Rating: Summary: Great film, still censored Review: Kubrick's last film is an existential tour de force. It is a fascinating exploration into the sexual mores of modern man, handled with a masterful melding of subject matter and style that is typical of Kubrick. Nudity is plentiful, but there is hardly any overt sex, for one of the movie's themes is REPRESSION. The duality of human nature (recalling the line in FULL METAL JACKET) is once again the driving force of the plot: love/hate, honesty/deceit, reality/fantasy, freedom/repression, etc. Kitman's performance is great. Cruise's is alright. Kubrick, well, is Kubrick.This DVD is the R-rated version, and so is the remastered DVD edition to be released this June. The unrated version without the censored scenes that Kubrick had objected to is not yet available as a Region 1 DVD. In fact, no one in North America has seen the uncensored version.
Rating: Summary: Where's The Plot? Review: This Boring movie goes nowhere; it has no plot and I could barely sit through it. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidmans worst role ever! Maybe this movie hit a little to close to home for the both of them. Too bad Stanley Kubrick couldnt have made a better movie before he died. The whole movie is about fantasy and desire and sex with other partners and them thinking about cheating on eachother. This movie was degrading and a waste of my time!
Rating: Summary: Misunderstood, mis-marketed, highly underrated Review: The caveat is that I am a Kubrick fan. In fact, before I saw this film I watched all of Kubrick's films, in order, one a day, and then saw EWS opening day. I was simply amazed. I personally know no other person who loves EWS, and it drives me crazy. Don't mistake this film for an erotic thriller, as the marketing seemed to want it to be. This film is a masterpiece about expectations and interpretations. It is highly literate, and disturbingly clinical. It is a film which refuses to pander or blink. While most films cater to an audiences' expectations, EWS reflects them, and in so doing, subverts them. Like most Kubrick films, EWS is as much of an intellectual exercise as it is a story. And if for no other reason, it should be watched for the cinematography, as the worst frame in this film is better than the best frame from just about any other.
Rating: Summary: stop living with eyes wide shut Review: I consider Kubrik as a legend in movies, but may probably consider him also as a great sociologist of the XX century. All his movies "touch" certain generations, see it for yourselve and buy all Kubrik's movies. This movie is the grand opening for more and more self-analyzing, sex-relations, marriage-disabilitation self analisis themes coming. So, to start up in the XXI century, stop living with your eyes wide shut, and be ready to "see" what you normally "see-without-seeing". I recommend this film to young couples, trying to live like grandma and grandpa...
Rating: Summary: YOU ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY, KUBRICK FANS... Review: You can't value a Kubrick film by just seeing it one time! You're wrong! I know what are you thinking because I hated this movie the first time i saw it too, but if you are a TRUE Kubrick FAN you should know that Kubrick films need to be watched more than just one time! that's Kubrick intention, that's the way I loved Kubrick, that's the way I loved his films, heck! that's the way I loved 2001, because Kubrick isn't (wasn't sniff) a conventional director, he is a genious, he wanted you to go and get the real value of all his movies, like a scientist: you have to understand the Formula. So I beg you friends... Please, PLEASE, don't call yourself a HUGE Kubrick Fan if you just see one of his movies once, and call it immediatly "garbage" . That's not the goal that Kubrick intended.
Rating: Summary: Not Kubrick's best, but worth a go Review: The big theme of this movie is the ever-present tension in the human personality between desire and repression, and overall Kubrick portrays that tension pretty effectively. The early temptation scenes are convincing enough, and so is the reconciliation between the doctor and his wife at the end. The problem is the middle section, namely, all those cavorting naked bodies in masks and the "warning" to the doctor. This bit was, unintentionally no doubt, as ludicrous as when Vincent Price used to ham it up in the old days. At least we knew Price was doing it partly tongue in cheek. Even a more accomplished actor than Cruise would have had trouble carrying it off with dialogue of this abysmal quality.
Rating: Summary: Long slow journey to nowhere Review: Eyes Wide Shut is a long, slow journey that leads... nowhere. While there are some attention-grabbing scenes such as the one in Victor Ziegler's pool room, too much of the film has the feeling that they are trying to fill out time. Nicole Kidman gives a good performance and Sydney Pollack is very good, but Tom Cruise is, well, the same old cocky, one-dimensional Tom Cruise. Unknown, bit actors kept showing him up in scene after scene; it got a little embarrasing. If he wasn't good looking, he would have a hard time getting work. I guess if you have 2.5 hours to kill and don't mind a movie that takes you nowhere, you might enjoy this film.
