Rating: 
Summary: Some of the Worst and Best all in one
Review: Nearly half the vignettes presented in this ensemble film are utter trash....forced, phony, unrealistic and difficult to watch. The rest are varying degrees of charming and good. Emma Thompson deserves mention for a really good, really heartwrenching piece of acting...but she never seems like she is acting. Liam Neeson is wasted on a piece of trash involving his stepson....who does not talk or act like a child his age: It is so irritating when movies portray a child as a small, cute adult. This one is particularly uncharming and involves a borderline-icky crush on a waaaayyy too mature singing star 10-year-old girl. Weird and almost creepy. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth are graceful, dashing charming actors who have made a great living out of playing charming, dashing bumblers. They do a great job in their lovely respective stories. But by far the worst and best are as follows: The vignette featuring the couple who is newly married and the best friend with the unrequited crush on the bride is PAINFULLY BAD. The actress playing the bride is unbearably forced and SO irritating. Her would-be love is Casper Milquetoast who is clearly besotted with her looks. "You are perfect" he says. Oh Yuck. The very best is the aging rock star making a really sad comeback, but he plays it as a hilarious good time. If the whole movie were about him, it would have been GREAT. He was STELLAR. It's all a mixed bag... sort of a C-plus
Rating: 
Summary: Love "Love Actually"
Review: I absolutely adored this movie and wish I could have a dvd of it right now! Definitely one of the best romantic movies ever. I have never seen so many sweet moments in one film. And it was actually intelligent and not every ending is a happy one. It will definitely make you want to call up everyone you love and let them know it! Which is always a good idea :)
Rating:
Summary: Great Film!
Review: Eight love stories, though difficult to follow at first, all come together in the end. It's a bit of a chick flick, but still a good one.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie from start to finish!
An impressive combination of humor and tenderness.
The cast alone warranted my seeing this film, but I did not expect to be so delightfully entertained. Needless to say, I plan to see it again.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasing comedy about romance and sex
Review: Charming and funny Love Actually deals with parallel plots lines involving a wide variety of characters. It turns out that most of the characters are connected through someone or something (a wedding, a school play). Liam Neeson takes center stage with the touching story of a step-father who just widowed. He's unsure about his relationship with his 10 year old step son because the center of his universe has been taken from him. Neeson plays a wide variety of emotions in the role written with the most depth.Colin Firth stars as a writer who ends up going to a friend's wedding alone. It seems his wife is under the weather. He returns home early to discover his younger brother at his house although he's surprised, he's even more surprised when it's clear his wife is having an affair with his brother. After splitting up with his wife he finds romance in the most unlikely of places; he's staying at his vacation residence and finds it with his housekeeper. The only catch is that they don't speak each other's langauge but still manage to discover each other. In the funniest bit Bill Nighy stars as washed up rocker Billy Mack. Mack is on the come back trail with a awful remake of The Troggs' song Love is All Around reimagined as a Christmas ditty. Mack hates the song and knows its a piece of garbage but he also recognizes this is a last chance for him and his manager. Nighy captures the larger than life Mack to a t. His love story isn't about finding the perfect mate but, instead, about his friendship with his manager/producer and how he discovers that friendship, loyalty and truth outclass the fame game. Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson play a married couple whose relationship is comfortable. Unfortunately, Harry's (Rickman) new secretary at the magazine he works at has the hots for him. She makes it very clear and Harry's very tempted. This is one of the more emotionally rich bits in the film as well. Finally there's the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) who can't find love. Or rather, he finds it at the wrong time with the wrong person. He's fallen head over heels with one of his staff Natalie (Martine McCutcheon). Clearly the relationship would be complicated. He's unsure what to do about it despite the fact that he's fallen hopelessly in love with her. The most unusual subplot involves a pair of stand-in's for actors. The twist is that they are stand in's for actors in what appears to be a soft porn movie. Their banter is innocent and despite the awkwardness of the situation, they both are attracted to each other. Writer/Director Richard Curtis does a fine job of integrating the complex, interweaving story lines. He contrasts the relationships nicely and in such a way that they different relationships and the steps they are at comment on the other, more advanced ones. All the performers are marvelous and, while it won't win any Oscars, Love Actually is a fun bit of fluff that allows all the actors involved to give strong at times whimsical performances. Be forewarned, though that the nudity (and language)during the story with the actor's stand ins may be a bit much for older folks and totally inappropriate for young teens. It's rated R for a reason--it's a romantic comedy but with a decidely adult edge. More than likley you wouldn't want to take your Mother to this although a wife, lover or close friend would make great company. Love Actually is entertaining and funny. It's also a tonic to all the Gen-X generated action adventure films and high concept garbage that studios usually churn out during the Holiday season.
Rating: 
Summary: Very uneven movie
Review: The movie consists of quite a few sub-plots, where characters in which of them are somehow connected. The director put together great great actors but it seems like each sub-plot was directed by different person so uneven they are. It ranges from very funny stories of aging rock star or british guy going to Wisconsin because American girls like british guys, to cheesy story of relationship between father and son after the death of boy's mother, to totally predictable story of love of british prime minister (played by Hugh Grant) to the lady on his stuff. Hugh Grant, by the way, again disappoints: he just plays the same kind of character he played in many other movies. Overall, great actors shooting blanks in many cases.
