Rating: 
Summary: Very, very disappointing
Review: I had read so many great reviews for this movie, I decided to rent it out as soon as available on DVD.
I was extremely disappointed by a story that made no sense and a pathetic "happy" ending.What really puzzled me was the serie of unbelievable events from the first accident scene to the second accident, where Gavin (Ben Affleck) ends up a few yards from Doyle's (Samuel L. Jackson) car, and Gavin recognizing Doyle in the streets of New York on a rainy day with Doyle all bundled up, etc... etc...
This movie is so unplausible that I felt insulted as if the director (Roger Michell) considers all his viewers as utterly stupid. This is a movie you do not want in your collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Go down this Lane
Review: Ben Affleck may not be the best actor in Hollywood history, but he definitely proves in Changing Lanes that he can hold his own next to a great actor such as Samuel L. Jackson. Affleck has made some stinkers, like Reindeer Games, but all is forgiven now. Changing Lanes had everything and more than expected. There was such an evident layer of meaning behind all the twists and turns that the characters went through that it just intrigued me beyond any point that I thought I would be. The directing was fantastic. It just sucked you right into the movie and made you feel like you were actually apart of it. I for one could not get myself to look away from the screen. The background music is what had me. I have never seen a movie utilize the music better. Affleck and Jackson both give tremendous performances. Affleck especially, which I eluded to earlier. He made you care for his character, which really you wanted to hate him. I think he actually did have morals, and if he just slowed down a little bit in life, he would be able to use them. Samuel's character had his problems too, and maybe they all didn't get resolved, but I think you can come away knowing that both characters learned from this lesson. Changing Lanes is a great movie that definitely makes my all time top 25 list. 5 Stars
Rating: 
Summary: Changing Brains
Review: The good news...This movie definately has it's riveting moments, it really had me going for awhile, my heart beating, my palms sweating so to speak. I also appreciated the spirited performances of both Ben Affleck and Samuel Jackson. Ben Affleck managed to shed some tears, hoping for that Oscar nomination. Ok now the bad news.... There were a couple of parts in the film that were so unrealistic. Like the part when Ben Affleck is being sh**-canned by his father in law, afterwards he turns on the fire alarm and all the water begins to spray the office!?! Please give me a break, no one would do that in real life. He would have left that office, got in his car and cried the whole way home. The most far fetched thing about this movie is these two men would have ended up killing each other for the things they did. They would not have become friends at the end and try to help each other out. The ending of the movie is what ruined it for me, it was phony and hollywoodish....
Rating: 
Summary: RIDICULOUS
Review: I've never really liked Ben Affleck as an actor. He's a completely overrated pretty boy who can't act. But that's just my own opinion. Anyway, Mr. Affleck is not the reason why I disliked this movie. [Spoilers below] The problem I had with this film was its premise. Lawyer Affleck is on his way to court and collides with Sam Jackson's car on the freeway. Affleck has no time to exchange names with Jackson. Instead, he gives him a blank check for the damage to his car. Affleck then leaves the scene of the accident without exchanging names. (And this guy is a lawyer?) Subsequently, Affleck arrives in court without an important document which he needs in order to settle his big probate case. Lo and behold, he soon finds out that he dropped his file at the accident scene and now Sam Jackson has it and won't give it back. This is the point in the movie where it becomes ridiculous. Instead of simply filing a PHOTOCOPY of the lost probate file with the court (which most jurisdictions allow a party to do if the original document is unavailable) Affleck and Jackson take pot shots at each other by wrecking credit reports, making threatening phone calls, causing car accidents and acting like two very immature teenagers. Eventually, one of the partners in the firm decides to just "reconstruct" the lost probate file by adding a different signature page to the document. All fine and dandy. Except that now lawyer Affleck has suddenly acquired a conscious. He doesn't want to simply forge a document even though he's been making another man's life a living hell. Obviously, this movie was written by a non-lawyer because these things just DON'T happen in real life. Sorry. I would have given this movie only one star. But since I like Sam Jackson, I gave it two.
