Rating: 
Summary: Saner than being Spike Jonze.
Review: Or at least more mature. A weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weird movie about an artiste puppeteer (John Cusack, barely recognizable underneath the wig and stubbly jaws) who puts together a pornographic interpretation of *Abelard and Heloise* with his puppets, performs it on street corners and gets beat up for it. Forced to find a day-job, he ends up with a clerical position at a firm located at the 7 1/2 floor of a high-rise. Silly enough? Then there's his dumpy, frumpy wife (an equally disguised Cameron Diaz), who has made their apartment a menagerie of stray, exotic animals. Doubtless, Diaz considered the role of an ugly person a "stretch". It's all one bizarre set-up after another, the bizarrest being the discovery of a cubbyhole in the 7 1/2 floor that turns out to be a "portal" into actor John Malkovich's brain. The funniest bit of comic business occurs when Malkovich, outraged and curious, descends into the portal himself, and comes face to face with the inner workings of his own narcissism. Mr. Malkovich (the real-life actor, I mean) takes director Spike Jonze's impertinence in stride, like an indulgent father tolerating the ADD-hijinks of a borderline-genius progeny. Lucky for us, we don't have to: after the scene where Malkovich goes inside his own head, we can send this youngster to bed. The longer we indulge this movie, the more tired and cranky the gags become.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, something truly original
Review: In today's movies we are all, all to used to seeing the same thing done over and over again. It is such a nice break when a movie as original as this comes along. The plot of the movie is terrific and the casting was done very well. Athough basically all the characters are odd and strange, some how they still come off likable and beleavable. A wonderful surprise and wonderful DVD also. If you are an intelligent viewer and want something different, it's a must see.
Rating:
Summary: Want to be someone else?
Review: Excellent! This was a very nice surprise. The plot is perfectly complete. It reminded me about Borges, about Nabokov, even about Joyce.Are all of us inside someone else, bigger and stronger? Is somebody inside us? Being other person and every person at the same time, but still being ourselves, had been worrying a lot of our most important authors for centuries. Remember Borges' tales "Las Ruinas Circulares", "El otro, el mismo", "todos los nombres, el nombre", etc., and his riddles? It also has the problem of the infinite, as when Malkovich gets inside of Malkovich. And it's impossible to forget the loneliness of the puppeteer, not being understand even for his wife. Since it is very complex and I don't want to destroy the plot, I must only say that this is a very recommendable movie. For a former skateboarder, Spike Jonze's talent is not a surprise, since he is a legend in the skateboarding photography world. He used to make the most creative and intense pictures. I still believe that skateboarding world has given a lot of influence to the art panorama (e.g. Nirvana and their enormous offspring, but especially the graphic design world.)
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Movie
Review: This should have been nominated for more Academy Awards and won more. This was a very smart, funny, and creative movie. Cameron Diaz was awesome as a person who you would never expect her to play so well. Great performances by Joh Cuack and Malkovich, too....
Rating:
Summary: Well,That's Different
Review: This film could quite possibly be the most original thing to come down the pike in years,along with "Pi",which is just as jaw-droppingly wierd.If you're reading this you probably know the plot already,so I'll just say that despite the plot,it's actually very entertaining.John Cusack is his normal piquant self,regarding the proceedings with a bumused,but slightly over-it smirk.He has the most affecting raised eye-brows I've ever seen.Cameron Diaz plays his wife.I read in all the press stories about the film how she's totally playing against type in this,and she plays down her beauty for the role.Uh,O.K.,yeah,I buy that.Sure,she's HIDEOUS.Anyway,her awe-inspiring beauty doesn't distract from her great performance.It's sad,shatteringly intimate,and poingnantly insightful,without a trace of cliche.Easily her best work.Katherine Keener is another story altogether.Her character Maxine could send the most confident,shallow,thick-skinned lady-killer on the planet into therapy for a year,clutching a teddy bear and sucking thier thumbs.She scared the [insert euphamism] out of me,but in a good way.Orson Bean is pants-wettingly hilarious,as is the priceless Mary Kay Place("I'm sorry but I can't understand a word you're saying").My only complaint is they could've gotten a more convincing actor to play John Malkovich.This DVD has some neat extras,especially the interview with director Spike Jonze.Without giving it away,let me just suggest not watching it too soon after dinner.Also check out the Page With Nothing On It.Genius.Highly recommended for anyone sick of the same movie over and over.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretentious doesn't mean good.
