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Beyond Borders (Full Screen Edition)

Beyond Borders (Full Screen Edition)

List Price: $12.99
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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Another bad movie from Paramount....
Review: I do not belive I have ever seen a more cliche or more poorly written film then this. Martin Campbell had no clue how to direct it and the script is full of problems that no one could have fixed. Jolie is one dimensional as a woman searching a stragne land for the man she loves (Owen) and when they are in scenes together, there is no chemistry between them except forced and unfocused dialoge (almost bordering on the same corny lines you would hear on a day time soap). End result is that this is a picture that was better off going straight to video.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Angelina has done it again!
Review: Angelina Jolie is truly one of the most amazing actresses today. This movie was her best yet! I would recommend this movie to my mom, my boyfriend, or my best friend. This movie can be enjoyed by all and it is very impacting. I will definitely be adding this to my incredible angelina collection!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of angelina jolie's best
Review: Beyond Boarders is a really great movie, it has a powerful message in it and it's just a really great movie. It is one of Angelina Jolie's best movies, if you haven't seen this movie you should. This movie has a really great script and for those of you who think this is based on Angelina Jolie's life it's not, she actually read the script five years befor they started the movie. But the script inspired her to go and reserch about the UNHCR,and other organizations.If you are interested in finding out more about Angelina's visit's with refugee's then I would recommend reading her book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: eye opener
Review: This movie should have been PG to teach the youth of today the real world of today and that there are nations out there that have nothing like the U.S.A.We the people of the U.S.A are so in to are selfs that we are blind or just {out of sight out of mind}to the hunger the displaced the sick and on and on. As one person can't do much but as a nation just giveing $1.00 could save millions of people,that is what I'm going to do, find out were I can send my donations. God Bless the U.S.A

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Fan of Angelina's... talent?
Review: Let's separate BEYOND BORDERS from all the hoo-ha about Angie's (deservedly) celebrated UN work. Also, it's a relief to see her not being asked to wear spandex and kick ass. So often, when an actor (or any artist) scores with a particular type of role and establishes a personality, we ask them to repeat over and over.
Anyway, I though Jolie and her co-star, GOSFORD PARK's Clive Owen were both quite good, despite the two dimensionality of their roles. Owen: idealistic, noble, emotionally unavailable. Jolie: naive, well-intentioned, simpering. The movie itself falls into the old trap of portraying serious issues in light of how they affect good looking white liberals. The Ethiopia sequence is particularly galling, as Jolie's rescue of a (digitally animated?) baby is portrayed as a major victory in the war against famine. By the time we get to Chechnya, it's just an action movie. The scenes of Jolie at home never take off-- she apparently met the actor playing her husband (Linus Roache) ten minutes before shooting. BEYOND BORDERS is a perfectly entertaining afternoon at the movies, but a movie that seriously addressed the causes of world hunger is probably one most of us wouldn't watch.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Angelina Jolie /"Sarah Jordan" as one.
Review: I'm still reading Angelina Jolie's, "Notes from My Travels" a non-fiction book written by Jolie based on her recent travels (as real life Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) to numerous refugee areas around the globe.
Having read only the beginning of Jolie's book (and then seeing "Beyond Borders") I'm seeing qualities from her book, portrayed on screen - her passion for the aid and care of refugees.
The film is more of a tragic love story on how far one woman will go, for love. The risks and sacrifices they make doing their everyday humanitarian work and for the love of each other.
Some of the scenes felt choppy and didn't really flow - scenes between her life at home (in London) as wife and mother and the scenes when she did her UN work (around the world). Overall, I enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to expose to people, what has happened and what is happening around the world.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Expand your mind Beyond Borders
Review: This is a quality film, something that is harder and harder to find these days! "Beyond Borders" tells the story of a privileged American, Sarah, who's married to a wealthy Brit. At a benefit dinner one night, Sarah was so moved by an outspoken relief- worker doctor that she decided to travel to his aid camp in Ethiopia. From there, we see the story of several years of her life unfold. She travels between her comfortable life in London and the gritty world of aid camps in Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Chechnya. The visuals in this film were amazing, and the story of life in the aid camps were gritty and certainly not sugarcoated. It was interesting and enlightening to see this world and I'd say the filmmakers did a nice job of educating the audience without being didactic. The entire film was tied together with a love story, which was ordinary, although it provided some action, adventure, and suspense in the film. Angelina Jolie did quite well in this film (aside from her sometimes irritating blank stares and her oversized lips). I wasn't sure I could really take her seriously in such a serious role, but actually she really did quite well and fit the part nicely. Overall, this is a quality film. But be warned... it's not for those who like sugarcoated, feel-good, airheaded pieces of work (in other words, the majority of Americans who will be going to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre instead). I was glad I went and certainly took something out of it. It's one of those few movies that is actually worth seeing in the theatre.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Melodramatic; PM fairy tale for Adults
Review: Angelina Jolie looks beautiful. The movie looks beautiful. Clive Owen exudes "Jack CROUPIER cool" that's said to have prodded the Wilson-Broccoli(EON)JAMES BOND film franchise to offer him the role of 007 when Pierce Brosnan turns-in his License to Kill. Owen's said to have turned it down. Maybe...unlike George Lazenby who averredly listened to buddies in THE WHO disparage OHMSS...he should reconsider. While BEYOND BORDERS is not...exactly...a pretentious film, it does have pretensions.It aspires to be MORAL fable; an epic adventure; a Quest and mythic Love Story. This is tall order for any cinema venture. But Director Campbell(who showed in GOLDENEYE and ZORRO he knows how to construct epic, fantasy-laden adventure)is ham-strung by PC politicking that sabotages some good acting; solid action denouements and many impressive visual vistas. In a word,without saving IRONY, this movie takes itself way too seriously.

