Rating: 
Summary: This is a pinchy movie, ese.
Review: I am disedified that this movie is well regarded. As storytelling, it gets an F-. The family that Robin Williams gets a little obsessed with? The father is some yuppie flake who's got about the same presence as a guy in a dandruff commercial. The wife seems to have read a book that says the secret to great dramatic acting is to act like you're on downers all the time and can't bring yourself to wake up. "Where is your son!" The detective yells in her face, once its become clear that jeopardizing shenanigans are afoot. She blinks and slowly shakes her head and says in a voice devoid of emotion, "He's... at a friend's house..." The kid himself, who all the fuss is about is basically just a kid, who commands about as much interest as most kids - zero. Robin Williams doesn't have sexual designs on the kid. He doesn't have sexual designs on the mother, and though he does end up taking some - shall we say, artistic? - photos, he doesn't have sexual designs on the father. So what is his angle? Well, suffice it to say that his own family was not so hot, so he's become a trifle obsessed with what he sees as the perfect family. Maybe its part of the whole idea that the family he does get obsessed with is nothing to write home about and in fact makes the viewer vaguely nauseous. Maybe, as in Taxi Driver, what the misguided protagonist sees and what is really there are two different things. Maybe you are supposed to want to puke on these people and hope that Robin Williams cuts them up real bad with his stilletto, homes. Maybe.
Rating: 
Summary: Not scary at all, or creepy
Review: I agree that this is yet another execllent performance by Robin Williams. However, calling this movie scary or creepy is way off base. The movie is kind of slow and personally I didn't think the character was dimented in any way. He was just a lonely guy, that's it. Everybody daydreams or wishes they had more, what's so scary about that. Then he decides to scare the .... out of the adulterous husband, what's wrong with that?? This movie is not even in the same category as Silence of the Lambs as another reviewer described it. Silence of the Lambs was about a considerabley more sinister individual.
Rating:
Summary: lonely and disturbing.
Review: I was excited to see this movie primarily because i was curious with how Robin Williams will come out. Sy, the Photo Guy turned out very well for Robin Williams.Williams plays a lonely photo developer clerk who's obsessed with the Yorkin family. Everytime Mrs. Yorkin has films developed, Sy (williams) creates a duplicate copy of his own and pastes them on his home wall. To him, they are the perfect happy family. Its the kind of family he was to be part of. But things turn sour when he finds out Mr. Yorkin is having an affair. He finds this out from the mistress who had their pictures developed at the photo shop where Sy works. The conflict here becomes apparent. Sy becomes disturbed. Why do people only take photos only of happy moments and hide the sad moments to themselves? After seeing happy photos of the Yorkins then later finds out that they're not so perfect at all, and his illusions shattered, he vents out his anger on the unsuspecting family. This is the kind of psychological and emotional conflict you'll find in this movie. Absorbing until the end, One Hour Photo takes you effectively into the mind of Sy, the Photo Guy. While the concept and the story was good, I just found it a little slow. But this is not to say this is a bad movie, actually thinking back when i was watching it, it was a great movie, with all the psychological stuff and the suspense. But somehow it just didn't create the kind of impact other people felt, hence the 3 stars. But don't let my rating affect you, know what the movie is all about and decide on your own.
Rating: 
Summary: "Sy the Photo Guy?"
Review: Amazing-the best film of the 2000's. Robin Williams plays a one hour photo man named Sy, who doesn't see himself as a clerk at all. He focuses on one perfect family's prints, daydreaming as "Uncle Sy." But when some prints come in that suggest that they aren't so perfect, he can't take it. He has breakdowns, and loses his job (which he loves). Now, he's out for revenge against the husband-and the story begins and ends with him taking jail pictures. I personally like the ending. I think this film may be better than Taxi Driver for Robin Williams acting. One thing that I loved about this film is how Sy reacts to everyday life that most people love-eating at a restraunt, watching tv (there is a brilliant scene with him watching "The Simpsons"). Everyday life is hard for Sy, and this film is great, if a little disturbing. I didn't mind the ending, feeeling that subtleness is more disturbing than anything else. This film is graphic and pats, too. The dvd is good, not great, since there are no deleted/extended scenes. Not for all tastes. Thank you for taking the time to read my review and feel free to leave me a helpful/not helpful feedback. God Bless America!
