Rating: 
Summary: Give it a chance
Review: Yes, this movie is non-linear, and for the first half of the movie, I was thinking, as Roger Ebert said, "there is a point at which this stops being a strategy and starts being a stunt." It did seem a little over-the-top at first, and indeed, this would be a fine movie if the story had unfolded chronologically. In the end, however, I have to say that the flash-forwards and flashbacks definitely heightened the dramatic tension and overall experience of this film.What makes this movie stand out, however, is the incredible acting. Del Toro, Penn, and Watts are all good actors, but I have never seen a better performance from any of them. They were each given tragic, flawed characters to make their own, and each made the most of them. You will likely not ever see better performances from three lead actors. If you haven't seen this movie, rent it, borrow it, buy it, but SEE IT!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly Put Together
Review: Unlike many movies out these days, this one actually has a meaning. The minute you begin to watch this one you realize theres something that sets it apart from other flicks. The beginning may lose some people, but as the movie progresses everything seems to come together.
The movie involves a man(Benecio Del Toro) who has cleaned up his life and become right with god, a woman(Naomi Watts), who is a recovering drug addict struggling to kick the old habbits, and a man(Sean Penn) who is dying and needs a new heart. I personally Sean has the best performance out of the big three.
The movie moves in and out of past and future never really settling on the what you think the present would be. At times especially in the beginning it can be a little slow, but that just makes for a better ending where everything ties together. The great part about the movie is the meaning. It really makes you think, I love movies like that (ex. Requiem for a Dream, American History X). I think the 21 grams that you lose when you die is your soul. There is a great message to this movie.
Anyways, I reccomend this movie to anyone who likes movies with purposes, or likes to think. I realize not everyone will like this movie, but I think most people enjoy movies with meanings. Thanks for reading. Rated R for Language(all though not too bad for R,Nudity, Drug Use, and Overall Adult Themes) so you might many keep away from parents.
Rating: 
Summary: Relentless beauty
Review: "21 Grams...the weight of a stack of five nickels...the weight of a candy bar..." Sean Penn
21 GRAMS Twenty-one grams is the weight immediatley lost by the human body upon the moment of death. Is this the weight of the soul? Is this the material symbol of the events in our transcendent, trans-material lives? The beauty of this movie only begins with its way of addressing the un-addressable in life. Much like the song from the musical RENT, "525,600 Minutes", the impossibility of measuring the life of a human being in weight or in time or in anything else, thereby creating the paradox inherent in the movie's title, calls into question the very wisdom of measuring anything at all. This movie is relentless. The relentless way in which it approaches the deeply griefstricken lives of every character that enters the frame, as every character is dealing with a pain that changes them all, is so powerful and so nearly oppressive that even a sadist would fail at repeating the effect it all has. Which means the movie is not about that. It is about, ironically, the overwhelming beauty of life, which becomes as clear as the sunrise, in the presence of debilitating grief and loss. After all, why else would grief exist? Is not grief the shadow sometimes drawn when the light of the spirit shines on the human existence? The disdain of the oppressive convention known as the time line that is one of the hallmarks of director Inarritu's work in this film is magnificent. It not only makes the scenes of heartbreak even more heartbreaking, but does so in the context of a total integrity to the grandest of human themes that is the theme of this movie, above and beyond any conveniently familiar structure designed really to be its subservient vehicle. As far as the acting is concerned, I won't insult your intelligence by trying to tell you what kind of a job Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro did. Just see it. This movie is definitely worth owning. It is a profound experience in art, philosophy, technique, love, loss, and life.
Rating: 
Summary: It's not that bad... We see Naomi Watts breasts...
Review: There I am with my girlfriend (who likes to play an intellectual girl) watching 21 grams...
*
From what she said, it was supposed to be a profound, deeply effervescently inspiring moving, emotionally draining, and brilliantly acted film, etc, etc, etc, that would make me see life for another incredible perspective that I've never ever thought about seeing before!!!
*
Then it begins...
*
But what the heck is this? The movie is not only non-linear, it seems to be chaotic (that is, if I'm not giving too much credit for a director that could just have filmed the movie in linear progression, then numbered a lot of scenes, and throw some dices to see where every part would be...)
*
More later this non-linear effect begins to fade... I mean, the movie continues to be non-linear, but after some time, you notice that things are moving linearly, just with some jumps. It's not a boggling mind experience as in Pulp Fiction.
*
Of course, just for this trick (that is better done for a truly genial director like Tarantino) people would already say that this an "experimental movie that contributes to refine the cinematographic technique!!!"
*
But then begins the hysteria, the boredom, and shallowness...
*
Even the acting in this movie is bad, even though you've got 2 great actors like Sean Penn and Del Toro. They just don't need to use any of their abilities to portray their characters...
