Rating: 
Summary: slow, arty... see only if you're in that kind of mood
Review: The plot has been described by other reviewers. I am surprised that so many people rave about this movie, both within and out of amazon.com. I found it to be no great shakes. My opinion is that when you're in a foreign country you should go out, try to adapt, see what's hot and not, basically live a bit like them and see how you like it. Clearly the makers of this movie don't agree with me. Else they wouldn't have made the lead actress (who plays the part impeccably though) sit in her underwear and stare out of her hotel room picture window for so long. Maybe its meant to 'mean something', but personally, as a guy who's been to his share of non-native language countries, I didn't identify with that at all. The only funny part was when Bill Murray was shooting the scotch ad. The end was very well made, but that makes it a sad movie. Other than that, its painstakingly slow.
That the director could show a bonding between a man and woman at a deep level without using nudity or fluid exchange is creditable. I guess.
Rating: 
Summary: waste of money
Review: All I heard were rave reviews for this movie, so I bought it. DO NOT buy this movie. Rent it if you dare. It sucks.
Rating:
Summary: AREN'T THE JAPANESE WEIRD
Review: This film presents an ill-informed, naive, even racist view of Japan. The two lead actors are great and the cinematography is lovely, but it is also full of ugly age-old stereotypes. The two short jokes -- in the elevator and in the shower -- are cheap shots. I'm Japanese and 5'11" and was insulted. And I know the adjustable shower head was purposely lowered. The filmmaker pretends that no one in Japan understands English, despite the fact that most people born after World War II know enough English to know when they were being mocked by two foreigners in a sushi bar. The film follows the tired "aren't the Japanese weird" line that first-time visitors love to mine for a few laughs. I guess that's the disappointing thing about the movie's popularity, how many educated, well-travelled, liberal thinking people love it. Several Japanese people have defended the film as well, but that's not surprising. Japanese are adverse to openly critizing others, especially when that person has been a guest in their home or country. Japanese are, for the most part, a very polite people. Apparently, that's a weakness or at least something to exploit. Sofia Coppola seems like a polite person too. But she is so sheltered by privilege, pedigree and hipness that no one dare call her a racist. Or, maybe she's not. Maybe she's just saying that the best thing to do when you don't understand something is to make fun of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great music, Great film (for those who can appreciate style)
Review: Beautifully shot. Beautifully rendered. Beautifully told. Great music. You will sit through the silences, the pauses and wonder why this film has already taken its grip on you. You will mimic key phrases from the film and wonder why a film so poignant and tender can make your tummy ache with laughter. You will shake your head, laugh and cry all at the same time just because everything in this movie is so heartbreakingly true. Feel the love. Grab your copy today. (DVD extras aren't so great, but it's worth it just to have a good copy)
Rating:
Summary: NO!
Review: Do not watch this. I'm serious. I watched it with intensity for two hours hoping something would tie it together. No. No direction at all, no plot, nothing. Now, I have to admit that Bill Murray had his good scenes (because he's a funny guy). Also that the movie had great artistically composed scences. The composistion was amazing. You could pause the film on any frame and have an amazing peice.
Rating: 
Summary: a masterpiece
Review: what more to say ? Great American cinema isn't dead after all... Sofia Coppola follows in her father and cousin's footsteps and establishes herself as one of the most gifted moviemaker of her generation, ranking high alongside Scorsese or Tarantino.
Rating:
Summary: You will have one of 3 responses: love, hate, or huh?
Review: Sofia Coppola took a big gamble making this movie, IMO ' and I think she succeeded beyond her own expectations. But mine is not a universal opinion, as it's easy to see from scrolling through these reviews. It's a movie that kind of defies categorization: it's not really a romance, it's sure not an action thriller or a mystery or sci-fi or fantasy or horror. So what is it?
I think Lost in Translation is a visual essay on the modern condition: disconnection from self, others, and ones surroundings. Here's the setup: Bill Murray plays American middle-aged actor Bob Harris (a generic name, if ever there was one, prob standing in for Everyman), in Tokyo to film a commercial for Santori whiskey. He's bored, horribly jetlagged, at sea with Japanese language and the accented attempts of the Japanese to speak English to him, lonely, and disaffected. And here's one thing: I've never before seen a movie with Bill Murray in it that I liked to any degree whatsoever; all schlock. But he's been underrated, I see now: he's absolutely superb in Lost in Translation.
Our man Bob keeps encountering another American (Scarlett Johansson, of Girl with the Pearl Earring fame), equally out of synch with the time zones, more or less abandoned by her photographer husband, and already, in her young life, feeling colossally alone.
They strike up a relationship of sorts, and in spite of their obvious age difference, become soul mates forever ' and there's no sex.
Amazingly done. It's a beautifully understated film, sad and funny, bittersweet and gentle, subtle and forceful. I loved it. Can you tell?
Rating:
Summary: It's okay--and maybe that's just what they want me to think
Review: This movie isn't intended to be a feel-good movie. It is intended to provoke us to think about loneliness. IT IS A COMMENTARY ON THE SEPARATION THAT EXISTS IN A POST-MODERN WORLD FROM A DIRECTOR WHO IS THOROUGHLY POST-MODERN IN HER WORLD-VIEW. We've seen this before, many times, from Woody Allen. But Allen's movies, particularly his classics "Manhattan", "Annie Hall" and later works such as "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors", contain characters that are relatable. Somehow, we care about them, or are at least interested in the outcome of the plot. I REVISIT WOODY ALLEN'S BEST MOVIES EVERY FEW YEARS. I DON'T THINK THAT I'LL EVER GO BACK TO THIS, EVEN THOUGH IT IS WELL-DIRECTED AND WELL-ACTED. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS. While the acting performances are fine in Lost in Translation, and many of the situations are humerous, the characters are not endearing. THE CHARACTERS ARE SO LONELY THAT THEY'RE JUST BLAH. For instance, it is a thoroughly appropriate reflection of Copolla's post-modern philosophy that the characters not end up together at the end of the movie. But the characters are so boring that I didn't care one way or the other.
Rating:
Summary: short review
Review: i don't have much to say about this. i fell asleep 20 minutes through it. i'm not sure what happend in those 20 minutes, due to the fact that it was flat out UNINTERESTING. and that's it.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: No plot + no direction + 3 mildly funny Bill Murray scenes = 2 hours of my life I wasted. Enough said.
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