Rating: 
Summary: Pretentious, overlong drivel
Review: I have a hard time figuring out the recent appointment to sainthood of Paul Thomas Anderson by seemingly everyone in Hollywood. The guy is just not that talented. First, he brought us a completely overrated stinker of a movie starring a former rapper-turned-serious actor, Mark Wahlberg, in "Boogie Nights", and now comes "Magnolia", a totally ridiculous piece of garbage that uses sheer length to hide the fact that the movie plain sucks. Audiences and critics alike see that the film lasts over 3 hours and think, "Oh wow, a 3 hour movie, that's gotta be good. There has to be a lot in it for it to last 3 hours!" Well, guess what, there's not. I've never seen a movie last so long in which absolutely nothing happens. The performances are so over-the-top its almost comedic, especially the Julianne Moore character, and of course, the Tom Cruise character, who blasts the audience with so much profanity, it's not even cool. PT Anderson treats the audience like they're stupid, and I'm offended! The ending is perhaps the most ridiculous part of the entire film, as it throws so much blatant symbolism in the audience's face, it's sickening. Hey, PT, don't treat your audiences like they're 3 years old. We could figure out a little more subtle symbolism! Avoid this movie at all costs...a laughable, childish waste of 3 hours of your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthy successor to Altman
Review: With "Magnolia", Paul Thomas Anderson was filmed a broad canvas, with a number of intertwining stories in Los Angeles - from Phillip Baker Hall's quiz show host, John C. Reilly's unlucky in love cop and Tom Cruise's reptilian male empowerment guru, each character is confronted and tries to cope with the horrifying reality of daily life or in some cases death.For such an ambitious film, one would expect some of the characters and their stories to be lost but Anderson does not allow us to linger too long as he swiftly moves from story to story. He elicits superb performances from all his actors with the standouts being Julianne Moore as the gold-digging wife of Jason Robards who suddenly develops a conscience and the aforementioned Cruise, who finally ditches his good guy image to portray a misogynistic self-help guru teaching men to 'tame' their women. However the best performance comes from the always excellent William H. Macy - his love for a brainless barman is heartbreaking as are his inept attempts to procure the money for some oral surgery. He invests his character, Donnie, a former child quiz show star with pathos and despair and we cannot help but feel for him. Those who see Anderson as the great hope for American cinema are not too wide off the mark. After his excellent "Boogie Nights", he has progressed with a scintillating work of genius that will have a certain Mr Altman proudly acknowledging his true heir.
Rating: 
Summary: Watch it all at once, or check out scenes
Review: Sure, there's a music video stuck in the middle of it, and yeah, it's pretentious. But PT Anderson creates engaging scenes and dialogue (watch Henry Gibson at the bar) and pulls you all over the place. Guess what? It's a fun ride. It's possible to be a fan of Altman and enjoy this movie. In fact, go watch Short Cuts or Nashville right after watching this. It's also not for everyone. It's dark and it meanders and be advised that it's profane. That's what the R rating means. Watch it, then go check out Hard Eight and Boogie Nights and watch for the same camera tricks PT Anderson has been using since his first film. Coffee anyone?
Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable
Review: This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. Having watched it at home we had to struggle with the length, the adult scenes ( which were many ) when our youngest came strolling in...it was hard to follow, via the film techniques used, multiple plot lines and endless interruptions that accompany home viewing. Though it was long and I was exhausted by the end of the movie I really felt it was a great movie...one I may buy as a DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great movie leading to nowhere!
