Rating: 
Summary: Paul Thomas Anderson, a new genius for the industry
Review: This movie deals about some aspects of the life of ten people. At first, they have nothing in common. However, each person has a story behind and a different way of seeing the world. They all have made mistakes in their life, as you will see. Some want to be forgiven, others need a helping hand and there are some who just leave themselves to chance. Everyone has a conflict.
Tom Cruise shines in the excellent portrayal of a tough guy who teaches in the "Seduce and Destroy" meeting how to tame women, but he will have problems which have something to do with his family. Here it is his father (Jason Robards), dying of cancer, who has a nurse looking after him, and a sorrowful wife (Julianne Moore). On the other hand, we have a man introducing a quiz show on TV. He also has cancer, and his relationship with his daughter is no good because he touched her badly when she was a child. Now she takes drugs all the time and is miserable, but one day a police officer will come to her apartment because she listens to music with a high volume level. He falls in love with her at first sight and he will ask her for a date after having a long conversation. Another man (William H. Macy) will meet this police officer. He is obsessed with getting braces, but has little money and is in love with a guy, a bartender who doesn't care. Finally, there is a little and so smart child that goes to the quiz show, but he disappoints his father because he pissed his pants and doesn't dare to go to the "one on one" test in which he has to leave the table.
The movie develops everyone's personality and it lasts three hours, but it's worth watching it at once and again, and again, because you feel so carried away by all the stories that you suddenly feel like one of them. This movie has an important moral teaching, I think, and I'm still trying to understand the meaning of the frogs raining from the sky. Besides, Paul Thomas Anderson's work is really good, because of the way he links one story with another, and the technical camera movements to make it possible, and its soundtrack. The soundtrack of the movie is really good, above all, I liked a lot the Aimee Mann's songs. They bring you near all these lives. I love the scene in which all of them sing a song of her at the same time. For all this, I highly recommend this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: It left me stunned. just BEAUTIFUL
Review: This is what movie making is all about. A story that reaches into the human sould and reveals all of the dirt and all the beauty. It is human and that is probably the best term that I can use to describe this epic story. One way that you can tell how good a movie is the response that it generates. And everyone that I have talked to that has seen this movie either completly loves it or hates it. Well I loved it and I will tell you why. It was real. And I don't mean the coincidences or the frogs, but the people. The way that they had been affected by the traumas of the past and the various ways that they became victims of those traumas by trying ti sooth them. It is a classic case of Mythology and Psycology intertwined to give the viewer an deeper look into what it is like to suffer and that the only way to move past our past is to recognize why we do what we do and then let go and move on. It is what we are and it shows what we can be. Once again BEAUTIFUL
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, drawn out movie
Review: The actors were good but I thought the movie could have used a lot of editing. Lots of dead space thru-out the movie. if you like dramas, this one is for you as there is drama and a little humor thru-out. Overall, I felt this movie dragged on and they could have the point across in less time and better editing.
Rating:
Summary: not 1, just anonymous
Review: I was profoundly moved by this film. My father died of cancer at home. I stayed up with him the night before he died - spelling my Mom and brother who were exhausted by caring for him in his final weeks. "Magnolia" has a little sex at the beginning, and vulgar language throughout, but it is a realistic and meaningful look at living and dying. It deals directly with the desires that drive us, the choices we make to satisfy them, and the consequences of our actions. It's the best movie I have ever seen.
Rating:
Summary: you should really see this movie.
Review: yes, it's long. yes, it's an ensemble drama about chance. but the one reason (one of the many, but the the most amusing) is that tom cruise is an absolutely ABHORRENT actor.... everywhere else but in this film. the fact is that you must see this film simply to see tom cruise act and act WELL. this is not, and I stress NOT, the only reason to see this film. I was introduced to one of my favourite actors via this movie: William H. Macy, who is amazing in such movies as "Panic" and "Focus." But I cannot in any words sum up how good this movie is - it's more of an experience than anything, something you just sit through until the end..where it all just hits you and sit back, breathing heavily for a moment, saying "Wow." over and over while shaking your head.
Rating: 
Summary: The LAW is the law...
Review: A great cast and a VERY interesting premise is squandered in angry,nihilistic displays Director Anderson fails,in my estimate, to pull-off. PREMISE: There is Cosmic Order.It is intelligible, worthy of respect and obedience. The film explores defiance of Cosmic Order (LOGOS) at mundane, existential levels.But in the climax--after incest; drug addiction; child-abuse; homosexuality and psycho-sado/masochism are granted Dark Night of the Soul-less epiphanies--FROGS,like the Great Biblical Plague, fall from the sky... Why not? Kafka's Gregor Samsa "metamorphosed" into a cockroach. Dostoyevsky's UNDERGROUND MEN rage. Kate Chopin's women snap, crackle and pop.I mention these works because MAGNOLIA while characterizing devastating effects of rebellion against "the human, all too human" condition, suggests little ameliorating alternative beyond self-pity.Children need love as children...not abortion every 23 seconds for the past 23 years.Marriage requires sacred regard. Homosexuality/incest are fundamentally destructive behaviors which rupture societies cossetting them. Director Paul Anderson has confronted DECONSTRUCTION's defiance. I berate the film not because it is meaningingless, but because it lacks courage to affirm the singular belief system...Judaeo-Christian Logos in the West...that might heal a civilization reveling in demise. (I don't accept the "climactic", self-consciously patronizing moment where the narrator...neurotically feckless but decent police officer played by John C.Reilly...forgives a fellow neurotic...as sufficient.) LAW is Law. MAGNOLIA broke its own ground rules by insistently failing to call sin, SIN so redemptive Grace-- forgiveness-- might issue from the DIVINE source. JUDGMENT: Get ready for FROGS!
Rating:
Summary: The best screenwriter of this generation
Review: Despite the fact that his next film supposedly stars Adam Sandler, Anderson is also probably one of this best filmmakers in this generation, too.
Rating: 
Summary: Huh?
Review: Let me just say this movie was completely engaging, interesting and thought provoking, right up until it started raining frogs. Huh? I love how writers sometimes throw something into a story which is completely absurd and irrelevent and then try to pass it off as some kind of artsy smartsy thing. I thought and thought for some connection or metaphor that the frogs could represent. Did I miss something? What so brilliant about raining frogs? I could think of that. All in all, some nice performances, interesting stories and characters which no doubt some people could relate to, but it all crashed and burned with that ending.
Rating:
Summary: Tears, rage and redemption
Review: Only one word describes Magnolia - Superb! It should be nominated in every category , and won, in the Oscars. Instead, the more palatable American Beauty got all the attention. I love Magnolia. This was the last masterpiece of the 20th century. What a fantastic director that P T Anderson was able to transform Tom Cruise into a real fine actor. As for Julianne Moore, she's breathtaking. Watch this alongside Robert Altman's Nashville. You have no idea what you're missing unless you've seen them both. I can't wait to see Anderson's next film.
Rating:
Summary: MAGNOLIA !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: What the hell was that movie about?
What was the story? Why do I care about any of the characters? The only guy I liked was Tom Cruis
I'm still trying to figure out what the story was, not what it was about (which is nothing), but what it was. Why should I expend all my energy to figure this out? No disrespect to those who really liked this movie, but are you sure you're not just trying to be weird?
|
