Simone

Rating:
Summary: it's OKAY to like SIMONE
Review: I saw SIMONE this summer with some friends and i LOVED IT. its refresshing to see pacino doing some comedy, albeit light. I liked his performance. it is inkeeping with his usual brand of character- the crazy hair, stooped shoulders and black suits, but this finds him a little more eccentric than usual. Catherine Keener is less exciting than usual, but she could play a corpse and i'd love her performance. what carries the film is andrew niccol's production. it's a beautifully shot movie with sweeping shots of hollywood sound stages, neat camera angles and black and white designer clothes which are a tongue-in-cheek way to portray the elitest world of Victor and his simulation. I found it to be an cute little film not to be treated as Oscar meat but as entertainment. i was obviously in the right mood for this film when i saw it because usually i hate movies that are fluffy and light (and, lest i forget to mention that simone is a babe). if you're looking for a movie that will be on the top 100 list some century look for somthing else. simone is a fun flick, something out of the ordinary and not to be taken too seriously.

Rating:
Summary: S1Mone
Review: I saw S1mone in the movies and thought it was OK. Its about a director who works with the perfect actress. Is it a drama, or a comedy, or what? The movie and some of its dialogue seems like an inside-joke of a director finding the perfect actress to work with, but I dont think the audience can relate with that humor. I'm sure actual directors and people in the industry would be rolling on the floor. The movie is very drawn out, but I'm sure thats because its supposed to be artsy, or maybe its to stretch the story for more than it is? I heard that this is supposed to be released in the Infinifilm line, but I'm not exactly positive.
I would rent it, not buy it. Just my two cents.

Rating:
Summary: S1M0NE 1S AWES0ME
Review: Al Pacino stars in a hilarious movieabout fooling Hollywood and
the illusion of reality. Viktor Taransky stars as Viktor Taransky
a succesful director who's top actress walked away from the job.
So, he bumps into this crazy computor genius who creates actors
(or as they explain in the film, vactors)He whips up a completely
authentic, completely sexy actress he names Simone after
Simulation One. So, her popularity becomes out of control. And
it starts to make Viktor think that he created this thing that
he can't even control. What will happen next? Will he slip in
the disc that destroys her, or will it work?

Rating:
Summary: Pacino makes good rebound from insomnia
Review: Al Pacino seemed very much back in his element in this right watchable flick, after his last movie had him lumbering around interminably, unable to sleep in the land of the midnight Sun. This time he plays a down-on-luck movie director whose career suddenly takes off spectacularly after he inherits a remarkable computer-animation device, called SIMULATION ONE. It can create on-screen images that viewers can't tell from real performers. With it he creates a "perfect" virtual "actress", whom he names "S1MONE", as a contraction of the device's name. Simone becomes such an overnight sensation of an "actress" that her creator is mobbed by fans and press vying for a glimpse of her. To explain why she never appears in person, he must start advancing a scenario that paints Simone to be the ultimate recluse. Doting fans still love her, and she soon wins two Oscars, which she accepts by remote video. Many seem to have trashed this movie. Maybe it offends some for being politically incorrect -- it's about an entity being entirely manipulated by a man, and that entity convincingly appears to the public to be a woman. Maybe that's too close for comfort for the PC crowd. Or maybe it's the more tangible threat posed by the likes of Simone, to eliminate the need for real flesh-and-blood actresses. But would the same not follow for actors as well? Anyhow, the plot thickens as Pacino's character finds he can pull Simone's cyberstrings and manipulate her into a cinematic sensation and a gold mine, but her burgeoning fame offscreen becomes more than he can deal with. He resolves he must end the illusion one way or another. I won't give away any more of what follows, but I for one do recommend it as a cinematic romp well worth the ride.

Rating:
Summary: It deserves 1,000 stars
Review: Simone was real. Real Funny. Real Cleaver. Real Great!!! ...
It was a refreshingly funny Hollywood satire. And it's also a
movie you should definately not give away the ending. What ya'll
think, didn't happen. It had thousands of funny lines. And really
funny and unforgettable performances.
... Al Pacino plays Viktor Taransky, a not famous film
director who's leading lady(Winona Ryder in a funny cameo) fired him because of her trailer. Even though it was reeeaaally big.
Well, that day, he meets a dying man named Hank, who has software
to digitally create actors (or as it's described in the movie,
Vactors) Though, he resists at first, he whips up a 110% sexy
totally believable cyber actress that he names SIMONE(Rachel Roberts (111). Her popularity started to naturally rise and rise, until it got out of control. Well, it was still rising,
until the public started verbally killing him. They just needed
her to appear in public. He develops software that lets her. But
never up close to the people. Because if they touch her, poof!
She's gone. Just like that. (Viktor can't even get too close to
his computor. Later in the movie, Viktor was starting to believe,
It's not fun being replaced by a computorized performer, so he
tries every way to destroy her, he even goes out on the Pacific
Ocean and throws her software in the water. Until he discovers
"She's Indestrutable!" ... I know Mr. Niccol
wouldn't give us a sad ending!!! ... It's very cool.

