Reviews (493)

Way underrated
Anyone who has ever worked in corporate America will relate to this hilarious gem.
It is low key as opposed to slapstick comedy. I think the movie was well cast about a cube dweller who had enough and basically quits working and gets a promotion to upper management while his hard working and dedicated buddies get slated for layoffs by "The Bob's" two management consultants.
Ron Livingston does a great job as Pete Gibbons, and Ajay Naidu as "Samir Nu, ne, nunu, uh nnn ,not work here anymore" David Herman as Micheal-why should I change - Bolton.
The boss Lundbergh is played perfectly deadpan by Gary Cole, and I think there is a Tom Smykowski and Milton Waddams in every organization. Lets not forget the "Bob's" I knew two idiot consultants just like them.
Office Space has it all, from stupid meetings, CI programs, and of course the infamous TPS reports - "didn't you get the memo about the new cover sheets?"
I could not stop laughing through the whole thing.

Well worth the price of the DVD, even though the transfer was only fair.

Hiliariously Close to the Truth
Though the situations and characters in Office Space are certainly larger than life, they are not that far from the truth--to which those of us in the corporate world will readily attest. That's what makes the movie so delightfully funny: seeing characters on screen act out (without much exaggeration) the trials and tribulations of today's desk-bound workforce.

The plot of the movie itself is somewhat secondary to its entertainment value. Basically, the main character (Ron Livingston) isn't happy with his job; having been asked once by his high school guidance counselor to picture what he'd do without being paid and consider that his ideal job, he responded that he's like to sit around and do nothing. The rest of the main plot centers on his attempt to get his life back on track, from discovering a love interest in a local waitress (Jennifer Anniston) also unhappy with her job to plotting revenge on his company for firing his friends.

Quickly one sees exactly why the characters are so unhappy with their jobs: a clueless, paper-shuffling boss who speaks in total monotone; inane office regulations requiring more time spent on reports than on real work; faulty office equipment; and so on. Carefully crafted to represent archetypes we all know from our own office experiences, the characters and their attempts to break free of the 9-to-5 drudgery are absolutely hilarious.

You don't have to be a computer programmer or engineer to enjoy this film--all you need is to have worked somewhere once in your life that was far from the ideal environment. Watch this film and enjoy a laugh at schmucks who have it ten times worse than you ever have!

THE comedy movie to see from the late 90s
If you see one comedy from the late 90s, see this one! The cast is great, and the story is better. The only person I know who didn't like this movie just doesn't understand the modern industrial/metroplitan environment. Driving to work in Silicon Valley REALLY IS THIS BAD, and if your definition of heavy traffic is going 15-20 mph on the freeway, you might not appreciate this film.

Dilbert's got it easy!
OFFICE SPACE either suffered from bad marketing or poor distribution because I had never heard of it nor did many of my movie-going friends. When I saw it on cable, I kept asking myself, "Where did this come from?" While the film occasionally breaks down in predictable sequences and cheap shots, it really does hold together remarkably well. This is one of the better written, directed and acted comedies in a long time. Even though the late 90's office world it illustrates is long gone, muddle-headed supervisors, know-nothing consultants, and very weird office workers are not. Enjoy this movie!

A MODERN CULT CLASSIC
Having seen and enjoyed bits and pieces of this movie countless times on cable (usually on Comedy Central) over the last couple of years, I finally broke down and purchased it to add to my DVD collection. Smart move on my part. Now that I've seen the entire movie from start to finish, it makes a lot more sense now (I'd never seen the hypnotism scene). It has all the makings of a modern cult classic. How do I know? Because every time I roll across it on cable I usually wind up watching the balance of the film and enjoying it all over again. Having 2 Geto Boys songs on the soundtrack and co-starring Jennifer Aniston doesn't hurt either. Damn it feels good to be a gangsta. ... Read more

Reviews (710)

A truly horrific masterpiece
"Requiem for a Dream," directed by Darren Aronofsky, affected me like few other films I've ever seen. "Requiem" tells the intertwined stories of Sara Goldfarb, a lonely widow (Ellen Burstyn), her son Harry (Jared Leto), Harry's girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly), and Harry's best friend (Marlon Wayans). As Sara sinks into a nightmare of prescription drug addiction, her son experiences a parallel hell of "street" drugs. Thus, the film explore two sides of drug addiction in the life of a single family.

