Rating: 
Summary: watch something else
Review: Nicolas Cage is brilliant in his interpretation(s) but I can't understand how this movie can get 5 stars... it is boring boring boring and quite ridiculous in some scenes.
Rating: 
Summary: Boy, don¿t blink or go to the bathroom
Review: You leave the room for 5-10 minutes during this movie, go nuke some popcorn, whatever, without clicking the Pause button - and you'll be friggin' lost. It's a twisty, wacko, sometimes confusing, always brilliand combination of oh, I dunno, sometimes it feels like 10 different stories, but it's really only 3. There's a screenwriter hopelessly trying to write a screenplay of The Orchid Thief (a book without a plot). There's the screenwriter nearly giving up and writing about his own difficulties writing the script. And there's his totally annoying twin brother, a doofus, who writes away in the background, distracting his bro, and managing against all odds to write something that scores. Written with wit, cynicism, angst. Cast is stellar, appropriately creepy at times, terrifying (as the Orchid Thief sometimes was; it's a crazy world out there...!), and always wonderful.
Don't miss it - but don't forget to Pause for bathroom breaks!
Rating: 
Summary: this emporer has no clothes!
Review: Picture this: a real life screenwriter, fresh off a successful "screwy" movie, lands a gig to write the screenplay for an unfilmable picture. Mental paralysis sets in and, surprize! the writer has nothing to deliver at the deadline. The only work he has completed is to have written a few false starts and some commentary of his own dread. O.K., so what's he do? He pitches the movie as a cinematic equivalent to a Seinfeld eposode, but without the wit, pacing or structure. What is offered is a montage of half baked ideas held together by a voice over from the writer himself, narrating his inability to pull the movie off. The writer pitches this as a very clever exercize in making a really bad movie -- but on purpose! He'll past together every film cliche about writer's block known to the writing establishment, including a scene about screen-writing seminars, but make it "crafty"! The film execs naturally panic, but give the movie the green light based on said-writer's previous winner. Critics, loathe to admit that they cannot not understand it, instead howl in praise and annoit this movie as a "masterpiece." The viewer, as usual, is stuck holding the bag, having to pay for this lazy, flimsy, exercize in "pulling the wool over one's eyes." Having said that, the acting throughout the first 2/3 of the movie is quite good, as if that was enough to sit through this. And there are some funny bits and thoughtful lines. But by the end of the film, the actors themselves cannot keep up with the silly conceit of this movie as it abandons the "writers cramp" theme and, through the guise of having the writers twin brother, a notorious schlock writer, finish the effort by adopting (they call it "adapting" in the movie) a "stupid Hollywood Ending" to sew things up, just like the endings in those dumb "Saturday Night Live" spin-off movies. Ha Ha! What a hoot! So satirical! So edgy! It's really a shame that Hollywood allows a writer to get away with this sort of garbage. Throughout, you can see that the seeds of an interesting movie are in place, and indeed some poigniant moments are expressed. But a few poigniant moments a movie do not make. Faced with making either no movie or a bad one, the writer and director decide to "go ugly early" and try to palm off this collection of scraps as "tongue-in-cheek", "clever" and "in-sider". Consider yourself forewarned!
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie!
Review: I love this movie, to me it was all about the character's decisions about their roles in life, and what a tremendous difference this makes. The movie's centerpiece was the two twin brothers: Charlie and Donald, identical genetically but miles apart in the way they had chosen to live their lives. At the beginning of the movie was are led to see Donald as frivolous shallow, maybe even a mooch. Charlie appears more serious, more talented but haunted by his own insecurities and neurotic personality, he never seems to be able to realize his potential in any aspect of his life. We hear and see his frustration and despair at this...he can't even meet his own needs for companionship and love. As the movie progresses we see Donald succeed where Charlie fails, it even seems a bit unfair, Donald hardly seems to deserve his success. At the movie's climax however, we find out the secret of the great difference between the lives of these two identical brothers. Donald made a decision early on that his life belonged to him, where Charlie had decided that his life was to be left to the whim of others. No wonder Charlie sweated in the presence of attractive women, didn't know how to promote his own interests and could hardly make friends; He had decided that all these people's reactions to him would determine his worth and that it would be determined anew every day, a recipe for neurosis. Identical brother's, different life adaptations, hugely different outcomes. The other characters in the story had adaptations to make; but I saw this movie as being all about the two brothers together hiding in that swamp, where Donald reveals - to Charlie's amazement - that when they were in grammar school he decide that other's would never decide his worth, that this was for him alone, and his decision was going to be in his own favor. Charlie realized the power of this immediately and after his brother's death you could see the change it brought. What a great message and a great movie. I never buy movies. Most aren't worth a second viewing. This is one to treasure!
