Simone

Rating:
Summary: Simone will be..
Review: Simone is the story of a has been director who never really was. Al Pacino plays Victor Turansky, a two time oscar nominated director who has just been fired from his production company by his ex wife because he chased off high profile actress Nicola Andress (played by Winona Ryder). As he is leaving the lot, a computer geek approaches him and tells him he has the answer to all his problems. The answer lies in a computer hard drive that holds the secret to Simulation One. Sim One is a computer code that will create the perfect humanoid actress. When Hank (the computer geek mentioned above) dies, he leaves the hard drive to Turansky. When Turansky puts in the hard drive and see what Sim One looks like, he becomes convinced. He sets on a path to finish the movie that he nearly lost everything for. What he ends up with is a film that stars an actress that that doesnt realy exist, but will not go away. Sim One becomes Simone and she takes on a life of her own. She becomes not only an actress, but a pop star, an Oscar winner and love interest to people who have never even laid eyes on her. Everything goes according to plan until Turansky realizes that Simone is ruining his life and he has to make her go away. What he doesn't realize is that , he is more disposable than she is. What he has to do, is the unthinkable. Kill Simone. I really enjoyed this movie. Al Pacino was amazing and Rachel Roberts is destined to be a star. She gave life to Simone, and made her real.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most pleasing Hollywood satires in ages
Review: Sadly it is often the case that Hollywood is unlikely to laugh at itself, but Simone is a rare example. After the lead actress on Viktor Taransky's (Al Pacino) latest movie walks out he's left footing a huge bill, unless he can find a suitable replacement in time. In steps a crazy computer genius who has created Simulation One, a piece of software that can create a digital actress - Simone - who won't walk out on her film, will always follow her director's guidelines and can also channel equal parts Meryl Streep and Audrey Hepburn through use of a complicated network.

What makes Simone so enjoyable is that it's very very clever without sacrificing its humour. As the attention is shifted away from Taransky and onto Simone, issues of creation versus creator and the fickleness of an audience are brought into play. Whilst the scales tip and Simone overshadows Taransky, he attempts to sabotage her in interviews and even on film with the deliberately atrocious yet attributed to Simone production I Am Pig. Here the nature of celebrity is explored in its entireity, even if not in the most surprising way.

Al Pacino gives a nicely lighthearted turn as the troubled Taransky and kudos should go to Winona Ryder for sending herself up so well. Unfortunately, Catherine Keener (so good in Being John Malkovich) isn't given much to work with, but apart from that the casting is pretty much spot-on. In addition, there are some absolutely hilarious scenes, most involving Taransky's attempt to sabotage Simone by making her say controversial things concerning smoking, immigration and the flavour of dolphin meat. All of this is great stuff, milked for every penny it's worth. Whilst the satire might not be as coldly effective as it was in Niccol's previous work Gattaca, it's certainly timely and at the end of the day just plain enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Someone...should have said "hey, wait a minute"
Review: The basic premise of S1m0ne sounds promising. However, as is the case with many movies having one person with too much control (written/directed/produced by same person in this case), someone needed to say "hey, wait a minute. What about...?"

What about computer technology? Using a 5.25 floppy in the movie is bad enough. Having a computer-illiterate movie director suddenly have instantaneous knowledge (and a dedicated keyboard) of a rather complex software package on a run-of-the -mill PC was a major stumbling block.

What about driving a car in the reclined position (with a mannequin in the driver seat)? The less said about that, the better.

What about having a teenage girl as the hero? (Well, technically, she was 12, but it's about the same thing). Never having any exposure to Dad's afore-mentioned-mediocre PC-with- fantastic-software, she is quite the hero on it.

With these three major blunders out of the way, the rest of the movie had unrewarded promise and yet, it was still mildly entertaining. I liked Winona Ryder for some reason. I would suggest renting rather than buying.

Rating:
Summary: Virtually Wonderful
Review: In a cyber-age version of Pygmalion (aka My Fair Lady) Al Pacino (Viktor in the movie) brings to life and to the big screen a digital super-star. A virtual actress he names Simone (from a computer program called Simulation One or Sim One).

