Rating: 
Summary: Unsettling, thought provoking - and NOT a sex film
Review: I initially saw this film at the cinema, with a few friends - afterwards, discussing it, some of us loved it and some of us hated it. This seems to be the general verdict of the film, and part of the problem is the expectations raised by the advertising.The first thing to say is that this about the world of the rich, about America at Christmas - there are fairylights everywhere, sumptuous parties, money being spent and excess of all kinds hinted at. There is a hard poise to the society - note the stiffness of Cruise and Kidman as they prepare for and go to the party at the start of the film. I don't think there's any love shown by Kubrick for the world he is depicting. Getting stoned leads Kidman's character into a confession of fantasy, and Cruise's character responds in a typically unpleasant male way - he is unable to cope with his wife's sexual imagination. He deals with this by almost having sex with a prostitute, and almost having sex at an orgy. I feel that the message of the film is about the need for fidelity and honesty to your partner. Here characters reap what they sow - the prostitute is later revealed to be HIV positive, while the orgy involves Cruise in a tangle of guilt and fear. Extra-marital fantasy is a source of guilt in this film - Kidman's dreams haunt and distress her, while Cruise breaks down when he finds the mask he wore at the orgy on his pillow next to his sleeping wife - a powerful and affecting scene. Kidman gives the outstanding performance here, in a role that should have been expanded. It is a film which seems more popular with men than women, which is understandable as it is the story of Cruise's character. But Kidman's character is the one you root for, although you are uncomfortably involved with Cruise - she confesses her fantasies, to which her husband responds with incomprehension and a dalliance with promiscuity. This is a haunting, uncomfortable and thought-provoking film, dark and hard, about a dark and hard world which is never erradicated.
Rating:
Summary: Maddeningly close to perfection...
Review: Were it not for the predictably Sixties non-ending, this would be an unequivocal work of genius. As it stands, it is a flawed work of genius. The hinted-at Finnegans Wake/Alice In Wonderland dream cycles did not phase me, and I could have accepted an allegorical ending of any type. Instead we are left with Nicole Kidman using the Eff Word as if this were the dramatic climax to a terribly terribly clever plot twist. It wasn't. The movie has many fine surrealistic moments, and the Masque Ball sequence (which draws much of its power from Jocelyn Pook's stunning musical arrangement) is worth 5 stars on its own. Yes, Nicole Kidman has a great body, but is it enough to carry a movie that is a leftover from the days of "If you confuse the audience enough, they'll assume it's brilliant - besides, most of them will be too stoned to follow it, anyway." Jacob's Ladder was a complex work of genius, yet it actually made sense. Eyes Wide Shut... You get the feeling that it should have given us more. As it stands, it's like trying to figure out Blade Runner without the Unicorn Dream sequence. Yes, Deckard was a Replicant. I still love Eyes Wide Shut, and would thoroughly recommend it to anybody, even though it lacks the re-entrance of The Wake or the dream telescoping of Alice. It works because it is exciting and compelling, and you actually care about the fate of the main characters. Yet in the end, it just doesn't deliver. Since the Sixties, with its art for art's sake style of non-linear cult films, there have been too many truly clever movies, like Jacob's Ladder, that did reach a stunning resolution even after taking the viewer through a dark, surrealistic quagmire. On the heels of those, EWS just seems like a sub-Blow Up middle class romp. Surely a contender for Movieline's "Films That Make No Damn Sense".
Rating:
Summary: Kubrick brings out the wildest of our world!
Review: Eyes Wide Shut. What a flick. It took over Two years to film and they were well spent. It is a tale of man and women. Sexuality and inadequacy. Romance, intamacy, jealosy and security. All of this is rapped up in a blanket of the underworld of sex, drugs, and whores. It is shocking, texturally beautiful and wonderfully acted. Tom Cruise'e best preformance.(Tied with Magnolia) I just love Nichole Kidman's speeches as she is a true preformer and the way that you just can't move your eyes off the screen once the movie has started. And the use of reds and camera angles and movement. Oh yah, I almost forgot the erie piano that was reminisent of the Shining soundtrack. I don't get the criticisms of this movie. It is absolutly stunning with suspence and an unfolding story that never reveals where it is going until after you've been thrust through the front door and locked in. Pure art and entertainment with insight into the husband-wife relatinship. Great curtain call for Stanley
Rating: 
Summary: A metaphorical journey into the dangers of sexual immorality
Review: If I could recommend a film to any married couple on the dangers of promiscuity outside of marriage I would without a doubt pick this one. This film presents a truth that this hedonistic generation is too weak and selfish to believe--FORNICATION IS A DANCE WITH DEATH. The only reason people were disappointed with this film is because the sexuality wasn't as erotic as they had hoped. Really, the only truly erotic scene in the whole film happens to be between a husband and wife. Kubrick takes so much time to make a film that he can't afford to be as exploitative as most filmmakers are today. My only dissappointment is that this was Kubrick's last film. Though I think it was interesting, it is hardly the movie he should be remembered for.
