Rating: 
Summary: Mystic River
Review: Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" is a dark, brooding and painfully truthful film about two crimes that impacts and intertwines lives of three men. The story centers on Jimmy (Sean Penn), Dave (Tim Robbins), and Sean (Kevin Bacon) boyhood friends whose lives are forever changed when they witness Dave being lured into a car, taken away and assaulted for several days before he escapes. Moving forward 25 years the three men are reunited when Jimmy's 19 year old daughter Katie (Emmy Rossum) is found brutally murdered. Sean, a homicide detective investigating the murder struggles with balancing his work and runaway pregnant wife who frequently calls but never says anything. Dave, who comes home late and covered in blood the night Katie is murdered soon becomes the primary suspect in the eyes of both Sean's partner Whitey (Laurence Fishburne) and Dave's wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden). While the murder mystery plays well and will hold most audiances to their seats for 138 minutes the real strength of this wonderfully written film is the depth of screenwriter's (Brian Helgeland) characters with their keenly tempoed pursuit for truth and understanding of the two crimes and impact on their lives. Moreover, Eastwood is more than up to the material and doesn't flinch while walking the viewer through Jimmy's emotional journey of handling Katie's death to include thoughtfully paced visits to morgue and funeral home. Penn's change from anguished father to cold-blooded avenger is a real tour-de-force. His brief talk with his dead daughter while sitting on the back porch is riveting: "I know in my soul I contributed to your death, but I don't know how" It certainly can be argued many of the cast members gave performances of their career, especially Penn and Robbins. The remaining casts were given substantial material to work with and they didn't waste it. Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden are wonderful as wives to Jimmy and Dave, providing a contrast in degree of support they provide their husbands. The former blindly devoted and latter suspicious of a husband whose kept her from the secrets of his devastating childhood.
The film's ending will leave some unhappy or unsatisfied, but for most it should remind us what great directing, writing and acting can provide--a chance for a story to unfold in a deliberate, subtle pace with the jouney often better than the ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Stale As Month-Old Potato Chips
Review: I was quite surprised at how bad this movie was. Perhaps it was just me, but I was looking forward to a Unforgiven-type directoral masterpiece from Mr. Eastwood and the stars Robbins and Penn. Given the hype this movie recieved (and the oscar nods to its 2 main stars and director Eastwood) I was really ready to sink my viewing teeth into something substantial. Unfortunately, this movie was as stale as a bag of month-old potato chips. I never really came to symphathize at all with Sean Penn's character, even though his daughter was murdered. I mean, seriously, how can you symphathize with a criminal (Penn's character) who barely was involved in his kid's life to begin with? Perhaps if the movie had shown a more deeper relationship between Penn and the kid then I could have cared more about the outcome. As it was all my sympathy went to Tim Robbins character, sexually molested as a child and then basically forgotten by his so-called "buddies". In my opinion Tim Robbins is the only reason to watch this movie. He walks around with an aire of utter hopelessness (reminiscent of the character he played in Jacob's Ladder), and yet he tries so hard to get passed the mental anguish of his past and make it through each day as an adult that by the end you are cheering for him. Which brings me to the other reason why this movie stinks - the ending. Like in a good novel, the reader/viewer doesn't want to be cheated in the end. I don't want to give away the ending, but be warned - it stinks. All in all there really wasn't any substance to most of the characters, and I found myself toward the end wondering why I should even finish watching it. I like to be absorbed by characters played with heart and substance. Watching these jokers (except for Robbins) was like watching carboard cutouts being moved around on a stage.
Rating:
Summary: Sean Penn and Tim Robbins are outstanding!
Review: In Mystic River, director Clint Eastwood has taken the themes of pain and loss, added superb actors, and a literate script to make a memorable movie. Jimmy, Sean, and Dave were childhood buddies growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Boston. One day, Dave was lured away and sexually abused by two men. Years later, the boys are now adults; Jimmy (Penn) is an ex-con with a loving family, Sean (Bacon) is a cop with marital woes, and Dave (Robbins), forever damaged by his childhood trauma, is barely clinging to reality. When Jimmy's daughter is murdered, Sean investigates, Jimmy vows vigilante justice, and Dave is a prime suspect. The lead actors are outstanding here. Penn is utterly convincing as the former thug and heartbroken father. Robbins displays his acting chops in the performance of a lifetime, showing a fragile man dealing with such pain that he can no longer function rationally. The two men certainly deserved their Oscars. This is a movie that will pull at your heartstrings while keeping you guessing who the killer is. There are, thankfully, no graphic scenes of child abuse or the girl's death, yet you will be on the edge of your seat much of the time. This is an outstanding film.