Rating:
Summary: Little redeeming value
Review: It completely escapes me how this film got so many good reviews. This is a good concept completely butchered by a ridiculous script. I cannot begin to count the number of totally implausible situations that are conjured here. Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) has got to be one of the stupidest characters ever written. This is supposed to be a bright young lawyer whose ambition has gotten the better of his principles. Instead he comes across as a hapless loser. When one understands that lawyers can lose their license to practice law for committing felonies even if they don't go to jail, and also knowing that Gavin's entire existence depends on his being a lawyer, almost everything he does is utterly illogical. He leaves the scene of the accident with Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson) when he could easily have called the court to advise them that he had been in a wreck. Contrary to how it was portrayed, that hearing could have been rescheduled. The judge probably would have required some proof of the accident, but that's about it. Yet he drives off knowing he could go to jail and lose his law license for this. Nonsense. It gets worse. He decides to alter financial records, (a felony), so he can blackmail Gipson (a felony) and he LEAVES HIS NAME ON GIPSON'S VOICEMAIL TO TELL HIM THIS?! As if Gipson would tell no-one and the FBI wouldn't be at his office in 15 minutes to lock him up. That's just the warm-up. In the course of the next hour, the two of them commit about a dozen felonies between them, and then inexplicably do a 180 degree turn and become the Justice League of America. I guess this is supposed to erase all the mayhem they caused during the first 90 minutes of the film and make us feel like they are great guys for realizing the errors of their ways. Samuel Jackson gives another excellent performance rendering the only character that is remotely believable other than Sydney Pollack who is credible as the crooked law partner pulling all the strings. Ben Affleck is awful, but to be fair his character is so moronic that it would be hard for anyone to play this part and not look foolish. Affleck's biggest mistake was agreeing to take this part in the first place. Toni Collette and Amanda Peet both come across as gutless whiners. This film is an insult to the audiences' intelligence, not to mention to lawyers in general. This is not to say that there aren't crooked lawyers, but they are lawyers for heaven's sake; they know the law. When they break it, they usually do it deviously, not like common street thugs. Other than Jackson's performance, there is not much to recommend this film. I rated it a 3/10. Don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: Close but no cigar!
Review: This is a well-acted thriller, full of excellent dialog that fails miserably in the closing stretch. As I watched the gradual escalation of the conflict, the eventual outcome seemed inevitable to me - one of the characters would end up dead and the other in handcuffs - and I was going to see how the lives of two flawed but not fundamentally evil people could be destroyed by bad luck and too much testosterone. Imagine my surprise when Hollywood steps in to provide redemption to the two main characters and punishment to the wicked elder lawyers! A Hollywood cop-out on the magnitude of Fatal Attraction, and all the more disappointing given how well everything had worked up to then.
Rating:
Summary: A strong character study of will and desperation.
Review: Ben and Sam goin neck and neck in a game of "who's gonna top who?" Makes a moviegoer simply salivate at the thought of such a plot. There is something to be said, however, if you use too much you've spoiled the dish. This movie exceeds the extremeties at times and makes for a film that will either grab you or send you to the grocery store to look for the newest version of "movie repellent!" Each scene is carefully structured here and the director of this film certainly knows how to create mood and tension between characters. What's sad is there is simply too much of these colors swirled in the mix and it tries too hard to envelop the audience. Sam Jackson portrays (quite brilliantly) a guy who is hit in the face from all sides, making revenge his only mainstay for survival. Ben Affleck is the top star lawyer who isn't having too good of day either but in reality you know this scenario simply wouldn't and couldn't rightfully happen. Knowing well that this is a movie, I can buy the idea of watching something a little over the top. I can handle that and I am sure audiences can handle that but there is a limit to what a movie should do to be a REALLY effective thriller. This movie unfortunately exceeds on too many levels and goes overboard with too many dramatics and too many things that simply would not happen in real life. It simply does not suspend disbelief long enough for a person to come down and think about what is really going on here. One thing really going for this movie, however, is it's superb work as a brilliant character study of survival of the fittest. I still think this movie should have had a much more sinister and darker ending to rightfully match what we were seeing throughout the film.
