Rating: 
Summary: Off the Wall - and perfect
Review: Adaptation - a real triumph of screenwriting and filmmaking. This movie is totally unique and witty and off the wall funny. Nic Cage is great, as both twins in the movie. Just the fact that this movie ties into "Being John Malkovich" makes it a winner. Chris Cooper is tremendous, as the quirky orchid hunter who is stalked by the Meryl Streep, who does an excellent job as well. This movie is great on a cold winter night to bring some off the wall humor for you to get into and laugh for a while. B+Joseph Dworak
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Films of 2003
Review: Was not a big fan of Being John Malkovich, finding it very silly, repetitious and drab. This was something else, it kicks in and pulls you in with some of the most creative and unexpected twists you will find in movies these days. Nicolas Cage's performance was absolutely inspired as Charlie (and Donald) Kaufman - why he wasn't picked to play Willy Wonka, I'll never understand. The frustrations of a writer are told perfectly and as the story unwravels along with the evolution of "The Orchid Thief" seeing how both the characters in the movie and book both grow throughout the film - and seeing how the Donald side of Nick Cage was coming through Charlie, etc, etc. - so much to take in, think about, interpret, laugh with - and simply seeing such great actors make wonderful performances seem effortless as they bring these characters to life is what makes movies so darn wonderful. In a year when you had such drivel as Punch Drunk Love (a not-so-funny, and very bad parody of art/indy/foreign films), Adaptation was a Godsend.
Rating: 
Summary: It is ill contrived mess of a movie.
Review: I loved Being John Malkovich (their previous film) but this exercise in non linear originality is just falls short, flat and on it's face. For highbrow pseudo intellectuals it would be just fine. They would pick this mess apart and marvel at what a wonderfully complex minds they have. Just like they marvel at pig submerged in farmaldehide, somewhat suspicious of a joke being played on them but still keeping a straight face, just in case.
Also if you are working screenwriter you might find it close to home and somewhat amusing despite it's numerous shortcomings. The whole movie forgettable and has 10 minutes of good cinema (mostly in dialog).
I am not sure what it is. May be these guys are too American and should stick to what we know best: Linear stories with Tom Hanks?
You will not miss a thing by skiping this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Confused & perplexed
Review: The only folks who could possibly get anything out of this movie might be those who read the book "The Orchid Thief". Everyone else is left guessing and trying to piece each scene together. The acting is good, but there's no continuity in the story line - unless you've had prior knowledge from the book.
Rating:
Summary: Not what i was thinking
Review: Ok, I don't know about you but i could not get into this movie it draged on and was just dull to me, It could not keep my attention i turned it off half way into it.Eevn though it has Niclas Cage , Meryl Streep and Chis Cooper who are top names it just didn't do it for me . Maybe i should give it another chance but why bother? One star for trying.sorry
Rating:
Summary: masterful and wonderful
Review: Nicolas Cage(Matchstick Men, The Family Man) has done it again...he's done it many times really but he pulled off another brilliant performance as the twin Kaufman brothers...fun and nicely directed by Spike Jonze(Being John Malkovich, Three Kings )who also has a cameo as himself in this movie..this is one of the best of 2002...you wont be dissapointed. also starring Brian Cox(25th Hour, The Ring2002), Litefoot(The Indian In tEH Cupboard,Kull The Conqeuer), Maggie Gyllenhhaal(Secretary, Cecil B. Demented), Chris Cooper(Matewan, The Bourne Identity2002), John Cusack(Identity, High Fidelity), Catherine Keener(Being John Malkovich, Johnny Suede), John Malkovich(Con Air, The Dancer Upstairs) and Meryl Streep(The Hours, Angels In America)...great fun and seeing Cage tackle twins is more fun
Rating: 
Summary: So you want to be a screen writer...
