As Good As It Gets

Rating:
Summary: Not overrated, a terrific movie with great performances
Review: The only knock I can possibly come up with this film is that is not daring enough to be unconventional towards the ending of the film, but thats a minor criticism. I liked the ending as it is and I loved the film overall, especially the performances. Nicholson is amazing. There never has been, never will be, an actor who can deliver dialogue quite the same way, simultaneously shocking you and making you smile. Thats pure Jack. On the othe side is Helen Hunt, who Ive admired on the small screen for some years. She gives her most powerful performance and absolutely deserved her Oscar. There was not a moment when I wasnt convinced that she had lived years caring for Spencer. Its that good. Last, not least, is Greg Kinnear, in a surprisingly effective performance that is also daring. He never comes off as the cliched homosexual, but rather as an artist who is also very human, gay or not. A great job all around by the makers and players. Not for everyone, Im sure, but not every movie can be pure non-stop special effects laden action.

Rating:
Summary: If you are feeling down - Get out "As Good As It Gets"
Review: Magnificent performances by Hunt, Nicholson & Kinnear. Should have been three oscars. Even Verdel was amusing. You got to listen closely because the lines come fast & furious. Laughed until I nearly cried & best thing is - I don't like Jack Nicholson but he was stupendous. Another of my all time favourites.

Rating:
Summary: I'd agree with the "overrated" review, but let me elaborate
Review: I recall reading something someone had said about Jack Nicholson. He said that Nicholson was a terrible actor, because he is the way he is on screen in real life. This makes sense now, given all his roles are the same person. I suppose you just need to find a story that matches you so you get awards for being yourself. (?)

Why this movie won so many awards is beyond me. The acting is mediocre, and the story was very annoying. I was in a very lovey-dovey mood when I watched this, but when I stopped... I was more angry than anything because the movie didn't end quick enough. This was supposed to be a romantic comedy. I'm not a huge fan of Helen Hunt, so I suppose that didn't help... but the overriding thought throughout was, "please end. why won't this end?"

I know... sad.

Go get You've Got Mail if you want a good romantic comedy.

Rating:
Summary: Over-rated, Jack Nicholson flick
Review:

AS GOOD AS IT GETS
Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, 1996

Synopsis
A OCD suffering writer, a single mother of a very sick child, and a painter who is brutally beatup, realize that life is "as good as it gets".

My Review
This was a good movie, but there is nothing profound about the acting. So I really don't understand why all three were nominated for Academy Awards, and two of them (Nicholson and Hunt) won. Give me a break.

Rating:
Summary: Jack's Back
Review: Jack Nicholoson gives a tour de force performance as Melvin Udall, a successful novelist who has obsessive compulsion disorder. Some of Melvin's quirks include washing his hands and throwing away a whole bar of soap after one use (we see his medicine cabinet is packed with bars of soap), he can't step on cracks in the sidewalk or on any floors, uses his own utensils in a restaurant and has to sit in the same booth and order the same meal. He is also the most insensitive, inconsiderate jerk you could ever meet. He insults everyone he meets and uses stereotypical comments. He has a crush on Carol (Helen Hunt), the only waitress in the restaurant that will put up with him. Carol has problems of her own as her son is constantly sick due to the fact he is allergic to just about everything. Melvin also has to "put up" with Simon (Greg Kinnear) his neighbor. Simon is a gay artist and Melvin mercilessly rides him about his sexual orientation and despises his dog, who urinates all over the floor in the hallway. Simon is beaten up badly and robbed by some thugs and Melvin is drawn into his life as Simon recuperates. Eventually, Melvin, Carol & Simon take a trip from New York to Baltimore so Simon can visit his parents. The movie gets a little sappy at the end, but the movie is so well acted, you can forgive director James L. Brooks for this. Mr. Nicholson is at his curmudgeonly best. He burns up the screen overtime he appears and gives the most comically performance of his career. Ms. Hunt is both sweet and tough as she keeps pace most of the time with Mr. Nicholson. Mr. Kinnear gives a breakout performance in his role. Mr. Nicholson won his third Oscar for the role and Ms. Hunt took home her first.

