Erin Brockovich

Rating:
Summary: A movie to see!!
Review: This movie was great, a must see!

Rating:
Summary: Sexy and Predictable
Review: Let's face it, though it was entertaining, it was little more than a TV movie of the week. If Julia wasn't so dynamic it would have bombed. Her performance was good, not her best. I guess it was just her turn to go home with Oscar. And from what I can ascertain, it seems as if she's not going to be the glittering star in the night sky for too much longer. Unless of course she manages to get a little bit more into acting, and less into these kinds of public approval movies that are made just for cash.

Rating:
Summary: 2 Thumbs up Julia!!!!!
Review: This movie is a very sublime fact based drama in telling the story of Erin Brockovich. Julia Roberts puts on a riveting performance in this movie. This movie is based on real life events, and Julia did a fantastic job in portraying the real life hero Erin Brokovich. I would buy this movie if I didn't already own it.

Rating:
Summary: PRETTY "POWERFUL" WOMAN
Review: I was amazed by Julia Roberts performance. Her acting certainly is high caliber and Albert Finney as Ed Massery also high caliber. This movie is one of those movies that you can watch over and over again. I certainly would want Erin Brockovich to come to my aid. What a movie, What an actress, What a heroine we have in Erin Brockovich.

Rating:
Summary: Almost the best Roberts Movie
Review: This one was good. Julia's a little decked out, not classy but brassy, and has a little artificial cleavage help, but her acting is solid and the film moves along well. This one has you rooting for the "win". You can watch it over again without getting bored so it's a "keeper".

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This movie is absoultely one of the best movies I've ever seen. Julia Roberts is Erin Brockovich an unmployed single mom to three children and they don't have money and one day she is involved in a car accident not by her faultand she goes to Ed Masry played by Albert Finney and he is her lawyer in the trial when she sues but she lost so after it she wants him to find her ajob and she works at his office in filing and one day he asks her to file a new case and after she got involved in it and helps in suing one of the biggest companies. This movie is excellent Julia did an excellent job one of her greatest performnces. Go See That Movie!

Rating:
Summary: Julia truly shines as ERIN BROCKOVICH!
Review: I saw this film with my ex-boyfriend. He didn't like it very much, but I thought it was WONDERFUL. In my opinion, Erin (Julia Roberts) acted a LITTLE obscene, offensive, and vulgar at times, but I thought she was a very sweet and caring woman. George (Aaron Eckhart) was a funny guy at times, too. I especially liked Ed (Albert Finney). The reason I liked him is because he was so strict and business-like. The one person I couldn't stand was Theresa Dallavale (Veanne Cox). This was because I thought she was SUCH A SNOB! In conclusion, Julia truly shines as ERIN BROCKOVICH!

Rating:
Summary: America at its best, and at its worst!
Review: Excellent movie. Based on a true story, though doubtless with some Hollywood style touch-ups, this is a powerful tale of a bunch of disparate, ordinary individuals, none too aware or confident, fighting against a wealthy corporation that has played havoc with their lives. And the driving force behind this fight is Erin. Julia Roberts plays a scrappy survivor in this movie, loud, foul mouthed, but a fighter all the way. She makes no apologies for her self or her circumstances and manages to rub countless people the wrong way. Down on her luck and nearly out of funds with three kids to support, she bullies a lawyer who let her down into giving her a job (the responsibilities are never clear!). Once at the law office however, she learns in passing of a set of strange events centered around a power company that has been polluting the water supply in a town near its plant, and then suppressing all news of its activities till the statute of limitations can rescue it. Biting in like a bulldog, Erin-Julia hits the ground running, talks to the victims and slowly assembles a case. She has to fight the status quo all the way, be it her own boss (Albert Finney, superb in a well crafted role), his new partner, the power company itself, the legal system and for that matter her personal life. Left behind by her single minded quest, her boyfriend (an unbelievably soft and sensitive Harley Davidson biker!) bails out. But Erin has by now identified so closely with the victims that it has become a personal crusade for her and she cannot throw in the towel. Great characterizations, the emotions are very real and honest. A quality movie that shows America at its best, and at its worst!