Rating: 
Summary: No title was ever more apt.
Review: Dull finish to what was a checkered career in film. Kubrick die-hards had to wait 12 years for this movie, his previous film being 1987's effective *Full Metal Jacket*, and I'm sorry to say *Eyes Wide Shut* just wasn't worth the wait. Speaking of waiting. . . . It appears that Kubrick waited over 30 years to make this movie. Its origins date from a novel called *Blue Movie* by his pal Terry Southern. Together, they were going to make a film featuring raunchy sex between two established, big-time movie stars. One wonders whom they had in mind to do this in the early Seventies. (Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw?) One also wonders why they'd bother. At any rate, Kubrick finally got around to it 3 decades later, and *Eyes Wide Shut* is the result . . . except that it's now based on an obscure, arty novella from the 1920's by someone named Arthur Schnitzler. In any case, each source probably demands a "period" treatment, rather than the update to 1999's Manhattan which Kubrick attempts here. (Better yet, Kubrick should've made this movie in 1971 instead of the twisted interpretation of Burgess' *A Clockwork Orange*.) Both the Sexual Revolution-era questing for Free Love (Southern) and the stern, Freudian tone (Schnitzler, presumbly) are hopelessly past their sell-by date. In fact, the film is saved from being an unmitigated disaster only by the occasional oddball scene or amusing minor character. The famed "orgy" scene is not made any less risible by the spooky organ music, the impressive Venetian masks, or the measured pacing. Speaking of the latter, Kubrick resorts to it the whole movie: the pacing is eye-droopingly slow, as if the director is hoping to distract us from the basic silliness of many scenes with a lot of portentous pauses, back-and-forth stares, endless walking around, dialogue repitition ("She was there last night?" "She was there last night.", etc.), even FLASHBACK repitition. The acting is almost uniformly bad, as is typical with almost all Kubrick films. Nicole Kidman, in particular, has grounds to sue. In a key scene, Kubrick has her hopped up on pot, for some stupid reason (again, an anachronism from 30 years ago. Today, it'd be Xanax or a pricey California Cab). As a result, it takes her about 20 minutes to say to her husband, "I had a sexual fantasy about someone other YOU." It shouldn't take this long for the point to get across, and it shouldn't get such an overdetermined response from Cruise's character, who spends the rest of the movie walking around, looking for sex. Unfortunately, he doesn't get any, not even at the orgy: Kubrick, ever the clean-minded pornographer (to use Pauline Kael's immortal phrase), sees to that.
Rating:
Summary: Kubrick's Flawed, but Misunderstood, Gem
Review: "Eyes Wide Shut" lacks the brilliance of Kubrick's classics "2001," "A Clockwork Orange," and even "The Shining," but it didn't deserve the cold treatment it received upon release in 1999. Folks flocked to the theatres expecting to see a two-hour sex romp with Cruise and Kidman. Instead, it's a thought-provoking, though flawed, thriller about a young Manhattan couple whose relationship nearly falls apart when jealousy, insecurity, and obsession creep into their marriage. Although Tom Cruise seems stiff and uncomfortable with his role as the young socialite doctor, Kidman shines a little better as the wife who reveals a fantasy with another man that sends her husband into a jealous fit. "Eyes Wide Shut" is not a user-friendly movie; it requires patience as some of the scenes tend to drag, and it also invites the viewer to think (unheard of for a summer film). Nonetheless, it's still a fascinating journey that will intrigue and fascinate movie buffs and Kubrick diehards alike.
