Rating: 
Summary: The Meaning of Falling Down
Review: I live in Los Angeles, my car windows don't roll down, I don't have AC, and it's summertime. So I sympathize completely with Michael Douglas at the beginning of the movie. I think the movie parallels the story of People v Goetz in New York, where the white guy opened fire on some black punks who were trying to rob him. It became the flashpoint for a lot of racial tension: conservatives made him into a Charles Bronsonesque hero, while liberals were outraged at Goetz' point-blank execution of some of the teens. The same is true with this movie. This movie IS about the death of the "American Dream," but liberals would argue that this dream is founded on genocide and racism anyways. If you place any stock in this dream, the movie serves to deconstruct it-- people living in racial enclaves at war with one another, the transportation system collapsing, the loss of any common culture or language. There is undoubtedly a conservative streak to the film, and all critics are liberals, who only see difference as a cause for celebration (while these same liberals clump together in Northwest LA in dire fear of the South and East). This movie is just pointing out obvious realities of life in LA. Liberals always whine about stereotypes, but I'd like to see Leonard Maltin walk across South Central in the middle of the night.
Rating: 
Summary: Fell on it's face
Review: What was the point of Falling Down? If you can answer that question, you win the jackpot. OK, so Michael Douglas's character had a meltdown and is supposedly sticking up for the rights of the consumer. To think someone could go through L.A shooting up fast food restaurants and scaring away gang members twice your size with a bat just doesn't make any sense. I don't care if it is Hollywood. You still have to make logical sense. There were way to many coincidences. Things just did not add up at certain parts in the movie. The acting was good, but of course, what do you expect from Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall? I thought the background music was terrific though. It contributed to the movie in appropriate ways, and I think it is what kept this movie from sticking to the fan. Overall, Falling Down is a huge disappointment that has really no point to it. 2 Stars
Rating:
Summary: The REAL Minorities
Review: Tough tough tough to watch.Most employed white Americans are the new minorities in the good ol'USA.Most will relate to Foster in which how precarious life/work can be.No affirmative action,no racial discrimination lawsuits ,no sexual discrimination lawsuits.Just a displaced,white professional downsized and out of luck.Don't watch this if you were recently fired or divorced! Los Angeles never looked worse.Hot,crowded,dirty,perverted.I needed a vacation after watching this film.The lesson..Keep life simple.
Rating: 
Summary: A great, underappreciated film.
Review: When this movie was first released on the big screen, I read many reviews by professional reviewers that blasted it for its racial stereotypes and overall negativity. I had to go see what all the fuss was about, and I am so glad I did. I left the theater thinking this was one of the best movies I had ever seen, and my opinion has not changed to this day. First off, the movie would not work without the stereotypes. They are essential to our view on how Michael Douglas' character sees the world he lives in. The movie is violent, negative, and very sad, but that atmosphere is offset by a sense of humor that is worked in brilliantly. I got the impression that the writer and director did not compromise their message in any way, and thus I am surprised that this film actually got made in these days of political correctness. Bottom-line: This movie is not about politics or race or good vs. evil. It is simply the tragic story about one typical man and his inevitable fall into obscurity. I think we can all relate to his sadness more than we admit.
Rating:
Summary: The model satire movie
Review: The dictionary defines a community as a group of people having common interests. Well, if you look around you do you see anyone sharing common interests? Heck no. When I look around I just see a bunch of multi-cultural "subjects" paying taxes to the government. Like the lyrics of a certain MDFMK song describe, "WE ONLY BUY INTO WHAT WE CAN SELL." If your not economically viable then, well... I guess your obsolete. So much for living in a real "community". We're all a bunch of slaves if you ask me. Liberty is just the right to do what the law permits. Of course we're free to pick which cancer-ridden cheeseburger to eat, which car to buy, which house to mortgage, and which plot of land to lease until we die (by the way, who gave the U.S. government permission to sell the land in the first place?). Even after you die the government still owns you-- by law you have to be taken to the morgue, your cold, dead body has to be photographed by some sort of inspector, basically they own you; and then they plop you down into some shallow grave, which also costs money-- heaven knows a person can't be burried unless their in an official cemetary plot. I think that I'll go out into the woods when I'm ready to die and just let the animals eat me or something-- better than having Big Brother catalog me on a piece of paper and then burry me in one of their private-corporation grave yards, yep cemetaries are buisnesses too, they have to make a profit. What's the going rate for a casket these days? Probably triple digits. Give me a break. Western society is so bent on money. Anyway, this movie is awesome, it's one of my all-time favorites.
