Rating: 
Summary: Long-awaited and disappointing
Review: ... delayed release of "The Magnificant Ambersons" for a year after its completion, and now we know why.
Perhaps the editors hoped in post production to create what Director Alfonso Arau could not realize on film.With his quirky direction, Arau aimed for the sublime and ended up with something ridiculous. His take on "The Magnificant Ambersons" not only fails to redeem Orson Welles' 1942 vision, it fails on the level of fundamental storytelling. It wasn't the fault of the story.
Boothe Tarkington's novel about the decline of the land-wealthy, prestigious Amberson family in the face of modernization, the Industrial Revolution and growth of the middle class was a grand American tale. It wasn't for lack of money.
The production had a lavish budget. It was shot at an old estate in Ireland and no expense was spared constructing a set that looked like turn-of-the-century Indianapolis. It wasn't the fault of the actors.
The wonderful cast included such talented actors as James Cromwell, Bruce Greenwood, Madeline Stowe and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Arau gave most of them too little to do.
In the role of Major Amberson, a Civil War veteran made good on land speculation, Cromwell should have given us more insight into the actions and past of the Ambersons - how that led to the warped, rigid value system of his grandson, Georgie. Georgie Minafer (Rhys Meyers) is supposed to have charms that buffer his dark tendencies to be bigoted, narrow-minded and incestuous, he acts like a brat with attention defecit disorder, always flailing about.
His character never gets to move beyond one whining, pouting note.
Thus, when circumstances force a change on his part, the change seems wholely implausible. Before its release, star Madeline Stowe bemoaned the production, which probably wasn't the right thing to do. In hindsight, though, I can understand her complaint.
Although her character is meant to charm two men in her life - the lost love of her youth (played by Greenwood) and her son, she seems almost robot-like. Stowe complained that Arau emphasized the incestous tendency between Georgie and his mother, Isabel, but frankly no heat or sparks of that kind were generated. Again, I blame Arau because I have seen Rhys Meyers deliver marvelous performances in "Gormenghast," Ang Lee's "Ride With the Devil" and lesser known Irish gems such as "Michael Collins" and "The Disappearance of Finbar." I recommend you rent one of them...
Rating:
Summary: 4 reasons for watching this:
Review: 1/ You were not sure Orson Welles was a genius, so you need
a comparison with the same basics (his script)
2/ You're allergic to black & white movies
3/ You're more interested in munching pop-corn, and do'nt
want distraction by a more compelling show
4/ You're so much addicted to TV style that you can't stand
any longer quality movies with perfect acting and directing But for those, I can't think of ANY REALLY GOOD reason for this remake
Rating:
Summary: 4 reasons for watching this:
Review: 1/ You were not sure Orson Welles was a genius, so you need
a comparison with the same basics (his script)
2/ You're allergic to black & white movies
3/ You're more interested in munching pop-corn, and do'nt
want distraction by a more compelling show
4/ You're so much addicted to TV style that you can't stand
any longer quality movies with perfect acting and directing But for those, I can't think of ANY REALLY GOOD reason for this remake
Rating: 
Summary: A&E Magnificent Amberons remake
Review: A crashing disappointment. Despite the hype of using Welles' "original screenplay", it is evident that director Arau was determined to avoid any hint of Welles' inspired narrative & cinematography. Result: bland city throughout. At 1/10 the budget, Welles 1942 film achieved ten times the artistry in 88 minutes vs. A&E's nominal four hours.
