Rating: Summary: Death and Taxes Review: I was encapsulated from the very beginning of the movie. I found it very clever and interesting. Brad Pitt has a very redeeming role in this as with Fight Club. The characters are very awesome...and very quaint at some points. You grow very attached to them in the 181 minutes the movie lasts. Anthony Hopkinds is amazing, playing a rich business man turning 65 years old in a few weeks from the beginning of the movie. Brad Pitt is unknown for most of the time he is in the movie...but his character "joe black" is so amazing, you are lost in his mysterious nature. THis is a love story and also a beautiful tale...glad that it was different then most of the movies I have seen recently. I am an avid movie watcher...LOL Anyway...watch this if you like a good story but if you don't like romance then don't...but if you like supernatural ways to find love then watch this!!
Rating: Summary: One of Pitt's finest performances and excellent movie Review: When I first saw Meet Joe Black, I was so amazed! This movie had meaning and a purpose.To me , this movie should have won an oscar for best film! Brad Pitt is a talented, handsome actor and this movie shows it! He portrayed Death and Joe Black so well! Claire and Anthony were also excellent in this movie. The story is very intriguing with an excellent plot , good script, and awesome actors.if you haven't seen this film YOU SHOULD! I'm in Middle school and I absolutely treasured this stunning work! Finally, an excellent movie with everything and hardly no foul language. Give these actors a round of applause!
Rating: Summary: On my Top Ten List of 1998 Review: What probably caused this film to tank at the boxoffice and, thus, to get several top execs at Universal fired is its running time. At nearly three hours and with only one small action sequence, it's way beyond the patience level of some folks. In hindsight, it does seem strange that the nearly one hundred million dollar project would be approved in the first place, but I, for one, am happy that this corporate accident occurred. I like to savor things, so Meet Joe Black's unusual length was not a problem. Ironically, its a remake of a 1930s movie called Death Takes a Holiday, which runs less than ninety minutes. The plot revolves around billionaire William Parrish's unexpected encounter with Death. He is literally visited by The Grim Reaper, who has taken fleshly form, apparently because he wants to know what it feels like to be alive. Yet, though the subject matter is mainly about mortality, this is the most life-affirming Hollywood movie in ages. Death takes the form of a mysterious young man named Joe Black. One of the great casting coups in recent times was to cast Brad Pitt as Joe. The impossibly good-looking Mr. Pitt causes everyone's worst fear to become something serene and angelic - the exact opposite of what we imagine. It is then possible to see Death as a spirit that's just doing its job, rather than as some totally malignant force. Anthony Hopkins is wonderful, as always, as Bill Parrish. Again, the casting throws us a curve. He makes us believe that someone can climb to the top of the heap and still remain caring and loving and passionate. Who else but Hopkins could conjure up a lovable billionaire? Pitt and Hopkins play incredibly well together. Hopkins is renowned for bringing the best out in his coworkers, but in this case, I think Pitt is proving that, given material within his range, which is limited by his looks, he can be formidable. Hopkins can roar like a lion, while Pitt is more like a cobra, making his point with just a hiss. I said this was a romantic drama. Love comes in the form of Parrish's daughter, Dr. Susan Parrish. Joe and Susan become more than a bit attracted to each other Naturally, she has no idea he's not so human. Claire Forlani plays Susan, and she is a delight. She's a 90s woman to the core, and she hasn't much use for romance until Joe Black. Their love scenes are quite believable. She reminds me a bit of Gwenyth Paltrow, albeit not quite as beautiful. I expect to see much more of her. Marcia Gay Hardin sparkles as Allison, the older sister. Jeff Tamber is touching as her not so bright husband. And Jake Weber is over the top as Drew, the true villain of the movie. The photography is glorious, as is the music. This is a film mainly for older audiences. I can see why Hollywood's audience of choice - teenagers - was underwhelmed by it. It speaks of things that are not yet of interest to most of them.
Rating: Summary: I loved it! Review: Three hours. Was it too long? Not at all. When you think about it, what would you leave out? Nothing. Each piece of the plot, every scene is a gentle step to the next. I LOVED it and would love to see it again. It's a great story that doesn't need special effects or explosions to support it. The acting was good. Brad Pitt was at his best. He was gorgeous, funny, romantic, and dashing. I highly recommend this film.
