Rating: 
Summary: Jack is back
Review: What a great film, especially for those of us baby boomers approaching retirement age. Jack Nicholson gives an excellet peformance as always as the title character facing some life changes head on. His newest mission, derailing the upcoming marriage of his daughter to someone he doesnt feel is worthy of her. He is constantly having to put a smile on his unhappiness, which gives the film a special touch of irony. Filmed in Omaha and surrounding areas, the film includes real places and some real people from the area. all in all a good film with some wit, charm and old fashion slice of life film making.I also loved the deleted scences and how they are explained, it gives the flim lover a view into how the movie and films in general are made. There is a very funny deleted scene of Schmidt being arrested for shoplifting some preperation H. and some J&B, I hate long lines too, dont you.
Rating: 
Summary: Watch something else
Review: While it Jack does pull the part of pretty well, the movie was not funny. It was not more than 30 minutes in, when I started checking the time that was left.
Rating: 
Summary: great excels at everything it does
Review: When you ask me to describe this movie. I Will Definetly
Use These Words. Magnificent , Excellent , Masterpiece ,
Lifelike , And Funny. Jack Nicholson Sure Picked A Great
Movie. My Teachers Description Was Tottally Wrong. Does She Have No Heart. Obviously Because This Is A Great Heartfealt Movie With One Of The Greatest Performances Ever. Jack Nicholson
Plays Warren Schmidt A Man Who Has Never Focused Too Much On Life. He's Retired His Wife Suddenly Dies And He Doesn't Like His Daughters Fiance. Well He Goes On A Road TRip. Throughout That You Think He's An Great Man. I Loved Every Minute Of This Movie And Could Never Say Negative About It.
Rating:
Summary: About Schmidt is a very good movie
Review: Jack Nicholson again shines in another role. Nicholson plays Warren Schmidt, who recently became a widower after his wife suddenly passes away. Schmidt's life has been a pretty dull one, as he gets irritated by the many things done by his wife and doesn't want his daughter marrying a dimwitted waterbed salesmen. Angry but never showing it, Schmidt rants on and on about his problems to a Tanzanian foster child named Ndugu while on his way to Denver in a massive winnebago to stop the wedding of his daughter. That is basically the plot. What makes this movie really good is the fact that the viewer can come to sympathize with Schmidt's plight. Also the many touches of comedy put in the movie adds a lot to the movie, so the movie itself does not get to serious and dramatic. All in all the right characters played by the right actors and a very good plot and you have one very good movie!
Rating:
Summary: Easily the best film of 2002...
Review: "About Schmidt" is a quirky, offbeat comedy about a man and his journey to find meaning to his life. Its name is true; "About Schmidt" is about...well...a man named Schmidt. Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) is your average Joe. Or, in this case, your average Warren. He lives a normal life. He has just retired at the age of sixty-seven, and he now stays at home with his wife, who Schmidt states he is growing tired of. He's tired of having to do everything his wife, Helen, tells him to do. He's tired of her cutting him off when he's talking. He's tired of the way she sits down. He's tired of the way she pulls out the keys to the car before they're even out the door. And he's tired of having to sit down when he goes to the bathroom. In a letter to Ntugu (his new "adopted" sponsor child), Warren spills his beans about life. That same day he comes home from mailing a letter to Ntugu, to find his wife, dead on the floor. We learn later that she died from a blood clot in her brain. Left on his own, Warren realizes how good his wife was, and how much he misses her. But then he finds out that twenty-five to thirty years ago she had an affair with an old friend of his, and in one of the most subtley funny moments in the film, dumps off her old belongings at a donation center. Warren, still missing his wife but truly bitter at what she did, eventually decides to go visit his daughter in the south, and packs up the 35-foot-long Winnebago with everything he needs. His daughter, who is about to be married to a complete loser, has different ideas, and tells Warren once he is on the road that it would be best if they stick to the plan and he comes down two days before the wedding. Left with about a week before the wedding, Warren takes a road trip back down memory lane. He visits his old childhood home - which is now a tire store. "This is where the bedroom would've been," he tells a clerk, who looks on in awe. After that, Warren one way or another ends up eating dinner with a couple from the RV park he's staying in. When the husband goes out to get more beer, the woman says that she sees a sad, sad man in Warren. Afraid and angry. Once Warren arrives for the wedding, he realizes that his daughter is happy with the man she is about to marry, no matter how much of a loser he is. And in a