American Beauty - 2/10 - What is so brilliant about this piece of shit? The cast of phony caricatures? The silted sitcom dialogue masquerading as wit? Symbolism as subtle as an H-bomb? Satire and analysis of suburban America so cutting edge it felt dated in Rebel Without a Cause? The idea that we'll find an irresponsible, obnoxious would-be pederast's journey into self-indulgence enlightening or sympathetic? The goddamned plastic bag? Someone enlighten me. Or rather, don't.
I watched this on VHS ten years ago, and found it excruciating to sit through. All I remember about it now is the disgusting middle-aged man had a crush on this skinny 17-year old girl. And then they torture us further and almost make me vomit by showing her top, which is flatter than a table.
But didn't you get the deep, subtle commentary about the neuroses, emasculation and displacement of the modern American man? Or maybe, like me, you were so bored it didn't register.
As I don't care for a film's message I was entertained enough by American Beauty to give it a proper 7/10. Maybe even a 8Looking forward to Mendes' James Blonde flic. After the beautiful Quantum of Brilliance there is probably a new age of James Bomb quality films dawning.
So are you saying it some sort of combination of the two James Mason movies, Lolita and Bigger Than Life? Anyway, I don't think you have the right to judge such a great movie until you have seen it at least 10 times, pausing for frame-by-frame analysis; listened to the score separately on at least 6 occasions; and read the books by Madison, Smith, Jackson, and Thomas, the experts in all things Sam Mendes and Kevin Spacey. They even know more about the meaning behind Mendes's movies than Mendes himself does. So lemme see: The great cinematic masters Mendes and Spacey make a highly regarded movie at the peak of their prowess. Now some little kid named Groggy comes along and thinks he found something wrong with it, after having only seen the movie once. Don't take this the wrong way, Groggy, -- because there are of course many other ways to take it -- but U R A MORAN
Well it didn't entertain me, that was the problem. If the movie wasn't sleep-inducing on top of everything else I might have been more generous.
" curious Alice " ( 1968 ) You know you're in trouble when the U.S. Department of Health produces a movie that ends up being distributed by Something Weird Video forty-years after it was made. This is a take-off on Alice in Wonderland as a young girl (named Alice of course) starts to get curious about the various "bad" things in her mommy's cabinets. Soon this curiosity leads her to Wonderland where she sees a wide range of... creatures doing bad drugs. If you want a serious take on drug abuse then it's best you don't show this thing to your kids because after viewing it I'd say that the majority of people will be wanting to light up a joint. This isn't a smart or intelligent look at drug abuse and in all reality it really seems as if someone made it to drop some acid to. The animation is actually very nice looking in its own right and the way it tries to create various hallucinations was very effective and I'd say this here is something that will appeal to those who like to watch certain items while out of their minds. At 11-minutes the thing certainly drags in spots but there's enough going on here to watch it once if you enjoy seeing this anti-drug movies that usually go against their own cause. ;~0TCM 5:45 / E.S.T. / 4 / 28 / 12or you can watch the damn thing right here 11:59 ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=833Qe7AmKo4at 7:55 it's richard belzer ? this movie will drive you to drinking