Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding acting
Review: Don't get hung up on the content of this movie. It is dark and somewhat depressing, but you will never see better acting. Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey are simply amazing. The whole cast is very good. Hurly Burly is worth seeing just to see Penn and Spacey in their prime. These two actors are superb in this movie. The dialogue is terrific, but you must pay close attention to fully appreciate it. At times, the movie is very amusing. At times, the characters are cruel, crude, disgusting, unlikeble and ultimately pathetic. But the dialogue and the acting are always, always brilliant. If you want to truly appreciate this movie, don't set yourself up judge the characters. You are not meant to 'like' them, and you won't. But, wow! To see Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey at their very finest is an experience you should not miss.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun yet disturbing.
Review: I was surprised I hadn't heard of this film before, considering the box-office draw of the actors involved. I then realized after putting it on that it was more of a 'vanity' picture. A literary book rather than a 'blockbuster' novel. It's taken from a play, is of course very theatrical and allows the actors involved to flex a bit more of their acting muscle than they would have been given in a conventional Hollywood movie. It's a very masculine play and is quite satirical on the nature of men's emotional inadequeces. Whether they be childish emotions (Sean Penn, Chazz Palminteri) or just plainly non-emotional (Kevin Spacey, Garry Shandling). It also makes no disguise of the characters' blatent mysoginy, exploring the darker side of the male psyche with comedic results. The fast-paced, intelligent dialogue makes it a pleasant change from the usual mid-west subject matter. I started to feel slightly relieved when I thought that this mightn't be an exploration of men's psychological make-up, but rather a satire on Hollywood movie executives. However concern started creeping back in when I realized these could be some of the brains behind what we consume on TV and at the movies.
Rating: 
Summary: One can only wonder who gets it?
Review: Who gets it? All the critics who raved and gave this movie a 5? Or the rest of the world who gives it a 1? I mean, I could see certain people giving it a 3 for the acting...I have to disagree with those who say it's boring, though. It's not so much "boring" and "pointless" and "pretentious." You can watch it in short doses, just like you can watch a train wreck, but you catch on really quick that none of the characters have any redeeming qualities and they are headed very slowly to nowhere. If that's what you like in a movie, this is your movie.
Rating:
Summary: One word... WOW!!!
Review: I stumbled across this movie "by accident", flipping through the channels like many young Americans, and somehow I stopped dead in my tracks when I got to Hurlyburly. I was attracted to the movie initially by the top-notch actors, but after viewing it from start to finish at that one sitting, I found myself wanting to see it over and over again. Sean Penn takes his "bad boy" reputation to another level in this well written screen adaptation of the play of the same name. He is so beleivable as Eddie that one might think he isn't even acting at all! That is when you realize you are truly watching one of the best actors in the business. Kevin Spacey, what can you say? He is just as impressive as ever in his role as the cynical Mickey, truly showing his great range and talent as an actor. Chazz Palminteri and Garry Shandling are also stunning in their respective roles as Phil and Artie. Cameos from Meg Ryan, Anna Paquin, and Robin Wright Penn help round out one of the absolute best acting lineups I have seen in a long, long time. One of the true triumphs of the movie is the excellence to which it is written. The dialogue can be vulgar and lewd at times, but it remains poetic while doing so. The fact is that the world we find ourselves watching is in fact vulgar and lewd, out of control and senseless, but when you step back for a birds eye view, what you find yourself watching is a spin off of today's society. The dialogue, though drug induced in the film, speaks loud and clear to the viewer and watching these characters live their somewhat failed lives while analyzing every bit of it in an eloquent way is ironic, but breathtaking. There is no "middle ground" with this movie, however. You will know right away whether you are going to love it or hate it, but all serious movie fans and fans of true acting in general, owe it to themselves to at least give this picture a chance.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful
Review: What you must know going into this movie is that you will not be passive about it. You will either love this movie or you will hate it. Many people say it drags on, lacks plot, etc, but I completely disagree. It is a movie about modernism, post modernism, post post modernism, all those absurdities of modern artists, especially existentialism. This is a movie about the next lost generation, people living in a world with no comfort for those who find it goes by too fast for them to find anything to feel passionate about. These people are searching for something, anything, to crave, and we as the viewers simply are introduced to a splice of their thoughts, hopes, dreams, etc. Anna Paquin is amazing in one of her first starring roles since The Piano; her progress as an actress is nothing short of spectacular. Meg Ryan finally sheds her ever-present cuteness and dares to take a role completely unlike any of her others, and does it impeccably. The chemistry between Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn is gripping as always, as they slip into new, absurdly off-center roles. Kevin Spacey is stunning. I love that this movie was created by many of the actors in it, I love the intelligence and creativity they gave it. This is one of my favorite movies, but it is clearly not for everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: "I can not stand this semantic insanity anymore!"