Review: I like a lot of movies. This movie was truly different. Different is not always good. I owned this movie for two days, then traded it at the used DVD shop for something better. What a waste of John Cusak's talent.
Rating:
Summary: NOT A COMEDY
Review: This so called comedy is one of the worst films I have ever seen.While I love Cusack and Diaz this film ranks as their most lackluster performances. I must admit the the storyline is the most unique in recent times. But this alone cannot carry a film. The repetitive nature of this film adds to the annoying nature of it. For example, falling out of thin air onto a hiway on-ramp, while humerous the first time, lost its affect after the 8th and 9th time. So, if you are wondering weather or not you should view this garbage, my advice is a resounding no!
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate HEADTWIST
Review: One of the best movies in recent memory, Bein John malkovich is certainly among the most original Hollywood films ever made. Containing stunning visuals, positively confusing plot and hilarious situations, it is a ture masterpiece. If you like movies such as Con Air or Eraser, this might not the be what you are looking for, but if you are keeping an open mind or looking for a challenging comedy, this is a definitive answer to yor prayers. Being John Malkovich makes art out of oddity. A true masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Comedy, despair, isolation
Review: Film is a medium uniquely suited to depictions of alienation. This may seem ironic, given its collaborative nature, but the impact that can be created when a camera focuses on a single isolated individual and begins to tell his or her story is singular and powerful. A good example from the last 30 years would be Taxi Driver. One would not immediately expect video director Spike Jonze's debut feature, Being John Malkovich, to be compared to the above-mentioned film. On the surface, it appears to be a fantasy/screwball comedy with an inventive hook: a secret passageway in a midtown office leads directly to the inside of actor John Malkovich's psyche. Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is a puppeteer in New York City with grandiose notions about his work. He appears in the opening scene as a caricature of the unkempt, willfully anti-social artist. At the same time he obviously feels a great deal of connection to what he does. The early scenes of Craig working with his lovingly detailed puppets are quite moving and sad, especially when it becomes apparent that his art is a means of acting out his unfulfilled longings. His wife, Lotte (Cameron Diaz), who has a need for a family and a loving relationship with her husband, sublimates by turning their apartment into a menagerie with stray animals and a chimp suffering from unresolved childhood trauma. They make an extremely plausible couple. When Craig is finally driven to look for paying work, he easily gains employment as a filer in an office located on the seventh-and-a-half floor of a midtown Manhattan office building. But more importantly, it is in this office where the film begins to take shape due to Craig's dual discovery of Maxine (Catherine Keener) - a vampish, manipulative brunette with whom he immediately is smitten and soundly rejected by - and the mysterious portal leading to John Malkovich's head. Craig is initially awed by the "metaphysical implications" of his discovery but soon, with Maxine's goading, is eagerly exploiting this access and selling tickets at $200 a pop. Such lunacy is par for this film's course, and made visual by Lance Acord's creatively demented cinematography. Alternately bewildering and charming, Being John Malkovich doesn't spend much time building characters or situations. Rather, it plops you down in a morass of desperate, needy souls, all vying for dominance for the few minutes they can manage it. One thing the film had me thinking about was the desire and pursuit that form the premise of celebrity culture as we know it. It's the reason you read Premiere and Vibe, watch Fanatic and Access Hollywood, or know anything about what Gwyneth Paltrow wore to the Oscars. It's also the reason you occasionally think that you're a failure because you haven't yet achieved your life's ambition, even if you're not quite sure what that ambition is. Celebrity culture shows and sells you who you want to be or might be, if only you could. Celebrity culture shows and sells you consciousness in and as any number of sparkling, unachievable selves. Basically, Being John Malkovich is about celebrity culture, as it inspires, frustrates and pummels you into such desire. Unfortunately, the obligatory explanation for the portal is severely anti-climactic, but the film's final moments are incredibly sad, with Craig wholly addicted to the erasure of his identity, as it is his only means of being close to the things that he so deeply craves.
Rating:
Summary: Great on the big screen...
Review: ...holds it's own at home. A truly original film.
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