Rating: 
Summary: A bad day gone worse
Review: Samuel L. Jackson's character was already having a bad day when Ben Affleck's character came into his life and made it worse. You really want things to work out for Jacksons character because Affleck just [messed] his life up so bad. This was a really good film. It's not a happy-feel good type of movie, it's more of a drama that teenagers to adults will enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: How Low Can You Go?
Review: The human hunger for evil and revenge is something we have all seen before, especially in films like The Crow, A Time to Kill, and American Psycho. However, few films capture the essence of true emotion, and throw out the question: "What would you do?" Changing Lanes did this for me, and made me ask myself, "Would I do that?" Ben Affleck stars as Gavin Banek, a corporate lawyer out for blood on every case he is involved in. When a small accident pits his wits against recovering alcoholic Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson), the beast within him leaves the poor old man stranded out in the rain with a flat tire and a head full of anger. However, as fate would have it, Banek drops an important file that is vital for winning his case in the midst of stranding Gipson. What follows is the lust for who will come out the better man, both fighting to take back what they need. However, this is not simply a morality tale, it is a tale tainted with reality. I would not be surprised if this story has actually happened quite a few times, in many variations and forms. This is the greatest film of 2002, and I think Academy Award nominations are in line. If you want a movie that will entertain you and make you think like you have never thought before, check this out. It is just amazing. I promise you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A Conflicted, but Interesting Work
Review: Ambition counts for something, as one can see from watching 'Changing Lanes,' arguably the most ambitious mainstream movie released this year. Not only does this Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson vehicle want to create an atmosphere of tension and suspense, it's courageous enough to simultaneously delve into various moral dilemmas - or rather, alternately. It seems strange that a movie willing enough to depict the ethical complexities surrounding two flawed men could also fall subject to scenes of cat-and-mouse games. Initially, these action segments weave seamlessly into 'Changing Lanes,' but as their retaliations grow more and more far-fetched, the tone switches from one of social truth to action parody. What's interesting about 'Changing Lanes,' though, is that it never fully abandons one for the other; instead, it appears content to juggle them as it goes along. As a thriller, the movie works in a manner much more interesting than the bulk of the genre. The film admirably refuses to offer a clear-cut character to root for as the day unfolds. No, the director is more interested in understanding the two men as human beings rather than reducing them to caricatures. There's a certain deliberate confusion felt throughout the course of events - wondering what, exactly, is the right way to deal with the situation? Following that question, is the frustration of realizing there is no direct answer. Some sequences of 'Changing Lanes' work - most notably, the one involving Amanda Peet in the role of Ben Affleck's wife. This scene undelines the level of corruption that has been acheived by Affleck's character and the people with whom he associates. What distinguishes this scene, however, is the way in which it doesn't paint these corrupt and powerful figures as evil-doers; rather, there's a hint of sadness and guilt underneath this amoral nature. Affleck's character, in particular, feels the weight of what is going on around him and what he has done. This scene, as well as the ones dealing with Jackson's personal conflicts, are so rooted in the ground of realistic moral uncertainty that the incidents of "payback," which become gradually more absurd, feel out of place. The way in which these "thriller" scenes strain credibility clash with the otherwise interesting subject matter. As stated before, it feels as though there is an unwanted juggling act going on. But that juggling act stumbles and falls in the last scene of the film, which is a sore spot - dramatically detracting from the commendable, if imperfect, sum of the film preceding it. This last scene feels as though it had been cut-and-pasted from a completely different movie. Up until that point, Changing Lanes concerned itself with illustrating the messy nature of human interaction and ethical doubts. Why then would it close on a note of petty moralising? It becomes a "message movie," which is a shame since it had the guts to deal with ideas rarely treated in Hollywood picures. Had Changing Lanes fully explored these ideas it might have been the year's best picture.
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