Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing
Review: A truly terrifying look into the world of addiction and the lives of addicts. The last 10 minutes of the movie will stay with you for a very, very long time.
Rating: 
Summary: Well....
Review: Ahaha I'm a Christain, I love doing what Jesus would do, but here I find myself wathcing "This..."....Now it may have ALOT of garbage in it...Its NOT garbage. I never myself have seen a movie so....Effective on the effects of substance abuse. Some people may laugh at it, while other may scream and then other may just go "Eh....", but either way I think its a good movie. I *Love* the cinematography and all the things it shows while they're taking drugs&stuff. Its quite interesting. Ellen Burstyn's performance is just amazing. While I hate seeing people degrade themselves to doing roles like this 99.9% of the time, this movie actually serves a purpose, whether we've ALLREADY seen it or not, I DON'T think most of us have seen it to this effect or extent, considering most of us are'nt junkies dependent on drugs or on the brink of insanity. I certainly WOULDn'T let children watch this, but who would? Oh, well I DON'T have kids I'm ONLY 17yrs...hehe But anyways, watch with caution. I skipped all the explicit scenes anyways. But still. I mean there are some rather explicit "things" in here, so do watch with caution. You may hate it or love it or like it or whatever, so DON'T take my word for it, if you wanna see it go ahead. Its your choice not mine, but if you do see it I *HOPE* it can open your eyes in one way or another. It is a masterpiece in its own right. *Enjoy* God Bless ~Amy
Rating:
Summary: The downward spiral
Review: This is not an enjoyable film. But a flawlessly effective one. The charachters are so believable. Especially Ellen Burstyn, who is at the top of her game. Things just keep getting worse for the charachters through the movie, and it's almost unbearable too watch. Jennifer Conelly, Jared Leto, and Marlon Wayans are all dead on perfect in their portrayals of these drifting souls. All they need is a fix...and they'll do whatever they have too to get one. This movie is undoubtedely disturbing, and one the most powerful of the year (that it was made). The amazing thing about the film is that it's not preachy, it's just telling a story. A story where all hope is gone, and the charachters can only dream of a better place.
Rating: 
Summary: Heavy-handed with nothing at all to recommend it
Review: While lonely widow Burstyn goes on a downward spiral to hell after becoming addicted to television and diet pills, her son, along with his friend and girlfriend suffer the same treatment through their addictions to heroine. Starts off with the flimsy hollowness of a sophisticated soap opera, then becomes nothing more than one long, heavy-handed, unwatchable drug trip, focusing more on creating heinously grotesque visuals rather than actually adding any new insight to the topic except "drugs ruin your life". Although this was celebrated by many, some may strike this as being Aronofsky's unforgivable excuse for making a purely ugly, shock-fest. Drug addiction depicted as bombastic and visualistic without creating any sense of true realism. Watch at own risk.
Rating:
Summary: Aronofsky is this generations frank cappa...
Review: or kubrick. he will be the next big thing and soon this over looked gem will be well known. buy this film NOW!!! it is the most extrodinaty peice you will ever see. You will cry for the characters when they lose and really want them to get better, though you know they wont. This film will be the scariest thing you will ever see. It is shocking and moving. all of this is best xemplified by elen byrstun oscar nominated proformance. or closer to possesion. she is horrifying and lovely. she, unlike the others is a good soul. and her loss of it is all the more saddening for that.
if you know anyone who is thinking of doing drugs, developing a drug problem or tring to recover from drug, (or any other) addiction have them watch this movie. There is no way i could even consider doing drugs after watching this film (and reading the book its based on) for some reason the MPAA found thi film to be obseen. it is not. yes there is nudity and a lesbian sex scene. but they arent provocitive, they are horrifying and saddening. this film should be shown to all high schoolers as part of the anti-drug programs. there is no reason for this to not be rated "R" "animal house" or scary movie is MUCH more obseen. but was then damned by the MPAA no. disreagard the MPAA rating and SEE THIS FILM I cant reinforce it enough.
Rating:
Summary: Aronofsky is this generations frank cappa...
