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One Hour Photo (Full Screen Edition)

One Hour Photo (Full Screen Edition)

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best.
Review: This movie is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is creepy and dramatic. This one truly shows that Robin Williams can be an outstanding actor without even saying one word, not that he doesnt talk in this though. If you like movies about mentally ill or very depressed and creepy people then go out and rent this move when it comes out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Don't worry! The film really deserves nothing!
Review: This is 4 stars for ONE sequence in the film that was excellent. The nightmare sequence with Sy standing in an empty aisle, gives a REAL cold feeling, and the shock of the horror that happens (sorry, can't give it away) hits you like a punch in the face. Sit through the whole first hour of the film (you need to gather a feeling with Sy in able to get full shock treatment for the scene) until it happens. But believe me and the other angry viewers, EVERYTHING ELSE ABOUT THE MOVIE (including the ending, in particular) STINKS UP TO HIGH HEAVEN.

The movie just lives up to it's name. "One Hour Photo" only seems to last that duration, and not a minute longer to hold onto your interest.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Strange Movie
Review: This is one fudged up movie. The movie is interesting, I admit it. But the problem which is a big one is that the whole movie is too open. This movie has a very poor plot,and th ending [is bad]. The ending is way too open, it just blows the movie out of the water. The beginning and some other parts are interesting. This movie deserves 2.5 stars.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Interesting 4.5
Review: The story: A family regularly develop their photos at the local Sav-Mart. There, "Sy the photo-guy" takes special care of all their photos. However, he is obsessed with the family, obsessed with the lives that he can only watch from outside, yet feels more a part of than his own. As the movie develops, it gets darker and darker in tone, and giving away any more of the story would be spoiling it.

Now, Robin Williams as psycho is a bit of an oddity. In Insomnia, he played another psycho part with a twist of humour, giving the film wit and a dash of dark comedy. Here, he plays the role absolutely straight and sincere. And he succeeds, phenomenally. We know that this isn't Hannibal Lecter, or some serial killer - we seem his as a person, perceive many of his insecurities, his feelings, his obsession. We understand him, and in my case, identify with him.

But does that make for good entertainment? In the beginning, the film lags a bit. After a promising start (I expected the movie to be slightly clever but end with a climactic slaughtering of the psychopath in self-defence by the wife - as most average Hollywood movies would have done. Well, the start of the movie makes it quite clear that this outcome is not an option, and so I was delighted) the movie hits a bump of boredom or two. Perhaps that is intentional - we are getting a glimpse of Sy's life and job, which is boredom, but it does not drive the story very much. Also, his intrusions on the family happen too quickly - at the start of the story, he has already obsessed about them for years, so it is harder to understand him than if we had been led there more gradually. But as the plot develops, and takes a twist and turn or two, the pace increases rapidly and towards the end the movie is very thrilling, disturbing, yet brilliant.

Of course, there are some flaws. One dream sequence in particular is meant to cause cheap shocks - a boo-scare moment that should have been beneath this movie and feels totally out of place. The boring moments near the start can disappoint a bit. And the child acting is a bit, well, not Haley Joel Osmond...

But, despite its flaws, the movie is clever, it misleads the audience several times, it is thrilling and disturbing, and generally very entertaining. Probably one of the best movies this year - and certainly quite original.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Supremely Subliminal Film!
Review: One Hour Photo is a film of supreme caliber. The film is powered by the haunting, chilling, silencing, and above all-genius performance by Robin Williams. But the rather extroardinary thing is that it is not Robin Williams on the screen, it's Sy Parish (the character's name). Robin Willliams fades away from our senses and slips into the ever so sweet and innocent yet psychotic role of a supermarket's photo developer. The films script is only accented by Williams, at times, restrained performance. Williams ignites on the screen and burns till the last frame, and you are unable to take your eyes off him. As I mentioned the film is sublimly written as well as directed. Though being Romanek's first, I certainly don't think this is a bad start. Romanek's direction adds to the on-going tension throughout the film. More affecting is Williams' delightful calmness. Trying to hold himself in becomes more troublesome for both Williams and his character as the story develops. Yet through the calm eyes of an innocent blaze the fires of hatred and intensity, which could very well sum up Williams' performance. The film does have some disturbing images as well. Yet they are not really strong enough for you to get up from your seat and leave yet rather the opposite. Williams' contribution as well as guidance towards the actions and scenes of peril compell as well as amaze you towards both the performance and film itself. Williams' shocking contribution to the screen is enough to make you cry, scream, and yell in your seat. Because the origins of the character are bittersweet just like own known Williams, leads to a crazed and psychotic breakdown. It's as if watching our own funny and beloved Robin fail us. Though the truth could not be any further, Williams but succeeds in the art of acting, creating an achievment in the field. Creating a landmark. Writing his/its own chapter. I guarantee that this film will be required study material in acting classes for now on. So to conclude: although we were bombarded with great films this past year of 2002, like Minority Report, Insomnia, and the soon-to-comes Gangs of New York and Catch Me If You Can, this was probably my favorite of the year.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Robin Williams can pull off anything
Review: This movie is far too good. At first I had doubts (as well as everybody) about how good Robin Williams would be in this movie, and, he pulled off the creepy guy in flying colors. Fabulous acting by everyone even though the idea isn't the best, but, that makes no difference. As much as I liked Insomnia, that was a warm-up role for Robin as a not so comedic guy. Death To Smoochy got him in line for his role in Insomnia and 1 Hour Photo. Brilliant movie. Buy this.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One Hour PITY
Review: If you haven't seen ONE HOUR PHOTO, you are missing Robin Williams' strongest dramatic performance ever. I'm not exaggerating when I say it is a genuine if not disturbing character he portrays in Sal The Photo Guy. Williams doesn't overplay or underplay his character's pathetically lonely life and his desire to connect with an attractive and well-off suburban family of 3.