Rating: Summary: ATTN STUDIOS: YOU ARE LOSING MONEY WITH PAN AND SCAN!!! Review: Who, I'd like to know, is the genius at the studio (Warner Bros?) who has decided to release many great movies in the dreaded pan and scan format on DVD? I own most of the Kubrick movies already on VHS and I waited sooo long to upgrade to DVD but what's the point. I'm not sure what Mr. Kubrick's intentions were but perhaps if he had seen all that DVD could provide not just the casual movie watcher but also the movie buff-- he most likely would have given people the option of deciding for themselves which format they would like to see. Many people feel as I do-- you would sell so much more. Incidently-- BONNIE and CLYDE was released in the pan and scan format then someone got wise and released it letterboxed-- I bought it immediately!! I GIVE EYES WIDE SHUT in its theatrical release formatting the FULL FIVE STARS. The DVD in its current form only gets a 2.
Rating: Summary: A psychodrama of sexual repression Review: Fans of Tom Cruise who are expecting an action movie will be sorely disappointed by Kubrick's burning, slow-paced, expressionistic look into sexual repression and desire. On the other hand, fans of art-house movies should be enthralled by the lush sets, exquisite costumes, and psychosexual drama. Sections of the film seem to hint at the "one desperate man outwits the evil organization" role that Cruise plays in "The Firm", but Kubrick is interested in ideas and feelings, not action and violence, so the lack of a clear-cut resolution is really quite understandable; real life problems seldom offer easy answers. At an opulent party, a handsome young doctor's beautiful wife (Nicole Kidman) dances flirtatiously with a distinguished gentleman while her husband deals with a medical emergency. Afterwards, they have an argument that reveals their mutual frustrations. Bill claims that he is never jealous because he knows that women desire the comfort and security that comes with commitment. At the same time he tells his wife that he would never have sex with other women because doing so would hurt her. This infuriates her, because it makes her feel that she is being held responsible for his sexual repression, (a condition we are unaware of at the time, but which becomes very clear during the next hour of the film, as Bill finds himself faced with a series of sexual opportunities), and so she rather spitefully apprises him of her own carnal desire for a young naval officer. Obsessed and threatened by the idea that his wife has the same kind of sexual desires that men have, Bill sets off on the sometimes bizarre psychological journey that comprises the central section of the film. As we follow Bill through the next couple of days, we see a number of attractive women come on to him, in a series of more and more exciting scenarios, but in every case, he not only remains in control, but in the long run, decides to do nothing. It does seem, however, that he becomes more active as the element of risk increases; Kubrick is trying to show us how danger and unfamiliarity are intertwined with sexuality. Of course the downside of danger is that one sometimes gets burned, as we see demonstrated repeatedly. Bill's problem is that he craves the adventure of risk-taking, but is ultimately too responsible and has too much to lose. The paralysis this conflict causes is brilliantly dramatized - realistically in the scene with the prostitute (and its chilling sequel), and expressionistically in the orgy scene, where Bill never really does anything except get warned, threatened, exposed, and ostracized. Meanwhile, his wife has had a dream in which she has sex with other men in front of her husband, and laughs at him to show her disdain. Although she finds the dream upsetting, it shows that she is also torn between her love for her husband, and a need for more sexual freedom. The climax, when Bill finds her sleeping with the mask, can be taken on two levels, but psychologically, this scene shows Bill's realization that she's been sleeping with the mask all along; he hasn't let her in to his innermost thoughts and desires, but has always worn this mask of confident professional detachment and disinterest, and he finally understands how much this has hurt her. The flickering back and forth between realism and expressionism will displease many, and it is certainly the film's greatest flaw as well as its strength, but to those who are willing to delve past the literal world to the subtle ideas beneath, Kubrick provides an unforgettable window into some of the deepest recesses of the human soul.
Rating: Summary: Boring, Stupid, Garbage film Review: I can't believe this was Kubrick!The visual style is true Kubrick, but this is a garbage piece of film from the mastermind that gave us Dr. Strangeglove, 2001, Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket(ALL OF THESE FILMS ARE 5 STAR!!!) DO NOT WASTER YOU'RE TIME ON THIS GARBAGE!!Rent the other Kubrick gems I have mentioned instead!!!
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