Aronofsky directs this film brilliantly, and his ensemble cast gives outstanding performances. Ellen Burstyn is heartbreaking in the starring role. In addition to the principal actors mentioned above, Christopher McDonald gives a creepy performance as a talk-show host with whom Sara is obsessed.

This is an incredibly intense, upsetting film. Never before have I seen such graphic and relentless images shown in a theater. Aronofsky turns his cinematic eye on the extremes of human suffering, disorientation, and exploitation, and he never flinches. The images and sounds he presents were, to me, more upsetting than Holocaust video, Klan rally footage, or other real-life horrific material which I have seen over the years. And most conventional horror films will look like children's cartoons next to this movie. The final 20 or so minutes of the film are particularly intense; the unsettling musical score and sound effects blend perfectly with Aronofsky's visual symphony of pain.

Despite the shocking images, I did not find "Requiem" to be exploitative. I believe this is because Aronofsky never loses sight of the humanity of these characters. Sara and the others are not just cinematic "cannon fodder"; they are characters with whom, despite their faults, we can empathize.

"Requiem" is a technical tour-de-force. Be warned: the graphic scenes of sexual exploitation, cruelty, and suffering will, I believe, be simply too much for many viewers to bear. But the discriminating film lover may, like me, find "Requiem" to be a haunting masterpiece.

a beautifully tragic film with stunning visuals
Wow. I just saw Requiem For A Dream for the first time. I don't really know what to say about it. What a stunning film. Gorgeously filmed, beautiful visuals...wholly depressing...crystal clear filmmaking. Excellent performances by the cast. The story almost seems inconsequential somehow (even though it's not)...mostly, I felt like I was was watching a moving painting.

Ellen Burstyn's performance as the mother, a lonely widow whose hope of being on TV (so that her loser son and deceased husband would be proud of her) leads to an addiction to diet pills and a severe case of dementia, was one of the finest moments of acting I believe I've ever seen.

The film style itself employs a variety of different camera angles, split screens, and some truly beautiful juxtapositions. The scenes become darker, more jagged and frantic, as the movie progresses and the four main characters spiral steadily downward.

The music and the sound in this film is also extremely powerful. The popping of pill bottles, the quitly mocking laughter of the empty mailbox...those are the two sounds that really stick out for me. Then the music, the haunting background theme that plays nearly constantly over much of the film, will stick in your mind and haunt you long after the movie has ended.

I believe everyone I know that has seen this movie has loved it, and I have to say that despite its disturbing content, I really loved it too. That said, this is definitely one of those films that people will either love or hate...it's really not a middle-ground type of movie. It's truly an example of movies as an art form. As you can see from my first impressions of it there, first viewings of it seem to lend themselves more to the art of the filmmaking itself rather than the actual content of the movie...it was so clear cut that I don't think there's a lot left to 'understand', but at the same time, repeated viewings will likely be necessary just to let it sink in.

I resisted watching it for a very long time because no one could tell me why they loved it so much and I had it in my head that it was going to be 'just another of those stupid drug movies'. I understand now why they couldn't explain it, and I only wish I could explain it myself. :) Unfortunately, I think I'm going to fall short of that wish tonight.

Disturbing, Graphic and Great
I went to this movie hearing plenty of buzz about how graphic the content was. Over the course of the movie you see just how Aronofsky wants to send his message to the audience. The characters start off with somewhat mild addictions and then next thing you know the four main characters are living in hell. I couldn't believe how low they all fell. This movie may be the greatest anti-drug message of all time. I dare anybody to watch this and to not be touched and frightened by these characters. Before the movie started I noticed the audience was quite loud and garrulous, but as it ended and the credits rolled the whole place was stone cold silent. It was amazing.

As a whole I felt the movie was excellent. The visuals were well done and the editing was outstanding. The actors really put themselves into their roles. Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly had very good chemistry, while Marlon Wayans showed he is a talented actor and not just a talented comic. Ellen Burstyn. Wow! She was amazing. I can't believe an older woman would allow herself to be filmed like that. She has some serious guts. Hands down the best female performance I've watched this year, not even close. I was totally amazed by her.

All in all, I would say Requiem For a Dream is a great movie. It had a profound impact on me and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I watched it on opening night. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone. This is a movie everyone should see, but unfortunately not enough will.

A dream of a Movie
Ooooooh baby!
If one appreciates Independent Films, this is one of the best.
Three characters (mostly)--- Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connelly, and Jared Leto make up the brilliant cast.

each of them despartely stuck in situations they appear they cannot get out of, each of them pathetically sick (in different ways), each of them will grab the viewer by the neck and demand their full attention.

they will get it.