Rating: 
Summary: Still Waters do Run Deep
Review: The strength in this movie lies in the acting. It is too rare that a cast like this is collected in one movie and a director of the caliber of Clint Eastwood solicits powerful gripping and believable performances out of each of them. This movie may have suffered from comparison on the rating scale in that I watched it back-to-back with "In America," and it did measure up to a greatest top ten list movie deserving of five stars. "In America," did. "Mystic River," is set in blue collar working class Boston suburbs and Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins bring off the local accent and sense of place and attitude beautifully. Two pivotal tragedies, one that happened in the past and one in the present. In boyhood the three main characters were involved in a common event in which Robbins character was abducted. In their adult lives, tragedy befalls Sean Penn's family and the chain of events spirals out of control locking each character into a Shakespearean tragedy that seems to be out of all of their control. Sean Penn's acting is gritty and the emotional seething and need for vengeance weigh upon his character heavy. See Mystic River for no other reason than to take in Penn's performance. There are better movies out there but you won't be disappointed by taking a swim in Eastwood's river.
--MMW
Rating: 
Summary: Fine film foiled from faulty finally.
Review: This was a great film... until the end. As I was watching it, it was easily a 4-4.5 star film. It was suspensful and very well shot/directed. Sean Penn, Tim Robins, and Kevin Bacon all play their roles marvolously. The story line was a great one, and all the technical aspects of the film were perfect. Then, the film started wrapping up. It was at this point that I saw perhaps the worst, most bizar ending I've ever seen in a movie. It had as little to do with the rest of the movie as part of a movie could possibly have. The ending alone is what knocked my rating from a 4.5 to a 3. It's a great movie, and definately worth a watch, but you'll be shaking your head as the credits start to roll.
Rating: 
Summary: crossing the moral line
Review: I found this film mildly gripping until the last act, and then I was sickened. Perhaps I was more sympathetic to Tim Robbins' character's sincere efforts to control his urges than I was to Sean Penn's manic rages, but one need not be conflicted to sense that something is morally and ethically amiss. There is never really any doubt (at least for the audience) of Dave Boyle's innocence of the murder of Jimmy Marcus's daughter, yet Marcus' thuggish character over-rides any such concerns. Marcus coerces a "confession" from Boyle after telling him he will let him live, and then once Marcus' pre-conceived notion is thus confirmed, he kills Boyle anyways. Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon) shows up just in time to tell Marcus that he has killed an innocent man, and Marcus' reaction can be summed as a "so what." The end of the film doesn't ask any gray moral or ethical questions--quite the contrary. Devine and Marcus wave and smile at each other, as if justice was served--the daughter was an innocent, Boyle was innocent, and they're both dead. It all "evens out" in some warped way. The pathetic Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden) the only person who apparently cared if Boyle lived or died, is left unnoticed and marginalized. The last ten minutes of the film, thus, makes what transpired before filmmaking mendacity.
What exactly was the message Clint Eastwood was trying to convey here? The only one that makes sense to me is Dirty Harry-type vigilantism where colateral damage is a fact of life is acceptible under certain situations. I, frankly, find such reasoning appalling.
Rating:
Summary: WORST FILM I'VE SEEN TO DATE!
Review: Let me begin that the only remote thing about this movie is the acting. The characters, the story, the way that violence and justice are holding hands is gut-wrenching. I might go into SPOILERS so those who haven't seen this movie yet only know this: Don't watch this unless you advocate taking justice into your own hands and getting away with murder. I don't know where to begin! The acting is good. NOT great, CERTAINLY not OSCAR quality, but good. The cinematography of the movie is nothing special, much less the directing. This IS NO MASTERPIECE. It's something that I would have gone off watching on TV. The problem of this movie is how it suddenly veers off into questionable territory and off subject. For example, throughout the movie, Kevin Bacon's character Sean, is constantly called by his ex-wife who never really talks. In the end, when Sean finds out that Jimmy killed Dave (Tim Robbins' character), his wife suddenly appears. All of a sudden, he suddenly seems to forget that Jimmy killed Dave and everything is happy dandy. I agree with the previous reviewer in that Dave's wife sold him out. The scene where Sean finds out that Jimmy killed Dave plays out HORRIBLY. Sean doesn't arrest him, doesn't threaten him or anything. He just stays there as Jimmy walks off drunk down the street. And the rest of the film is just trite and boring. No interesting characters. Please don't waste your time with this film OR the book.
Rating:
Summary: a thrill(er).
Review: good movie with good acting. you don't need the bonus discs, they're just garbage. put that money toward a real live frisbee so then you will be able to throw and catch and have a good time.
Rating:
Summary: Mystic Clint
Review: I cannot believe why - WHY - so many reviewers gave 1 or 2 stars to this movie???!!!
This is one of the Best movies from the last decade!
In one film you have the magnificent directing and acting along with a stunning and surprisingly story with characters developing in the course of the movie...
With subtlety...
THIS is not achieved by many...
Bravo Clint! You're the Best!
Rating:
Summary: Yuck, what a boring downer
Review: This movie was a boring downer. Well done, but why do it. Why make something so depressing with no redeeming value? Dark, darker and shockingly amoral. Get something that will make you feel good, instead.
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