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful movie!
Review: My guess the main theme of this movie is the creative process and how difficult and torturous it is. In this case it's about writing a movie script by Charlie Caufman, played by Nicolas Cage. It is very unusual movie about movie about the book. I was surprised to find out that the book 'The Orchid Field' that the movie supposed to be based on is the real book. It makes the movie even more fascinating. You never know with Spike Jonze. I loved references here to his other movie 'Being John Malkovich". The acting is superb but especially by Meryl Streep (as always) and Chris Cooper. The only complain I have that it is sometimes too slow. I am not the one who watches action movies only but in this case this slowness is just not warranted and out of the rhythm of the movie. But in the end it could be just a fault of Charlie Caufman.
Rating: 
Summary: A good idea that didn't come off
Review: Charlie Kauffman decided to write a screenplay adaptation of Susan Orlean's THE ORCHID THIEF mostly about how impossible it was for him to write an adaptation of it, and while that sounds like it might have been a good idea it actually winds up not working out at all. It's all pretty much the sort of thing you expect from a college creative writing class when a student doesn't have any ideas for an assignment and instead writes about writer's block. Nicolas Cage works hard as Cage, but he's pretty unappealling in his sweatiness. All the movie really has going for it is Meryl Streep in a miraculous turn as Susan Orlean herself, a woman who yearns for transcendance in her daily professional life.
Rating:
Summary: Adaptations
Review: This had to be the worst dissapointment I have viewed in a long time. I bought this DVD haven read "The Orchid Thief" which was a great book;much more than I can say for the movie. I am surprised the author of "The Orchid Thief" approved the script of this movie. It was slow at the beginning and slow at the end and everywhere in between. It had no imagination and riding on the heels of "The Orchid Thief" it did the book nothing but injustice. I could not even recommend this movie to my worst enemy.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful and Bizzare Film
Review: First off, anybody who is evenly remotely interested in writing movies or working in the movie buisiness should go watch this movie right now. Charlie Kauffman (the semi-fictional one) is one of the most endearing, most real characters I've ever seen in a film. Everything in this movie shines so brightly, it's a wonder why this didn't win more oscars. Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep are also very good, but the best performance easily comes from Cage. The script by the real Charlie Kauffman is wonderful and begins to twist in on itself, so much so that in order to finish the screenplay, Kauffman had to give into traditional Hollywood cliche themes (drugs, sex, violence, profound realizations). This movie is the best illustration of a screenwriter I've ever seen (then again, how many movies are about screenwriters?). This is highly recommended for anyone who wants to think during their movie instead of being entertained
Rating:
Summary: what a waste of time..
Review: The movie is so lame and boring!! And what irritated me the most was the character played by Nicolas Cage - Charles Kaufman. He is such a pathetic loser, halfway thru I wanted to jump into the movie and slap him hard ! This is one of those attempts to show a messed up movie and characters, try and make a mix of fantasy-n-reality. Some directors know how to do it and it works, but Spike Jonze is not one of them. And to top it all, the ONLY special which the DVD contains is the theatrical trailer!!!!!!!!! Nothing else. Run away, faaar faaar away. Hmmm..one thing which I wanted to say that there are 2 car crash sequences in this movie which were like - friggin' amazing. Gave me quite a jolt. Just mentioned, that's all...
Rating:
Summary: Good movie, horrible DVD
Review: The movie is entertaining and interesting but the DVD offers nothing but the movie. There are NO special features.
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