Review: I like to find one quote from a movie to use as the header in my reviews - something that is hopefully interesting and perhaps funny, and indicates my feeling toward the movie. The quote is from Darlene (played by Robin Wright Penn) in response to boyfriend Eddie's (Sean Penn) argument about why she can not like Chinese and French restaurants equally. In most scenes, coke-head Eddie's anger comes from nowhere, but he must try to make it sound as if he's talking about something. Long speeches and big words do not necessarily make a point. Although his room-mate, Mickey, played by Kevin Spacey dishes out speeches as well, it is less overwhelming and makes a little more sense. Perhaps it is because he does not do nearly as much drugs as Sean Penn's character. Another role played by Chazz Palminteri was offensive. It had one note to it, which was to yell, then yell some more, then get physically abusive with women. Anna Paquin's appearance as a street urchin passed off by Artie, played by Garry Shandling, was interesting and not her normal type of character. The acting was pretty good. The point, plot, and characters were not. One interesting scene was a conversation that was started face-to-face, then continued at different locations via cell-phones over the course of the day. DVD sound and picture were good. Has 2 OK commentaries. As Eddie said on more than one occasion..."blah, blah, blah."
Rating:
Summary: Hurlyburly
Review: Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary: Hurly-Burly (1539) Uproar, Tumult William Shakespeare in "Macbeth"(1606) uses the phrase in the only other place I have seen it used. First Witch: 'When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?' Second Witch: 'When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.' act I, sc. i, l.1
Rating:
Summary: A chore to watch
Review: This is a movie with a minimal plot and a lot of dialogue--basically, people discussing their lives and relationships and why human beings behave the way they do. Ordinarily, that's my favorite kind of movie, but it doesn't work with Hurlyburly. The dialogue is insipid and boneheaded, not deep in ANY way. Furthermore, the main characters, every single one of them, are impossible to like. They're just a horrible bunch of people, and there's no way to sympathize with them. When one of them died, I was happy, and I don't think that's the reaction the filmmakers were looking for! The film is also misogynist--every female character gets hit, beaten, thrown from a moving car, or screamed at for saying she likes a French restaurant and a Chinese restaurant equally well. (This infuriates Sean Penn, who feels that the restaurants are so different it's impossible to like them both the same. Ooh, Sean, you're so deep!) This movie is a chore to watch. I almost turned it off after 30 minutes, but I wanted to see the revelation the video case promised for Penn's character. Needless to say, by the end I hated all the characters too much to care. Watch this if you must, but don't say you weren't warned.
Rating:
Summary: A Pretentious Boring Mess
Review: This is the kind of movie that is best forgotten. The dialogue is reminiscent of coffee shop diatribes by overstimulated upper middle class misanthropes. Avoid this movie! Back away from this movie! No No No!
Rating:
Summary: Challenging and rewarding
Review: pHurlyburly is a word which means "confusion or tumult." It is an apt title for this movie, which details the confusion often caused by some people's search for a life with true meaning. The questions here are numerous, but for both the main characters and the audience, the answers are very few. What we do see are the ways in which the characters deal with the mystery that is life. Sean Penn play Eddie, whose house in the Hollywood Hills is the film's main location. His best friend Mickey [Kevin Spacey] has moved in with him because his marriage is on the rocks. The two are executives in the movie business. They are a case of opposites attracting. Mickey is low-keyed and never, ever ruffled. He has a basically content, though somewhat cynical, view of life. Eddie is an excitable guy who lives on the edge. Mickey may be the only sane friend he has. I should say here that one of the elements in Hurlyburly that put many people off is that Eddie is a drug addict. Except for a short period with a new girl friend, he seems to be high all his waking hours. Thus, some viewers felt that his quest to find out whether he had a place in the universal order of things [assuming there IS an order] was absurd. It isn't politically correct these days, but while I do not advocate drug use, I do think many of the people who turn to them are already very confused. To them, drugs are a logical but very dangerous tool. Substance abuse may also be an attempt to soothe an already tortured soul. A person's using drugs is not a sufficient reason to write off what they think or feels. Phil [Chazz Palminteri] is another of Eddie's friends. Phil is an obvious psychotic. His problems include heavy paranoia and a complete fear and loathing of women. He is prone to violence as well. Yet Eddie senses a goodness in the chaos that is Phil. He also relates to Phil's search for some sense to life. While the other characters mock working-class Phil, Eddie sees his innate intelligence. He also recognizes a fellow traveler in the hurlyburly of life. A movie such as this is often not a viewer's dream, but it is always an actor's dream. Here, an especially strong and well-known cast gets to strut its stuff in ways impossible in a commercial picture. Sean Penn, who once planned to quit acting, shows again that he is one of our finest talents. He becomes Eddie. Kevin Spacey's abilities are well know. Chazz Palminteri is dazzling as Phil. Playing a young street person, Anna Paquin puts another notch in her resume. Robin Penn Wright is commanding in the film's least flashy role. For the first time since 1993's Flesh and Bone, Meg Ryan gets to remind us that she can be far more than a romantic lead. The one thing that I had difficulty with was the male characters' views on women. To a man, they seemed to relate to women only as sex objects. There are such groups of guys, of course, but I found myself getting increasingly uncomfortable with this point of view. It seemed to take away from the script's higher aspirations. If they were unwilling to try to understand women, how could these men ever understand the cosmos? Hurlyburly is a difficult and intelligent movie. Still, it is far more accessible than, say, the same years's Eyes Wide Shut, which left even this seasoned moviegoer with a blank look and a blinding headache. It should prove to be a treat to those who enjoy challenging dialog and impeccable acting.
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