Rating: 
Summary: Average....
Review: I wasn't impressed. It was very, very average. I could have turned it off midway through and it wouldn't have bothered me a bit. See it if you are a fan of the actors, but otherwise, skip it.
Rating: 
Summary: Just rent it...
Review: I wish I would have just rented this movie instead of spending the money on it. It was very slow and just wasn't up to par for Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Affleck. The whole thing dragged and never got up to speed.
Rating:
Summary: Lame
Review: Snoozer of a movie. I was looking forward to this, based on the fact that Samuel L. Jackson was in it. However, even he couldn't make this predictable movie interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Rage, fear, compassion and more!
Review: This was a very exciting yet sad at times movie that can show how poorly strangers can treat one another. One person's failure to care for another's well being can lead to devastating results. Ben Affleck is a young, enterprising and successful lawyer who hasn't a care for helping out his fellow man after an accident on the highway in busy New York City. Samuel Jackson is a father on his way to divorce court where the future of his children's well being is at stake. These two collide and each suffers dire consequences, yet each needs something from the other. This was a great movie of personal character and I loved Samuel Jackson's performance. He can be so strong in character and demanding that it's so easy to feel his frustration and realism. I wasn't disappointed in this movie and these two actors go at each other with vengeance and greed. It's a great movie!
Rating: 
Summary: Gives New Meaning To Road Rage
Review: Chainging Lanes is a story of an extreme case of road rage. Two cars collide on the FDR Drive in NYC, wreaking havoc with the lives of the two drivers. Gavin Banek is a lawyer, on his way to court to represent his law firm in the case of his life. Doyle Gipson is on his way to court for a custody hearing, seeking to stop his estranged wife from moving to Oregon with his two sons. Preoccupied with their cases, neither driver sees the other attempt to change lanes. They collide. Banek tries to blow Gipson off by teeling him he's going to be late and writing him a blank check for the damage to the car. When Gipson tells Banek that he, too, has an appointment he'll be late for. His car is inoperable. What will he do? Banek takes off leaving Gipson stranded, never realizing that he has dropped the most important file that he will need to win his court case. What follows is a true case of eye for an eye as Gipson, losing his family by being late to the hearing, decides to pay Banek back for his hospitality.
Samuel L. Jackson is completely believable as a desperate man trying to change his life and getting jammed up at every turn on the raod to redemption. Ben Affleck is convincing as a finance lawyer who finally realizes that he has come very far from the life he envisioned for himself. His character finds that his idealistic values have somehow disappeared in his search for success.
I enjoyed this movie and it's twists and turns. However, there were some points in the movie which were a bit predictable. I found that it was a tad bit drawn out, but the movie's basic premise, the acting, and the ending more than made up for its faults.
Rating: 
Summary: Unusually intelligent thriller
Review: "Changing Lanes" is a thriller blessed with an unusually intelligent script by Charles Taylor and Michael Tolkin. Though a little preachy at times and a bit too pat [especially at the end], it manages to bypass many of the cliches we have become accustomed to in such films. It casts an unflinching eye on its characters and their place in a world which sometimes seems to have lost its moral compass. Directed at a brisk pace by Roger Michell ["Notting Hill"] and beautifully photographed by Salvatore Totino, "Changes Lanes" is a thinking man's thriller. [The testosterone and adrenaline crowd should probably pass on this one because nothing is blown up and nobody dies.]On a cold New York morning, we find two men racing to court. Doyle [Samuel L. Jackson] is going to Family Court to try to prevent his wife from moving to Oregon with their two boys. Gavin [Ben Affleck] is a lawyer who's on his way to Probate Court to seal a deal that's of great benefit to his high-powered law firm. Along the way they are involved in a fender bender. Gavin is polite at first but becomes increasingly agitated when Doyle wants to take his time 'doing the right thing'. He winds up leaving Doyle stranded. Consequently, Doyle is late to court and loses his case. Gavin, meanwhile, arrives at his destination only to find he has accidentally left an important document in Doyle's possession. Without it, he can not win his case. What ensues is an increasingly nasty game of "Gotcha" between two very angry men, neither of whom is entirely right or wrong. Few mainstream movies ask us to examine current moral values or to question the ways in which we deal with each other. Fewer still question the value of righteous anger. "Changing Lanes" doesn't hesitate to address these issues head on. It does so in a way that is both entertaining and enlightening.
