Rating: 
Summary: a plush, beautiful, dark masterpiece
Review: this is one of my favorite movies ever. have you ever seen a film that is so emotionally draining that when it's over you don't know what to do with yourself, you just sit there a minute. that's how this is. it's fun and humerous, very dramatic, often times sad, and it's also very suprising at some points. basically, all of the main characters turn out unlike what you first thought they would be. be sure to watch it alone so that you can fully appreciate it and pay attention. go check it out now!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
Review: This movie is one of the best I've ever seen and completely deserved every single award it won. Kevin Spacey delivers yet another brilliant performance--he is a god. Excellent acting by all the rest of the cast as well, great writing, and a superbly spare score by Thomas Newman. Compelling, original, and beautiful, this movie must not be missed.
Rating:
Summary: I agree! I want my DVD!
Review: I agree with the other guy, to all the execs out there, PLEASE! Put this movie on DVD! Do NOT do like Lucas did with Ep. 1! People will buy more copies of this on DVD rather than VHS. This has got to be one of the best movies of recent times and perhaps of all time. Well done.
Rating: 
Summary: No DVD No Purchase
Review: I am not a big fan of this movie, I wanted to rent it, but I saw that they only decided to release a VHS edition of this movie. Dumb mistake. DVD is what people want not VHS, maybe the people at Dreamworks would get it through their skulls. The only VHS film(s) I have supported are Star Wars and Inidana Jones blind loyalty I guess, just hold out until a DVD version is released for this one.
Rating:
Summary: American Beauty: Ambivalence and Wonder
Review: What a tremendous movie "American Beauty" is? Having just finished watching it on video for the first time, I'm glad I didn't read much about it or see many of its scenes, so the vision unfolding is fresh in my mind. Academy Awards sometimes help or hurt a movie;was the movie really the best of the year or was there just so much hype? Racing movies against each other is, of course, preposterous. But "American Beauty" is a great film, a subtle and harrowing vision of "family values," dreams, and the strange beauty of life; we never know what turn this movie will take; just when we think one thing will happen, the film veers off into comedy, drama, longing for love,and just when the viewer thinks he or she has the plot figured out, another twist, yet with Kevin Spacey's narration, if we listen closely, we know the ending and then the mystery starts and it also turns into a thriller, but only for a short time. Kevin Spacey has never been better. Annette Bening is tremendous, one of our top actresses. The young people portrayed here come from no TV sitcom. They are complex, full of surprises, reflecting the movie's surprises.Some people have complained about the scene between Spacey and his idealized cheerleader. As filmed, it is of the most touching, sad, and innocent scenes I've watched in recent movies, positively marvelous; and lesser actors or directors could have ruined this scene. So what had Spacey found by rejecting the American Dream (Beauty)? Is he finally happy, fooling himself, or in some fantasy world of his own making? He has won a different kind of happiness, fleeting though it may be, but at least he knows it, has had almost one epiphany after another until the shocking conclussion,and the shock is that the murderer was someone else, someone who also is lost in the American wilderness of pain and like so many incidents on the news, finds a final outlet in violence. If more parents would watch "American Beauty" together, we might have less Columbine shootings; its always the supposed to be a "shock" that in a nice neighborhood, things like this don't happen, neighborhoods of secrets and of, if we look around, days and details of great beauty, and the greatess gift, the gift to be alive an enjoy each day. "American Beauty" is a masterpiece that demands to be seen again and again.
Rating: 
Summary: A Revelation of BEAUTY as well as UGLY
Review: First off, I would like to say this to all those people who condemn the movie for its study of dysfunctional people: You are exactly what the movie is about---people who live in denial-- people who hide from the dark side of life. When the ugly side of life is revealed, you confront it--not hide from it. "American Beauty" is not a celebration of adultery and dysfunction, it's a celebration of finding the inherent worth and beauty in our ordinary lives. The movie just doesn't sugarcoat it; rather, it hides it beneath a dark, morbid shell. A movie doesn't have to be sugar and spice in order to be great. It can deal with dark issues and still be beautiful. This movie revealed my pent-up denials and fears in the character of Lester, as well as my coldness in his wife, vanity in the blond girl Lester lusts for, repression in the closeted Marine neighbor, and innocence in the daughter. Unlike other people out there who want to deny that there's a dark side to life, I've chosen to accept and tolerate it-- and admitt my own faults. And I can still search for and find the beauty behind all this muck in life. "American Beauty" shows us the ugly, and finds the beauty within it.
Rating:
Summary: I love Suburban Films. . .
Review: Why? Because we're so blind from the series of events that occur within a quiet and peaceful town. American Beauty is really a remarkable achievement. It captures a family whose really not a family and the loniness of people that's both heartbreaking and interesting. American Beauty has recieved the attention it deserved as well as the awards. It's a must see for anyone who's captivated by the underside of quiet suburban life.
Rating:
Summary: paralizing
Review: The best movie. Ever. See it for the brilliant acting. See it for the amazing directing. See it for the tantalizing score. See it for Wes Bently's eyes, if nothing else. Its fightening, hysterical, and I couldn't move for ten minutes after I saw it. Literally. I started crying from the Plastic Bag scene, and didn't stop after that. If I could give it more than five stars, i'd give it infinate stars. witty, touching, searing... especially for those people who have seen that look in our father's eyes, that look that Ricky Fitts gets just before he leaves home... truly brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Where do I begin . . .
Review: to praise this wonderful film? Even the title is worth interpreting. The Annette Bening character grows American Beauty roses. And the film is about what Americans find beautiful: surface things, expensive sofas and nice lawns. But it's also about the beauty that all of us can find in ordinary things, a trash bag blowing in the wind, a kitchen window at night. Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening play the bored couple at the heart of this film. She sells real estate. He quits his job in favor of a totally responsiblity-free job at the local burger joint. She takes up with the local Success Seminar Guru (Peter Gallagher). He pines after his teenager daughter's best friend. I'd better not reveal any more of the plot but I will say that the characters in this film include an incredibly self-righteous military man and his dope-peddling son, a happily married gay couple, and of course the object of Spacey's desire, who is herself a true-blue "American Beauty." This film is too good to be shoehorned into a category like "comedy-drama" and it isn't really a satire of suburbia as so many have said. (A satire of a certain kind of middle-class people, perhaps.) What it is, is a sharp look at human motivation that unfolds into a very knowing kind of--sweetness. See the film and you'll understand.
Rating:
Summary: The number one movie EVER
Review: The movie will easily be considered one of the best, if not the best movie ever, in a few years. There is nothing to complain about with this movie as the direction was fabulous. The multiple storylines combine seemlessly and is greatly wrapped up at the end. Just when you think you know what will happen next...It does, but not exactly as you thought. The movie never dissapoints, teen angst, midage crisis, unhappy wife. What does this movie not have? A great snapshot of our new society.
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