Rating:
Summary: Where's an oscar nomination when you need one?
Review: This is by far the one of the crown jewels of Robin Williams's carrer. Portraying a lonely man working at a photo shop, Robin creates a character unlike anything ever seen before. It's easy to feel for and associate with the character he plays. On top of that, the movie's just plain creepy. It's a psychological thriller with more chills than Silence of the Lambs. It is one of the better movies of 2002, and should not be looked over. I don't want to dwelve into the story but boy does it ever have twists to it. Watch and enjoy, then think about who you give your photos to...
Rating:
Summary: Garbage
Review: It could not have been more implausible. Police procedure was made up out of thin air to suit the next plot twist. The acting was dreadful. Symbolism was so obvious it was insulting: e.g., as Robin Williams is leaving the store he has been fired from, the "Next Customer" number is 86. 86ed. Fired. Get it? Get it? (What a piece of garbage.)
Rating:
Summary: Full Exposure
Review: The gradual build-up to the final moments of this smart and deeply unsettling psychological thriller from ace music video director Mark Romanek (the man behind the classic Nine Inch Nails video "Closer") is so good that the actual climax comes as something of a disappointment. For the past 11 years, Seymour "Sy" Parrish (a perfectly creepy Robin Williams) has been manning the one-hour photo counter at the local SavMart, and it's a job he takes very seriously. He not only makes good on SavMart's promise to deliver beautiful prints in less than an hour, but he considers himself an artist and keeps the store's minilab in tip-top shape. Sy knows just how important photos are, especially to lonely voyeurs like himself who value the glimpses snapshots can offer into other, happier lives. Over the years, Sy has grown extremely fond of the Yorkin family, especially mom Nina (Connie Nielsen) and her 9-year-old son, Jake (Dylan Smith), whom Sy has watched grow up through baby pictures, holiday snapshots and family vacation photos. For each roll Nina drops off, Sy processes two sets of prints - one for the Yorkins, one for himself - and dreams of somehow worming his way into the bosom of this lovely family. But no one ever takes pictures of the bad times, and the Yorkins aren't nearly as happy as their 4 x 6 glossies suggest. Nina feels her husband Will (Michael Vartan) is emotionally neglectful; he accuses her of living beyond their means for the sake of keeping up appearances. When "Uncle Sy" processes a roll of film that suddenly exposes the lie behind the Yorkins' picture-perfect life, he springs into action with a sense of purpose that's truly chilling. Like Michael Mann's MANHUNTER, the film probes the modern fear that we inadvertently leave the door to our private lives wide open all the time, and there's no telling who's going to walk in. Tom Foden's deliberately drab, antiseptic production design is perfect - the orderly aisles of the SavMart become an ironic reflection of Sy's psyche - and Romanek's smart script is filled with sharp, and at times even poignant, observations about photos and the people who take them. Too bad that he feels compelled to tie it all up with a banal pop-psych explanation that offers an all-too-simplistic solution to an otherwise uncommonly complex thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: A near miss.
