Rating: 
Summary: This is a great funny movie. Go out an buy it.
Review: I don't know why you people don't think that this is not a good movie. If you are not involved in Childreach, than you didn't get the story. I am diffently going to buy the DVD without your bad reviews on this movie. This is an excellent movie. It has humor and a good movie for a change than the recent movies that have been out. The recent movies have be all out have stink so bad. So go out and buy this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Profound. Mirrors our alienating (to many) culture!
Review: I absolutely LOVED this movie! It is undoubtedly a 'slice of reality' that does reflect how many feel in our materialistic, yet alienating culture. We supposedly live in 'the land of plenty', but yet the drudgery and predictability of home and work life has it's way of creeping up on you, and sapping your spirit and zest for life at times. For Nicholson's character, these feelings were so heartfelt, that he became the Midwest cynical, existential version of Archie Bunker! The somewhat predictable, but yet surprise ending was touching, and revelatory to Warren Schmidt, and just goes to show you that profound meaning and happiness can be found in the simplest things or the simplest gestures! I shed a few tears at the end, and was moved myself. All in all, a very well done movie, and well worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: More like "About Speeches"
Review: It seemed like every 5 minutes somebody was making a toast in this movie. I finally realized it was to hammer in the point that "About Schmidt" is really about communication, or lack of. Jack's character can't communicate with his wife or daughter, nor can they with him. The only people Jack can communicate with are either people he's never met (Ndugu, the child he is sponsoring overseas) or people he hardly knows (the couple he meets while trekking out to see his daughter). This makes for a few funny moments, but I hardly think this is one of Nicholson's best. If you enjoyed "As Good as it Gets" you'll enjoy this. If you didn't, don't waste your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Anatomy of a Loser
Review: Schmidt is a loser. He is at the end of his life, has built nothing of any value, has no meaningful relationships and - this is the true loser part - is incapable of doing anything about it. He is just bitter, and that's all he seems to want to be. The movie presents Schmidt in all his loserliness very effectively. It is clear that Schmidt has been a zero for decades. When we see his home, it is apparent that everything in it is his wife's - the flowery wallpaper, the organ in the living room, the dishes in glass cabinets. There is nothing of himself there - he has made no mark on it. When we see his career, it is a dull job at a dull company in a dull city, and they have had so little use for him that after he's gone they simply throw his files away. He has made no mark there, either. When we see his daughter, it is clear that the relationship has been dead for years - she has no use for him and doesn't really want him around, except for his money (an extra little insult). Again, he has made no impact whatsoever. All of these elements fill in Schmidt's past as one of utter insignifigance. The movie is about Schmidt finally realizing that he is a loser. The plot focuses on his travels, after his wife's sudden death, on the way to Denver to try to stop his daughter from marrying a no-good waterbed salesman. Perhaps he will "awaken" now, the audience is thinking - perhaps he will find himself. No way. This movie is not about that. He buys some Hummel figurines, odd you think, but hey - at least he's getting a hobby. Wrong - they were one of his *wife's* favorite items. He truly brings nothing to the table, even for himself. Perhaps he will patch things up with his daughter. Again, no. He fails to stop the wedding, and his daughter thinks no differently about him than she always has. Even his speech at her wedding is full of nothing but empty sentiments. Perhaps he will find romance - nope. He kisses a married woman and sits in a hot tub with Kathy Bates, and high-tails it out of there both times. No, this movie is not about redemption or late-in-life epiphanies. It's a one-way trip to a cold, hard dead-end. Eventually Schmidt realizes this too. He writes that when he is dead and everyone who knew him is dead, there will be nothing left at all of him. He is sad, and is incapable of changing and also unmotivated to do so. The one, tiny sliver of a human connection in Schmidt's life are the letters he sends to Ndugu, a child in Tanzania he decides to sponsor on a lark. Aside from being a device that allows the audience to hear what Schmidt thinks of his life, it is the one thing for which he shows some spark of interest, the one thing that he has done himself. When he gets a short, fairly impersonal letter back from Ndugu (well, a nun that works with him, anyway) and is reduced to tears, it highlights the complete absence of any other meaning in his life. That one, abstract, barely-there relationship is the only one he's got, his one microscopically small connection to the world. The movie tells this story well. The acting is first-rate and the writing is sharp. The story moves along at a leisurely pace, but never drags. The filmmakers, and especially Nicholson, have accomplished a neat trick - the portrayal of the absence of something. In no frame of this movie is there anything about Schmidt - he might as well have not existed at all.
Rating:
Summary: Quieter than Your Average Bear
Review: Despite all the hype of this being Nicholson's quietest performance for years, in many ways this study of a newly retired and widowed insurance executive suddenly confronted with the emptiness of his life does actually serve as a very conventional star vehicle in which for long stretches of minutes all that's on screen is Nicholson, emoting on a low key perhaps, but quietly, ironically emoting. He still finds a spot for his characteristic shtick and grin when the old fool tries to seduce a happily married Mom in a (smaller) trailer home while her hubby and his host has popped out to the liquor store. Nevertheless, there are highlights - such as the montage of the suddenly widowed Schmidt going through his dead wife's wardrobe, smearing his face with her cold cream, scouring her letters. And the climax of the piece when he gives a gloriously deadpan and low key father-of-the-bride speech lugubriously extolling the virtues of all the new in-laws the sight of whom makes his skin crawl. Worth watching, and one of his most modulated performances, but not necessarily as weighty as its promotional material suggests.