Rating:
Summary: A great movie for some.
Review: Ok, I admit... I have a sick sense of humor. But at points I found this movie down right hysterical. It features the last person you'd ever expect to snap, an everyday white-collared business man, just go on a rampage whether with a baseball bat, hand guns, a shot gun, or even a bazooka. If you get a kick outta things that are sorta sick, you'd like this.
Rating:
Summary: micheal douglas flipping out! who does not want to see that?
Review: I do not usually give a movie five stars but this is an exception.This movie is very different in its time,but now I think its found its right audience.It is just such a great movie.It is even sometimes hilarious like the part in the fast-food place.This movie hits all the right elements to make it funny and sometimes downright serious.See it with a friend.
Rating:
Summary: Most engaging film Schumacher's done
Review: Movie Critics are morons. All of these characters ARE stereotypes, as are the characters in 85% of Hollywood's movies today. Panning this movie for it's blatent use of these cliched people kind of misses 'the point' they were looking for. People are ugly, racist, and selfish. This man (with serious emotional problems) takes a look around his world (downtown LA) and slowly begins breaking down. How many of us can identify with the idea of the American Dream gone wrong? Being menaced by a gang? Being lied to by advertising? 'they lie to everybody'. Micheal Douglas portrayal of a Joe Blow gone bad is mesmerizing. Unlike 'Payback', I actually found myself rooting for the 'bad guy'. What Douglas does is ugly, what we all see everyday is ugly. Robert Duvall (as mentioned before) is rock solid. The DVD's main benefit is crystal clear audio and video. It features scene selection and the trailer. Had it included a few extras (Like a MD or RD commentary track, I'd rate it a 5). This movie is about the 'average man' in a cruddy world who can't take it anymore. He could have been someone you worked with, or saw when you're getting off the bus, or waitied in line behind. And THAT was the point of this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Too sad
Review: I think around this period there were quite a few movies to which I would have appended this kind of note. Oddly enough, I can't recall too many in great detail, except to say that in viewing this and the other films, you are given an unpleasant sort of choice. Either you get very empathetic with the characters, or (in this case that choice is very painful) just ride through as a spectator- like the whole thing is just for the popcorn. Seeing as I tend to either fall asleep during movies or grip the sides of the seat, I found this movie just a bit too much. What is being told is a story with no possible happy ending. Douglas's character has simply fallen down and cannot, either in this life or the next get up. This is brilliantly depicted. While other people have mentioned this, I feel that the existence of stereotypes in the film isn't too relevant, as while you might imagine their inclusion to be evidence of weakness from the point of view of direction or scripting, in a sense we are viewing the stereotypes from the vignetted point of view of the central character, who naturally has lost the ability to see things outside the scope of tragedy. This movie essentially is a documentary of one man's damnation, and this is far too sad a subject to bring laughter or anything else. The awful reality of his little girls birthday being at the same day as his eventualy breakdown is almost too much to bear. Almost too much at any place in the world. One would hope that that fact as depicted is the strongest occurence of faux reality. The juxtaposition of an exhausted psyche and death is not actually too distressing, in the absence of genuine loss (in the atmosphere of the vapid action movies in the same period) but what is much worse is the coexistence with the promise of light and joy and innocence and infinite loss. This is the cruelest aspect of this very sad film. I do think that some people here might have been moved with compassion - somewhat - by it. I do hope that could have happened. Therefore it might have some real value.
Rating:
Summary: excelent
Review: falling down's script and direction are both laking, but i loved it anyway. to me its a story of what would happen if i had no self control. i recomed it to anyone who wants to break out and kick some booty.
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