This does not mean BB lacks humor. Each time our threatened hero or heroine threaten multifarious enemies with retaliation by UNITED NATIONS' sanction/force,the effect is unintentionally side-splitting and the scenes impact reduced to farce. And though TOMB RAIDER Angelina can shed a mean flow of tears...her fine cheek bones framed under stylish sable hats or flowing dark PRINCESS tresses...it gets "old" after the third time. (Cambell has Miss Jolie cry us a river at least six times under halo lighting and Rachmaninov-like music.)BEYOND BORDERS isn't a bad movie. It's simply way-over-its-head; hype-typical of Today's MAJOR MOTION PICTUREs.It even evokes...literally in bogus reference by yet too-cool-for-school Clive...APOCALYPSE NOW!with camera shots down a Cambodian river into The Heart of Darkness. Again,the movie does not lack "humor". It does have a kind of kind heart.But irony of its pretense to moral Indictment mires in PM/PC dreck.(An archetypal, starving African Child is wept for; aborting millions of Western children is ignored or defended). BEYOND BORDERS is NOT beyond anything. It's a pretty movie, full of pretty people,mouthing pretty sentiment.(With as many four-letter expletives as possible).It's melodramatic PM fairy tale for Adults.(Chidren will see right through it). Mr. Clive Owen might do well to try-on 007...(3 & 1/2 stars)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Near Miss
Review: This movie has good intentions, but ends more as disaster tourism. The humanitarian crises end up providing exotic, dangerous backdrops for a love story that never quite takes off.

Sarah and the doctor remain two dimensional, especially the doctor. We never know these two people, except as noble, committed souls. There are few simply human moments between them, where they connect as people; it is all crisis without character development. By the time they got to Chechneya, I had lost most of my suspension of disbelief, and much of my interest.

I also couldn't help but be annoyed by Sarah's wealth. Most of us would like to help but don't have the luxury of cashing in our savings to buy truckloads of food and vaccines, or of winging in and out of dangerous countries.

Then there were Ms Jolie's costumes, made more with an eye to what the camera would love than realism. When she appears in war-torn Chechneya looking fashionable in a priceless sable hat, it is absurd--particularly when she arrives in a remote cabin after a mountain trek with makeup flawlessly in place. This is a movie that wants both glamour and realism. You can't have both.

The scenes in Ethiopia reminded me of Helen Fielding's pre-Bridget Jones novel "Cause Celeb," which did a much better job of exploring the world of aid workers. It kept them human by making the point that no matter how noble the work they do, many aid workers are also escaping something back home. Not only that, but being in a crisis doesn't make those problems go away. Though the novel's ending is somewhat unbelievable, this is still a good book to read if you are curious about the world of humanitarian aid.

Still, in spite of its flaws, it almost worked. Had the love story been more gripping, no doubt it would have. If you are a fan of either star, you won't be able to resist seeing this in theatres, and you will probably enjoy it. For others, I'd say wait for video.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: 3 & 1/2 Stars - Beautiful & Ugly all the while Unforgiving
Review: I watched "Beyond Borders" last night, and while the other people I watched it with were beyond bored, I was infatuated. The film, while being a bit "preachy," (nothing anyone would be overly annoyed with) is visually intoxicating. Sometimes in a surreal way other times in a horrific way, but intoxicating no less. Angelina Jolie shines in her role as Sarah, an American whose life changes drastically throughout the years of her adult life with her experiences with refugee camps she visits. Clive Owens plays Nick, a struggling refugee doctor with the best of inentions, but has become cynical and often bitter towards others, but not without good reason. Together they reach an understanding of one another, and eventually find love. But as much as the studio promotes this as a "Love Story" it is NOT that in the least. (I repeat this is NOT a love story.) It is bulked up by some hollywood explosions and such. However in whole this is a film about HEROISM in it's many forms. This film will grab hold of your heart, it will tug, warm, tear, comfort and break it. I think everyone should watch it becuase it gives an honest and unforgiving look at worlds outside our own little box. I give it * * * 1/2 for being a great film, but dragging on a little at times.


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