Rating:
Summary: Okay, But Not as Good as As Good As It Gets!
Review: About Schmidt is an okay movie but not nearly as good as Jack Nicholson's other movies especially As Good As It Gets which is a super great movie. Worth a one time viewing as a rental or on Cable but not something I would want to own because it's really kind of boring!
Rating:
Summary: a long and hard journey
Review: Although Schmidt's character is not always easy to understand, the confusion(anger to much lesser degree) about the various sudden changes in his life surely throw him off balance. His character is full of contradictions and regrets.
It's a great touch for Payne and Taylor to shape the character vividly through many twists and turns. At the end, I think people like Schmidt will finally find the meaning of his life, and small reward along the way, through the tough journey of searching for answers.
Rating:
Summary: Nicholson's Schmidt is Excellent
Review: About Schmidt (2002) directed by Alexander Payne Based on a novel by Louis Bigley (written by Jim Taylor) About just as expected: a good performance by a resurgent Jack Nicholson, who had been in dumps as of late, with an occasional appearance in the front seat of a Lakers game. Here he comes to life as a crusty, relatively uninformed about life, leading a meaningless existence upon retirement. He is unable to connect with his nearest relatives, or anyone else. Not that he is stupid or lacking common sense; but he is clueless as to what a real relationship is about. His daughter is alienated, his son in law a luckless waterbed salesman who's trying to draw money from him for a pyramid scheme, and his wife slaves away like a domestic and soon dies of a blood clot. Schmidt's only connection to humanity is an adoption (by mail) of child from Tasmania, whose sponsor he becomes, sending him $22 (to adopt a child) campaign. He writes him passionate letters, opening his heart to him-as to an abstract confessor-but the real Schmidt is there. When his wife dies, he takes off in his Winnebago (which she had bought by selling her stock), and drives from Omaha to Colorado, to be present at his daughter's wedding-which he disapproves. There he is welcomed by the bridegroom's mother, who first invites him to have a Manhattan with her, and then reveals that she had her first orgasm at six; she later invites him to "relax" in her hot bathtub and readily jumps in herself, without a stitch of clothes on her. Despite his revulsion, Schmidt stays for the wedding, and gives a flattering to his audience speech as the guest of honor; then finds solace on his return trip home reading a letter from the boy's ward in Africa, telling how the six year old appreciated his help and made a drawing for him-which she encloses. It is a childish drawing of two persons holding hands. Story ends. Jack Nicholson gives a nuanced portrait of a man, not unintelligent, or "bad," but one who is lost in a world of isolation, most of which he has created for himself. His self defense is principally the defense of his money from his daughter, to whom he has given little affection (though he was "proud" of her), and his future son in law, whom he calls a "nincompoop," and from his friends at parties, who describe him as "rich," a title he does not crave, for he lives modestly. He is constantly surprised when he yields and tries a relationship that has some meaning. While he travels, for instance, he meets a fellow traveler at a trailer park who invites him for dinner and Schmidt mistakes his wife's pity ("you look sad") for passion and kisses her. Schmidt seems anchorless, amid a humanity he does not understand, mistaking a friendly welcome for real merit, and being constantly frustrated. Friends are nonexistent, relatives are repellent, new acquaintances flee, he is an "island" onto himself, rudderless-despite his skill in driving the Winnebago-but not without heart, or brain (after all he made money). He still sends checks to his failed daughter, and puts up a bright face to congratulate his worthless son in law. He is an example of modern alienation, but a letter from a young stranger, an irony of sorts, brings him into contact with life which he craved and never found. A good movie to see, showing among other things, the breadth of Jack Nicholson as an actor.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, not much of a plot at all!
Review: Ok, everyone else seems to like this movie, and I have no idea why. Bottom line: This movie was BORING! I'm not just talking about the plot, either. The music was boring (it was elevator music throughout the WHOLE movie!), the acting was boring (why did Schmidt have almost the same expression thoughout the whole movie?), and the scenery was boring (everything looked foreboding for a comedy). Let me just say that if you have to show a guy urinating several times throughout the movie, there's not a whole lot going on. Yes, there was a funny spot. I liked the letter to Ndugo (sorry if that's not the correct spelling) where Schmidt was talking to the kid about how he couldn't stand the things his wife was doing. That part was the only funny part in the entire movie. Nonetheless, my aunt was watching this movie with me as well, and she must have fallen asleep 6 times. Each time, I'd wake her up and tell her to watch the movie, but then she'd fall back to sleep right away. After the sixth time, I just gave up. So I'm guessing it bored her, too. Overall, this movie was one of those where you watch it because you keep thinking it's going to get better -- that it's finally going to pick up the pace and make you laugh. Then the movie ends, and you're thinking to yourself, "So how long was that movie, four hours?", and then you realize it was much shorter, it just seemed longer, due to the immense boredom that you felt throughout the entire thing. Do yourself a favor and don't get this movie; it's not even worth a rental.
Rating:
Summary: Save your time and money
Review: Jack Nicholson is the only reason I gave this movie one star, otherwise I would not have given it any. About Schmidt is the slowest, absolutely most boring picture I have ever viewed. The movie kept going on and on---I was waiting for it to go somewhere and it didn't. It was very depressing and disappointing and I wish that I would have saved my money.
|