The story has Pacino, a washed-out movie producer/director creating an international sensation using a computer generated actress with the essences of such film greats as Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, and others. With all of that talent, charisma, and sex appeal wrapped into one woman, how can he fail? He does and that is what this story is about. He unwittingly creates a monster even he can't control.

I read, many years ago, that the Cray computer is capable of creating virtual people. The example I read had John Wayne digitalized and then inserted into any movie a director so chose. That technology comes to fruition in Simone. Now that the power of a Cray is close being reduced to a computer the size of a laptop can the virtual actor be that far away?

Go see Simone. It is light, wonderful, funny, and well acted...and Simone is a babe to behold. Highly recommended. Cammy Diaz A @ L

Rating:
Summary: A Star is Simone
Review: Simone is a very interesting film about an aging director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) who is making a film called Sunrise Sunset and his leading lady Nicola (Winona Ryder) drops off of the set. With little time left to find an actress who will play the role, he receives a CD-Rom from a man named Hank who died recently and had an idea of how Taransky could solve his problem. In goes the disk and poof! Simone (a.k.a. Simulation One) is born. Simone (played by the beautiful Rachel Roberts) is the very actress that Taransky needs and is an instant hit with everyone. Simone's popularity leads to dozens of magazine cover shots, her own perfume, record deal, and an Oscar for Best Actress. Taransky becomes overwhelmed with trying to keep people from believing that something's up and tries to ruin her reputation but everyone still loves her! I won't tell you the end of the movie but in real life nobody could possibly get away with that act for that long. but that is the beauty benind Simone. It drags a little at the beginning and sometimes gets a little dull but is still a good film. The ending is very interesting and leaves the door open for a sequel but judging by the fact that this film didn't do too well at the box office, a sequel will most likely not be coming.

Rating:
Summary: Very good and interesting insight into cult of celebraty.
Review: Humans will worship anything, be it a wooden statue, sports hero or movie star as shown by the excellent and amusing "Simone". This film stars Al Pacino as Viktor Taransky, a washed up movie director who is given a program by an odd man that enables him to create a virtual movie star. As he is fed up with snotty movie stars such as the annoying woman played by Winona Ryder, he soon starts making films using his virtual star Simone (short for simulation one) played by the easy on the eyes Rachel Roberts.

I enjoyed this film for many reasons. It's fun, witty, and realistic and really exposes our society's stupid obsession with stupid movies or rock stars. In this culture of instant celebrates such as those created on awful reality tv shows like "idol" , it's refreshing to see something like this come out of hollywood. As the song says: "there ain't no hope in brad and jen, stop grovelling at their feet. You worship any mortal man who lights up the silver screen."

God is the only one worthy of worship .

Thanks for reading.

Rating:
Summary: A fun little romp
Review: Victor Turansky(played by Al Pacino) is a director/screenwriter unwilling to compromise with the inflated ego of his current film's star. Due to the starlet's endless demands, which are beginning to alter his movie, he fires her. She consequently threatens to sue if he uses any of the footage of her.

Lacking the funding to finish his movie, he is blessed by a surprise left to him by a deceased computer programmer - a program that will perfectly animate a movie star. Sim1.

Delighted, Victor creates a woman who exists only for the sake of bringing his art to life, who he calls Simone. She performs perfectly - a dream come true, brought to life by computer technology.

When the people watching his completed film see Simone's beauty and her soulful performance, they never suspect that she is the result of a computer program - they begin to form a cult of personality around her & turn her into a movie-star idol.

Victor's personal life is progressively being destroyed by the difficulties implicit in fabricating her life outside of the movies.
Flustered by the challenge of keeping her nonexistence secret, he eventually tries to disenchant the public with her, and fails miserably. (While the hypnotic effect her personality has on the public ultimately wears a bit thin, for the sake of the movie in general I can shrug off my own disbelief)

The premise is pretty simple, but I enjoy watching the way it plays out because of some of the weird philosophical angles.
This movie is more than a simple comment on moviestardom... it works as a funny little comment on personality - how you're creating your personality & reality - not very directly, but nonetheless so.
I wouldn't describe it as profound & soul shaking, but I think it succeeds aptly as a light weird comedy.