Ellen Burstyn in one of the most superb roles of her career...absolutley stunning as the old, lonely, heart-wrenching widow with nothing to look forward to except a pathetic, no-mind game show.

Jennifer Connelly and Jared Leto as heroine junkies...who need it so bad they steal, lie, she sells her body, performs at stag parties---and all of this for a temporary high.

This movie is powerful, will bring you out of your seat (if you're alive), will bring you into places you do not want to be, dark, lonely, bug-filled filth.
But you'll stay...because you cannot bring yourself to leave..,
because you want so much for the characters to change, to be what they are meant to be.

But they don't---they only take up space---only exist while life happens around them. They are like bugs, moving, eating, breathing, but really nothing. Nothing.

This movie was directed beautifully, multi-layered, poetry on the screen (the kind of poetry that will make you cry, feel, and think about for weeks on end.

Another film about what happens when you do drugs.
Alright the plot is simple. A movie about four individuals who are junkies. Three are addicted to illegal drugs and one is addicted to prescription drugs. This movie has been done before. But what sets it apart is how the movie reflects the four seasons. The movie starts with the excruciating heat of summer where the four characters becomes agitated, restless, due to drugs. Then Fall, which means when their lives starts to unravel before being doomed to the the dark uncertainties of drugs. Winter becomes their death. When we think of winter we think of bare tress, lifeless like the characters. The director associated the lives of the four individuals with the four seasons. Except at the end there is no spring because spring is hope, spring is a where life starts again. For them there is none anymore. A simple plot based on how we live our lives with the seasons of changes. ... Read more

Reviews (149)

Raunchy, funny, but repetitive. And not for the kids.
"Bad Santa" is a movie from that dirty magazine row tucked in the back of gas stations: It is thrilling, and funny, and eventually a little tiresome and disappointing, to watch Billy Bob Thornton play a degenerate, drunk thief masquerading as a department store Santa Claus. Appropriately named Willie T. Stokes, Thornton achieves a kind of white trash zen, slurring, stumbling and cursing his way through nativity sets.

And Willie's just the jumping off point. "Bad Santa" is a comedy cast like a noir picture, where every player reveals a touch of the bizarre. There's Willie's dwarf partner (Tony Cox), a fat kid who takes to Willie as a father figure and Willie's Jewish girlfriend (Lauren Graham), who has a Santa fetish. Bernie Mac and John Ritter have smaller, goofy roles as department store employees; the late Ritter, sadly, is again cast as a nebbish, probably gay man for no particular reason and to little avail.

The humor is repeatedly pitched at basic crassness, or maybe just a notch above, as Thornton and his co-stars run the same gags into the ground; there are only so many ways the dwarf can verbally dress down Willie, or Willie dress down the kids. Some scenes border on scatological "Who's On First?" routines. Terry Zwigoff's direction is painfully flat and amateurish for a guy who made "Ghost World."

The idea, of course, is to offer perfectly intelligent, affluent adults a bargain-budget 90 minutes to indulge in the communal loathing of precious tykes and holiday materialism while extolling the virtues of loose women, cheap whiskey and stone cold burglary - essentially a middle finger to the very suburbanites that will be among its biggest fans. If your SUV can handle an evening in the cold, there are worse ways to get over yourself.

Note: "Bad Santa" has drawn some fire from Christian conservatives for debunking that long held Christmas myth that, apparently, Santa and Jesus are long lost buds. That couldn't be better publicity for a movie like this.

FOR THOSE WHO LOVE DARK COMEDY
If you love comedy, especially dark comedy then this is the movie for you. When I first saw the commerical on TV I knew I had to see this movie and I was right- it was excellent. Movies arent meant to be the same and I have never seen a Santa like this before!!!! It's a collectible item if you ask me and a must have. People with a sense of humor shouldn't miss it.

FEARLESSLY BAWDY BUT FUNNY
Bad Santa has many crass gags, it almost drags you into a dark alley of tasteless humour and thrashes you up. Imagine Billy Bob Thorton in a comic lead role, tough to visualize. But the man is bloody hilarious! Some parts are better scripted than others, but for a film that's so determined NOT to have a heart, it does surprise you with one. A wonderfully perverse treat that goes by in a flash, so it can't be all that bad any way. Recommended!

The funniest movie ive seen in a long time
this movie is god awful funny, if you have a problem with sex or language this movie is in no way for you. For all of the rest of us, this movie is hilarious. Billy Bob Thorton is funny as hell throughout the whole movie and you will be quoting him for weeks after. please, if you dont mind language or sex, watch this movie, you will love it.