Review: or kubrick. he will be the next big thing and soon this over looked gem will be well known. buy this film NOW! it is the most extrodinaty peice you will ever see. You will cry for the characters when they lose and really want them to get better, though you know they wont. This film will be the scariest thing you will ever see. It is shocking and moving. all of this is best exemplified by elen byrstun oscar nominated proformance. or closer to possesion. she is horrifying and lovely. she, unlike the others is a good soul. and her loss of it is all the more saddening for that.
if you know anyone who is thinking of doing drugs, developing a drug problem or tring to recover from drug, (or any other) addiction have them watch this movie. There is no way i could even consider doing drugs after watching this film (and reading the book its based on) for some reason the MPAA found thi film to be obseen. it is not. yes there is nudity and a lesbian sex scene. but they arent provocitive, they are horrifying and saddening. this film should be shown to all high schoolers as part of the anti-drug programs. there is no reason for this to not be rated "R" "animal house" or scary movie is MUCH more obseen. but was then damned by the MPAA no. disreagard the MPAA rating and SEE THIS FILM I cant reinforce it enough.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Film
Review: Indeed it is. One of my favorites of all time. The direction is so..."Wow!" it's not even funny. Darren is moving on up in the industry...very fast. Everybody delievers great performances and the DVD is one of the best. It has all the features you would want, plus some great menus. :)
Rating:
Summary: Incredible film... nevertheless, propaganda
Review: Calling this movie a "mindblowing masterpiece" would be a little bit of an understatement... As has already been stated, this movie is a no-holds barred view of the hellish world of drug addiction, staggeringly portrayed by the 4 main actors, and provocatively and innovatively executed by Arronofsky. After seeing Pi and having my faith in the cinema completely renewed, I couldn't wait to see this film. Suffice it to say, it left me perfectly breathless, touched in that very deep, special way that only certain films can do. . . Yadda yadda yadda. And yet, it's so one-sided, and it's nothing if not propaganda. Any movie is somewhat fictitious, even those that have grounds in true events, but conceptually, this movie only succeeds in further espousing the DARE scare tactics that we've all come to know and love (or loathe, if yr like me), which is basically that all drugs are bad, and anyone who uses them, for whatever reason, is eventually doomed to a life of pain beyond comprehension. *That's* dissapointing, and what's more, it's not real. While on the one hand, I do think this is a must see for anyone considering using hardcore drugs, (because they are dangerous, duh), I also think that it is important to view it within the framework of all the other information that's been written about them, and not get all mushy over this movie's tragedy. Because it is really an awesome film, one just wishes the message were as up to date as it purports to be.
Rating:
Summary: Yeah, yeah...another review to add to the heap...
Review: Like many others, I was amazed by Aronofsky's debut, "Pi", and had heard much about about this highly-revered film before finally checking it out.
We all know the story by now...starting with the characters dabbling in substances with good (naive) intentions, starting to lose control, and finally being pulled down the spiral and losing much more than they initially thought they ever would.
Going into this being the jaded film obsessive I'd like to consider myself, the movie actually did grab me and hold my attention from the start. Most of the camera tricks, although a bit MTV-ish as the director himself alludes to, are really interesting and are in fact grounded within the confines of the storyline. The ritual of ingestion gets very repetitive, but that's the point.
A few things did bother me.. Some of the execution of the story and the camera-work seemed a bit cute... in a way, "Pi" seems to be more developed as far as distinctive atmosphere then RFAD. This is a minor complaint though, because as I said, the plot does keep one's attention. And all traces of cuteness are forgotten as the inescapable consequences of the characters' actions take on more and more gravity. The pacing is very well done. The downward slope goes from slight to sharp very quickly, leading to a frenzied jump-edit climax where everything forms a tornado of despair, and the viewer is left thinking, "Something like this would never happen", but it would, and it does.
As far as emotional resonance with the characters, the most harrowing to watch would more than likely be Sara Goldbaum (as seems to be the almost unanimous opinion). The younger characters at least have some idea of what they're getting themselves into, but Sara starts out so innocent with her foray into pills (with the mindset that the doctor gave them to her..what could the harm be?). She then ends up addicted, with her mind deteriorating until she's only a shell...housing a jumbled mess of disconnected scattered thoughts and perceptions. The others don't end up in positions any better, for the record, and human fallability and frailty has seldom been better documented.
The power this film has is that it causes one to mull over their own decisions and consider whether they've been wise... Life can be beautiful, but it's all too easy to destroy it, no matter how invincible we think we are.
Hopefully we'll all see this before it's too late.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Review: A gret movie that is hard to watch towards the end mainly due to what happens to Jared Leto and his girlfriend. Not for the faint of heart.
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