Rating: 
Summary: American Beauty
Review: What do I say? What do I say? Well, let's start with that this movie is most definitely one of the best movies of all and definitely the 2nd best movie of 1999 (the first being "Magnolia"). This movie is so powerful and moving. I'm not surprised at all that Kevin Spacey won best actor but I am surprised that Annette Bening did not win best actress. This movie is about a family that is really just for show. The inner lives of this 3-person family comes out whole-heartily in this movie and shows us the real side of their lives. The father (Spacey) seems like your normal mid-40s guy until you see that he's yearning for the attention of a high school cheerleader (Mena Suvari). The mother (Bening) is a real estate agent who is cheating on her husband with her boss. Bening shows a side of her acting that hasn't been seen until this movie and she succeeded greatly in portraying this woman who really doesn't have anything. The daughter is acts almost like she is depressed in this movie. I think that she was trying to say in her character that she hates her life and that her parents have just made her life miserable. Her character goes a bit more deeper than I can describe but I should just say that all of these characters are played magnificantly. This is truly a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: My best movie for year 2000 - so far
Review: I think this is an exception as American Beauty is an R and not released until October 24 on DVD. I however have stolen their thunder and I have written my review having seen it at the cinema in good old UK. So please humour me and post the review for others to read. I have raved about it ever since. It is not a feel good film, but more a study of what happens when relationship break down in an ordinary family. Kevin Spacey as Lester is the man for the part, I loved him and so will you by the end of the film you will weep for this lovely man.The characters are so well juxtaposed in the plot and the twists and turns are so clever that I just sat in the auditorium for a good ten minutes considering what I had watched. It is always so easy to hype up a film but this one is worthy of its Academy Awards. The score, the use of very clever camera techniques, the sheer originality of Sam Mendes's direction and the standard of acting makes this the must buy film for 2000. There are many in the UK who found the film too upsetting for their sensibilities but they are either prudes or have no artistic souls. I found nothing in the movie that was gratuitious in fact Mendes managed to keep it all at the right level throughout. Despite British criticism, this is not a film about paedophiles nor even closet homosexuality but more about the despair of one man who is in deep mid-life crisis and is desperate for affection and empathy. Maiden aunts and elderly parents will not enjoy it neither will many youngsters, but those interested in Film Studies as an academic subject will want to add this film to their collection. Viewed on the small screen will not take anything away from it because it is does not have to rely upon special effects nor panoramic shots to get over its message. Buy it, watch it and then watch it all over again. enter that digit.
Rating: 
Summary: The meaning is clouded by the raunch
Review: I came away from this movie thinking, "I...think I liked it." It reminded me very much of the horrible movie, Election. I could barely sit through it. I was offended in practically every scene. The strangely-placed nudity I could handle, but most of the movie was just plain wrong and disgusting. The scene of the naked boy and his girlfriend was bad enough, but the blatent sex scene was positvly vulger and uncalled-for. And of course we had to have the token gay couple. After all, that's normal, right? What American family doesn't have two gay lovers as next door neighbors? The drug use and sexual inuendo certainly didn't help much, either. But, by far, the worst part of this movie was the depiction of a married middle-aged man shamelessly lusting after his daughter's teenage friend. How utterly disgusting is that? It seemed to be showing that as okay. Now we're not just giving our blessing to homosexuality, but pedophilia as well! What is wrong with this country? This movie displayed, to me, everything that is wrong with Hollywood today. They support anything that is morally and ethically wrong and say that anyone with morals is some kind of biggoted, close-minded geek. However, I did give it that extra star because, artistically, it was slightly ingenious. It especially hit me at the end. I won't give it away, but the boy really made the point that there is beauty in everything, if we have eyes to see it. I especially liked, at the end, when both the man and his wife realized that no matter what they thought they wanted, they really already had everything and were really happy. At least, that's what I got from it. Too bad that realization came a little late. The acting was also extrodinary. Especially Kevin Spacey. Of all the Oscars this movie won, I think that's the only one it actually deserved. Overall, this movie did have some good qualities. But, it wasn't worth sitting through all the raunch, cussing, and nudity. Certainly not Best Picture material.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie With one GREAT actor
Review: The thing I really love about this movie is how great Kevin Spacey and Annete Bening work together on screen. I have always been a Kevin Spacey fan and now I ike him and his acting even more. The director (Sam Mendes) had me imagining I was Lester Burnham half way through the movie and I began to feel sorry for him and the problems that arose in his life. "American Beauty" pretty much cleaned up at the oscars. The only movies that only came close to being better than "American Beauty" were "Being John Malkovich" and "Magnolia". A GREAT MOVIE TREAT YOURSELF TO THIS FILM IF YOUR ONE OF THE RARE PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN IT!
Rating:
Summary: Not Oscar worthy! Over-rated!
