Rating: 
Summary: Incredible
Review: This movie was like a "real-life" description of my dreams. The plot was so imaginative. If you want to expand your mind and be entranced by an incredibly creative movie, check it out.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely on the bizarre side...
Review: Everyone raved about this movie so I had high expectations. But they were left unmet. There were moments of brilliance in this film and also moments of pure stupidity. The real John Malkovich is a good sport for going along with this one. Save if for a Saturday night, "let's have few beers" kind of night. Don't see it straight. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Rating: 
Summary: One Word: "Kooky"
Review: One of the very few movies I have ever not been able to finish watching. This is a trend movie: 1. No Plot 2. Totally Unlikable Charachters 3. Kooky. Kevin Smith has to apollogize for making Mallrats, yet this movie is praised? What?
Rating:
Summary: Blech!
Review: The only reason I give the movie 2 stars is for originality. But at what price? The characters are completely unlikable. The plot is much smaller than I had hoped. And let's face it, it was just plain stupid. Blech.
Rating:
Summary: One of the films of 1999
Review: When I first heard a movie was being released about getting into John Malkovich's head, I asked "What?" "Being John Malkovich" is a hell of a film, and is uncategorizable in terms of it's genre. It's part black comedy, part fantasy, part drama, and part thriller that stars attractive people John Cusack and Cameron Diaz as unattractive people. Former 80's star turned respected actor Cusack plays Craig Schwartz, a struggling Manhattan puppeteer with a message that no one will listen to and a job that no one will hire him for. Facing pressure from his wife (a really, really ugly Cameron Diaz) Lotte, a pet store owner, Craig gets a job as a filing clerk at Lester Corp on the 7 1/2 floor of an office building. He befriends Maxine (Catherine Keener), a sharp tongued office sexpot who turns Craig down at every shot. Craig also befriends his boss Lester (Orson Bean) a nice old man with a hell of a secret. While working, Craig discovers a door that leads him into the mind of John Malkovich of which he spends 15 minutes and then finds himself ejected onto the New Jersey Turnpike. Havoc ensues for Craig, Lotte, Maxine, and John Malkovich himself in this strange film. Spike Jonze has got the right timing to direct the scenes of this truly bizarre film. Having an incredibly offbeat tone, Being John Malkovich is one of the best films of the year and a standout of the different films that came out this year following American Beauty, The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, The Blair Witch Project, Dogma, and The Matrix among others. The DVD is surprisingly delightful minus any deleted scenes or commentary. It comes with a featurette about puppeteering, a short video diary of being a driving extra, and two featurettes from the film itself as well as it's marketing campaign. One odd thing is a supposed interview with director Spike Jonze that ends on a gross note.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of 5 stars-lots of 1 stars.So you know it's truly great
Review: The really wonderful movies - the ones you think about while you're going to sleep at night for years to come - are the ones that are met with a round of cheers mixed with a round of "what the hell?"s and "I don't get it"s. "2001" met with that reception. So did "A Clockwork Orange." So did "Natural Born Killers." So did "Raging Bull." So did "Nixon." So did "Rushmore." "Being John Malkovich" now takes its rightful place among the greatest movies of all time. This movie does everything right. It's mind-bendingly original obviously. It's blissfully entertaining from start to finish. It's very funny - on many levels (Charlie Sheen's self-depricating cameo is a revelation). And it's a wonderful drama. As usual, John Cusak plays a hero who is sympathetic but also flawed and sometimes contemptible. "Being John Malkovich" is a must buy. It IS that good.
Rating:
Summary: Being John Malkovich one of the greats
Review: Easily the best picture of 99' and one of the best of all times "Being John Malkovich" is one of those fantastic journeys that is just so original that when you are finished you are left in awe. What could be simply wrote off as a comedy is in actuallity a "metephysical can of worms". From the symbollism of the board to the desperate search for unatainable love it leaves drama to wallow in the shadow of comedy. Go in with an open mind and prepare to leave with a blown mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Possibly the strangest film you'll ever see
Review: Spike Jonze makes his directorial film debut with Being John Malkovich. What would it be like to be John Malkovich for 15 minutes? What I want to know is what it would be like to be Spike Jonze for 15 minutes? What kind of man can conjure up a film like this, and then release it? SEE THIS NOW. It truly is indescribable. Anyone that has seen the film, will instantly know what I'm talking about, when I say the "Malkovich into his own portal" scene is one of the best in any film... ever.
