Simone

Rating:
Summary: Fantasy and reality walk hand in hand in S1M0NE.
Review: S1M0NE is directed by New Zealander Andrew Niccol (GATTACA, writer of TRUMAN SHOW) and stars Al Pacino. Pacino plays film director Victor Taransky who has a falling out with an egotistical and talentless actress Nicola Anders (Winona Ryder), which results in Taransky being dumped by his production company. To add insult to injury Victor's ex-wife works there and must break the news to him.
But luckily for Victor, a guardian angel appears in the guise of Hank Aleno, a computer geek who lost his right eye to a tumor (The result of too much time sitting close to a computer). Aleno enlists Victor to help breathe life into his project. Unfortunately Hank dies but leaves Victor a gift in his will: S1M0NE (an acronym for Simulation One, played by the very real newcomer Rachel Roberts): History's first artificial, manufactured movie star with all the prerequisites a director dreams of: Talent, beauty and no ego. Described as having "The voice of a young Jane Fonda, the body of Sophia Loren, the grace of Grace Kelly and the face of Audrey Hepburn combined with an angel". When S1M0NE's debut film SUNRISE, SUNSET is released it becomes an instant hit and rises Taransky's career from the doldrums overnight. The only problem is that nobody knows this brilliant new screen sensation is a fake. So Victor must work twice as hard hiding the truth from Hollywood, the paparazzi and the public. As Pacino says in the movie: "It's easier to make 100,000 believe than just 1".
Soon S1M0NE is catapulted almost overnight to the status of the World's #1 Movie Star, endorsing her own cologne, recording CDs and even having a yacht christened after her- but journos soon start latching on to the charade. To make matters worse Taransky's ex-wife thinks he's having an affair and the world thinks he's controlling S1M0NE against her will. Taransky decides the only way to escape is to destroy S1M0NE's reputation: but these efforts only serve to add to her celebrity. How will Victor get away with this?
S1M0NE is far superior to THE TRUMAN SHOW, and although it takes a while to get going, once it does S1M0NE is a very good movie. Film buffs will especially enjoy it, with its clever concept and all round good performances. Director Niccol also scores a few brownie points for not making this drown in whimsy like TRUMAN did.
DVD extras include an "All Access Pass" to trailers, deleted/alternate scenes and two featurettes, "Cyber Stardom" and "Simulating Simone".

Rating:
Summary: I really love that movie!
Review: I love Rachel Roberts in it because she was S1m0ne and i love the rest of the cast because it was a wonderful cast starring Al Pacino,Winona Ryder,Catherine Keener and also Rachel Roberts but i hope Rachel Roberts play in movies because she is a beautiful actress.

Rating:
Summary: Underrated
Review: I had stayed away from this movie based on the lukewarm reviews it had on release. However I watched this last night on cable and have to say that I think this movie is very underrated. First of all, it's a very funny movie - the comedy ranges from the witty (the Hank Aleno eye puns) to the slapstick (Pacino's lipstick scene) to other genuine laugh out loud moments.

Those viewing it on face value and without an appreciation of subtext, may not see much in this film. However it has a great deal to say about religion, Hollywoods shallowness, the public's need for heroes and what the increasing photorealism of computer graphics might mean for the future. How much we can really trust our eyes in the coming digital world?

Simone has a great script and great performances, so if you appreciate Niccol's previous work (Gattaca, Truman Show), check this film out. It's worth your while.

Rating:
Summary: Simone Is A Babe....
Review: Tauted as 'From the makers of The Truman Show', this is some fairly decent movie faire. It stars Al Pacino as a washed up film director who inherits a software program that can create a life like actress. SAG watch out! Trouble ensues when everyone wants to meet the captivating actress he has created and of course comedy follows also! Catherine Keener is great as always and Elias Koteas plays a wonderful character role. Although from the ending credits I was confused...Simone has no credit....she's not real...for real? Also her double in the movie looks exactly like Rebecca Romijn Stamos but it's not! Hmmmm....I'll have to investigate this one further. Anyway, check it out...funny and entertaining and Pacino great as ever! **** stars.

Rating:
Summary: Not good
Review: I got the message of the movie but to be honest it still is a horrible movie. It wasnt even mildly ammusing.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as these reviewers claim!
Review: Look I get the message. Hollywood and society are crazy and so on and so on. The movie is an overblown bazaroo land that is well for lack of a better term REDICULOUS. Al Pacino is one of my favorite actors its not his performance its just that the movie itself was stupid. This movie is not even a decent rental. I dont recommend this movie to anyone even when it is for free on TV.

Rating:
Summary: An intelligible and funny commentary on Hollywood.
Review: Summary:
Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) is a movie director who hasn't had much recent success. The movie begins with the star of his current film, Nicola Anders (Winona Ryder), walking off of the film when it is nearly complete. This ruins Viktor's career and his ex-wife, Elaine Christian (Catherine Keener), who is also his boss, fires him. As he is leaving the studio, Viktor is approached by Hal Sinclair (Jay Mohr) who has developed a computer program that is good enough to replace actors in films with virtual actors. In developing the program, Hal has contracted cancer and is going to die. He is so frantic about his project that he initially turns off Viktor but when he wills his work to Viktor and Viktor realizes just what it can do, he uses the program to introduce Simone into the film he was working on and cuts out Nicola. When Viktor releases the film, Simone is a smash hit and everyone wants to meet her. Of course, that isn't possible because she is a computer program. So Viktor begins a whirlwind of activity to continue Simone's appearances and movies while trying to keep everyone believing that she is an actual person.