Not only is Williams' performance worth noting, but the production and art direction are very important to the film's overall look and feel. The discount store where Sal works is bathed in glaring white light, and Sal's uniform is a drab, beige uniform that only highlights the perception that Sal is really invisible to the community at large. He's just another clerk in just another big-box store in big-city America. His apartment is mostly drab as well in its lack of decoration and color. This in stark contrast to the rich colors of the suburban family's home and their very busy daily lives.

ONE HOUR PHOTO is not only making a statement about modern morals. It is making an even stronger statement on the state of modern American society that has fragmented and isolated its citizens to a greater degree than we could have ever expected.

I walked away from the film feeling sympathy and even more so, great sadness and pity for Sal's character. While his actions and motives are wrong, it is hard not to feel that he is trapped in his very lonely universe with no one to care about him.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One Hour Photo Reveiw
Review: This is a very good movie that everyone should have a chance too see, Robin William's best role since Good Morning, Viet Nam. Definitally rent or buy this when it comes out.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Oh dear me!
Review: Let me say right at the start, "I get it." The movies SUPPOSED to be stylized and it's supposed to be sterile. But, oh dear me, but.

There's so much to pick at in this movie and, unfortunately, none of it's meat. Robin Williams plays his part with such restraint that he's in danger of disappearing completely in this, frankly, boring movie.

Robin's is a fixated photo booth processing clerk - fixated on a family who seem to be photo addicts, judging by the amount of trade they put Robin's way. (If I took that many photos I'd a) be bankrupt and, b) be in danger of being committed to a mental institution but this family's rich so that's okay then.) The store in which Robin works (Savmart) is the cleanest, most well-stocked mart in the whole world - an essay in off-whites and pale blues, not a mark on the off-white floor (ever) and never an item missing or out of place on any shelf. Just to round off the (boring) picture here, Robin's uniform is also off-white and pale blue but that doesn't matter because Robin's own clothes are, yep, you got it.

Robin is off his rocker in this movie - as are the police. A unit called The Office of Threat Management is called in after Robin takes photographs - innocent photographs - of his boss' daughter. The Office of Threat Management (previewing Tom Cruise's unit in Minority Report) go after Robin with guns drawn, execute an illegal search of his apartment and then mobilize an entire police force to track him down even though, at this point, poor Robin has not committed a crime!

Sad stuff. The disbelief totally failed to be suspended and all I was left with ...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well crafted
Review: Sy Parrish is unusually enthusiastic about the job he has been doing for over 20 years, working in the photo lab of his local Savmart... the voiceover introduction we are given by him suggests an employee whose job is also his hobby. Unlike De Niro's character in Taxi Driver or Micheal Douglas in Falling Down, Sy does not seem to vent any of the unhappiness which comes through loneliness in his descriptions of the world he inhabits.
There is no talk of deteriorating moral or national standards, instead Sy seems to accept the artificial world that Savmart is. He can identify with the company's high customer service ethics as he too feels strongly about processing peoples photos with care and affection, he describes with reverance his regular customers, especially the Yorkin family who he feels a part of. That is the life that is explained to us in voice-over narrative however the life we see is very far from pleasant and the visual style of the film communicates this perfectly. Savmart is as vernacular and washed-out as a modern prison, everything flares with a harsh, glaring whiteness - the director has created such atmosphere that you can almost smell the antiseptic on the floor. The customers mill around in the background like zombies as Robin Williams subtle acting conveys a middle-aged man who looks ill at ease.
The crux of this story is his psychopathic fascination with the Yorkin family. He has taken duplicates of all their photos to keep for himself and has built a collage shrine of them over the years on the wall of his apartment. It is when we are shown a glimpse of this collage that we realise Sy's fixation is a sickness. When Sy loses his job over the unaccounted for prints that he has taken of the Yorkins his obsession begins to manifest itself as he becomes a dangerous stalker. Though not a complex script this film is so well directed and Williams performance so convincing that you will ponder the psyche of Sy well after the final credits have rolled.


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