Rating: 
Summary: A Quirky Film
Review: The World According to Garp is a wonderfully quirky movie that does a great job of capturing the spirit of John Irving's novel. For all those that complain about this movie not doing justice to the book, I wonder if you have really even read the book. How anyone could even think of turning this book into a movie is beyond me, but to have it succeed is very special. The movie is refreshing in that it doesn't pull any punches. Cruel things happen in the book, and they are presented as they happened in the movie. For someone looking for a feel-good story, watch out, as there are many layers of tragedy in this movie, and they can catch you off guard, though the film is too ironic to be a tear jerker. Robin Williams performance is also refreshing. Presented with an extremely complex character in an extremely complex movie, he gives an understated, warm performance as Garp, much different from his usual frantic comedy or his forced dramatic roles. The rest of the cast is great too, especially John Lithgow who is unforgettable as Roberta. A great movie, whether you are familiar with the book or not.
Rating:
Summary: a funny way of looking at life
Review: Robin Williams, John Lithgow and Glenn Close are all stars in their collective first major movie. Keeping close to the story by John Irving, T.S. Garp ("Terribly Sexy" he tells people) is born to Jenny Fields, a nurse who only has sex once with a soldier under her care in 1944, for the sole purpose of conceiving a child. (Witness the horror of her New England parents, played in the opening scene by Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy). Garp lives a most unusual childhood, meeting his wife Helen as a teenager, and becoming a writer as an adult. His mother also becomes a writer, writing her memoir "A Sexual Suspect", and garnering legions of feminist fans, to whom she opens her home as a giant commune. Thus Roberta (John Lithgow in drag) enters their lives. She is a former professional linebacker and soon becomes close to Garp and his family. Garp solely misses the father he never met as he muddles through his confusing complicated life as son, husband, father and man. This is a film for anyone who is a fan of Robin Williams. It is a forerunner to the slightly heartbroken and heartbreaking characters he immortalized in "Dead Poets Society", "Good Will Hunting", "What Dreams May Come" and "Being Human."
Rating: 
Summary: Garp
Review: They should have called this movie "My mom's a freak. A nurse has [relations] with a soldier during the war and he dies. His last words were Garp. So she names her kid that and goes on to be a big freakisk leader of a women's liberation front that rip out their togues. Garp grows up and his wife cheats on him with a college kid. A bizarre but nevertheless interesting movie.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Put - A Great Film
Review: This is easily one of the 10 best comedy films of all time. Robin Williams showed us he was a great actor in his very first starring roll in a feature film. Glenn Close was fantastic and John Lithgow should have won an Acdemy Award for his performance. Unfortuneately, this film came out long before comedy films won any awards. It is definately a timeless piece that should be seen.
Rating:
Summary: A touching film, Williams' best?
Review: There's not much on this DVD but the film, but it's a very good film. It's warm, touching and sentimental, but in an extremely offbeat way. How normal can a movie be that has John Lithgow (very memorably) as an ex-NFL star turned transsexual, a society of vengeful women who remove their own tongues and a lead character aggressively conceived by his mother on the lap of a dying stranger in an army hospital? And yet for all that, and for all its humor and spark, it is still very human and very real. It can really work your emotions, and the ending sequence tying back in as it does to the beginning, always leaves me a little shaken. The danger is that, having seen Robin Williams play this same sort of dramatic role so many times since, one could easily dismiss this performance offhand. But this was his first real dramatic role, and I think his most sincere. Garp and the Fisher King, I think, are the two Williams movies I can recommend without reservation.
Rating:
Summary: A Sterling Cast All Around
Review: As a long time Robin Williams fan, I fully expected to love his performance as the title character in this one-of-a-kind movie, based on the almost-impossible-to-read book by John Irving. Williams is grand here - far better than he was in "Good Will Hunting" for which he received an Academy Award. But the best part of the movie rests in the supporting performances from Glenn Close as Jenny (Garp's mom) and John Lithgow as the transexual Roberta. Both were Oscar nominated - deservedly so - for their rich, uncompromising performances, that transcend stereotypes and involve the audience every step of the way. Mary Beth Hurt as Garp's wife, hits her notes well, especially in the heart-wrenching scenes of marital infidelity that ultimately cost her dearly. Aside from these terrific characterizations, the movie boasts a number of unforgettable lines...."Garp bit Bonky" is a classic (when Williams bites a neighbor's dog), and who can ever forget the car coasting accident when Garp arrives home early (and stealthily) only to back into a car holding his wife and her lover (who pays dearly for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.) Uniquely enjoyable, and uniformly rich in every way, this is a better movie than "Cider House Rules" or "Hotel New Hampshire" - Irving's other two big screen adaptations. Should be in every serious DVD collector's short list of Must-haves!
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Movies of All Time!
Review: This is one of the best movies of all time. It's creativity and intelligence say a lot about the human race, even though often wayward, contains love in the places you least expect it to be.
Robin Williams is magnificent in this film. It is a little odd, but you leave the film with a lot of love and appreciation for the human race and a lot of sadness about the human race's shortcomings. The movie comes from a brilliant John Irving novel! Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"
Rating: 
Summary: Compared to the book this stunk
Review: I'm in the 11th grade and I just read the book and i thought that it was incredible. I figured maybe if the book was so good then the movie would be good. Right? WRONG. The movie on its own was ok. If you don't read the book more then likely you wouldn't understand the movie though. Even though i found many differences between the book and dvd. If you want a real treat, read the book. This movie is a good example of why you can't make a 600 page book into a two hour movie. Compared the book, I thought this movie was trash. The book was an incredible piece of literature and this movie came no where close. The actors do do a very good job in the movie and Robin Williams was incredibly. I felt there were many scenes were dissappointing. FOr instance, I found the end very dissapointing. I won't say what happens, but thats just my opinion. Read the book, much better then the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to follow.
Review: This movie was a disappointment. At first i thought it was because I had read the book first. But no. The story told in the movie was different enough that I didn't care for the way they put it together. It is hard to follow for those in my family that haven't read the book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Review: This is one of my all-time favorite movies. Robin Williams is such a great performer, and really gets to show his range in this one. I cry and fall off the couch laughing every time I watch it.
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