I give it four stars because I don't think it's captivating enough to really withstand the test of time as a movie.

While I enjoyed it... I'd say it's SOMEWHAT similar to Charlie Kaufmann's work but lacks the genius of Kaufmann's "Being John Malcovich" & "Adaptation". If you're interested in Simone, I feel comfortable recommending it - and I'd recommend you also look into "Being John Malcovich" if you haven't seen it yet.

Rating:
Summary: A fun little romp
Review: While I enjoyed it, I'd say it's SOMEWHAT similar to Charlie Kaufmann's work, but lacks the drama and the superb delicacy and genius of Kaufmann's "Being John Malcovich" and "Adaptation". If you're interested in Simone, I feel comfortable recommending it - and I'd recommend you also look into "Being John Malcovich" if you haven't yet.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, but tried to do too much
Review: Simone is about a very artistic film director (Pacino) who feels underappreciated toward himself and toward movies, that they should be creative works of art that are created by the visionary director rather than the stars that act in them.
At a low point in his career, Viktor (Pacino) inherits a computer program from a scientist he met at a film conference awhile back. It turns out that this program is the key to everything he's ever wanted in film-making; a completely real looking actress that he can design and control every word and every feeling of in order to shape his movies exactly the way he envisions without the pain of dealing with whiny actors and actresses.
His first movie with her as the lead not only saves his career, but is such a smash hit that the public becomes ravenous for more. Viktor hides her from the public constantly, which only fuels their desire to see her and love for her.
Eventually, things get so out of hand that Viktor decides to get everyone to back off by making Simone unlikable. He stars her in a humiliating film and has her go on a talk show denouncing things people tend to like and endorsing things like "eating dolphin" that most people tend to frown upon. None of these things work, and only serves to give Simone a more multi-dimentional personality that facinates the public.
So then he decides the only way to get rid of her is to "kill" her. This backfires, and he is accused of murdering Simone and covering up the evidence.
In my review, I won't say anything particular about the ending, but all in all, Simone is a very enjoyable movie.
I think it should be noted that probably the real reason this movie wasn't a larger hit with moviegoers lies in a couple very interesting points:
1. It is incorrectly classified as a Comedy first, and a Drama second. It should be the other way around because people going to the movies expecting a flat out comedy would be duly disappointed. It is more of a drama that has funny parts.
2. The movies tries to do "too much" in the way of themes and messages to the audience. At first its about the morality of digital creation and deception, then it becomes about Viktor's obsession with wanting to be recognized, then it's about the creation developing a life of its own. The movie did very well incorporating all of these things together, but did not conclude any of them with any great degree of satisfaction. I think it would've been more successful focusing on just one of the themes and developing it to the fullest.
But aside from all of that, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and think that it never got the attention it deserved. So that is why I write the review and give 5 stars. Very good.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Amazing!
Review: Not only is the star in the movie, Simone, amazing, but the movie itself is! It's a very fun movie to watch and I never get tired of watching it. It's also quite funny as well.

Victor Taransky is an unsuccessful movie producer. That is until he meets a "crazy" man that dies only about a week after. With his death, Victor inherits Simone, a fake computer image or figure of a person that seems so real he uses her in his movies. She is beautiful and absolutely flawless. People are astounded by her and he immediately becomes famous. At first, the fame, like always, is wonderful, but later he realizes how everyone is simply in love with Simone and she is beginning to take over his life. At first, he tries to ruin her as a star, but when everyone is still in love with Simone after everything he's done, he decides to finally get rid of her and come up with an excuse for her absence. But with that, he is accused of murder along with several other things such as keeping her prisoner in the studio. Find out what happens by watching Simone! It will keep you entertained over and over again no matter how many times you watch it!