Masked and Anonymous

Rating:
Summary: This movie is outstanding.
Review: The characters where developed wonderfully. The story played out as it was moving well. The vibe of the movie was great. A lot of people didnt like it because they were acpecting some great twist or some anti-war propaganda. But instead we are left with a well written film about a nation in a crisis.

Rating:
Summary: Waky realistic sense of Being
Review: I agree with viewer from Atanta and viewer from Luisville as with georgiasam 5 . Good movie for the curious thinker . And it seems to me Jake goes to Jail for sleeping with his fathers girlfriend . He is the joung man in the hotel room seen from a memory perspective . Kilmer is what Morrison would have turned into if he was alive , no coincidence here , etc... Too bad Dylan is so hard to understand when he sings , whats new , Right ? .

Rating:
Summary: DON'T GIVE UP YOUR DAY JOB
Review: Maybe in the future we'll be able to wake up in the morning, press rewind and watch our dreams on our dream recording machine. Until then, we have filmmakers like Bob Dylan, who have the accessibility to monstrously construct the elaborate and profound thought process they have experienced. How can such a cold and lifeless movie come from such a warm and gracious artist? As a visual feast to Dylan's most recent work, it manages to exclude his entire heart. Great sound and extraordinary soundtrack does not a movie make.

Rating:
Summary: Ya Gotta be a Dylan fan
Review: For all you Dylan heads out there, this is worth a watch. The story is quite vague. Dylan's acting is fairly good (for a rock star) and most of the other celebrities involved put in a fine performance. I espescially liked Mickey Rourke's character and performance. The band really plays great and Dylan sings with inspiration. If you don't love Dylan, don't waste your time.

Rating:
Summary: most miss the point
Review: There's clearly no one way to look at this film, but the myriad reviewers (both professional and amazon) charging that this is a vanity project just don't get it. I think that to make any sense of it, one must consider that the fascist society depicted on screen bears some resemblance to the *U.S.* (it's not a "stereotypical Latin American dictatorship" as I've seen some Ebert types write). Then one must deal with the depressing fact that all of the manipulations involved in staging Jack Fate's "benefit" concert are aimed at profiteering, fabricating cults of personality, careerism, etc. and have precious little to do with the art. Everybody's looking out for themselves while the country turns into--well, a third world dictatorship--and what's an artist to do in such an environment? Play some songs and shrug his shoulders...and maybe make a surrealist film to capture the surrealism of what's happening outside.

Rating:
Summary: amazing film
Review: It's definitely not for everyone, but "Masked and Anonymous" is one of the most original films I've ever seen, and terrific on a number of levels. Admittedly, Bob Dylan is no actor, but his acting "method" (such as it is) is perfect for this role, that of a legendary, mysterious musical artist with a mysterious past, who has been released from prison (why he's there, we do not know) to perform a "benefit" concert. Dylan is a wraith, a cypher, the proverbial walking, talking mystery wrapped in a riddle wrapped in an enigma.

The picture is an eerie, uncanny look at an America turned into a banana republic, a dictatorship embroiled in civil unrest and civil war, seemingly with no "good guys." (No doubt, this is the America we have to look forward to if we allow the Bush regime to hang on to power much longer, but that's another story for another time.)

The movie is chock full of memorable dialog and images, and outstanding performances by John Goodman, Jessica Lange and a host of others (Val Kilmer has an amazing, out of character cameo appearance). Bonus points for Dylan fans include little inside jokes and references (Dylan's character's name is Jack Fate, and the Jack Fate tribute band he hooks up with is called "Simple Twist of Fate," a song from his classic "Blood on the Tracks" album).

Then there's the music - I hope that this band tours with Dylan someday (they may well already have, I haven't seen him in concert in a number of years). Great, unexpected performances ("Dixie," which doesn't seem like it would be appropriate at all, is very haunting).

I repeat - this movie is not for everyone. For one thing, if you haven't seen or heard Dylan in years, you may be in for a shock. (Though, given that he's now over 60 years old, he doesn't look or sound too bad really.)

More importantly, this film is equal parts Fellini and Scorsese, with a healthy dose of David Lynch thrown in for good measure. It's easy to see why this movie was oftentimes panned by mainstream critics, and generally ignored by mainstream audiences. But Larry Charles has crafted an amazing, unique and criminally overlooked vision with "Masked and Anonymous."

Rating:
Summary: Pathetic Self-Deification
Review: Far from a fitting way to approach the end of one's career, this production finds Dylan surrounded by yes-men ready to worship his every thought, his every accomplishment with nauseating adulation. To make things worse, the cast of stars here seems lifted from those who feel desperate to be seen paying homage to the man, grovelling to be in the limelight next to Dylan before Dylan is no more.

The movie itself, particularly the plot, is a thinly disguised yarn of Dylan's career, focusing on his latter years, the forgotten hero, and the birth of the mother of all comebacks: Playing a concert to save the world, or some such thing. Such embarrassing stuff would make good self-mockery of an artist of lesser statue. With Dylan, however, it comes across as pathetic: the man pays homage to himself, brayed on by a cast of hangers-on. Is this the result of shameless self-deification or of a desperately lost soul? Truly sad.

Now for the acting and the script. Bob is as expressive as a plank of wood. To say anything less than that would be sheer praise. The others are perfunctory, only there to get Bob through it all. Whoever directed this should be banned from future film work. The script is just as miserable. Thankfully, Bob does not have so many lines himself, but his 'pearls of wisdom' are thrown in as disembodied reflections at 'crucial' moments between scenes, an irritating and repetitive technique that only adds a sense sanctimonious phoniness to an already phony-soaked production.

In all, the movie is a shocker of poor taste and abysmal judgement, revealing much more about those behind/in it, than about the story itself. After the great "Love & Theft" album, it is nothing short of distressing to see Dylan stoop to such depths, tarnishing what would otherwise have been a brilliant end to a brilliant career. Now maybe it the movie had been done as a cartoon, it would have worked.......!

Rating:
Summary: Embarrasing film for all involved
Review: I'm a big Bob Dylan fan and read the reviews but still thought "Hey-it's Bob Dylan-can't be that bad". I was wrong. This film is embarrasing. Jessica Lange is an excellent actress, and Bob Dylan is a genius songwriter. BUT THIS MOVIE STINKS ! Doesn't deserve 1 star

Rating:
Summary: A gold mine for Dylan fans!
Review: I was a bit worried about this film because i had read such bad reviews online, and it did not even get released in Australia. How could this be, the answer is simple, the reveiwers namely Roger Ebert are complete monkey's.
This film is great. Its like a Lynch film with meaning, and you will want to watch it again and again. The music is great, it features his latest, and best touring band. The issue that come up are very true and relevant. The whole cast is great. Order this movie now!

Rating:
Summary: One Of Those Films That Made Me Say "Ummm..."
Review: Bob Dylan, in my opinion, is one of the best singer/song writers of independent thought in our time, and from what I saw in this film, Bob Dylan thinks so too. It just seemed to be too much of a vanity peice for Dylan. The thoughts and ideas shared in the film were excellent and the acting, except Dylan, was without a doubt spectacular. Val Kilmer is the best part of the film though. His obscure character makes more sense than anything else seen here. My level of respect for Bob Dylan just dropped another notch because of this film. Imagine this as being equivalent to when he went electric and wrote Knockin' on Heavens Door. Its not a bad movie but its not exactly good either. Its a must see for any Dylan fan. It could have been so much better if more time was spent on the other characters and the story with Dylans character being a smaller part of the movie.