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Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut

List Price: $24.98
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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Good movie but not worth all the hype
Review: I thought the movie was good as it dealt with subjects rarely touched on without titilation - Cruise and Kidman do pretty good in all this and the movie is worth watching but unless you are the biggest Kubrick fan this movie is only average. I think it got all its hype because Kubrick died before the movie was released.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Underrated Modern Masterpiece
Review: Let's face it. Eyes Wide Shut is pretty tough to get through. It's pretty slow, but one must wonder if that's the point. It's Kubrick's last film before he died, and prety darn good. Cruise and Kidman are not given enough credit for their subtle but perfect performances.

There is so much here, more than meets the eye. Much more. I suggest watching several scenes very closely, including Bill's confrontation with Alice in the bedroom where the mask is.

The DVD is terrible. The transfer is FULLSCREEN. It's also got no features at all. I suggest a rental or two. If you love the film buy it on DVD!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Greatly Disappointing!
Review: I heard all the hype about this movie, how great the acting was, etc., so I had the opportunity to watch it on HBO. What a disappointment! My view of Tom Cruise has really changed after watching it. Rated R? More like NC-17. The movie left little to the imagination and I found it difficult to follow. Was there really a storyline, or was it a show-all video? It goes to show where people's mindset are these days.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Interesting? Sure. Disappointing? A resounding, "Yes!"
Review: *note: I give this movie 2.5 stars*

Eyes Wide Shut tries (in vain) to expose sex as a weapon that husbands and wives wield against one another, using it when the ultimate upper hand is needed. It attempts to point out the fragility of life, and it attempts to do all this subtly. Or does it? The movie is so aimless, but I digress.

What, then, should the film have used to achieve that goal? Human connection is a first. If one is meant to be shocked by an event on screen, one should have something to compare it to; there should be a contrast to the sterility that pervades the movie. Instead, Kubrick chooses to "direct" his actors (most often Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are just over-acting exaggerations of their larger-than-life personas) as scenery--every scene is so meticulous, so STAGED, that the life is drained from every shot. Each shot is like a beautiful painting--gorgeous, yes, but also painfully immobile. One gets the feeling that it was more important that Tom walk exactly 34 steps down the hall than to deliver his lines with any sort of truth. In fact, every scene feels so... improvised in this movie that it only adds to the aimless climate.

The most inexcusable thing about Eyes Wide Shut is the blatant sloppiness that boils under Kubrick's perfectionism. In planning out every shot to every sterile detail, he seemed to forget realism. In a movie that attempts to be a study of married sexuality, shouldn't there be a sense of realism? Shouldn't the audience member be able to contrast the believeable (a family scene or a rush to a party) with the fantastic (a masked, ritualistic orgy)? Instead, just as one never forgets that Tom and Nicole are on screen, one also never forgets that this is a movie filmed on a soundstage. Kubrick literally had a chunk of New York City built on a soundstage in England, and it is glaring. The constant use of blue screen and an unimaginitive recurring black and white fantasy sequence only add to this mannequin of a movie--beautiful, yet ultimately lifeless.

I stand firmly in my opinion that this could have been a wonderful movie. The blame, it seems, is entirely on Kubrick, who died mere days after turning in his final cut. Just as I feel the movie was miscast by placing two Names in the top slots, I feel the aging director chose his swansong poorly. Kubrick is so wrapped up in the "depravity" of life that his sugar-coated, "Let's wake up, honey," ending is the only contrast in the movie--an overidealized ending to an overly cynical movie.

On a final note, I did not hate this movie. There are some powerful and thought-provoking images (ie Kidman's seeming fascination with herself in the mirror as Cruise unknowingly invests his time and body in her [see the cover]) amidst the cold and sterile ones. Likewise, the few moments of truth that come from many of the supporting characters (the prostitute Domino comes to mind) are engaging watches.

In all honesty, Eyes Wide Shut is fascinating, but for all the wrong reasons. I was transfixed only because of my increasing frustration with the movie. The only reason I ever thought, "What's going to happen next?" was because I wondered when and if the movie would ever get on track.