Rating:
Summary: Good Acting, Lacks Credibility
Review: As best I can tell, this movie is about how the world makes it tempting for basically good people to behave in very bad ways. Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson are two of these people. They are two men who are brought, seemingly by fate --or at least, by an extremely contrived script-- into a head-on collision with each other. Affleck is an attorney involved in a morally ambiguous case involving control of a foundation. Jackson is a struggling insurance salesman involved in a custody battle. Actually, they literally do have a collision, though it's more of a fender bender than head-on. Both of them are due in court in mere minutes. Affleck offers Jackson a blank check to cover any damages; Jackson refuses, insisting on doing things "the right way." I may be cynical, but I suspect it would be rare outside of a film for someone to refuse a blank check offered by a wealthy attorney (probably even rarer for an attorney to make such an offer). It turns out that this accident has devastating consequences for each of them. Affleck leaves a vital file with Jackson. Jackson, in turn, loses custody of his children. From here, the plot turns from contrived to idiotic. Affleck desperately wants to get back his file. So what does he do? He hires a sleazy private investigator/hacker to destroy Jackson's credit. This sets into motion a spiraling cycle of revenge, with both of them becoming increasingly desperate and deranged. What is supposed to give the film depth and meaning is the fact that they both have consciences. We get to watch Jackson's tortured expression, for instance, as he watches Affleck almost die in a car crash he (Jackson) caused. Affleck, in turn, manages to get Jackson arrested, but we can see how terrible he feels as he watches his antagonist's wife and children suffer through the experience. There is a great deal of soul searching in this film, many discussions about ethics and a heavy-handed expose of the legal profession. It is hardly headline news that many corporate lawyers are less than pristine in their ethics. This point is hammered home by a completely unconvincing scene between Affleck and his wife (whose father, naturally, he works for). This pretty and demure women tells her husband, in the middle of his crisis of conscience, how things are --that everything is based on fraud and deceit, but that he just has to grin and bear it. These are not the words a corporate wife, but of a Hollywood screenwriter who despises lawyers. What Changing Lanes lacks overall is credibility. Good people can surely make mistakes, even serious ones. But one after the other, on a single day (many of which are felonies)? By the time the tediously escalating conflict is resolved, we are supposed to be in awe at how much everyone has learned. The problem is, if they had behaved in a remotely sane manner earlier, none of the calamaties would have occurred in the first place.
Rating:
Summary: 'Changing' Ethics
Review: An excellent movie about ethics. Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson deliver emotionally charged peformances and touches the heart. How two different worlds can meet in a single moment can change everything. You'll have to watch it. People can change if their conscience tells them to do the right thing. So, pay attention Earth.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: This is a poorly written, directed and acted movie. I saw this in theatres and we wanted to walk out. It's truly laughable. This is what they call movies that big stars do just to make the studio some money. Trust me, pass on this movie, it truly is horrible.
Rating:
Summary: Moral relativism, meaning, ethics...and great acting!
Review: This is a powerful movie. All the events take place in one day. After a minor car accident, the lives of two men become intertwined and quickly place both of them in difficult personal situations. As a result, the ethics of both of the lead characters are stretched and broken in a series of escalating acts of anger and desperation. Yet through a series of events that ultimately illuminate the morally bankrupt relativistic worldview of his law firm, the wealthy lawyer (played by Ben Affleck) discovers his soul and begins a road to regain his life. The character played by Samuel Jackson learns to keep his emotions in check and remarkably in spite of the events of the day is able to do the right thing and "accept the things he cannot change". Both Ben Affleck and Samuel Jackson are outstanding. The frightening ease at which our lives can quickly slip out of our control is depicted in a way that emotionally resonates. In each of us is the potential for small choices to start a series of events that test our character and ethics. A well done, powerful film. Highly recommended.
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