Review: First of all, I think that it's pretty sad that a movie about a disfunctional family would win an Oscar for Best Movie! Now that I got that off my chest...I've seen 4 of the 5 movies that were nominated for Best Movie of 1999. Out of the 4, American Beauty was by far at the bottom of my list. I strongly feel that The Green Mile or The Insider should have won, followed by The Sixth Sense. I've watched American Beauty twice, and if it weren't for Kevin Spacey, then I probably wouldn't have ever seen it. Kevin Spacey is by far one of the best actors out there. His brilliant performance as Lester makes this average movie worth watching at least once. He definetly steals the show! Other then that, in my opinion, this is an average movie. There was nothing exciting or climactic in the movie. The best part of the movie had to be the last 15 minutes of the movie. Everything throughout the movie all came to one.
Rating:
Summary: NOT THE GREATEST, BUT STILL SAD AND FUNNY
Review: No, this movie was not the most unique of it's class. It's been done many times before, but I don't believe like this. The movie works for 3 reasons: Kevin Spacey, Annete Benning, and the cinematography. Kevin deserved the Oscar well, and I'd give it to him just for the final look on his face, a blank gaze of astonishment, horror, peace... and inevitablity. The film is depressing in the end, yes, but it's in the way that it will make you remember it forever, and it gives an important message. Even the first words of the movie make you stand at attention (little do I know that in less than a year, I'll be dead), as you see this man's upward (or downward, for that matter) spiral. The scene that should definetly go down in history is the wonderful dinner scene, where Lester tells his wife what he did that day, what he thinks of her music, then, subtley stands up and smashes a plate into the wall. Sounds like a pissy guy getting mad at his wife, right? Look closer...
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant film
Review: Impossible to put into words how I feel about this modren masterpiece. The first time I saw it at a friends house,I was completely blown away.It had a profound effect on me,which is rare,beause being jaded and cynial,nothing can really stir me up. This movie did.The stars all shine,putting on a marvelous show,that for better or for worse,you may never forget. See it tonight,and by dawn tommarrow you'll probably either come away feeling moved,or like you just spent two hours in a blast furnace.Wathing Lester and Carolyn bait each other ala "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" is a treat!Each of them deliver their lines with gusto,and leave us laughing.Of course there's nothing funny about the bittersweet finale... In short,this is worth your time,especially if you're a fan of great movies.
Rating:
Summary: American Reality Check
Review: When I first saw this movie- I hated it! Over and over; I appoligized to my mom for taking her to see it. It was my treat. It intriqued me that the so call "typical American culture" gave this movie so many rewards and dared to call its content "beautiful". The movie was well done and portrayed a reality often disguised in this society: What really goes on in our minds and what has the typical American family become? I like this movie because it shows a truth that is often ignored and rarely mentioned. SEX. True, today we are more open to talk about it. However, we do not dare to share the gross and unaccepted thoughts that linger in our minds. This movie gives an example of what may happen if those thoughts were played out. It doesn't surprise me what does happen. What surprises me and horrifies me is that people would look at this movie and venture to follow it. A sollution movie needs to be done. This movie tells us what happens if we dwell on the sins the mind chooses to capture enough to live them out. American Beauty warns us what ugliness looks like. The only beauty in this movie is that it brings the truth of the mind out into the light. I'd recommend this movie not as entertainment, for it is quite distrubing to watch, but as a piece for serious discussion on some of the key issues that plague our society today. This movie is inappropriate for those under 13 and needs a parent for those under 18 or those who are not married. If you are addicted to sex, the sexual content may cloud the real issues of this movie and I'd advise you not to see it. Men: be careful to guard yourself while seeing this film- it is quite intense.
Rating:
Summary: Not as much of a satire as people would like to believe
Review: I'll try to keep this short. This film is a satire, so on some levels it's exagerated to highlight certian characterics. However, the exageration is not as great as most of suburban american would like to believe, and that's the best part of this movie. If your an only child, or any teenager who lives in the suburbs you will relate to something in this movie. Parents may write this off as a gross exageration, but it's not. If everyone gave into their impluses something like this would happen, because all those feelings lie just beneath the surface. The mesage that you have to realize at the end of the movie is that IN THE END NOBODY REALLY CARED. It's kind of like The Great Gastby.
Rating:
Summary: Independent Cinema Lite
Review: An entirely adequate movie that raises a lot of hot subjects (male mid-life crises, pedophilia, voyeurism, homosexuality, murder, etc.) and then dances rather coyly around them for two hours, and then tacks on a nice and uplifting message about the need to see the beauty around us. That way, the foks at the mall can feel good about having sat through a movie featuring blackmail, murder, and (gasp) sex!!!This film owes a bit too much to other much darker films, specifically The Ice Storm and sex lies and videotape and Lolita and Happiness and Blue Velvet. That American Beauty is more accessible and less interesting than these films should come as no surprise, I suppose, considering the quite unwarranted success of the film. American Beauty is Independent Cinema Lite. It takes no hard stance, takes no chances whatsoever, at least none that have not been taken several times before by other, far more challenging films. The best thing about American Beauty is the high quality of the acting, in particular a splendid performance from Wes Bentley, who really should have been Oscar-nominated. If I see American Beauty again, it will be to watch his work.
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