Rating:
Summary: SIMulacra comedy high ON laughtErs
Review: Andrew Niccol delves into his favourite theme dehumanization here as in his earlier Gattaca and script for The Truman Show. Yet it is here in Simone that he is at his most hilarious and shrewd when this wicked satire lampoons the obsession of human with technology and how the creator becomes enslaved to it as in the Pygmalion and Frankenstein fables.

Ravaged director Victor Taransky (Al Pacino) is given a chance to resuscitate his lackluster career. His production is wrecked by the exit of his actress (Winona Ryder) and his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) who helms Amalgamated Pictures terminates his contact. A deranged scientist whiz hands him a computer programme where Simulation One, a luscious cybermodel (Rachel Roberts) is extracted to star in his new movie. Taransky is embraced by the public and press for discovering this sparkling ingenue.

From then the humour rolls in. The suspense too - when Tarnasky has to play along to convince that Simone is real, but the success becomes too overwhelming that when Taransky tries to remove her, he is charged for murder. SIMONE manages to acquit itself with sly humour and top-notch acting from maverick Al Pacino and the excellent Catherine Keener in her tart and sass. It explores the dark side of human with light humour and is disturbing as a social commentary on the adverse effects on computer proliferation. To think of it - last year's Final Fantasy surfaces grippingly as a totally digitized movie to justify this claim. This comedy is smart, screechingly funny and unpretentious fun that comes as real and into-your-face as it can be.

Rating:
Summary: Another great film with Al Pacino
Review: This is not the best work that Al Paino has ever done but yet it is still a very entertaining film that is different than most comodies. The Story handels of a director (Al Pacino) that seems to be on his down fall in Hollywood until some crazy old insane guy comes up to him and tells him about this program he built that could save his carrier, well Pacino says No, the crazy guy dies and inherites him the program which he later uses in his films.... The programm is a woman, a woman that looks as realalistic as me and you and he puts her in his films that become blockbuster hits... the only problem is everyone want to see this woman called Simone in person...now how is Pacino going to hide this hardrive (simone) from the world, after all everyone thinks she is a real person. The film is great and not a waste of time but if you are looking for a typical Al pacino shoot up, mafia, blind guy love story your looking for the wrong film. This film has no killing, or violence in it and is truly a film the whole family can enjoy and have a few laughs at. One word ENJOY.

Rating:
Summary: Tinseltown pokes fun at its own Make-Believe
Review: So, what does a third-tier, struggling director do when his temperamental female lead quits the picture because her trailer isn't the biggest on the studio lot, and then gets fired by the studio boss who also happens to be his ex-wife?. Reminisce, certainly, about Hollywood's Golden Age when the studios literally owned the stars in their stables and the almighty directors didn't have to put up with such horse doody. At least, that what Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) does in SIMONE, and then some.

As luck would have it, Taransky is bequeathed a miracle piece of high tech software, Simulation One, by its genius inventor, recently dead of an ocular tumor caused by too long and too close attention to his computer display. Using it, Taransky secretly generates his virtual and 100% controllable star, SIMONE. Unleashed on unsuspecting film audiences via a series of kitschy films, Viktor's creation takes on a life of "her" own. She's adored by millions, and indestructible. SIMONE becomes the tail that wags Viktor's dog.

Unfortunately, a lot is askew with this film. Pacino acts his heart out, but perhaps comedy isn't his forte. Catherine Keener as his ex, Elaine, is totally unbelievable as the studio head, who, even though she admits having slept and groveled her way to the top, surely can't be so dense as not to realize something about her studio's biggest star is amiss. Lainey (Evan Rachel Wood), the couple's daughter, is cute and well-adjusted almost to the point of nausea. And the simple mechanics of the legerdemain by which Taransky presents SIMONE to the world stretches credulity. I mean, assuming Viktor didn't install that hologram generator on top of the L.A. Coliseum all by himself, wouldn't those who did be just a little suspicious? And what computer accepts five and a quarter inch floppy disks anymore for chrissakes? However, the character of the sleazy tabloid publisher hot on Simone's trail is droll in an icky sort of way. More importantly, the film is redeemed by its pointed commentary on the nature of the Make-Belive which Hollywood creates and which the fans cling to beyond all reason. Are we so starved for heroes that we can be hopelessly bedazzled by whatever pretty fantasy package is presented to us, no matter the depth of the illusion? (Yes, well, politicians do it all the time, don't they?) The irony is that technology will soon likely be able to create a cinematic SIMONE in "real life", and then we shall see.

