Rating: 
Summary: Fun, great music, a life journey, adventure..
Review: This movie is best on DVD. The extra material on the single DVD includes the trailer, the music video of "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," a "making of.." featuring directors/writers/producers Ethan and Joel Coen and "Painting with Pixels," an intriguing look at the use of computers in making this feature. While most of the colateral material is the standard stuff, the Painting with Pixels is an interesting foray into the use of computers to create effects on screen and the treatment of the film when completed. Cinematographer Rodger Deakins explains his job creating the final cut, then the computer artists take over, working with him to get a unique look and feel for the entire film. I was amazed at the information in this piece.The Coen Brothers generously credit Homer with the top writing credit. Homer, a Greek poet, wrote The Odessy, upon which the film is loosely base. Joel and Ethan added the Three Stooges and the Depression-era South, swirled in some instantly likable bluegrass music and came up with a winner of movie. The film begins with the escape of our heros from a chain gang in the backwoods of Mississippi. Our adventurers are supposedly in pursuit of 1.2 million dollars buried at the home of this Ulysess (George Clooney). Clooney plays a wonderful Moe Howard, always willing to throw in an esoteric word or two to liven the conversation. His buddies John Turturro (Larry) and Tim Blake Nelson (Curley) and he try to escape the movie's antagonist, beautifully underplayed by Daniel von Bargen (seemingly straight out of Cool Hand Luke). During their escapades our trio mixes it up with three "sirens" (singing the most alluring version of the old black lullaby "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby" that I have ever heard), a church choir, a "cyclops" (John Goodman with a eye-patch, stealing his scenes with panache) and the Ku Klux Klan. Don't look for historical accuracy in this film. The Klan was never noted as either good dancers or good chanters and "Baby Face" Nelson dies in a hail of bullets not the electric chair. But the Coen Brothers aren't reaching out for accuracy. They are looking for pure entertainment and they achieve this goal. An important note: My wife is not a Three Stooges fan but she loved the movie.
Rating:
Summary: the best clooney film ever
Review: this is very very loosely based on homers odyssey.you ever hear of this?most people havent.4 dumber than a box of hammers criminals escape from a chaingang to go get a bunch of money one of them stole previously.it is a movie the whole family can enjoy filled with high adventure and many exciting scenes.it is set in 1939.there are a pack of sirens-i call them (...) this one but no fornicating.george clooney gives his best performance ever in this one.it was the best movie in a long time when it came out.an abselute classic.no matter what you hear,this is one of the best films in years.georges ol lady in the movie is a real psycho (...) but is FINE!
Rating:
Summary: A comic journey filled with great music
Review: "O Brother, Where Art Thou," directed by Joel Coen, is a quirky delight. The screenplay, by Joel and Ethan Coen, is allegedly a loose adaptation of Homer's Odyssey; I think of the script as more of an original story with certain elements inspired by the Odyssey. But however you look at the film, it is a unique and well-made piece of cinematic art. George Clooney plays Ulysses Everett McGill, an escaped prisoner who embarks upon an episodic journey with two fellow escapees in the Depression-era Southern United States. Along the way they encounter a one-eyed Bible salesman, "good-ole-boy" politicians, and Ku Klux Klansmen, among other characters. Clooney is hilarious as McGill, and the rest of the cast is also excellent. Tim Blake Nelson is particularly engaging as McGill's Forrest Gump-ish comrade, Delmar. The film is full of excellent music that evokes the folk traditions of the rural U.S. The costumes, sets, and cinematography are all first-rate, and blend perfectly with the other elements of the film. There are some great comic sequences, many with a satiric bite. Overall, "O Brother" is a really different, richly entertaining film.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: T-Bone Burnett pays loving homage to American '30s folk styles--blues, gospel, bluegrass, jazz, and more..and this is a total joy! George Clooney is a joy to watch as the thinker among a group of morons in this oddity. Would Homer be insulted by this? Seriously, this is a very different movie, but very good. I wouldn't be surprised if this picture already has a cult following, much like "Harold and Maude" does.
The soundtrack to this film would be very good, I think. :)
Rating: 
Summary: "We Thought You Was A Toad" (3 and a half stars)
Review: I saw this movie last Saturday and I think it has one of the most originally amusing scenes to start the film with.The movie has three well defined characters.I'll speak more about them.
The movie recreates the distant past in a way quite extraordinary.I think its a travellor's movie and the three run into a lot of characters. I laughed out loud while watching two scenes in the film.I liked the mini Satan show. Those who've seen the movie just might follow what I said.Enjoyed the Baptism bit and I think the music played throughout the film is quite inspiring and adds to the mood of the movie.