A Funny Contrast to The Christmas Story
It's true, most reviews I have seen, they have described "Bad Santa" as a Christmas movie for cynics. Billy Bob Thornton takes a huge risk with the leading role, as a hard drinking, swearing, unkempt department store Santa with a fetish for plus-size women.
Let me be completely frank...although I admit most kids nowadays have been seasoned with the F-word, I think the language in the movie alone would dissuade most parents from screening it for young children. This is for adults, folks. Anyway, Bad Santa teams up with his partner, Marcus (who masquerades as a black elf) to rob department stores every Christmas. They have an interesting modus operandi..get jobs at the mall at Christmas time as Santa and elf, break in after hours, and abscond with the store's safe contents and assorted loot. Next season, different city, different mall, and so on. Thornton's Santa, real name Willie, is portrayed with no redemptive qualities. He is talked every year into the robbery scheme by his diminutive partner Marcus. Let's face it..Willie is only good at two things..drinking and safe cracking. The fact that Willie can barely tolerate people and hates children creates a great deal of comedy in itself. His exchanges with the children who sit on his lap and the department store manager (well played by the late John Ritter)are both shocking and funny in their audacity.
Anyway, through a bizarre set of circumstances involving a young boy (it was a stroke of genius for the director to cast the child as a fat, socially inept stalker) and a kinky bargirl who has a fetish for Santas, Willie goes through a slight reformation..sort of. Don't get me wrong..there are no "It's a Wonderful Life" brush strokes of cinema in here. "Bad Santa" knows why some people spend Christmas in bars..and gets more than a few twisted laughs from its observations. ... Read more

Reviews (410)

3
An astonishing film, often unfairly compared to David Lynch's 'Eraserhead' by people who have only seen stills. Uniquely, it's an intelligent taught thriller about number theory, with a gritty visual style, accomplished with a tiny budget and lots of dedication. The stark, black-and-white footage and apocalyptic plot (with a nod to Arthur C. Clarke's 'The Nine Billion Names of God') seem to set the film in a strange otherworld in which big business and religion combine to drive a mathematician to the brink of insanity. The acting is fine - naturalistic, with no scenery-chewing (and any bad performances can be written off as the warped perceptions of the lead character), and the script, whilst being very functional, nonetheless conveys an impression of a mental world ruled by numbers. The soundtrack is fantastic, too - lots of edgy 'braindance' from Warp-esque artists, available on a great CD. On DVD you get two commentaries, a music video, some trailers, some cut bits (although they are nothing special) and a preview of the graphic novel - a 'Matrix-esque multimedia blitz. It sticks in the mind and you won't forget it - try not to watch whilst suffering from a toothache, either.

Too detailed and open-ended
Being a mathematical person myself (I have a Masters degree in Statistics) I was intrigued by the premise of the movie but in the end I was left with more questions than answers and was left dangling. The plot includes too much of the mathematical detail (and medical detail, listing all the drugs Cohen was taking!), often coming across as nurdy.

The solution seemed too straightforward and practical, with many details lacking here (unlike in the build-up). I thought the final mix might include emotions, basically a more relationship-centric argument, especially as the plot did allude to the potential for something to happen between Cohen and his neighbour, but this didn't come up at all.

This all said, Darren Aronofsky is clearly a very talented director. His use of the black&white medium and close-up camera shots in Pi were a stroke of genius - it certainly helped one get into Cohen's mind. Requiem for a Dream is an outstanding movie but Pi fails to deliver because he took on a very weighty and complex subject in his first attempt at a motion picture. The problem lies in the screenplay (which he co-wrote), and not his direction, however.

It is interesting to note Aronofsky's use of some of the effects that he would later use in Requiem for a Dream, especially the fast-forward pill-popping sequence which was always worth a chuckle in both movies (in a dark sort of way).

paranoia and math a winning combination? ....who knew
This movie is excellent. The direction is phenomenal. In all honesty this movie actually has the ability to drive a sane person out of their mind. It's creative and takes math to a whole new level...and i hate math, but i did love this movie, mainly because i like chaos theory and other interesting philosophical viewpoints. It's always interesting to explore these ideas. I watched this movie once, and then watched it close to three more times before i finally understood everything that was going on, but honestly i think it was well worth it. The acting is top notch, and on top of all that, the direction is superb. Incredible film, but not everyone's cup of tea. If this review has sparked your interest...don't miss it.

