Rating: 
Summary: A joy
Review: One of my favorite movies. It just seems so honest and well great. So many complex relationships that all tie together in that they all end up unraveling. I think I'm just rambling now. It's great, beautifully (done).
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Beauty
Review: I was lucky enough to catch this film in the theater just before it went out, and lucky enough to make this one of the first DVDs in my collection. Upon second viewing, I can only praise this movie more. The acting by all involved is brilliant, and nothing is added in or left out in the way of plot or dialogue; this movie is absolutely seamless. This is one you can't miss; Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey give the performances of a lifetime. Run out and grab this one, it's worth every cent!
Rating:
Summary: LOOK CLOSER !
Review: Incredible dramedy of dysfunctional suburban America is very real and totally realized. Lester and Caroline Burnham have marital problems, their daughter wants breast implants, her empty and superficial best friend has the hots for Caroline's dad, the clean cut yuppie gay couple are happy all the while the new kid next door is filming.
I have given you the run down, but you have to see it for yourself because it is the complexity of the characters that make film score on all levels. Music soundtrack is kickin too.
Rating:
Summary: one my favorite movies
Review: American beauty, how can I really talk about this movie? I've seen it many times and it really stands out to me as showing some normal people with a slight twist to them. It's not your typical movie, but that's good. The cinematography and Kevin Spacey really make this movie classic.
Rating: 
Summary: This Doesn't Deserve ANY Awards....
Review: Of course this review will be the small voice of dissent in a sea of praise, but I'm writing for the few who will listen. Okay so this movie was making a statement about what is wrong with America today, it's supposed to deal with the superficiality of the American suburbs, the hypocrisy of family today, blah blah blah. You get all of that within the first 5 minutes of the movie. The rest of it is all rose petals falling and an excuse pass off nudity as "art". At no point in this movie was it necessary to for us to see Mena Suvari's breasts. They were totally completely superfluous to the movie. But, hey, this movie is an "artistic masterpiece" so, therefore some nudity is required. Every single scene in this movie was the director screaming from the rooftops: "look at me, I'm making an artistic movie and since many of us aspire to be 'intellectual', i.e. pretentious, we'll praise it because it's 'different' ". What was the point of this movie? Was he trying to get across a message that something is wrong with American society today? If so, he could have done it without Mena Suvari's breasts, the rose petals, and of course the most "beautiful scene in the whole movie" - I refer of course that oh-so-profound scene where the the marijuana-peddling voyeur neighbour says that the plastic bag flowing in the wind was so beautiful. Gosh, that statement had me almost emptying my stomach in the wrong way. Ok, I'll admit that at certain points in the movie, I had to laugh out loud, there was definitely some good humour, but most of this movie, was a useless, senseless, pretentious waste of film. So the director wanted to make the statement that something was wrong with society today. Tell me something I don't know. Look for the beauty in everyday life? Sure, but it wasn't anywhere in the movie. Compare this to another movie which wanted to bring home the tragedy of the twisted world we live in - Life is Beautiful. The director of that movie didn't need to show breasts, didn't even need to use curse words and what little violence there was was implied. Yet it brings home to all of us, how cruel and beautiful and complex human beings are. Another good movie which released around the same time - Fight Club. Also a very brilliantly done movie. The best way to get a social message across is subtlety. This movie was as subtle as sledgehammer. All this movie does is take the worst possible in all of us and put it onscreen. Either way, there was no reason for anybody to see Mena Suvari's breasts. Of course this review will just be voted least helpful, but hey, somebody had to be brave enough to criticize this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie, Even better DVD
Review: American Beauty has become an instant American classic movie, despite its detractors. The acting is terrific and multi-layered, the editing is great, and it has some of the best lighting I've ever seen. The movie chronicles the Suburban nightmare of Lester Burns, played by Kevin Spacey. The characters are all miserable in their own way, but each learns lessons during the course of the movie that help ease their pain. Fortunately, this DVD comes with a commentary track with director Sam Mendes (American Beauty was unbelievably his first movie!) and screenwriter Alan Ball (creator of the acclaimed series Six Feet Under). Although their commentary is a bit self-congratulatory at times (the movie did win multiple Oscars after all), it is fascinating. They take you through the entire movie-making experience and detail why certain choices were made. I learned more about movie making from listening to their ocmmentary than from any book I've ever read. Even if you didn't care much for the movie, I highly recommended the DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Should have been a comedy
Review: It truly amazes me how so many people gave this five stars - these people are easily impressed. The film IS good, downright hilarious at points, almost in the vein of Pulp Fiction. Kevin Spacey is very good, outside the unnecessary opening shower scene. The film does have some very thinly veiled anti-American themes. Some examples include the depiction of nuclear families as groups of dysfunctional freaks and those with "alternative lifestyles" as "with it" and "happening". Further, hatred for the United States Marine Corp and those who exercise 2nd Amendment rights reveals more about the agenda of the film's makers than an even remotely accurate portrayal of American suburban life. I would have less problems with these P.C. messages, which I've come to expect from Hollywood, had the entire film been a comedy (which it truly should have been) or if it was being faithful to a book, but I can find no evidence of the film being based upon a novel. Therefore, only 3 stars instead of 4.
Rating: 
Summary: Americans are seriously ill
Review: I appreciate this new style movie. All the people in this film are perverse. And many Americans in the real world share the perversion. It's the reason why this satire became so popular. What makes me uncomfortable is the popularity. I hope it should have been recognized as an artistic work or a cult movie.
Rating:
Summary: American Beauty is a Beauty to Watch
Review: Let me start off by saying this is a truly great movie and in my opinion was the best movie of 1999, but I am grading the entire DVD.
This DVD could have been more and had the potential to do so. The writer and director's commentary was very informative but was just not enough. The making of the movie, etc was a nice feature, but I wanted to see more, including the alternate beginning and ending that was much talked about in the commentary.
I was happy to see that they included information from the photographer as the lighting was wonderfully done.
The picture and sound quality was very nicely done and comes across well even on a smaller television.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting, But Will It Be Remembered Tomorrow?
Review: AMERICAN BEAUTY is one of those rare gems that come across less frequently as the years go by. It's an intelligent story told intelligently to an audience with the IQ to understand the nature of human relationships, even at their crudest level. Annette Benning plays the tawdry affair-happy suburban housewife truly uninterested in anything but herself so well that one comes away from a single screening wondering whether or not it's the true Annette Benning. Kevin Spacey plays the burned-out surburbanite father in the middle of a life crisis with a master's subtlety. Everyone on board this picture deserves volumes of praise for the work they did. After viewing it, I shared with a friend that I thought AMERICAN BEAUTY was, perhaps, the singlemost important commentary on the American suburban experience depicted on film to date ... ... but I can't help wondering, how long will what the film had to tell us stick around? Ultimately, that's the message of the film, and now that several years have gone by it appears that AMERICAN BEAUTY might've only held our collective passing interest.
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