Rating: 
Summary: Great speeches
Review: This film is of coarse based upon a play, so my expectations were not especially high. Once I saw this I was impressed with what the original writer had to say. Not only does this film have a very interesting and funny story to it, the cast fits their parts very well. No one other than Sean Penn could have played the character of Eddie, who when every time he comes home, a different person is already there waiting to tell him their problems in a very detailed and smart monologue. So if you're in the mood to see a film that doesn't glorify itself on special effects and a high butget, see this.
Rating:
Summary: Drugs, Friends and Love
Review: "hurlyburly" is not the kind of movie for everyone. You have to keep your mind very open in order to enjoy the show. And as Doug Thomas says in the Amazon's Editorial Review: "[it is] a film that can be admired but not loved". I couldn't agree more with him. The people around in this movie are very weird and I'm not sure you would want to have them hanging around with you.As it is adapted from a play, the movie focuses much more on the characters than in the actions. So there is a lot of talk. Really, almost non-stop, but it never gets boring. And it doens't suffer from the same problem that most plays do when translated to the screen. It's doens't have many characters or scenarios, but you get so involved with the discussions, that you hardly notice these things. David Rabe's screenplay is really good! Although the film is about the lifestyle of some LA folks, I think somehow, it gets more and more universal as the picture goes on. The themes they talk about -- e.g. love, sex, friendship, marriage, carrer, death -- are not restricted to their lives. You may not identify yourself to the characters, but you, certainly, do to some events they have to face. Who has never had a friend asking for some advice about marriage? Or having to deal with your best friend stealing your girlfriend? Or the death of a pal? The director was very lucky with his cast. Sean Penn shows why he is so good doing a bad guy -- Eddie is not the kind of bad guy we usually see, but he is bad somehow--, Kevin Spacey is one of the greatest actors ever, and he is so good in this picture that he makes your feelings go from love to hate in a change of scene.There aren't many girls here, but the ones who are around do a very effective work. Robin Wright Penn is as beautiful and confident as always -- this girl has such a presence that you feel sorry when she is not in the screen. Meg Ryan goes a little wild as she had never been; and even her harshest critics have to face that she can do something different from the girlfriend-from-romantic-comedies. This film is classified as drama, but I think it is much more a black comedy than anthing else. It doesn't ake you laugh aloud, but it steals some little smiles from you. As I mentioned before, 'hurlyburly' is not the kind of movie that everyone will enjoy. It's the kind of film that expects you to have much background to accept and like it. Anyway, open minded people should try it, but if you like only 'cute' films, stay away!
Rating: 
Summary: Kevin Spacey is Great!
Review: Although Sean Penn gets first call as the star performer, Kevin Spacey plays a great role. With pieces of his usual characteristics, he once again conquers a new, exciting role.
Rating:
Summary: Makes you think.
Review: There aren't enough movies like this. For some people, watching a movie is something to do to enjoy themselves. For others, it's just to spend some time, because they don't have anything else to do. Well, if you are of the former, you have got to watch this movie. If you have ever had an evening spent in deep conversations with your friends, picking apart topic after topic, then you will really enjoy this movie. Every time I see a Kevin Spacey movie, I wonder why I don't watch more and more of them. Every character that he plays, consumes the screen making it impossible to focus on anything else. Chaz does a great job, as does Meg Ryan, but the best character in the movie (not actor) is Sean Penn's character. Brings back to sight a performance by him in Carlito's Way. If you want to spend some quality time watching a quality movie, then buy this DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: not to my liking
Review: I had waited months to see this movie, after reading raving reviews. Finally I saw it to my great disappointment. It's pseudo-intellectual, pesudo-artsy, although it may carry non-pseudo meanings for others. What did I miss? There was no real depth in this story and no real-life characters, just a bunch of burnt-out, spoiled, incoherent people. There was no balance and emphasis between the various themes, nothing carried the drama through the end, to me it was just a discredit to the otherwise terrific actors. Sometimes, the actors you think would have good chemistry in a movie just simply don't.
Rating:
Summary: an astonishing piece
Review: I saw this film after the high praise my friend gave it (he'll be appearing in the play, in sean penn's part). Sweet merciful lord; I was blown away. It was certainly hard to watch. The characters are so mutilated, so despicable, so confused that it solidified my desire to never try cocaine. Spacey and Penn are astonishing, as are all the smaller characters. The film gave me a lot of food for thought - and, contrary to some of the other reviews seen here, I learned a lot from it in terms of how not to deal with the hurdles life places in your way. Christ on a bicycle, it's good.
Rating:
Summary: One word... WOW!!!