No middle ground
on this one. You either love it or you hate it. I loved it, so did one of the two friends I watched it with, but the other hated it, and my parents hated it. RENT IT FIRST and see if you like it before buying it! There is nothing worse than buying a movie and finding out you hate it. I have not watched this movie in quite some time, so I will not attempt to post a real review of it, but at least get this from my post:

DO NOT BUY THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE WATCHED IT!

Stop giving away the ending
The two worst things you can do in a review are over-hype and give away the ending (especially for movies that build to the end) - here's looking at you 'The Aphasic Android' (other reviewers gave away the ending too). This movie is somewhat pretentious and suffers from some neo-classical art-house direction tricks; however these flaws fail to take much away from a truely intersting storyline. I guess this movie isn't for everyone - sort of the equivalent to listening to the Jesus and Mary Chain. ... Read more

Reviews (493)

Way underrated
Anyone who has ever worked in corporate America will relate to this hilarious gem.
It is low key as opposed to slapstick comedy. I think the movie was well cast about a cube dweller who had enough and basically quits working and gets a promotion to upper management while his hard working and dedicated buddies get slated for layoffs by "The Bob's" two management consultants.
Ron Livingston does a great job as Pete Gibbons, and Ajay Naidu as "Samir Nu, ne, nunu, uh nnn ,not work here anymore" David Herman as Micheal-why should I change - Bolton.
The boss Lundbergh is played perfectly deadpan by Gary Cole, and I think there is a Tom Smykowski and Milton Waddams in every organization. Lets not forget the "Bob's" I knew two idiot consultants just like them.
Office Space has it all, from stupid meetings, CI programs, and of course the infamous TPS reports - "didn't you get the memo about the new cover sheets?"
I could not stop laughing through the whole thing.

Well worth the price of the DVD, even though the transfer was only fair.

Hiliariously Close to the Truth
Though the situations and characters in Office Space are certainly larger than life, they are not that far from the truth--to which those of us in the corporate world will readily attest. That's what makes the movie so delightfully funny: seeing characters on screen act out (without much exaggeration) the trials and tribulations of today's desk-bound workforce.

The plot of the movie itself is somewhat secondary to its entertainment value. Basically, the main character (Ron Livingston) isn't happy with his job; having been asked once by his high school guidance counselor to picture what he'd do without being paid and consider that his ideal job, he responded that he's like to sit around and do nothing. The rest of the main plot centers on his attempt to get his life back on track, from discovering a love interest in a local waitress (Jennifer Anniston) also unhappy with her job to plotting revenge on his company for firing his friends.

Quickly one sees exactly why the characters are so unhappy with their jobs: a clueless, paper-shuffling boss who speaks in total monotone; inane office regulations requiring more time spent on reports than on real work; faulty office equipment; and so on. Carefully crafted to represent archetypes we all know from our own office experiences, the characters and their attempts to break free of the 9-to-5 drudgery are absolutely hilarious.

You don't have to be a computer programmer or engineer to enjoy this film--all you need is to have worked somewhere once in your life that was far from the ideal environment. Watch this film and enjoy a laugh at schmucks who have it ten times worse than you ever have!

THE comedy movie to see from the late 90s
If you see one comedy from the late 90s, see this one! The cast is great, and the story is better. The only person I know who didn't like this movie just doesn't understand the modern industrial/metroplitan environment. Driving to work in Silicon Valley REALLY IS THIS BAD, and if your definition of heavy traffic is going 15-20 mph on the freeway, you might not appreciate this film.

Dilbert's got it easy!
OFFICE SPACE either suffered from bad marketing or poor distribution because I had never heard of it nor did many of my movie-going friends. When I saw it on cable, I kept asking myself, "Where did this come from?" While the film occasionally breaks down in predictable sequences and cheap shots, it really does hold together remarkably well. This is one of the better written, directed and acted comedies in a long time. Even though the late 90's office world it illustrates is long gone, muddle-headed supervisors, know-nothing consultants, and very weird office workers are not. Enjoy this movie!