My Comments:
The movie is pretty funny. I was surprised it was as funny as it was because I don't think it did very well in the box office and it didn't get very many favorable reviews (at least, from what I've seen). I actually thought the premise was pretty good and the idea was surprisingly plausible (call me gullible if you will). I also liked that it was making subtle commentaries on what stardom is really like - sometimes the more outlandish you are the more you are liked (Christina Aguilera and Madonna come to mind).

Admittedly, the ending was, well, not so great. But, I'm not exactly sure there was a good way to end the movie so I didn't fault the movie for the ending. Though I haven't given it much thought, I couldn't come up with a better way for it to end so I'm dismissing that problem. There was one thing that I felt played out as something of a deus ex machina and that was Taransky's daughter's (Lainey Christian played by Evan Rachel Wood) interest in computers and how she so easily reversed a virus and recreated a program when the hard drives from the computers had all been dumped. It just wasn't very plausible and seemed like a plot-point that they tried to emphasize earlier in the movie so as to make it possible to use it in the end; it was unnatural, which is typically the case with deus ex machinas.

Anyway, despite its drawbacks, I enjoyed the movie and would recommend it. As for being a commentary on Hollywood, I guess I'm contrasting it with Mulholland Drive and The Player, both of which were also commentaries and were, well, [bad] in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Stellar or digi-stellar.
Review: Besides being a scream, like all good comedies Simone has more than a little truth to it.

As for those reviewers concerened with the plausibility of such computer power, HD space, buss speed, etc. all I can say is watch Simone again, when you are older. This is not a comic book like the Matrix.

Can't reccomend this highly enough.

Rating:
Summary: A modern fairy-tale
Review: In "Simone" (or S1m0ne), Al Pacino is Victor Taransky, a B-movies director who isn't doing very well lately. His movie-stars abandon him, he is about to be dumped by the studio he works for (and the studio is owned by his ex-wife, the cute and funny-faced Catherine Keener), and he has mortgaged everything he owns to pay for a movie that is not going to be filmed. Then, a strange computer genious (played by the strangest actor ever, Elias Koteas) gives him the solution to all his problems: a digital, beautiful actress, Simone - Simulation One. From that point, Simone is a huge success, but Taransky has to constantly find ways to hide from general audience that Simone in fact doesn't exist.

Here's a tip if you want to enjoy this movie: DON'T TAKE ANYTHING IN THIS MOVIE SERIOUSLY. Obviously, there are many technological flaws, plot holes, absurdities, etc. But "Simone" is not, as one recent reviewer stated, a technological-breakthrough movie. Of course not. It's a fairy-tale, something the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen could create if they lived in the 21st century. So, if you set your mind to watch "Simone" as a serious movie, you're going to hate it. Otherwise, if you think of it as a funny entertainment or as a Pinocchio disguised with technology, you will find it, to say the least, cute.

One other thing: both Pacino and Keener are not well cast in this film. Maybe they did "Simone" as a favor to someone, or just to relax, because this is a movie to feature someone like, say, Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Lopez.

Grade 7.2/10

Rating:
Summary: An ok movie that could have been great
Review: I enjoyed this DVD but there were noticable major flaws that prevented the movie from being much more enjoyable.

The parts that were good... Rachel Roberts as Simone. She is absolutely gorgeous and from that standpoint helps make the concept that the public are going crazy over her somewhat believable. Some of the computer graphic effects were great, I especially liked one part when Pacino added a hint of Audrey Hepburn and Lauren Bacall to give just the right mannerism and voice to his virtual actress. The whole concept and plot of the movie, except for the details were mind provoking.

Some of the flaws... unbelievable and technically inaccurate elements that jarr you out of the fantasy and into a state of "yeah right". For example, this incredible virtual actress is delivered to Pacino in a hard drive which he loads onto his PC in the CD tray! Anybody with a PC would know this is not technically possible. Furthermore, the computing power to handle creating this virtual actress would require a whole bank of PCs or a supercomputer, yet he was able to run it off his regular desktop. Anyone with a little bit of technical knowhow will see that is artistic licence to the extreme, or more likely abysmal technical ignorance of the Director.

If technical inaccuracies don't bother you, then how about the fact that his daughter (and numerous others close to Taranski), don't question more strongly why they are never able to ever get to meet Simone. Weak excuses are made, but you can't help but question if in real life people would really let things slide like that.

Taranski (Al Pacino) looks like an old tired, slightly crazed man throughlout the movie. His character doesn't seem to develop. You would expect him to undergo a transformation when his movie with Simone becomes a hit. But that doesn't happen.

I think many of the flaws are because the movie was written, directed and produced by one person. I am guessing he probably never got the script critically reviewed and edited by a more objective team of qualified scriptwriters.

Look past the flaws in the details and you will find some scenes that are great.