Rating: 
Summary: WONDERFUL
Review: A very brilliantly acted and sad movie. Jonathon Ryss Meyers does it again! He was excellent in the movie VELVET GOLDMINE and he is also good in this role as well. Jennifer Tilly is also good. Jonathon is a very talented and good looking new actor. I recomend all his films.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been even more "Magnificent"
Review: A&E gives us a delightfully watchable remake of Orson Welles's great film of Booth Tarkington's novel "The Magnificent Ambersons." At first I thought Madeleine Stowe & Jennifer Tilly were too young to portray Georgie's mother & aunt, but when I looked up their birthdates in Katz's film encyclopedia I was surprised that they are both in their 40s -- they've aged well -- so their age is appropriate -- they just look younger. Anyway, I soon got used to them & their portrayals. I still think Tim Holt (in the original 1942 film) did a more subtle job of portraying Georgie's casual snobbishness -- not as aggressively surly as in the remake -- but even that improves near the end. Too bad A&E determined to stick so closely to the original screenplay. They lost the opportunity to take advantage of the lengthier running time by fleshing out the plot , restoring more details from the novel. Anyone who enjoys the original film and/or this remake would enjoy reading the novel -- it's not as old-fashioned or wordy as other novels of its time -- it is a good fast read today and has more characters and subplots than either film. It holds up very well. Most of the dialogue in both films comes virtually word-for-word from the novel. I read the novel after being dazzled by Welles's 1942 film -- as soon as I finished reading, I started right in on reading it a second time. One of the themes in both the novel & the 2 films is snobbery -- so here's a bit of trivia -- it is significant that Georgie's horse is named "Pendennis" -- "Pendennis" is the name of the title character in William Makepeace Thackeray's novel satirizing snobbery. The novel was ahead of its time in dealing with the theme of air pollution from factories & automobile exhaust -- Welles intended to deal with this in his film, but the studio cut almost all of this out. A&E's remake partially restores some of this theme, but more could have been done with this by consulting the novel. Tarkington wrote 3 novels dealing with air pollution & the decline of the quality of life -- he published the 3 novels in one volume under the collective title "Growth" -- "The Magnificent Ambersons" is one of the 3 novels. Now we need a DVD of the 1942 film with all the "bells & whistles" extras. Too bad the studio destroyed Welles's cut footage -- maybe we can hope that some brave studio insider made a copy of it and that it will eventually come to light. One never knows what will turn up in Czech film archives!
Rating:
Summary: A pretty face does not a masterpiece make.
Review: Being a period movie afficionado, I had great hopes for this movie. However, I regret to say...do not waste your money. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers has been excellent in other movies I have seen, but his acting in this is so overblown and forced it is painful to watch, and I am not using this wording frivolously. There were actually a couple of points during the movie where the acting was so pathetic I could not look at the screen...much like pretending to not notice when someone slips on the ice, just to save you both from the embarrassment. Rhys-Meyers' good looks did nothing to take my attention from his terrible performance.
Gretchen Mol's performance was a cardboard cutout version of her character, with a plastic smile plastered over her face during most of the movie. Madeline Stowe's performance was acceptable as Rhys-Meyers' mother, but not up to her usual standards. Jennifer Tilly gave her Aunt Fannie character a valiant try, but she is terribly miscast and could not seem to find it within herself to even produce tears during any of her apoplectic fits.
I am SO disappointed in this movie. Luckily, I rented it before buying it on Amazon and am thankful to have only lost the rental fee instead of purchasing it to sit unwatched on my DVD shelf until it turned to dust. It may have made a decent drink coaster, however...
Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Cast
Review: I found the cast delightfully over the top, and thoroughly enjoyed the mugging and pouts from Jennifer Tilly and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I have never seen Gretchen Mol give an interesting performance, but she manages to hold her own.
I'm sure it's not what Arau intended for his film, but the results are still highly entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: A very powerful movie
Review: I have to admit that I had never watched the original when I saw this version of the movie on TV. I thought this movie was terrific and really showed the depths of the characters emotions. Although I normally don't like depressing movies I loved to watch this movie and see how everything would turn out. I am eagerly awaiting for this movie to come out on DVD to see what special features they will add. Watch this movie if you love good movies. I'm hoping that when the Emmys roll around this year this film will have many nominations.
Rating:
Summary: MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
Review: i saw part of this movie on a and e or some other channel and i wished i could own it and i saw dvd on amazon. I DIDNT SEE WHOLE MOVIE but i got to see it eventually and it is interesting U GOTA ADMIT THAT dont tell me u people wernt watching all the wway through waiting to see what was goin on with that mother and son.- there was somthin wierd goin on between the mom and son. kept me watchin and also u have to admit THE ACTING WAS great. they WERE BELIEVABLE TO ME. MAYBE NOT AS GOOD AS ORSON WELLS BUT COME ON IT WAS GOOD . IT WAS MAGNIFICENT IN MANY WAYS. but it did lack in certain areas its about a 3.5 -
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