Rating:
Summary: Shame on Warner for Altering Kubrick's Final Film
Review: This film was filled with controversy and disappointed many when it finally came out. The movie moves incredibly slow, but I still liked it a lot. The mansion scene is by far the best part of the movie, and wouldn't you know it..... Warner releases this movie on DVD only in the altered version. There should have first of all been a choice of widescreen or full-screen, and there should have been a choice for the R rating or the Unrated. If not, then at least make it a separate disc like the American Pie movies. The full screen picture of this DVD looks good, but it should have been offered in the theatrical aspect ratio as well. Warner will probably never release the unrated version, so it's not worth buying this on DVD. I have the VHS tape which was much cheaper, and that's all I need until Warner decides to treat Kubrick's last film with some respect.
Rating:
Summary: I liked this movie
Review: Alright this movie isn't the best movie in the world but i liked it in fact i enjoyed it. Tom cruise and Nicole Kidman gave wonderful performances...I beileve if Kurbrick lived to edit this film this would have been a masterpiece. This movie is about the reality and the flaws of a married couple and people. I enjoyed this film despite the negative reviews i rate this film as ***** five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Eyes Wide (insert appropriate expletive here)
Review: This movie, if you can call it that, is one of the absolute worst pieces of cinema I have ever had the displeasure of sitting through. I knew that with Stanley Kubrick it would be hit or miss. I like some of the late director's film, but others I could do without. This is one of the latter, and it's a shame it had to be Kubrick's final piece.
From the confusing "mask" scenario to that piercing piano key music (if you can call IT that), this film was a mess from beginning to end. I suppose I saw it because I was curious. It got so much hype for being sexually provocative, namely for an orgy scene. Maybe what was so controversial about it was that you finally saw Tom and Nicole making out, which at least for a moment squashed his gay rumors.
But there was nothing overly shocking in the sexual realm in this film. As a matter of fact, the "orgy" was very cleverly blocked in many places by strategically-placed potted plants. Instead, there was moping, brooding, and emptiness. There was absolutely no point to the plot, and when you finally, FINALLY get to the end, it's a kind of....huh???
Did the producers really think that Cruise and Kidman star power would carry this movie??? How dumb do they think audiences are? You know, we do want some kind of resolution, some kind of substance to our movies. Not just scary music, not just see-through camisole tops, not just orgy scenes. It has to make sense, and quite simply, this movie did not. Even good actors (and directors) have their bad movies.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but could have been great if Kubrick lived edit it.
Review: I believe I understand Eyes Wide Shut now. It teaches a lesson that is so hard to learn. The lesson of simplicity. Just as the catholic priest's outfit teaches truth to be a small and simple white patch lost in confusion, darkness and compexity, this movie teaches that the sexual union is a very simple and wonderful truth created to bond two people together in love. When this simple and powerful act is complicated and divorced from its proper context, it creates a self perpetuating elaboration. When the simple act of sexual union which is designed to lead us toward each other and to the love that waits for us in each other is directed outward, then that person begins an ever outward journey on a road that never ends. Each step of the road becomes more and more elaborate in its attempt to find the true treasure which is never found "out there." The metaphor of over the rainbow used in the movie to symbolize the false search was apt. The lesson Tom and Nicole learned was that the moment they looked away from love and allowed their sexual energy to look outside that love, they began to walk the path of despair. Each of their fantasies became more and more elaborate, her's in her mind and his in a brush with the masters of elaboration. The big house with all the satanic sexual ritual was close to the end game of complexity, yet these people which got off the track long ago were no closer to finding the Grail. Satisfaction can never be found "out there". At the end of the movie Nicole tells Tom that it is important that they go home and F--K. This statement is important because it tells us and clarifies for them the roads they had begun to walk. They had forgot the simplicity of love and how the sexual journey is always toward each other. They had each withheld their sexual energy and waited for an opportunity to release it along those dark roads of elaboration. Tom had many tries at finding false union out there but clearly a higher power protected him from certain disaster but also taught him an important lesson. They had to F--K, not make love, because that act was necessary to release all the false sexual energy they had built up on their false quest. Unless they released it and allowed it to burn off they could never return to Love. Love is very delicate and will diminish or die in the presence of false sexual energy. Love is simple, and sex is the simple journey toward each other and toward the love that we give each other. The moment it becomes more than that, or other than that, then like the Illuminati we chase our tails forever, ever building greater and greater elaboration and lies to hide the knowledge that we have forgotten the truth. Just as Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ learned that she already had what was best, so Tom and Nicole also had to endure the tornado and meet the wizard to understand they always had the ruby slippers and the power to return home.
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