Review: I stumbled across this movie "by accident", flipping through the channels like many young Americans, and somehow I stopped dead in my tracks when I got to Hurlyburly. I was attracted to the movie initially by the top-notch actors, but after viewing it from start to finish at that one sitting, I found myself wanting to see it over and over again. Sean Penn takes his "bad boy" reputation to another level in this well written screen adaptation of the play of the same name. He is so beleivable as Eddie that one might think he isn't even acting at all! That is when you realize you are truly watching one of the best actors in the business. Kevin Spacey, what can you say? He is just as impressive as ever in his role as the cynical Mickey, truly showing his great range and talent as an actor. Chazz Palminteri and Garry Shandling are also stunning in their respective roles as Phil and Artie. Cameos from Meg Ryan, Anna Paquin, and Robin Wright Penn help round out one of the absolute best acting lineups I have seen in a long, long time. One of the true triumphs of the movie is the excellence to which it is written. The dialogue can be vulgar and lewd at times, but it remains poetic while doing so. The fact is that the world we find ourselves watching is in fact vulgar and lewd, out of control and senseless, but when you step back for a birds eye view, what you find yourself watching is a spin off of today's society. The dialogue, though drug induced in the film, speaks loud and clear to the viewer and watching these characters live their somewhat failed lives while analyzing every bit of it in an eloquent way is ironic, but breathtaking. There is no "middle ground" with this movie, however. You will know right away whether you are going to love it or hate it, but all serious movie fans and fans of true acting in general, owe it to themselves to at least give this picture a chance.
Rating:
Summary: Do YOU care?
Review: Saw this 3 times in theater when released, finally watched it again on video. Truly great! Next, I'd like to hear the commentary on the DVD release. Reading the reviews here, one thing becomes clear: Those without a philosophical bent miss the point, and to them Hurly Burly becomes "A movie about absolutely nothing!" Some struggle to find meaning in life. Others struggle to find meaning in movies that don't hold your hand and walk you down the plot, wrapping up nicely at the end with a tidy spelling out of The Point. My favorite riff in the movie is how technology constantly feeds data in...too fast to process ...creating an atmosphere where one knows they SHOULD care about this stuff but it just becomes so much "meaningless blah blah rappity ta". The details of their lives get mixed in with the details of the constant info flow and they can't decide what to care about. So, they forget to care about any of it. Eddie's mind becomes like a fly buzzing around. The Cable TV, cell phones, pagers & message services in Hurly Burly provide a continual stream of interference preventing the ability to Be Here Now. Ironically, many of the bad reviews here mention "fast forwarding through the boring parts". PERFECT! That's the point. Your life is too busy to take the time to watch the movie, so you didn't get it. I know how it is- there's a million other movies you could be watching. It's one less thing to bother caring about. I disagree with some reviewers that the setting in L.A. or Hollywood is critical to the story. This could have been set anywhere...the questions these characters struggle with are universal and do not just apply to "show biz insiders" or "those wackos out there in LA LA Land." As you can see from the Love/Hate vibe of the reviews here, Hurly Burly is not for everyone. If you are entertained by "America's Sweetheart" sleepwalking through come typical Hollywood crap, you will not like Hurly Burly. If you're primary motivation for watching a movie is because you think the actor is a dreamboat, you will not like Hurly Burly. If you routinely fast forward through movies or write reviews on movies you did not finish watching, you will not like Hurly Burly. If you have the desire/ability to ponder the meaning of life, by all means, watch Hurly Burly.
Rating:
Summary: written splendour
Review: Few movies are so creative as to create nothing but be so appealing as Hurlyburly. The film follows Eddie and Phil, two men of the 90's caught up in all the semantics, and jargon, and rhetoric, and meaningless blah blah rappity tah, that composes the manner in which we communicate, however unclearly and without specificity, and yet understood by one another, in todays world. Phil (Chaz Palmenteri) is the motivation, he is the untamed and unchanneled aggression of American society, and the faulty and irrelevant background to our lives which fails to recognize its own lack of significance and thereby making itself stronger. Eddie, (Sean Penn) has the gift of recognition of simplicity in all complexity, the misplaced artistic value of abstracting the world to varying symbols and gestures. Compile the above if you will with the existential lifestyle of Eddie's roommate Mickey, (Kevin Spacey) and the scarce but humorous mind set of Arty, (Gary Shandling) and you are compelled to watch uninnterrupted for 2 hours and neither achieve or learn anything in the process. :):):):):)
Rating:
Summary: Should Be 4 1/2 Stars
Review: This film was really quite good, I was leery at first but was drawn in but the great performances all around. None of the characters are at all likable, but the interactions are fun. Chaz Palmintari plays the dopey, vicious scumbag, Sean Penn plays the out of control scumbag, Gary Schandling plays the sad sack scumbag and Kevin Spacey plays the suave, charming scumbag. The movie was based on a play and it shows, it's all about the dialogue. I recommend it to all fans of 'acting movies'.
| 