Where the movie lacked was in coming to the conclusion.I wasn't too impressed with the flood scene. The last scene in the film with the blind man on the railway tracks was moving in a way.
Overall, this film is the kind I wont give a second watch anytime in the near future. It made me realise Clooney isnt a bad actor and the character who played "George Nelson" was my favourite(short role)though. I liked the cars and cows collision too.Replayed it thrice.Can't make out whether its special effects or not.
Well Done , Coen's
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, Brother!
Review: I never thought being disappointed by a Coen brothers film would feel like a "normal" disappointment - although perhaps not outstanding I'd still have expected the movie to be OK.
I should have taken my having noticed the PG-13 logo (rated alike Adam Sandler/Rob Schneider movies) as a warning, though.
I liked "Blood Simple", "Raising Arizona", "Miller's Crossing", "The Hudsucker Proxy", really liked "Fargo", "Barton Fink", and loved "The Big Lebowski" and "The Man Who Wasn't There", but "O, Brother Where Art Thou?" is like a bad, long and unnecessarily modernized episode of "The Three Stooges".
It's a weak, hardly evolving story about three morons on a treasure quest that halfway through the movie turns into a quest for saving a marriage.
Unlike anything else I've seen, having involved the Coen brothers as writers/directors/producers, I think I here only ONCE took special notice to an impressive directional effect.
Also, very much unlike "usual" Coen brothers films, the scenes are predictable and the jokes are anything but witty. I'd rather describe this humor as suitable for people as moronic as the characters in the movie.
I mean, at one point in the movie Clooney's and Nelson's characters believe that Turturro's character had turned into a toad, as they one morning found only a toad in his shirt.
Incidentally, we hardly get to know anything about the history of any character - nothing more than that they're three white southern prisoners on the loose in the 1930's (at one point mistaken for black folks because their faces are muddy...there's a four letter word for jokes of that gender: "deeeeeeeeeeeerp").
Not to say anything bad about Leslie Nielsen, but I believe he'd have pulled off Everett (Clooney's character) better; with his personality some of these jokes might have worked.
This movie makes Clooney look like an idiot which I'm sure he is.
The only really funny thing in this comedy is the irony of the KKK leader singing and making a white power speech in a VERY black voice and manner, and the only really good performance is by John Goodman, who briefly appears on (most of) the screen.
Due to a bad script (and weak characters), and though I like Turturro, I find his performance in this movie pretty neutral.
The movie features a lot of music - a lot of country, blues and blue-grass, but it's very modern sounding, and features elements that don't do justice to the state of development that this music was in 70 years ago.
Furthermore all lip-syncing in this movie takes you out of the moment (if you ever were in it) - all the tunes have a clean and very modern studio sound.
Never (since Clint Eastwood's "Bird" from 1987) has playing an instrument looked so unrealistic.
The overdone digital colorization of the whole movie is a big turn-off - it makes it hard to get into anything. The unnatural colors of nature do not work - especially not considering that this is supposed to recreate a place in time (the 1930's Southern America). Several scenes change "character" by the great load of shifting digital color layers. At first I thought there was something wrong with my TV or that I'd gotten a defective disc. Some landscape reminded me of the Robin Williams flop "What Dreams May Come" - it's that overdone.
I'm surprised by my own disappointment, but "Oh Brother" is probably the correct opening to a fair response to this film.
Rating:
Summary: Ingenius film...the best ever.
Review: What a wonderful film. The cast, setting, and story was executed to perfection. This film has humor, historical context, great cinimatography, and an awesome cast. Very enjoyable from begining to end. One of my personal favorites. A must see.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: Simply great! Picture, music and actors. Prepare to enjoy a good laugh!
Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: Every few years, among the dung heap of crappy movies comes along a masterpiece. This is one of them. Ok, it's not Gone With The Wind, but it's still a classic. You leave the film wanting more, but knowing a sequel would be a let down. You play back certain parts in your mind, and you wish to watch the movie over, and when you do, you take away even more from the film - my definition of a classic. Who would give this less than 4 stars? I knew it before I even looked, but I looked anyway - Holy-rollers. They can't stand anything that slaps religion in the face. I've been saved.... My sins have been washed away..... even from that piggly wiggly I robbed.... If you can't laugh at something like that, either get the starch out of your collar, or don't buy or rent movies. Just put your money in the offering plate.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Movie!!!!
Review: O brother, where art thou? is definitely one of my all-time favorites. I watched this movie for the first time after reading the Odyssey. To truly appreciate the movie, you must read the book from whence its plot comes. The movie is very intelligent and fast-paced, with Clooney playing the smart-mouthed main character, Ulysses (aka Odyseus in the book the odyssey) Everett McGill. Highly recommended!
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