Review: Robin Williams is the doorway into this movie: it's his performance that makes the whole thing possible. But underneath his brilliant portrayal is a structure that doesn't quite work. My primary objection to ONE HOUR PHOTO is the artsy flavor it was given by writer-director Mark Romanek. For example, the pristine white of the SavMart is unheard of in the real world: these are the bargain basement stores--they're never this well-stocked or well-kept. What that does is change how the viewer relates to the story: it doesn't take place in the store down the street--it takes place in some fantasy world where perfection is the norm. Given Sy's black-and-white view of the world, the perfect backdrop could depict more his perception than the reality--his wish for what his world should be--but it never really feels like that. Sy is not a guy in his own world who is trying to understand why things aren't better for him--Sy is a guy who wants to live in the world of the photos he develops. He doesn't see a perfect world he doesn't fit into: he sees the photos as a window on the perfect world he wants desperately to be a part of. Perhaps the excessive sterility of the SavMart is supposed to feel unreal and oppressive to him to the point where he needs to escape it, but overall the look-and-feel of the settings seem to clash with where the story is coming from and what it's trying to achieve. Even so, Romanek has given us a profoundly disturbing look at the world we live in and asked us all to define for ourselves what right and wrong really are. Is Sy's behavior more "wrong" than Will's? Williams portrays Sy as a disturbed, alienated man who is just trying to find a place where he belongs, and his astonishing performance is the centerpiece of the film (he's in almost every scene). That his angst and struggle is as familiar and poignant as it is disturbing underscores Romanek's questions about our world. Sy could be any person you pass on the street, and his obsession, while extreme, is both morally correct and, ultimately, harmless. Romanek and Williams are asking us to look at the familiar strangers in our world and wonder if the boundaries around our proper societal roles aren't preventing us from noticing and understanding a troubled soul...a struggling comrade...a good, loyal, gentle friend. He's further warning us that following the boundaries and ignoring the people who are reaching out to us could ultimately be a lot more dangerous than taking a chance and letting them in.
Rating:
Summary: great overall, bad climax that leaves you hanging
Review: "one hour photo" is certainly one of the most intense studies of loneliness and isolation since "taxi driver", although comes nowhere near equalling it. it is surreal, really disturbing, depressing and strange. williams' achievement is notable as he flawlessly portrays just how bizarre a completely isolated man can become as he spirals into the most dangerous kinds of delusions and imaginary attachments. this film is not so much about sy's obsession about the yorkins' as it is his attempt to immortalize things through photographs. while he dreams of being a part of something, namely the yorkins' lives, he also speaks of needing to capture the "little things" of which life are really composed--the guy at the gas station, wasp on the jello, etc. this is perhaps the most fascinating part of sy's otherwise pathetic and neurotic personality: his insistence that the banal, the seemingly insignificant and ordinary are real, while fake smiles and parties are just a facade. the ending, though, i have a problem with. it does not at all deliver on the intensity of the beginning and middle in the slightest. just imagine "taxi driver" without the ending. it would have been dull, travis' character null because the underlying violence and confusion of his personality would never have emerged, which was the whole point of the film. sy turns out to be nothing more than a severely disturbed voyeur, not really dangerous or homicidal as we might have imagined earlier on. anyway, this is still an interesting character study, and i recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Visually stunning and horrifying.
Review: Sy Parrish's world is one of supreme order, customer service, and fully stocked shelves...in the over-exposed world of savmart in the upper class part of town. Savmart is Sy's kingdom, he fits in so well that he is almost a walking, talking part of the store (right down to the matching colors in his clothes). Sy's personal life stands in stark contrast, he is swallowed up in the white on white of his apartment's dreary and hoplessly lonely spaces. Is it any wonder that Sy becomes more and more infatuated with the only sense of a nuclear family he has ever known (we find out that he suffered immensely at the hands of his family)? In fact the only warmness in Sy's whole existence is in his "family room" where he has a supremely disturbing wall covered top to bottom with the warm inviting pictures of the Yorkins. Ironically it is when Sy becomes too close to the Yorkins that his idealistic dreams are crushed, and he feels that he must right this worldly wrong. The scenes are a cinematic delight, though their construction is heavy-handed at times. Mark Romaneck has done a fantastic job of bringing the audience into Sy's world and has shown us what happens when you forget about the little guy. This movie is for anyone who desires that a movie continuously makes you think. The play on the themes and the cinematography with the story is fascinating and fantastic. Five stars.
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