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After winning five Oscars, I was intrigued to see American Beauty.
I had managed to get a hold of the VHS from my parents bedroom, I knew that I would have to return it before they got back.
It was hard for me to recover from such a masterpiece overflowing with brains and beauty.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) finds rebirth after his daughter's jailbait buddy Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) zings his long-buried sexual antennae. Immediately, he starts pumping iron, develops a range of taking-no-more-c**p retorts and drops out of his dronehead job to flip burgers at a local drive-through.
Alongisde his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening)'s more direct self-destruction and his estranged daughter Jane (Thora Birch)'s own sexual awakening.
The story is plain and simple, but Ball's script is one of the most intelligent, engaging pieces of scripting I have seen for an extremely long amount of time. The performances are all perfect, Spacey and Bening got lots of credit, which they deserve, their performances wwere strong and powerful, but my personal favourite performance came from Thora Birch. She pulled off a stunning and real performance as the uniquely beautiful daughter Jane.
This movie is so brilliant, that, if you haven't actually seen it, you should be shot. American Beauty, easily the best film of the past decade, secures a place on my top 5 films of all time.
What a film, and now I have to return it before 'they' return!
I had managed to get a hold of the VHS from my parents bedroom, I knew that I would have to return it before they got back.
It was hard for me to recover from such a masterpiece overflowing with brains and beauty.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) finds rebirth after his daughter's jailbait buddy Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) zings his long-buried sexual antennae. Immediately, he starts pumping iron, develops a range of taking-no-more-c**p retorts and drops out of his dronehead job to flip burgers at a local drive-through.
Alongisde his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening)'s more direct self-destruction and his estranged daughter Jane (Thora Birch)'s own sexual awakening.
The story is plain and simple, but Ball's script is one of the most intelligent, engaging pieces of scripting I have seen for an extremely long amount of time. The performances are all perfect, Spacey and Bening got lots of credit, which they deserve, their performances wwere strong and powerful, but my personal favourite performance came from Thora Birch. She pulled off a stunning and real performance as the uniquely beautiful daughter Jane.
This movie is so brilliant, that, if you haven't actually seen it, you should be shot. American Beauty, easily the best film of the past decade, secures a place on my top 5 films of all time.
What a film, and now I have to return it before 'they' return!
Dupin wrote:
The first thing that
> strikes me about this message is that the author fails to provide,
> or even suggest what he disliked about the film.
The phrase "I fail to see anything laudable about this film whatsoever" was used to indicate that all aspects of this film were of little or no value to me, from the plot to characters, dialogue and so on. Isn't that much easier? I don't judge a film by the quality of it's acting because when I watch a film I find it much more enjoyable to not think of them as actors at all.
By the way, in case you didn't know, the word 'laudable' means 'worthy of praise'. Something which American Beauty certainly isn't.
The first thing that
> strikes me about this message is that the author fails to provide,
> or even suggest what he disliked about the film.
The phrase "I fail to see anything laudable about this film whatsoever" was used to indicate that all aspects of this film were of little or no value to me, from the plot to characters, dialogue and so on. Isn't that much easier? I don't judge a film by the quality of it's acting because when I watch a film I find it much more enjoyable to not think of them as actors at all.
By the way, in case you didn't know, the word 'laudable' means 'worthy of praise'. Something which American Beauty certainly isn't.
SmokedKipper wrote:
> er-no wrote:
> This movie is so brilliant, that, if you
> haven't actually
> seen it, you should be shot. American Beauty,
> easily the best film
> of the past decade, secures a place on my
> top 5 films of all
> time.
Strange. All through the film I
> was wishing someone would shoot me. I fail to see anything laudable
> about this film whatsoever and it certainly didn't even deserve any
> Oscar nominations, let alone actually win any.
One of your top 5
> films of all time? I'm not going to twist this around and say it's
> one of my top 5 worst films of all time because it's far from that
> bad. It is one of only a handful of films I came close to walking
> out of though (no film has ever achieved that accoloade of awfulness
> so far though).
The first thing that strikes me about this message is that the author fails to provide, or even suggest what he disliked about the film. Personally, I really enjoyed "American Beauty". However, I am willing to admit that it wasn't an entirely perfect film.
So what's good about it? Well, firstly the script; it has some wonderfully written dialogue. It's pretty obvious Sam Mendes worked in theatre prior to this. It manages a careful balance between being extremely witty to being extremely thought provoking. Perhaps the reason it won so many people over is that we very rarely see American films as rich in quality as this. Most seem to churn out the same old dumb and simple cliches and conversations. (In fact the last film I can think of as subtle and as intelligent as this was "Rushmore"). The acting is also spot on; the actors are the characters they're portraying. The characters are also believable: we can relate to their problems in different ways, whether they be are own or belong to people that we know. Whatever you're age there is a character you can relate to, it being a film that deals with all members of the family. The direction is also slow and pretty much low-key, which allows you to get to know the characters as well as giving you time to consider the themes and place yourself in their situation. Again, most American films nowadays tend to be filmed as fast as they can be in order to maintain you're attention, with flashy editing and cuttting. These films are usually thin on plot, characters and themes, and this is where they attempt to make up on that fact.
I could go on for pages and pages about how good this film is, but I'll leave it at that.
> er-no wrote:
> This movie is so brilliant, that, if you
> haven't actually
> seen it, you should be shot. American Beauty,
> easily the best film
> of the past decade, secures a place on my
> top 5 films of all
> time.
Strange. All through the film I
> was wishing someone would shoot me. I fail to see anything laudable
> about this film whatsoever and it certainly didn't even deserve any
> Oscar nominations, let alone actually win any.