Rating: Summary: Can I give it 6 stars? Review: I have seen this movie about 10 times now. I hope this DVD never wears out. It is surely one of the best movies I have ever seen. Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt and Claire Forlani are all excellent. I found it exciting, romantic and emotive. It is 3 hours long but that time seems to pass in the blink of an eye. If you haven't seen this film, you are missing out.
Rating: Summary: A very silly film Review: If death takes a holiday shouldn't everyone in the world stop dying? Now that would be an interesting premise for a film. Death, it seems, is not a socialist. He admires and wishes to learn from a rich, successful capitalist rather than someone who has foresaken worldly goods in the service of the poor, for instance, or a prisoner of conscience in some gulag somewhere. The wine list is terrible in those places and anyway, death knows what 'The Stranglers' know, that is, it's only the children of the wealthy that tend to be good looking. Although they put it in more Anglo Saxon terms, if memory serves. The industrialist is played by Anthony Hopkins who obviously seems to view himself as an elder statesman to such an extent that he barely appears to be in the picture. He is smug and avuncular and you expect him to break out into a royal wave at any moment. Rather than lend a hand to some poor peasant whose about to have their land taken away from them by a tyrant, death lends a hand to a walking dollar sign in a less than scintilating boardroom battle that is supposed to have us laughing and cheering. Death is a bit repugnant, it seems. Slow and long, the director fancies this as his 'Being There', only you get Pitt instead of Sellars. Pitt is gorgeous but looking at that face for three hours is like gorging on a box of chockies. Too much of a good thing makes you want to throw. Death bends his own rules and let's a very good looking man go on living, presumably because blood on such a sharp suit may ruin any future job interview as a male model. We can't have that, can we? As the fireworks explode and the camera pulls back on a scene of outdoor opulance, we are reminded that it's a hard life for the privileged in letting go. No longer will they be able to watch films which make them feel good about being American. I mean, death loves America. He loves low cut dresses. If I should meet Joe Black, I'll know what to say. "Lend us a fiver, Joe, the lights have gone out and I need to feed the meter."
Rating: Summary: Meet Joe Black Review: A superb film. I was totally hooked. Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt are superb. The story is, of course, exceptional. I patricularly liked the engaging way this young whipper snapper (Death) barged his way around in an imperious but strangely charming way with a strong streak of naivite. It was quite funny in many ways. A film to luxuriously drown in!
Rating: Summary: Rich with pregnant pauses and a lot more Review: Meet Joe Black has a lot in common with "Heaven Can Wait": Wealthy industrialist must meet his death, and love and a fortune hang in the balance, but does it with a more serious, sensitive and ponderous style. This is a wonderful, deep, meditative, and amusing film, with more than a few improbable plot twists. Claire Forlani's fluttering, warm eyes carry more information and subtlety per second of screen time than those of nearly any other actor or actress. Wow! Those eyes are a major visual component of this movie! Forlani is fantastic! Thomas Newman's score is great, great, great. I can listen to it again and again. Anthony Hopkins is fascinating to watch, as always. His powerful stride, his gestures, every deference to the routine, the duties, the responsibilities will draw you into Hopkin's carefully sculptured world. There is a place at the end where things fall apart a little bit...again probably attributable to excessive length of editing. Mr. Brest and the screenwriter are to be congratulated for the unique style they bring to this film...quirky, rich with pregnant pauses, thoughtful. A great cast all around. Not perfect, but striving to achieve greatness. I love it.
Rating: Summary: Final cut is not a toy Review: This risible movie falls just short of being a legendary disaster. Barring it from greatness are its ultra-glossy production values, the always wonderful Anthony Hopkins, and the undeniable charisma of Brad Pitt who (though it kills me to say it) survives even such dignity-threatening scenes as the hospital visit to the Jamaican woman in respectable shape. That said, this is still the most excruciatingly protracted screen death since "Cries and Whispers". I trust that the enormous financial failure of this movie will guarantee that Martin Brest is never allowed final cut again.
Rating: Summary: Utter nonsense Review: Nonsense plot, only manipulative effects used here. Thomas Newmans musik normally elevates the film experience, here is is implemented in a manipulative manner, and seemingly endlessly (although somewhere I think I heard Arvo Pärt's Fratres, often wonder why I never encountered that piece in a movie before). Claire Forlani's is constantly filmed with reflections in her eyes, how romaantic. Death falls in love! Blaaaahhh
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