*
Sean Penn is this (supposed) math teacher that doesn't need to work (maybe he's rich, we're just not told), and is able to going out looking for widows... Of course, for some mysterious reason, even after getting a heart transplant he's always walking around with some sort of sad face (Things would work well in a terror or porn movie - that is in the former he could be possessed by the spirit of Naomi's ex-husband, in the later, well, in the later things never need to make sense, hehe). Ah... and later he need to throw out, sometimes too, and smoke... And, make a sex scene with Naomi Watts (one of the few good parts in the movie...)
*
Del Toro is the worst of all... The guy never gets enough... For some reason he thinks that he has to suffer for all eternity... His life is eternal pain, he's disgusted to live, his head is hell, God hates and curses him!! KKKKK... :) KKKKK... Man these mexican guys love a melodrama, don't they? I confess that when he comes back, in the end of the movie, to make Sean Penn kill him, I began to laugh out loud... HA HaH HAHA HAAHA HA K K KKkkkaaaaa.
*
Naomi Watts is the sex relief... Of course, while she doesn't get hysterics... And in one of these programs (Jay Lenno, or other), that scene that she begins to shout with Sean Penn was pointed out as a proof of her "great talent"... Did anyone get convinced with that scene? The same girl that in other part of the movie doesn't want revenge... Then, she wants everything: sex, drugs (rocking roll?), and revenge... she wants blood, the guy that killed his ex-husband has to pay... Man, and that part that she says to Sean Penn: "you can't say that you like a woman, that makes us confuse?..." KKKKKKKKKKaaa HAAAhahahaha... What is this? The director need to know more girls... Or maybe, she's just crazy...
*
And when the movie ends? When you see that if it wasn't for the popcorn, the company of your girlfriend, and the jokes you'll make about how terrible the story is, it would be otherwise a waste of time?
*
You finally realize that the script is just boring and un-original; it's not really written with any consideration as to what the characters would actually say. The back and forth structure of the film is just a lame attempt to try and "edgy things up". The film could've been shot the way it was, or done in a linear format, and the outcome still would've been the same. It just jumps on a bunch of really important themes like religion,death,redemption,grief, but never really says anything profound or meaningful about any one of them. The creators just assumed that simply mentioning a deep or profound theme in the movie would turn it automatically deep. And of course, it would sensibilize people with a death in the end, and some silly comments about how heavy is a soul...
*
That's it folks... don't buy it... rent it someday with an open mind, maybe it'll make you laugh sometimes...
Rating:
Summary: LIke Assembling a Jigsaw Puzzle
Review: Imagine dumping a jigsaw puzzle out on a table, without the box top to show you what the final picture is. You "randomly" pick up the pieces and slowly an image begins to form. This is 21 GRAMS, a story told in non-linear fashion, opening with brief cuts from the beginning, middle, and end. Slowly, patterns emerge, and a unifying vision of the story manifests. This is a movie about life, death, love, fate, destiny, randomness, and ultimately becomes an exercise in theodicy. Don't be distracted by Sean Penn and Naomi Watts' excellent performance (one of Penn's best ever). This is Benicio del Toro's story. All the main characters struggle to find meaning in life and tragedy, but assembling del Toro's story gives the strongest answer. We find an interesting resonance between del Toro's evangelical faith in a God who controls every aspect of life and Penn's mathematical determinism-fractals, chaotic, but deterministic. Repeatedly, we see characters surrender their "free will" to the forces they believe determine their lives. We listen to the question "Why?" and come up empty throughout the movie. In the end, we, the viewers, must find our own "Why." The move suffers some from the mode of story telling. The violently cut, fast-paced opening third of the movie gives way to longer pieces of linear narration. These linear scenes load the movie, slowing it down to real-time, almost sequential action. After the rapid chaos of the beginning, this seems tedious and self-indulgent. But here lies the paradox: without this deceleration, we may never have been able to decipher the story! It serves as a necessary Rosetta stone. In the end, it's a solid five-star flick. It boldly tackles deep issues and doesn't hand out trite, pre-packaged answers. It is, if you will, an un-morality play. The viewers are not told what to believe, but are left to wrestle with meaning as the credits roll. The performances are nothing short of spectacular. Sean, Benicio, and Naomi shine through their parts. These are not two-dimensional Hollywood golems enacting a simple story, they are complex characters reflecting the chaotic web of human personality. It should have swept the Oscars. The haunting score, the superior acting, the impeccable direction, the brutally human script, and unrivaled production set this movie head-and-shoulders above all comers. Unless you think "Judge Judy" and "Survivor X" are the best entertainment to come down the pike, don't miss this one! (If you'd like to discuss this movie in more detail, drop me an email from the "about me" link above. Thanks!)
Rating:
Summary: unbeatable cast
Review: Either you get it or you don't. If you do...this movie will rock your world.