Rating:
Summary: Underestimated and Charming
Review: This movie was one that I originally did not want to see because I am not one to enjoy dreamy romantic comedies. The difference with this movie is that it actually contains comedians. Two of my favorite UK comedians-Rowan Atkinson and Kris Marshall. I knew that even though this was romantic it certainly would be funny. It was hysterical and realistic.My favorite performances in the film were from these two actors. Kris Marshall as the goofy sandwhich seller turned ladies man in Wisconsin of all places had me in stitches. In all of the reviews I have read I have noticed that Kris Marshall has been very underestimated especially in the U.S. In all of his roles be they comic or tragic he puts his whole heart and soul into it. The same can be said for the many comic roles of Rowan Atkinson who is more well known to international audiences. When Kris or Rowan take on a scene it belongs to them. They own it! If you want to laugh and feel some sort of hope about love with a dash of warm fuzzy-go see Love Actually!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Offensive, actually
Review: If your moral compass has no true north, then please ignore this review. For those who are concerned about the negative effects of "love" that lacks morals, respect, and purity, I won't repeat what others have said more effectively than I can. Just Google "christian movie reviews" to see what I mean. I know, folks like me come across as intolerant, trying to promote a more noble view of love.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes you just want to have fun
Review: Sometimes its enough just to have a lot of fun in seeing a film. This is a big, stuffed-to-the-gills film, presumably with something to entertain every viewer, but also something for anyone to criticize if they so wish. I did not so wish, simply because most of it was fun, nearly all of it was funny, and as a whole it is a very good time. Some seem to be criticizing the film for not having more Hugh Grant or other actors, but that completely misunderstands what the film is. It is not a star vehicle, a la MAID IN MANHATTAN or TWO WEEKS NOTICE from the last Holiday season, but an ensemble piece. In other words, there is a large cast of actors, and the film tries to balance a number of stories instead of focusing merely on one. More than that, it is not an ensemble film in the sense of GOSFORD PARK, which uses a group of actors to tell essentially one story. This film uses its ensemble to tell a number of stories, stories that manage to overlap to a degree, but separate stories nonetheless. Telling several stories at once, some are going to work better than others. The worst, by far, was the Laura Linney story, in which an American is prevented from a romance with a man to whom she is enormously attracted by her willingness to accept at all times of the day and night calls from her mentally ill brother. Anyone who knows anything about having a relative who is mentally ill knows that the first rule is setting limits to their behavior, so that it doesn't control the behavior of those around them. No mental health professional in the world would have allowed the brother to call his sister at will. But that was the only one of the tales that I found to be absurd. Most of the others were delightful. My favorite performer was without question Bill Nighy, who stole nearly every scene he appeared in, playing an aging rocker who is trying to get back in the public eye by singing a god awful updating of the Troggs's classic "Love is All Around" to "Christmas is All Around." He takes the entire thing as one huge joke, and his joking nearly steals the film. At a time when the American presidency is held in greater disdain in the world in general and in England in particular, there is a particular interesting bit of fantasy in which the British Prime Minister, played by Hugh Grant, stands up in a press conference to the American President, played by Billy Bob Thorton. Basically, Hugh refuses to be Billy Bob's poodle. Obviously, the movie portrays a prime minister the likes of which most Britons would love to see, instead of the way that Tony Blair currently is. I also enjoyed the part that featured Colin Firth falling in love with his Portuguese housekeeper during a trip to France to write, but with whom he could not communicate. He then learns a smattering of Portuguese, flies to her on Christmas Eve, and then in his halting Portuguese asks her to marry him, with her accepting in the halting English she has obviously just picked up. This is not a great movie. It will not be used in film classes to illustrate film writing technique or to show the way that the camera can tell a story in a way that is unique to film, but it is a heck of a lot of fun, and if one doesn't take it too seriously, will create a very, very good couple of hours of entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: not impressed
Review: I didn't like it. Spoilers are included in this review. I thought that the movie tried too hard. They wanted to use a great British cast and give everyone a storyline, but some of the storylines don't succeed. I wondered why several of them were even included, some of the storylines seem incomplete. With so many storylines, I felt like I was watching a soap opera. The movie's about several people who have love interests and try to get together with certain people by Christmas. I didn't understand the Keira Knightley storyline. She is a married newlywed who finds out that her husband's best friend has a crush, he eventually tells her & she is faithful to her husband. So what was the point of that storyline? The Alan Rickman storyline was weird because he walks a dangerous line and flirts with an office worker, and then when his wife confronts him about it, he admits to it. Then the next time that we see them again, its at the last scence of the movie. Were they able to work out their issues or what? I wish that Alan Rickman's character was less passive and had more guts to stand up for what's right. The Colin Firth storyline was so boring, so was the Laura Linney one, and there was a short storyline about two adult film stars that meet while making an adult movie. It was a boring movie. The only one that I really enjoyed was the Hugh Grant one where he played a prime minister. Billy Bob Thornton plays a short part as the U.S. president that hits on Grant's secretary. Ugh. A better way of using this wonderful English cast, would have been by having one main plot and all the actors play leading and supporting parts instead. That would have been a much better movie, and they should have taken out all the smutty parts.
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