Review: Well, I haven't gone too much out of my way to see the really twisted movies of our time, but this one fell into my lap & so I watched it. When it was over, I didn't really know what to think because it messed with my head so much. To start, you have this guy (Cage) who is supposed to write the screenplay for "The Orchid Thief". His character is developed as your stereotypical creative genius - brilliant, elitist, trying to work out of his depth & intelligence but really suffering as he does so, anti-social, introverted & basically unhappy. People love his work, but you really feel sorry for the poor guy. It seems simple, but the script keeps adding in such quirky details that your mind is constantly being overstimulated...first off, they have part of the set from "Being John Malcovich" and the actors in their costumes from that set, so your mind wanders to think about that movie for a bit (especially if you've seen it). Then you have this main screenwriter's identical brother enter the plot - a character who Cage is also playing - and you sit there wondering how Cage did these shots where he talks to & wrestles with himself. And then you start getting drawn into the story of a journalist (Streep) who wrote the book "The Orchid Thief" which the screenwriter is trying to adapt. You learn that her life is obviously the cliche of the successful & wealthy yet incredibly unhappy & empty American. She has everything she should want for a happy life, and yet she keeps wanting more...she wants some sort of passion in her life. And then, in yet another layer of the story, you get to learn about the actual orchid thief...a redneck type character down in Florida who has an unexpected passion for orchids. He is the only one who seems to be an enviable character because he has some sort of deep fulfillment in his life...and yet he has neither money nor culture nor the admiration of many. The set-up might seem clear, but the progress of the plotline certainly isn't. The storyline starts interweaving these character's lives in such ways that your head starts hurting trying to figure out if it should be able to happen at all. And, all through this, the movie is clearly trying to make a point about passion & fulfillment, but what is it? Streep chases after it, but does she actually find it? The main screenwriter is surely the creative genius of the two brothers, but which one would you rather be? As you try to sort such things out, the plot suddenly twists again to become an action movie - complete with guns & a car chase. This is so unexpected that you leave your questions hanging in mid-air while you try to figure out who you want to "win" seeing that you've become pretty attached to all these characters. The final kicker, really, was that someone told me that one of the characters was supposed to be imaginary....? So, yeah, and when you think about the fact that this movie supposedly came out of the screenwriter's assignment to adapt "The Orchid Thief" (in real life) and that this is what he came up with, you begin to marvel at the depths & intricacies of the human mind...or at least I did.
Rating:
Summary: What a ride!!!!
Review: Something New, Something Different, Something Great. Cage is fantastic. Well worth the energy and time.
Rating:
Summary: If You Didn't Get It, Don't Tell
Review: This really is a brillant and very original movie, but it evidently isn't for everyone. If your tastes run more to the conventional, this definitely isn't for you. If you like to be challenged with fresh, original work, it's worth a try. I won't rehash the plot or give away any surprises. Suffice it to say that Adaptation (even the name is brillant) mixes the real and unreal, the tragic and the comic, in ways that can be very confusing - or very entertaining. Just like a Tilt-O-Wheel, there are circles within circles that may make you dizzy. But just because you don't like that kind of thing doesn't mean it's a bad ride. Don't necessarily expect this movie to be easy to figure out. I was impressed with the honesty of the fellow who admitted that after viewing it a second time he raised his rating. It seems that many of the reviewers who didn't like this film simply didn't understand it. What's that saying about better to keep quiet and be thought an idiot...?
Rating:
Summary: Great movie, car crashes, brilliant acting & writing
Review: This was a great film, reflexively self referent and conscious (but not self conscious) not only of its screenwriter(s) but also of its audience. Intelligent, daring, brilliant - it was all those things. But, in a twist only Hollywood would enjoy, it also had two of the most authentic, horrifying car crashes ever filmed, not in Bonnie & Clyde slow motion, but in real time, exactly the way they occur, and they were over almost before they happened, leaving death and destruction in their wake. These scenes must have taken forever to film and were on the screen for only the blink of an eye. And, any screenwriter who's ever taken a course from the insufferable Robert McKee will love this film just for its portrayal of him. Filled with gems that require several screenings and a couple of people who can explain the in jokes, this movie should have won more than an Oscar for Crhis Cooper. It should have swept. Cage, Streep and Cage were great and that it did not win a best screenplay Oscar just shows that Hollywood writers can't take a joke.
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