Those of you out there that loved this movie may argue that I just didn't get it. I believe, however, that Eyes Wide Shut never really "got" itself.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Give it a chance. It's a Kubrick, after all.
Review: This movie has endless masses of nude women parading around like ninnies, a few concocted notes Kubrick deemed a soundtrack, frightful pauses, tedious dialogue and probably some of the most bizarre antics I've ever seen on film. But I think it's beautiful. This work brilliantly exposes the secret desires that everyone contains and is afraid to let loose, particularly because desires are dangerous to us and others when they are truly revealed. What we really want goes against some limitation beyond mere society -- that is within us. It is impossible to escape the need to be fulfilled, if only for one evening, and this even includes those who live in Central Park West. Give this a chance. I think it was a haunting, visually stunning masterpiece that, like other Kubricks, deserves the highest praise.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Thinkin Mans Movie Made By a Thinkin Man
Review: Well, Now I'm no professional but let's face it, the acting in this movie is no less then perfect. This is in my opinion tom cruise's best movie(close call with rainman). I could not turn this movie off due to the seriousness it took with everyone of its actors. Kubrick is an absolute genius. To this day I will never understand whats goin on in that costume store with the owner, the daughter(or whoever that was), and those oriental guys dressed in drag, but that was one of my favorite scenes in the enitire movie. In my opinion anyone could have played kidman's part, just as well, even though at the time she was "the wife". I will keep this short and sweet. If you like Kubrick's dark, but beautiful work behind the camera and a soft spoken but very strong tom cruise, please check this flick out. 3 words to sum up my review. Strange, Weird, Unbelievable. Rent it, Buy it, Don't pass on it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: More Genius From Director Stanley Kubrick
Review: "Eyes Wide Shut" is a yet another showcase of Stanley Kubrick's ability to employ a psychological undertow in his films to grip, move, mesmerize and fascinate you. Like the undertow of the sea, the power you are being subjected to is not visible on the surface, even though it IS apparent, but is below the surface, tugging at you and moving you to it's will. This psychological power is conveyed very effectively through the senses, by a director whose mastery of the cinematic art form is nothing short of genius, and like so much other geniuses, is never fully appreciated until they are gone. The story is that of Dr. William Harford (Tom Cruise) a physician who is married to a very alluring art curator (Nicole Kidman). One night in an intimate, drug induced state his wife confides in her husband that she almost allowed herself to be seduced by a handsome suitor. That revelation and lurid detail of his beautiful wife's close encounter with an adulterous affair leads Bill Harford through an odyssey of sexual and moral discovery, that is as mesmerizing as it is graphically portrayed. This film is VERY mature in theme, dialogue and it's treatment of patently adult subject matter, and is not for those easily offended by such. This is one of those movies that guides you blindly along a path while at the same time reassuring you there is light at the end of the journey. Then suddenly the journey is over and you are left with the sensation that you have been in the grips of something very powerful yet unexplainable; the classic Stanley Kubrick signature. See this one with friends, and you will be compelled to stop afterwards for a drink and a lengthy discussion of what you just experienced cinematically. A very good case study in the power of cinema in the hands of a master. Because of it's overtly adult subject matter, this film will probably never receive the wide acceptance of Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Barry Lyndon, or 2001 A Space Odyssey, or even A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, or Dr. Strangelove. But this film will no doubt be remembered by the cinema purists as yet another example of the genius of Stanley Kubrick to captivate the viewer with his brand of cinematic power, and leave you with an experience that will dwell for days in your consciousness.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: thankyou Stanley Kubrick, for not insulting our intelligence
Review: Eyes Wide Shut is a haunting experience. As to if you like it or not... you certainly wont be forgetting it too soon. Its imagery was perfectly framed, the music bold and appropriate, the colour was very obtuse and the acting impeccable. The sex in the film is never truly erotic, rather always concerned with danger, risk and confrontation. Kubricks visual style has never been so vibrantly alive. His elegant tracking, zooming and lengthy shots all create an atmosphere of complete frustration; everything is slightly off centre. Thankyou Mr. Kubrick for not handing your film to us on a silver platter, as so many directors do today. Thankyou for respecting our intelligence. This is Kubricks true indent on the history of film and it is matched only by David Lynch. The two leave us - the audience- to fill in the gaps, to hem the story ... This is the greatest film-audience relationship a director can create. When Cruise and Kidman were lost, we the audience were lost with them. What an achievement. It is a dissapointment this film wasnt recognised come Oscar time- I guess its a statement in itself of the franchise that appears to be gutting the spirit out of Hollywood. This is Kubricks best since "A Clockwork Orange."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: For true lovers of cinema and the human condition.
Review: I think that this is a completely misunderstood picture. I can't count the times that I had heard that "Eyes Wide Shut sucks, it's nothing but pedophilia and lousy story line". Nothing could be further from the truth. This is one of those films that shows what cinema can be, not just the average, thoughtless, meandering, and overdone films that everyone thinks it should be. The critics for the most part dismissed it as self indulgent Kubrick, but who cares what the folks who "can't do anything else with their pathetic existence but criticize" thinks, oh yeah the gullable, guidable, movie going consumer does?

If you like films that portray a slice of the human condition in a consistent with reality sort of way, you will enjoy this film. If you don't enjoy thinking about what you are watching you should probably stick to must see T.V. or the Playstation.

This movie is full of psychological suspense and keeps you trying to figure out exactly what the characters are thinking, where is this plot going, why would he do that, why wouldn't he do that, did she do that, etc...... The atmosphere of the film set to a trance like score is simply excellent, it is simply intoxicating. If you enjoy films like Taxi Driver, Ironweed, Trainspotting, and Fight Club you can't go wrong with this one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Go Right On To The Next Choice
Review: Tom Cruise is his absolute worst in this flic. Dont waste your money. This has to be among the poorest excuse for acting that I have ever seen. Even at $1.99 for the 4 nite rental, it was a waste.


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