Rating:
Summary: A great film of human triumph; this is a true gem.
Review: This movie is absolutely one of the best movies to come around in a long time. It goes down to the deepest levels of the human spirit, and triumphs. Jack Nicholson gives his best performance since "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" and really shows us that anybody can become a better person. He plays a romance novelist who has Obessesive Compulsive Disorder with an attitude less than human at times. People around him think he is just another jerk, but with his disorder he is usually not aware he is offending people, until it is too late. I have OCD myself, and after having seen this movie with my family, I have been compared to him in many ways. I can control it most of the time now, but this Nicholson's character Melvin Yudall does not realize he is affecting people negatively (or even cares) until late in his life. He is really just a lonely man with no friends, who isolates himself in his apartment when he writes, and has very little social skills. Greg Kinnear plays his neighbor who dislikes him greatly, for reasons shown in the film.(Kinnear gives an outstanding performance and should have won the Oscar for best supporting actor that year) He plays a man who after a brutal attack directed at him must come to grips with himself again and regain his self-worth. Also featured is Helen Hunt, who gives a wonderful performance as the waitress who waits on Nicholson at his favorite diner. The character development grows between Nicholson and Hunt and Kinnear and Nicholson until eventually all three story lines intersect. Some of you may not have seen this film yet, so I won't give away any of the details. But let me tell you as someone who has been there, and has felt the same feelings and desires as Melvin, that this movie gave me a lot of inspiration and hope that I pray will be felt by many others with the same situation. This is a feel-good movie, with rich, detailed characters portrayed by actors who fit into the roles like a glove. This movie was nominated for many oscars, but this was the Year of Titanic, and pulled away with best actor and actress nods for Nicholson and Hunt. When you watch this movie, you actually feel for these 3 people, and you want them to be happy with their lives, which is what's missing from many movies these days. James L. Brooks, who is at his finest, co-wrote and directed this movie with such spirit. This film is a triumph, on many levels.

Rating:
Summary: The Good Movie
Review: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, and Cuba Gooding, Jr., star in James L. Brooks' hit comedy, As Good As It Gets. Nicholson gives a show-stopping performance as Melvin Udall, an obsessive-compulsive novelist with Manhattan's meanest mouth. But when his neighbor Simon is hospitalized, Melvin is forced to baby-sit Simon's dog. And that unexpected act of kindness - along with waitress Carol Connelly - helps put Melvin back in the human race. Magically written, directed and acted, As Good As It Gets is the best and funniest romantic comedy of the year.

Rating:
Summary: Love Love Love¿c
Review: Being a novelist for love stories seems fantastic. And I feel it a lovely occupation out of our everyday life. I think readers of love stories may hold longings for the novelist if the stories are beautiful. But, the novelist in this movie is far from these images. He can not communicate with others properly. In addition, he is terribly puritanic and nervous. On the other hand, it seems that the heroine in this movie shows the reality of our life itself. She often takes out stresses from caring for her children with disease on others. But when the novelist becomes to be able to manifest his feelings through his dog and when she comes to face with herself distancing herself from the care for her children, they become able to be gOneh. I think when both of them face with themselves, they can accept each other and went along with each other. I think people grow through love. In other words, love has power which can change people. In the opening scene in this movie, the novelist saysgLove Ischand worried about what to say next@. And he doesnft say the answer to the end. I think the answer isgLove Is Magich. People suffer when they try to change themselves. But what enable them to do it is just love. Also I think people is always feeling fear of something. If it is fear of loving others, it can be said that what release them from fear is love. To love others is difficult, and it doesnft go well easily, but itfs fun. Considering about love, I have a kind of feeling as if I myself have become a romance novelist. @

Rating:
Summary: A Performance to Savor
Review: Here is a romantic comedy which you can view more than once. Properous, successful, anti-social, and almost cripplingly obessive-compulsive, Melvin, Jack Nickolson's character falls for Carol (Helen Hunt), a waitress in the restaurant where he habitually eats in Manhatten. She, single mother, living with her mother and chronically sick son in the hinterlands of Brooklyn, by virtue of her warm but no nonsense personality, begins to draw Melvin out of his pathology and back into the land of the living. Cuba Gooding, Jr (Jerry MaGuire), Greg Kinnear (Nurse Betty) and Shirley Knight (The Group) supply some good supporting acting. The script and direction by James L. Brooks (check out his wonderful montage as Carol, unable to sleep in the middle of the night, urgently travels to Manhatten to tell Melvin something that can't wait) make this film extraordinary. But it's Helen Hunt's performance that raises this film yet another notch. Somehow, in her long TV career, she has mastered her craft, learned a marvelous range of ways to communicate with her face, learned to stretch (sort of like rubato in music) time to increase the impact of her acting, learned an integrity of performance which will take your breath away. Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: Gotta Love The Dog
Review: This isn't a perfect movie -- it's a little too strident for that -- but it sure is a fun one to sit through. With As Good As It Gets, a romantic comedy in which Nicholson plays the meanest man in New York City and Hunt the only woman who will be nice to him.

Director-cowriter James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News) writes snappish, snappy -- and sometimes sappy --dialogue like no one else. His characters are never, ever at a loss for words.

Nicholson plays a rich romance novelist whose relentless irascibility is only partly attributable to an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Hunt is a single mom who waitresses at the Manhattan eatery where Nicholson chows down daily. How these two, with a little help from Nicholson's gay neighbor (Greg Kinnear, much improved from earlier movies), figure out that they just may belong together makes for a film in which love is never easy but clearly worth seeking. Nicholson, going for the gusto, is as nasty as an irritated rattlesnake and just as noisy. Hunt (TV's Mad About You) is simply splendid. Cuba Gooding Jr.'s scenes sparkle and you gotta love the dog.

As good as it gets-- and better with each viewing.