scene that could have been played for laughs but wasn't (which is good in this case, making deep characters instead of flimsy ones), Warren makes a toast to his daughter and her new husband. And then Warren goes home. It's the end of the movie already. Not much has happened, and Warren tells Ntugu that his life has no point. His life has no meaning. Why go on? But then he gets a letter, and in the sense of "It's a Wonderful Life," Warren sees the meaning in his life. "About Schmidt" isn't for everyone. People that cannot tolerate slow-moving films should not see this. Those that cannot appreciate characters that are deep, but yet still funny, should not see this movie. If people want a Jack Nicholson movie played just for laughs, with your average characters, I recommend "Anger Management." But if you want a classic example of fine storytelling, see "About Schmidt." The characters are funny, but not outrageous. They are not there to make us laugh. They are there to preach something, much like in "It's a Wonderful Life." But they do make us laugh, in the little quirks of life. Things we all do. The first forty minutes of this movie is an absolute hoot, and those forty minutes are probably funnier than any movie you'll see this year. But not outwardly funny; like I said, this isn't an Adam Sandler movie. This is a realistic movie with realistic characters doing real things that are funny. It's a self-parody for all the viewers. The little quirks all the different characters have will either a) remind you of someone you know, or b) remind you of yourself. Jack Nicholson is an absolute stand-out in this movie. I can't see anyone else playing him quite as well as Nicholson. And I must admit that I've never been a real fan of Jack, either. But when he is on screen in this film, we see a sad, lonely, angry and afraid old man who is wondering through life, living each day, but not for any apparent reason. Alexander Payne has crafted a wonderful life-parody/drama here. I didn't expect this much from "About Schmidt," but I sure did get more than I bargained for. And in this case, what I didn't bargain for was better than what I did.
Rating:
Summary: Drama?...About Schmidt Is One Of 2002's Best Comedies!
Review: Jack Nicholson is one of America's favorite actors, and I can't think of any other role that could have suited him better then Warren Schmidt. It seems that throughout the movie, Jack doesn't even have to try that hard to make his character believable. He is just simply that good. Plus, don't even get me started about how excellent Kathy Bates was in this! These two talents combined made a decent script spirng alive into the realms of greatness. However, the hugest suprise of this movie to me was that it was advertised as a drama. When I actually saw the movie, and thought about it, I think I laughed more during About Schmidt then most any other movie that year. Once the script takes off, it doesn't stop until the finish! I really enjoyed this movie overall. Wonderful acting combined to a nice script gave About Schmidt a big boost. This is a fun, meaningful movie.
Rating: 
Summary: "About Schmidt" Makes It So Hard To Like It.
Review: I initially awarded this film 4 stars and titled my review "One of the Best Films of 2002". And I really did feel that way after the first viewing. But after my second viewing, I wasn't quite as enthused. I so wanted to love this film as I had "Election" and "Citizen Ruth", Payne's earlier films, that my judgement became clouded. And "About Schmidt" makes trying to like it a difficult task, to say the least. I won't go into much detail regarding the plot as many have already done that just fine. Simply put, this is a film about a man questioning his entire life upon his retirement and trying to make sense of it and trying to fit into a world that devalues, to a large extent, its senior citizens. First of all, the pacing of this film is horrendous and the film is extremely unkind to most of its characters, except for Schmidt. Everybody is depicted as selfish and insensitive. Schmidt is also depicted this way but in a humorous light. The first half of the film is actually pretty good but it's when Schmidt takes to the road and finally reaches his daughters future in-laws home that the film really becomes an endurance test for the audience. Paynes insistence on portraying these people as white-trash with little character shading made me more than a little uncomfortable. I sort of felt like I was watching a re-make of Tod Browning's classic "Freaks". Ultimately, whether or not you like this film depends a great deal on how much good will you have toward Nicholson. Like I said, he is wonderful and there are several scenes with Schmidt re-evaluating everything in his life and grappling with feelings of uselessness, which ring with a resounding truthfulness. And there is also a touching poignancy found in the scenes where Schmidt writes his letters to the indigent boy Ndugu(sp) he begins sponsoring upon his retirement. But these scenes don't really add up to much because after viewing "About Schmidt", you come away feeling that the whole is much less than the sum of its parts.