Review: "HUH?" That was the reaction of many to this odd yet intregueing film. Mr. Anderson did a superb job in the first half. As he reached the end of the film, he just got lazy. In the begining we are witnessed to a 'coincidental' attempted suicide turned homicide. And there is an anonymous narrater explaining jiberish about hangings and execution. This introduction to film had some meaning to the theme of the film (chance and coincidence). However the film could have done without it, because it could have mislead some people. Many of us thought the end of the movie would have explained the answer to question the begining gave. Unfortunately the film had nothing to do with the event which occured in the begining. After the intro we are introduced to the main characters through a series of different stories. These stories dont seem to be interlaced at all. Let me give your the jist of the different stories: A handful of people in the San Fernando Valley are having one hell of a day. TV mogul Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) is on his deathbed; his trophy wife (Julianne Moore) is popping pills with alarming frequency. Earl's nurse (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is trying desperately to get in touch with Earl's only son, sex guru Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise), who's about to have his carefully constructed past blown by a TV reporter (April Grace). Whiz kid Stanley (Jeremy Blackman) is being goaded by his selfish dad into breaking the record for the game show What Do Kids Know? Meanwhile, Stanley's predecessor, the grown-up quiz kid Donnie Smith (William H. Macy) has lost his job and is nursing a severe case of unrequited love. And the host of What Do Kids Know?, the affable Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall), like Earl, is dying of cancer, and his attempt to reconcile with his cokehead daughter (Melora Walters) fails miserably. She, meanwhile, is running hot and cold with a cop (John C. Reilly) who would love to date her, if she can sit still for long enough. And over it all, a foreboding sky threatens to pour something more than just rain. Now, we at the begining believe these stories have now way of being connected in any way. However the the excelent juggling of sub-plots, by Mr. Anderson, lead us closer and closer to a point in which all these ideas become completely intertwind. The tension in each story continues to built. And just as there is one final piece to be added to the puzzle, Mr. Anderson 'knocks over the table'. With possibly the dumbest ending in movie history. This movie had nothing left to be desired. There is a scene towards the end in which each member of the cast takes a break from reality and sings along to a crapy song. It was at this point in which the movie begun its downward spiral. There was nothing that tarnished the movie quite like this dreadful scene. A withered old man on his death bed was singing along........need i say more. The other major downfall to the movie was the developement of the characters...or should i say lack there of. The characters basically remain the same as they were in the begining. And we only got a small glimpse of the characters past life. No character went through a revelation during the film. The only that came close was Cruise's character. When he visited his, soon-to-be-late, father. Frank brokedown in the presence of his, hypocritical, father. However we do not discover whether he goes back to the life of sex, or whether he decides to settle down. It is these little things that make this movie a question mark. The acting, however, was an upside to the film. This was probably Cruise's best performance yet, hence the nomination. Each and every actor played there roll to perfection. If only the directing had been a bit better, this film could have been in a class with American Beauty and Titanic. In conlusion Magnolia was an average movie, with a great begining with a disasterous ending. The Movie really had no ending P.S.: COULD SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME, WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THE FROG SCENE!
Rating: 
Summary: You can throw paint at a wall...die...and be called a genius
Review: This random amalgamation of events and people had several good moments and does cause one to reflect on the chaos that is life, that part was about 20 minutes of the movie. Random things happen...I randomly paid 7.00 for a movie that left me gasping for plot, meaning and reason. In the end the viewer is left wanting back 3 hours of life,...the joke is on us.
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant, Beautiful Film.