Rating:
Summary: Not just another legal thriller (_or_ Julia Roberts vehicle)
Review: It's sure hard to find any opinions about this movie that aren't knee-jerk. On the one hand, the movie and its hero are attacked by people who don't seem to think corporations can do any wrong. On the other, it's defended by people who seem to think having a Good Heart is all that's necessary to Defend The Environment and the Public Health.

Well, the true story involves _both_ junk science _and_ sleazy corporate practices. And whether or not the "science" in the movie is defended by actual scientists (which it isn't), Erin Brockovich was and is a hero.

One hard fact is that hexavalent chromium probably wasn't responsible for all the injuries attributed to it in this film. Yes, it's a carcinogen and it's dangerous when inhaled. But so far as I know, there's no evidence linking it to all the problems detailed in this movie when it's ingested as part of the drinking-water supply. (Not that I'd want to risk it myself, mind you.)

But another, and equally important, hard fact is that Pacific Gas and Electric _did_ screw up big-time. The company knew Cr(VI) was a health hazard, _didn't_ know exactly what the risks were (at that time nobody did -- in fact we still don't), failed to take obvious (and, for better or worse, EPA-mandated) precautions against polluting the local groundwater with the stuff, and then lied to everybody about everything. They were not heroes, and Brockovich did uncover their wrongdoing.

Brockovich, as I said, was and is a hero, and she is well portrayed in this film. I am not ordinarily a fan of Julia Roberts (in fact, frankly, I haven't liked her in anything but _Steel Magnolias_). But she does a nice job here.

The movie, while (I'm told) varying in places from the facts of the actual story, manages to avoid falling into at least _some_ obvious cliches. Far, for example, from portraying a triumph of the "little guy" over the big corporate baddies, the film makes clear that the law firm for which Brockovich works _could not have won_ without the aid of a big-corporate-baddie lawyer (Peter Coyote) with both money and toxic-torts experience.

Brockovich doesn't much like this, but it's one of several points on which her knee-jerk, legally inexperienced judgment is simply shown to be wrong. Another is in her initial opposition to binding arbitration, a point handled nicely by Ed Masry (Albert Finney, who is marvelous throughout). And there's another cliche successfully avoided: refreshingly, the fact that Brockovich's "heart is in the right place" doesn't magically make her an expert who out-lawyers the lawyers at every turn.

It's probably impossible to avoid comparing this film to _A Civil Action_, which involves a somewhat similar set of facts. But unlike that other movie (which heavily fictionalized Jan Schlichtmann in any event), at bottom this is a character study of Brockovich herself. And, presented "warts and all," she is much more interesting than ideologues in _either_ camp would like to allow.

She is most assuredly a very refreshing movie hero. Sassy, foul-mouthed, and occasionally downright mean (watch, e.g., her nasty comments to Conchatta Ferrell's character), she is also hard-working, (mostly) responsible, and hungry for justice. No cardboard cutout, she's a complicated person with genuine flaws, and Roberts plays her as such.

The real fun is in watching her learn to put her "flaws" to work on the side of the good guys. It's a joy to watch her win -- against the usual Hollywood gang of weaselly attorneys (including a condescending Miss Priss who has a hard time believing Brockovich has anything on the ball at all), against PG&E itself, and against the shortcomings that have thus far kept her from success. It's impossible not to like her and root for her.

A satisfying film overall, then (and one that incidentally succeeds in many respects in which the heavy-handed and absolutely pathetic _Pay It Forward_ fails utterly). Many reviewers will probably disagree with me here, but I hope Julia Roberts never goes back to romantic comedies.

Rating:
Summary: Super
Review: This was one of the best movies I ever rented. Good story, good acting... Rent it today