One of your top 5
> films of all time? I'm not going to twist this around and say it's
> one of my top 5 worst films of all time because it's far from that
> bad. It is one of only a handful of films I came close to walking
> out of though (no film has ever achieved that accoloade of awfulness
> so far though).
The first thing that strikes me about this message is that the author fails to provide, or even suggest what he disliked about the film. Personally, I really enjoyed "American Beauty". However, I am willing to admit that it wasn't an entirely perfect film.
So what's good about it? Well, firstly the script; it has some wonderfully written dialogue. It's pretty obvious Sam Mendes worked in theatre prior to this. It manages a careful balance between being extremely witty to being extremely thought provoking. Perhaps the reason it won so many people over is that we very rarely see American films as rich in quality as this. Most seem to churn out the same old dumb and simple cliches and conversations. (In fact the last film I can think of as subtle and as intelligent as this was "Rushmore"). The acting is also spot on; the actors are the characters they're portraying. The characters are also believable: we can relate to their problems in different ways, whether they be are own or belong to people that we know. Whatever you're age there is a character you can relate to, it being a film that deals with all members of the family. The direction is also slow and pretty much low-key, which allows you to get to know the characters as well as giving you time to consider the themes and place yourself in their situation. Again, most American films nowadays tend to be filmed as fast as they can be in order to maintain you're attention, with flashy editing and cuttting. These films are usually thin on plot, characters and themes, and this is where they attempt to make up on that fact.
I could go on for pages and pages about how good this film is, but I'll leave it at that.
agreed!
:)
:)
Toys was a kids movie, so maybe thats why you didnt like it.
As for American beauty, it was a great film although mainly because it was one of the first American films that didnt glorify American culture like so many other Hollywood pictures do. Instead the film showed us how low American life is.... Divorce, Homosexual Army Officers who beat their children, and a husband lusting after his daughters friend.
Top film :-)
As for American beauty, it was a great film although mainly because it was one of the first American films that didnt glorify American culture like so many other Hollywood pictures do. Instead the film showed us how low American life is.... Divorce, Homosexual Army Officers who beat their children, and a husband lusting after his daughters friend.
Top film :-)
I have only ever walked out on one film in my life, that film was 'Toys' with Robin Williams in. That film was the ..... film I have ever opened my eyes to, I say it was a waste of an hour of my life!
er-no wrote:
> This movie is so brilliant, that, if you haven't actually
> seen it, you should be shot. American Beauty, easily the best film
> of the past decade, secures a place on my top 5 films of all
> time.
Strange. All through the film I was wishing someone would shoot me. I fail to see anything laudable about this film whatsoever and it certainly didn't even deserve any Oscar nominations, let alone actually win any.
One of your top 5 films of all time? I'm not going to twist this around and say it's one of my top 5 worst films of all time because it's far from that bad. It is one of only a handful of films I came close to walking out of though (no film has ever achieved that accoloade of awfulness so far though).
> This movie is so brilliant, that, if you haven't actually
> seen it, you should be shot. American Beauty, easily the best film
> of the past decade, secures a place on my top 5 films of all
> time.
Strange. All through the film I was wishing someone would shoot me. I fail to see anything laudable about this film whatsoever and it certainly didn't even deserve any Oscar nominations, let alone actually win any.
One of your top 5 films of all time? I'm not going to twist this around and say it's one of my top 5 worst films of all time because it's far from that bad. It is one of only a handful of films I came close to walking out of though (no film has ever achieved that accoloade of awfulness so far though).
After winning five Oscars, I was intrigued to see American Beauty.
I had managed to get a hold of the VHS from my parents bedroom, I knew that I would have to return it before they got back.
It was hard for me to recover from such a masterpiece overflowing with brains and beauty.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) finds rebirth after his daughter's jailbait buddy Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) zings his long-buried sexual antennae. Immediately, he starts pumping iron, develops a range of taking-no-more-c**p retorts and drops out of his dronehead job to flip burgers at a local drive-through.
Alongisde his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening)'s more direct self-destruction and his estranged daughter Jane (Thora Birch)'s own sexual awakening.
The story is plain and simple, but Ball's script is one of the most intelligent, engaging pieces of scripting I have seen for an extremely long amount of time. The performances are all perfect, Spacey and Bening got lots of credit, which they deserve, their performances wwere strong and powerful, but my personal favourite performance came from Thora Birch. She pulled off a stunning and real performance as the uniquely beautiful daughter Jane.
This movie is so brilliant, that, if you haven't actually seen it, you should be shot. American Beauty, easily the best film of the past decade, secures a place on my top 5 films of all time.
What a film, and now I have to return it before 'they' return!
I had managed to get a hold of the VHS from my parents bedroom, I knew that I would have to return it before they got back.
It was hard for me to recover from such a masterpiece overflowing with brains and beauty.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) finds rebirth after his daughter's jailbait buddy Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) zings his long-buried sexual antennae. Immediately, he starts pumping iron, develops a range of taking-no-more-c**p retorts and drops out of his dronehead job to flip burgers at a local drive-through.
Alongisde his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening)'s more direct self-destruction and his estranged daughter Jane (Thora Birch)'s own sexual awakening.
The story is plain and simple, but Ball's script is one of the most intelligent, engaging pieces of scripting I have seen for an extremely long amount of time. The performances are all perfect, Spacey and Bening got lots of credit, which they deserve, their performances wwere strong and powerful, but my personal favourite performance came from Thora Birch. She pulled off a stunning and real performance as the uniquely beautiful daughter Jane.
This movie is so brilliant, that, if you haven't actually seen it, you should be shot. American Beauty, easily the best film of the past decade, secures a place on my top 5 films of all time.
What a film, and now I have to return it before 'they' return!