Rating:
Summary: My oh my, but I do hate this film...
Review: Oh gawd. Where to even start? Before: Ooh! Creative premise! Ah must see it! After:"..." Yes indeed, words have a hard time expressing how much I despised this film. It's clever, but that's ALL it is. Much like a Thomas Pynchon novel, but at least you don't find all the characters (such as they are) in Gravity's Rainbow to be entirely repulsive. Let's not mince words: the characters weren't just unsympathetic. They were utterly, utterly horrible. Human garbage. Throughout the entire film all I could think was, why am I being forced to watch these people? Evidently, I was suppose to find their evil little machinations somehow..."funny." The problem is, I don't find complete self-serving cynicism to be funny. Indeed, I hope I'm not sounding like a Christian fundamentalist here, but I found this movie to be deeply offensive. How can people find people who are quite willing to inflict insane psychic torture on another human being to acheive their own hedonistic ends amusing in any sense? Don't get me wrong: I'm quite aware that a film doesn't *need* sympathetic characters to be worthwhile. One of my favourite films is Trainspotting, which suffers from a similar lack. The difference is that in that movie we weren't being asked to find wacky humour in the characters' behaviour. I just don't find that acceptable. I have friends who like BJM--and most of the Amazon reviewers seem to agree with them--and that scare me a little: are so many of us really willing to put aside all human feeling in the name of a few cheap laughs? This film is suppose to be a breath of fresh air in a world of stale and unoriginal films. Well, I ain't buying: painfully hip it may be, but it's also a very cruel and mean-spirited film, and I hated it. Finis.
Rating:
Summary: A funny and surreal feast for the eyes!
Review: Being John Malkovich. This film starts off quite ordinarily, nothing really mad or weird happens. Its just the story of an unemployed puppeteer (a very good one too, the stuff he does is amazing! - played by John Cusack), who has to get a job in a filing company, filing files. His office is on floor 7½ of a building, has low ceilings, and tiny doors. Now the comedy begins. Next he discovers a small door leading into what looks like a cave, he crawls in, and suddenly, he IS John Malkovich. Fifteen minutes later, hesuddenly get thrown onto a turnpike outside of town! Now it does begin to get mad and weird, but in a good and even convincing way. His wife - Cameron Diaz - is a dowdy frizzy haired animal lover, who wants to try it. She loves it so much she decides that she has discovered the inner man in her, and wants to have corrective surgery! (She wants to discuss the procedure with her doctor, an allergist!) Malkovich begins to suspect, and.....well, I'd better not give away too much, but plenty of fairly strange and funny stuff happens. Often you'll laugh out loud, other times you'll simply be amazed with an unexpected turn of events, but always you'll be sitting up and paying attention! The plot of this film is unusual, to say the least, but it really pays off if you can suspend your disbelief so that you can into the film. OK, so portals into other people's heads don't really exist, but if they did...... The acting is superb, John Cusack is very good, but Cameron Diaz is just incredible as his dowdy wife (even though I knew she was in the film, it was some time before I realised that the wife was her, so looked so different). Also, John Malkovich playing John Malkovich is really something to see - you get to see him doing all sorts of humdrum things as himself (ordering stuff from a catalogue, eating breakfast, having a shower....) and he discusses his problems with other showbiz people who play themselves as well. The ending is good, with a little twist that surprises right at the end. Overall, this is a really funny and surreal, but very accessible film. Definitely one of the best of the year, it really stands out from the usual offerings of action, love and sci-fi that turn up regularly nowadays. My advice: get this film.
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