Rating:
Summary: Jayhawks Song Come To Life
Review: This is a wonderful movie. Very understated throughout, and a painfully funny portait of the futility associated with trying to underastand and/or cope with the meaning(lessness?)of life as many of us will know it. Nicholson gives a superbly sad and funny performance as Warren Schmidt, a recently retired widower who longs to find his place and purpose in a life basically long since past. It stirs up the feelings of doubt I'm sure we all have at one point or another, and begs the age old question - what IS it really all about? ARE we truly happy or are we just excepting the portions of drivel life serves us - and CAN we change it if we chose to? I hesitate to call this film a comedy - it can be viewed as such, but that is to only scratch the surface. It reminds me of the layered efforst in the songs of Minneapolis bands like the Jayhawks and the Replacements - it's a comedy in the sense that certain aspects of it are funny, but beneath the surface lies an ache. A beautiful ache....Layers. Layers. Lost time, fleeting chances and the ability to find happiness in small gestures are all explored thorughout this film - I implore you to take a look at it, and take what you will from it. But DO take that chance. DO take a look. To dismiss it as a 'typical Hollywood comedy' or a 'boring' film because it's not another American Pie would be to do it an injustice. It is anything but ordinary, anything but boring.
Rating: 
Summary: Oscar worthy? Give me a break!
Review: Jack Nicholson plays a subdued character! Jack Nicholson has a wife that IS his age!
ARGH!YAWN! But is it a good film? Even taking into consideration the cult of JACK! This film is a meer drop in the bucket of cinema compared to films past that have tackled similiar themes. Men in their twilight years road films you say? Try Art Carney in Harry and Tonto. Or my favorite, The Straight Story. This film was showered with many accolades, most of them not deserved in the slightest. While Nicholson's performance is adequate, I cringe in thinking that people thought it was Academy Award-worthy.....but since when is the current Academy truly interested in artistry. Road films imply a transformation, a moving forward in realization and understanding. This does occur to a certain degree, but it bogs down in its sad need to show Jack's rote-typical reactions to the "idiots" that surround him. I think this would have been a better film if his Wife would have lived and gone with him to his Daughter's wedding in the RV. Colorful characters along the way as usual of course....maybe a transformation needed to occur with some sort of contrasting force and pugnacity that his Wife would have supplied. If you are a Jack-o-phile of course you will enjoy it as it's designed. But for me it was strongly dissapointing.
Rating:
Summary: Jack Nicholson Is Back!!!
Review: Once again Jack Nicholson is back on the right road after the dissapointing film The Pledge, which I might add was the worst film i have ever seen Nicholson in. About Schmidt is about a Senior Citizen that just retired and deep inside doesn't want to. It appears as if everything surrounding him is driving him crazy, even his own beloved wife and daughter that is getting married in a few days to a guy that seems to have no future. After Schmidts wife dies he goes on a road journey a few days before the wedding to discover himself again, meeting new things and people. I am afraid that this film most people will think is boring and drawn out since it doesn't really have in high points until he reaches the his daughter fiances house two days before the wedding. I personally enjoyed this film but was some what dissapointed, since i expected this film to be a Comedy, which indeed isn't!!! I wouldn't recommend any one to buy it before they have watched it... so this is definitley a rental and a maybe to purchase! I in my opinion think it's worth purchasing and will do so.
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