Rating:
Summary: reminds me of "Fargo"
Review: This rather powerful film about a hit-and-run accident and a conspiracy to commit murder is about as depressing a film as you will ever see, but it has to be considered one of the more unusual films of 2003.There is some question as to whether the film's "experimental" nature--told in a series of flashbacks--works to the film's benefit or detriment. It is also rather implausible throughout, in certain ways Sean Penn plays a heart transplant recipient, a math professor, who spends most of the film vomiting because he is dying of asphyxiation; numerous other flashbacks show him with tubes up his nose. He is also married to a woman who has recently been artifically inseminated with his child. Despite this, he decides to have an extramarital affair with Naomi Watts, the slinky, cocaine-addicted widow of the heart transplant donor, who was killed in a terrible hit-and-run accident along with her two children.The scenes leading up to the hit-and-run and the scenes immediately following where Watts learns of the deaths are played and replayed in great detail, adding to the depressing atmosphere. Some of the film's most implausible scenes are with doctors, as Penn discusses his extremely poor prospects as a heart transplant recipient (in fact he needs a second transplant), or as his wife discusses her artificial insemination.The fact that these scenes are intertwined with much bloodier scenes makes the film gruesome to watch. The fact that Penn is still out on the street,stalking the widow, having sex, planning a murder and living what appears in some ways a close-to-normal life so soon after a heart transplant, stikes me as implausible. Eventually Penn's wife abruptly leaves him due to the knowledge of his extramarital affair.
Penn's decision to have the affair is based on his desire to know his donor's family better. Watts for her part sniffs cocaine--or sniffed cocaine, it is not clear to me which--and is confused about the reasons for his romancing her, and for a long time rejects his advances. He first approaches her while Watts is swimming at a local pool.
The third lead in this drama is probably the best acting performance by Benicio Del Toro, who plays a Born Again ex-con who commits the hit-and-run and who is a 3-time loser. His performance is effective not only for its Christian aspects, which he plays with great sincerity, but also for the contrast in lifestyles he and his family presents with the upper middle class Penn and Watts. There are several scenes that I think are well acted: in one, Del Toro encourages his one child to hit his other child, in an "eye for an eye" mentality, then after telling the second child to leave the room, he tells the first there will be no hitting in his household. There is a revival meeting and numerous other occasions on which Del Toro praises Jesus. In another scene, Del Toro's long-haired wife encourages him to cover up his crime (Del Toro turns himself in.)
Eventually Watts and Penn wind up in a sleazy motel room,where they continue their affair, and where Penn plans to murder Del Toro, who killed Watts' family inadvertently. Nevertheless Penn feels he must avenge Watts; Watts, as Christina, demands it as the price for killing her family, a decidedly vengeful solution. But Penn's plans go awry, and he ends up being the one shot, and he dies soon after. The whole movie is unrelievedly gruesome and thoroughly modern, and somewhat or greatly entertaining,depending on your viewpoint. Del Toro comes across in the end as a good man (though poor) and the other two leads end up as victims of their own conspiracy.
Rating:
Summary: Bohemian Rhapsody
Review: One of a handful of 2003's better movies, this one ranks behind #1 Master and Commander and #2 Lost In Translation and ahead of #4 Something's Gotta Give in my humble opinion, thanks to a startlingly fine performance by Bernicio Del Toro as a down-and-out loser Jesus Freak who is in and out of jail. The other main characters are possibly just a cut below Del Toro's performance in this experimental Bohemian thriller, with Sean Penn as a heart recipient math professor who vomits because he is dying of asphyxiation, and who romances Naomi Watts, a slinky cocaine sniffing siren whose husband and 2 children have been killed in a traffic accident by Del Toro. The plot is full of twists that certainly fulfill Hollywood's formula for a successful picture: "Heart, action, and a twist." It certainly has the outrageous twists. Penn is also married to a woman who leaves him (pregnant) because of his extra-marital interest in Watts.
Whether the experimental nature of the flashbacks add to the film's overall quality is open to question, but it is nevertheless filled with exciting and somewhat absurd scenes, in fact the entire movie is absurd: Penn and his wife's confrontations with doctors regarding their heart transplant and pregancy, respectively; Del Toro's scenes with his wife and Jesus Freak friends,in the throes of poverty, which contrast so brilliantly with Watts' upper middle class existence; the scenes in the seedy motel, reminiscent of Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil"; Watts' confusion about Penn's motivation in romancing her.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligence required before viewing this movie
Review: Before you pick this movie out to rent or buy, I will warn you that you must be intelligent before you watch this. The person who gave a review of this movie prior to me obviously was confused by the jumping around of the scenes, and the complicated plot line (not that it's really complicated, but to those with less than one eye and half a brain it probably is complicated. I'm sure you've already scene the plot analysis so I'm not going to bother you with that. I will tell you that this is an Oscar calibur movie with Oscar calibur actors. With star power like Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro you can never go wrong.
Rating:
Summary: There, she blows
Review: This is my first review of a movie. The reason I felt compelled to write this is to warn other folks not to buy/rent/view this movie. It's the most overrated piece of crap I've ever had the misfortune of sitting through. There, I said it. Don't say you weren't warned.
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