisely played with psychological defense mechanisms like displacement, regression, rationalization, etc. Wrapping it up, the drama-comedy American Beauty realisticly projects and deals with the elements of middle-life crisis, hidden depression, black-mailing, subjective perceptions, shattered dreams and finally the flashback of Lester's best years of his life just in time of his departure. About the cast: Kevin Spacey, once again, delivered another of his sublime performance as usual; Annette Bening, in my humble opinion, deserves an Oscar-winning tie with Miss Swank of Boys Don' t Cry; Something about the way Wes Bentley looked in this film for 100 % convinced us that he was not acting as Ricky Fitts, rather he WAS Ricky Fitts- Too bad that '99 nominee list of Actor in Supporting Role's traffic are so jammed with great actors with their deserved nomination; Wittiest screenplay with masterful plot twistS and heavenly cinematography, to name a few. American Beauty is definitely a film that is and will always be a part of viewers' sweet memories and entertaining experience. Shin P.
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Summary: One of the best of the 90's
Review: 1999 was clearly a good year for movies - 'The Matrix', 'Sixth Sense' and of course, 'American Beauty'. The plot centres around two families on a typical American street and how, 'behind closed doors', they are really in crisis and at odds with each other and themselves. The film is about how they deal with this, with varying and often sharply satirical results. But it isn't the plot that makes this film - it is simply the way it is made and the incredible acting. Kevin Spacey obviously shines, but Annette Benning and the rest of the cast easily keep up - all strong, excellent performances. It is simply a well-made, sometimes challenging, often comical, always inspired adult tale of modern anxieties. One of the best movies of the last decade and a standing testament that no amount of special effects and fancy CGI (of course, apart from the brilliant 'Matrix'), can come close to an intelligently realised film about 'ordinary' people. Whatever else you watch this year, make sure you watch 'American Beauty' - it is one of those rare movies worthy of its hype. Watch it!
Rating:
Summary: .
Review: A bit uneven and scattered, without enough time spent on the film's narrator, but still an aesthetically rich and uniquely engaging film about overpriveledged white suburbanites finding themselves face-to-face with all of the unhealthy psychological baggage that pervades overpriveledged white suburban culture as a whole, with two particular characters learning to ring some beauty out of the mess by adopting a perspective uncannily reminiscent of Taoism. Whew, what a long sentence. It may sound like I'm picking on the movie, but I'm not -- it is well-executed, powerful, touching, inspiring, and surprisingly (for a popular American drama/comedy) promotive of a self-reliance bordering on optimistic hedonism. It's a refreshing movie in this respect, and it is full of extremely interesting characters. They are hyperbolized, as are their revelations and confrontations, it's true, but that doesn't mean that real and significant issues are not being addressed (I say this in response to reviews complaining that the movie doesn't accurately reflect life as it "really is.") The people who walked out of this movie muttering "That was good, but everybody was so WEIRD" are, I think, missing the point, not to mention giving a good indication of how culturally scripted they themselves (as well as their aesthetic expectations) are.
Rating:
Summary: American Beauty is true beauty
Review: This beautiful movie dealing with some of the world's most twisted subjects shows you can be a beautiful teen, a lovable teen, an obessed mom, a depressed father or a hot young man, and love can still find it's way to you. The best movie I've seen since Gone with the Wind
Rating:
Summary: AN EXCELLENT DARK COMEDY MOVIE
Review: I NEVER SAW A MOVIE SO DARK AND SCARY LIKE THIS BEFORE. IT WON 5 OSCARS. REMINDS ME OF "THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS" LOTS OF SUPRISES AND SHOCKING SCENCES. "PRETTY KILL" AND "THE PAPERBOY" WILL NEVER AMOUNT TO "AMERICAN BEAUTY". KEVIN SPACEY'S ACTING HAS NEVER BEEN AS GOOD LIKE THIS BEFORE, AND HAS EARNED HIM AN OSCAR FOR BEST ACTING. AN EVERY ROSE HAS IT'S THORN!
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