Pay It Forward

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing movie
Review: I like the idea behind the story, but I didn't find the movie to be very convincing. The first problem I have with this movie was with Osment's acting. I am aware of his rising fame as a child actor, but the director of this movie apparently didn't know how to get anything out of him. There was one scene where he was arguing with his mother (Helen Hunt), in which his emotions were blatantly fake. After he would recite his line, his face would change as if he were telling himself, "I did it!" He may be somewhat inexperienced, but the director should have spotted the poor quality of these scenes. The second problem I have with this movie has been pointed out by other reviewers: the ending is cheap. It damages the story, and it was done in a very phony way. (I don't want to say more for fear of spoiling.) Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt did very well in this movie. Haley Joel Osment only did okay, but I blame the director for not finding and fixing Osment's mistakes. I also blame the director for ruining the end of the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Huh?
Review: Ok, so why in the Hell would this movie have to end like that? It's such a ripoff. It doesn't even provide the emotional impact the director intended, it just leaves a person thinking, "What was the point of that?" It has NO RELEVANCE to the message of this movie at all. I know this movie was supposed to be sappy and heartfelt and one of those flood-the-theater-with-tears movies. But the ending absolutely kills (no pun intended) the message of the movie, because it makes the viewer forget everything that's happened in the past two hours. It instead makes them think about the ending, and how crappy it is, and how bad the movie is because of it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent... with a beautiful idea!
Review: If only we were all "paying it forward," this world would truly be Utopia. This is a wonderfully warm film, with an intriguing and ingenius idea of spreading good. The thought that some of these truly down and out characters would take the "pay it forward" theory so seriously, is another warm thought. This is an excellent film, and I would have given it five stars, except for the let-down ending. Others may feel the ending gave the film that extra bit of emotion and feeling, but it was a disappointment to me. Nevertheless, I dare anyone that watches this film to start their own "pay it foward" program.... maybe make it a family effort. If nothing else, this film is making me think what I can do, whether small or large, for others - without getting anything in return - except maybe a good feeling. I hope this movie moves you the same way it moved me.

Rating:
Summary: The Ending
Review: ...I guess I have my own feelings about the irony in the films end. There is symbolism there, it shows how no matter how good people can be, they choose not to be. It isn't just this story, its real life too. Which I find intriguing.

So sure, it made me cry and of course it was really overly dramatic. But I, personally, found nothing wrong with the ending.

Rating:
Summary: A Sweet film with a bad ending
Review: I loved Pay it Forward through out. The performances by Haley Joel Osment and Helen Hunt as son and mother are strong. Kevin Spacey is great as well a scarred teacher who Osment fixs up with his mom.

Pay it Forward has a nice peace on earth storyline through out and is just a nice movie, until....it hits the end where it throws a very unneeded sob ending at you. The end is still sort of sweet in a way I guess but it just doesn't belong. If it wasn't for that I would of easly called it one of the best films of 2001.

Rating:
Summary: How to make the world a better place!
Review: This movie, Pay It Forward, portrays an excellent way for all peoples both young and old to work together to make the world a better place in which to live. Young superstar, Haley Joel Osment gives an outstanding performance in the role of a student,Trevor McKenney, that takes a school assignment, to come up with a way to make the world a better place in which to live, and turns it into a national phenomenon. Keven Spacey as Eugene Simonet, Trevors teacher, and Helen Hunt as Arlene McKenney, Trevors Mother both handled their roles to perfection. This is a movie that is well worth seeing. It will warm your hearts, and leave you in tears, as it did me and my family.

Rating:
Summary: How would *you* change the world?
Review: I really enjoyed this movie for a number of reasons. First, it has a number of actors I adore. Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment, and Helen Hunt, in order of adoration. Second, it is (in part) about a teacher who makes a difference. I'm very much into teachers who make differences movies. Finally, the "pay it foward" concept has always been a favorite of mine. It immediately resonated with me when I first read it in print in the works of Spider Robinson, and I was thrilled that a movie was being made revolving around this concept. (Yes, I know about the book, but I haven't read it yet. But the concept remains the same.)

For those who abhor obviously, unapologetically sentimental movies, this is probably one for you to avoid. But for those who don't mind having the heartstrings tugged upon, this story has a number of promising elements.

Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) is an obviously physically (and almost as obviously emotionally) scarred intermediate school teacher who forces his students to think and to observe the world around them. As a year-long project, Simonet tells his class that they much each come up with a project that will change the world. At first they disbelieve, but are soon caught up in the idea. One student, Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment), comes up with an idea that is stunning in its simplicity. How much better of a place could the world be if you did a profoundly important favor for three different people, and instead of accepting repayment, you tell the person to pay it forward, to do their own set of three profoundly important favors?

This movie follows Trev's attempts at carrying out his own idea, which he does without explaining the project to his mother, Arlene (Helen Hunt). This leads to any number of stressful situations, as does Arlene's battle with alcoholism and family tensions involving Trev's father.

I found the chronology of parts of the story (mostly those involving the reporter as he traces Trev) to be rather confusing, and actually watched it a second time to work it all out. The confusion probably came from my rather inattentive movie-watching style and not through any inherent flaw in the movie, however.

I enjoyed this movie a great deal, and recommend it, with the caveats included above.

Rating:
Summary: I See Dead People....
Review: ....what the..? Did I see the same movie everyone else did? The pay if forward scheme was about the only thing that made this a lil more than a made for tv movie. All the majors--Spacey, Hunt, Ozment--was sleepwalking thru thier respective roles. Angie Dickerson in homeless drag showed some acting chops that most of us were not aware of, but how many times have we seen the single mother and kid scenario with said kid trying to hook moms up with
"this guy I'd think will make a great dad"? C'mon. For your entertainment buck, Hollywood can do better. Interesting for a few moments but then it dries up into predictability.

Rating:
Summary: okay film,horrible ending
Review: This movie is not as bad as people say it is in fact its kind of good but would of been better if not for a bad ending.This is how it ends these kids are beating up another kid and then trevor played by haley joel osment tries to help and gets stabbed in the liver and dies.So take a look at this one and just rent it.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good.
Review: I must say, the "plot" of this movie was pretty good but I had this... uncomfortable feeling while watching it. I knew that something bad was going to happen and I was right. But I won't give it away. Overall, it was a pretty good movie but after you see it once, leave it at that. Don't watch it again. I watched it for the second time with my cousin and I realized I shouldn't have done that. It's a terrible movie when you know what's going to happen. So only watch it once and you've got yourself a pretty enjoyable movie.