Oh, and who's the actress who plays SIMONE? According to the end credits, which maintain the fiction, SIMONE appears as herself. A few minutes of diligent searching on the Web will provide her identity, and then you'll have the answer for the trivia question posed around the office water cooler. I'll never tell.

Rating:
Summary: Simone - 4 stars; Pacino - 5!
Review: Andrew Niccol wrote the screenplay and directed the new dramatic comedy, "Simone". Niccol's biggest claim to fame is "The Truman Show", and some of that same "can you believe this is happening?" comedy weighs on the audience during "Simone". Once again, Niccol gives us a "movie within a movie".

We're not accustomed to seeing that much of Al Pacino. Given his brilliant performance as Detective Dormer in "Insomnia", earlier this summer, it seems unlikely that Pacino is going to make very many waves in the somewhat lighthearted role (think Henry Higgins) of Viktor Taransky, in this satire. To think so, however, is to underestimate the brilliant Pacino, whose talent for over- the-top comic drama came shining through in "Scent of a Woman" and the farcical role of a modern day Lucifer in "The Devil's Advocate".

Here, Pacino is the producer of a film, and the creator of a digital film actress (Simone), who takes the place of the leading lady who has left his film. Panicky, Viktor does not disclose Simone's origins, and plants her in the minds of moviegoers as a new star. Alas, she is far more successful than her creator ever dreamed of. Viktor alternates from suave and self-possessed to disoriented, and unable to distinguish what is real from the fiction he created. Viktor becomes almost schizophrenic in dealing with his creation. As Viktor, Pacino converses with Simone, and then answers himself as the voice of Simone; can he distinguish the difference? Or, is she his screen successful alter ego? Ultimately, his jealousy of his creature plays out in the film as a question of free will; will Pacino expose himself by exposing who Simone really is?

The movie underscores what a tremendous series of tools technology has created for filmmakers.
It's difficult, even knowing that Simone is not real, to not believe in her. The movie allows us to see how the technology creates an image that is the ultimate actress, one whom will capture the imagination of the American public.

Catherine Keener, Elias Koteas and Jay Mohr are somewhat wasted in minor roles in the film. But the timing, the technology, and the intelligence of Niccol's film make it a movie to see and remember. And, for its sheer differences from this summer's crop of blockbusters, "Simone" is somewhat of a breath of fresh air. For Pacino fans, it's a must see. For others, it's definitely worth the price of a ticket!

Rating:
Summary: Yikes, give me something else to watch...
Review: I'm suprised to see all the glowing reviews of this film. Well, allow me to balance the scales a little. I was truly disappointed with this film and Al Pacino's role in it. It wasn't very good.

Andrew Niccol had done a great job with The Truman Show and Gatacca. What happened? This movie was sub-par in many ways and falls short of what I would call a good film.

Al Pacino plays Viktor Taransky, a director, whose recent string of films have tanked. One of the producers happen to be his ex-wife (Catherine Keener). She tells him it's time to pack up his stuff and leave. Just as he's doing so, a "mad scientist" if you will (named Hank played by Elias Koteas) approaches him and tells him how he's achieved the impossible and that he's one of Pacino's biggest fans. His achievement was the creation of Simulation One - Sim One - Simone. Pacino's character turns Simone into an overnight sensation that everyone thinks is a real person. From here, Elaine (Viktor's wife) takes him back into her production company. Viktor then continues to come up with movies for Simone to star in while trying to abate the growing public interest in knowing more about Simone. At the same time Simone begins to consume Viktor. Viktor talks to Simone, and answers himself as Simone. Both are one and the same; split personalities in Viktor's head. How Viktor chooses to deal with Simone's (yet ironically, not Viktor's) success is the subject of the rest of the movie.

The end was a bit predictable and I can think of better (albeit more twisted) endings to this film. Simone is really an empty-shell of a movie. It doesn't require much thought to watch. The public in the movie are just as mindless as the technical aspects of this film. The acting is of sit-com quality. Pacino was being his drunk-mopey self again. (I was beginning to wonder what happened to Jason Schwartzman after Rushmore. Well, he's in this film. For Catherine Keener fans, you might want to watch Lovely and Amazing instead.)

Working with computers all my life, I found the use of the 5.25" disk, the computers with absolutely no wiring on their backs, a projection screen with no projector, keyboards conveniently customized with all the functions Viktor needs, and viruses that can be cured by simple keystrokes to be extremely ridiculous and laughable.

I would recommend the viewer pass on this one.

LEAP rating (each out of 5):
============================
L (Language) - 2 (nothing really stands out about this film, it tries to be a film about family but fails)
E (Erotica) - 0.5 (n/a - just good looking actresses (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Rachel Roberts))
A (Action) - 0 (n/a)
P (Plot) - 3 (juvenile plot, substandard acting, completely unbelievable)