Review: Based on the fact that I had returned home later than I was hoping to and that I had to work the next day, I decided to watch one tape of "Magnolia" that evening and the other early in the mourning. This was not to be. I became so enwrapped in the movie that I could not bring myself to turn it off. I ended up watching it until one in the mourning (late for me) and was quite tired for work. But it was worth it. Paul Thomas Anderson's film "Magnolia" is a movie about the inter-twinning lives of a handful of characters in Los Angeles on one day. The film uses the characters and their lives to question coincidence and the order of the universe in a way but beyond all that it is another rich, multi-character character study comparable to "American Beauty". Every character is going through a hard time in life: some dying, one (Cruise) being forced to face his past and another (Macy) not able to out-grow his. Through chance happenings and coincidence (or is it?) all of the characters have some effect or connection to the others and it is through this and strange happenings (those damn frogs) that the characters begin to heal. They don't all completely right their lives by the end but you can tell that they are all on the road to being better. The acting in this film is among the best in 1999. Some stand-outs are: Cruise (who, along with "Eyes Wide Shut", is proving that he can act extremely well) as the sexist self-help guru, Julianne Moore as the wife of a dying millionaire, William H. Macy as a former television whiz-kid and John C. Reilly as a police officer who just wants to help somebody. These are just four out of about ten who just give everything they have to make the film work and they pull it off nicely. Paul Thomas Anderson's directing is incredible. He gives the movie a perfect feel and never over sentimentalizes anything. He just shows us raw, human emotion as he sees it and the result is overwhelming. The beginning sequence about coincidence is great; enthralling the viewer and defiantly peaking the interest of anyone watching to see the rest of the film and his scenes shot to Aimee Mann's incredible music are breathtakingly beautiful. This is a long movie, clocking in at over three hours, but it will defiantly hold your interest for the duration. The film is quite arty so I wouldn't recommend it to the blockbuster summer movie crowd but to anyone who loves a profound, high-quality movie. Thanxs...
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and touching film!
Review: I couldn't imagine sitting through a three-hour film, but Magnolia's fascinating plot and eccentric characters captured me. It is the story of various people and the errors that have haunted their lives. Tom Cruise plays a cold-hearted sex guru whose secrets are exposed during an interview. He is angry with his father (played by Jason Robards) for having abandoned his family. Julianne Moore plays Robards's trophy wife, a tormented woman who lives with the guilt of having married him for his money. The old man's last wish is to find his wayward son and apologize for his wrongdoing. There are other stories in the film. TV game show host Jimmy Gator (Phillip Baker Hall) is dying of cancer and wants to reconcile with his cokehead daughter (Melora Walters). Also, a whiz kid from Gator's game show (Jeremy Blackman) is tired of his father's high expectations. There are other stories and other characters, all of which are somehow connected. This is a rather touching film that should have gotten more recognition. But why is it titled Magnolia? I still can't figure it out. I know it's symbolic, but symbolic to what? Anyway, don't let the length of the film discourage you. Believe me, it's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: ugghh.....awful
Review: "please die, just die quickly" i kept saying to myself as the boring nonsense kept pouring out of the sick bed-ridden character played by jason robbards. this was among the worst movies i have ever seen. all the 4 and 5 stars being given to this disaster speaks well of how low the public and movie crtics' criteria for a good film has become. i agree with a previous poster that tom cruise is an overrated actor and his performance in this movie, especially the crying scene, is embarrassing.
Rating:
Summary: Recent Cinema Doesn't Get Much More Interesting
Review: This film could have ranked really high, but it lost a little force during the last hour. The climax came a bit too early (the sychronous song - truly one of the most remarkable and poignant segments in recent cinema history). Of course, the whole premise of the movie is about synchronicity. This theme is magnificently unfolded in the finest first 20 minutes of exposition of any film, anytime, with a soundtrack which is also perfectly synchronous (I can't think of a play or opera that does a better job, in fact). It was sad and somewhat shocking how bad Robards looks here, as he is one our National Treasury actors. It has been reported by several sources that he really is not long for this world, which would deprive the stage of one it's great interpreters of O'Neill, in particular. I wonder about the producer/director's motives about including him, given his condition. Cinema verite, to be sure, but taste and honor have to have a vote hereabouts. I know that he is not the type that would go gently into that good night, but... The acting is uniformly great. The overall premise and the director's vision thereof cannot be faulted, save for the minor quibbles previously stated. I noticed there wasn't any statement at film's end concerning the fact there "were no animals harmed in filming." If any animal rights activists were involved in the filming (which there had to be, given the size and composition of the cast and the production crew), I would love to be informed how all that climactic footage was generated. I hated bisecting a frog in Biology class, after all.
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