A MODERN CULT CLASSIC
Having seen and enjoyed bits and pieces of this movie countless times on cable (usually on Comedy Central) over the last couple of years, I finally broke down and purchased it to add to my DVD collection. Smart move on my part. Now that I've seen the entire movie from start to finish, it makes a lot more sense now (I'd never seen the hypnotism scene). It has all the makings of a modern cult classic. How do I know? Because every time I roll across it on cable I usually wind up watching the balance of the film and enjoying it all over again. Having 2 Geto Boys songs on the soundtrack and co-starring Jennifer Aniston doesn't hurt either. Damn it feels good to be a gangsta. ... Read more

Reviews (149)

Raunchy, funny, but repetitive. And not for the kids.
"Bad Santa" is a movie from that dirty magazine row tucked in the back of gas stations: It is thrilling, and funny, and eventually a little tiresome and disappointing, to watch Billy Bob Thornton play a degenerate, drunk thief masquerading as a department store Santa Claus. Appropriately named Willie T. Stokes, Thornton achieves a kind of white trash zen, slurring, stumbling and cursing his way through nativity sets.

And Willie's just the jumping off point. "Bad Santa" is a comedy cast like a noir picture, where every player reveals a touch of the bizarre. There's Willie's dwarf partner (Tony Cox), a fat kid who takes to Willie as a father figure and Willie's Jewish girlfriend (Lauren Graham), who has a Santa fetish. Bernie Mac and John Ritter have smaller, goofy roles as department store employees; the late Ritter, sadly, is again cast as a nebbish, probably gay man for no particular reason and to little avail.

The humor is repeatedly pitched at basic crassness, or maybe just a notch above, as Thornton and his co-stars run the same gags into the ground; there are only so many ways the dwarf can verbally dress down Willie, or Willie dress down the kids. Some scenes border on scatological "Who's On First?" routines. Terry Zwigoff's direction is painfully flat and amateurish for a guy who made "Ghost World."

The idea, of course, is to offer perfectly intelligent, affluent adults a bargain-budget 90 minutes to indulge in the communal loathing of precious tykes and holiday materialism while extolling the virtues of loose women, cheap whiskey and stone cold burglary - essentially a middle finger to the very suburbanites that will be among its biggest fans. If your SUV can handle an evening in the cold, there are worse ways to get over yourself.

Note: "Bad Santa" has drawn some fire from Christian conservatives for debunking that long held Christmas myth that, apparently, Santa and Jesus are long lost buds. That couldn't be better publicity for a movie like this.

FOR THOSE WHO LOVE DARK COMEDY
If you love comedy, especially dark comedy then this is the movie for you. When I first saw the commerical on TV I knew I had to see this movie and I was right- it was excellent. Movies arent meant to be the same and I have never seen a Santa like this before!!!! It's a collectible item if you ask me and a must have. People with a sense of humor shouldn't miss it.

FEARLESSLY BAWDY BUT FUNNY
Bad Santa has many crass gags, it almost drags you into a dark alley of tasteless humour and thrashes you up. Imagine Billy Bob Thorton in a comic lead role, tough to visualize. But the man is bloody hilarious! Some parts are better scripted than others, but for a film that's so determined NOT to have a heart, it does surprise you with one. A wonderfully perverse treat that goes by in a flash, so it can't be all that bad any way. Recommended!

The funniest movie ive seen in a long time
this movie is god awful funny, if you have a problem with sex or language this movie is in no way for you. For all of the rest of us, this movie is hilarious. Billy Bob Thorton is funny as hell throughout the whole movie and you will be quoting him for weeks after. please, if you dont mind language or sex, watch this movie, you will love it.

A Funny Contrast to The Christmas Story
It's true, most reviews I have seen, they have described "Bad Santa" as a Christmas movie for cynics. Billy Bob Thornton takes a huge risk with the leading role, as a hard drinking, swearing, unkempt department store Santa with a fetish for plus-size women.
Let me be completely frank...although I admit most kids nowadays have been seasoned with the F-word, I think the language in the movie alone would dissuade most parents from screening it for young children. This is for adults, folks. Anyway, Bad Santa teams up with his partner, Marcus (who masquerades as a black elf) to rob department stores every Christmas. They have an interesting modus operandi..get jobs at the mall at Christmas time as Santa and elf, break in after hours, and abscond with the store's safe contents and assorted loot. Next season, different city, different mall, and so on. Thornton's Santa, real name Willie, is portrayed with no redemptive qualities. He is talked every year into the robbery scheme by his diminutive partner Marcus. Let's face it..Willie is only good at two things..drinking and safe cracking. The fact that Willie can barely tolerate people and hates children creates a great deal of comedy in itself. His exchanges with the children who sit on his lap and the department store manager (well played by the late John Ritter)are both shocking and funny in their audacity.
Anyway, through a bizarre set of circumstances involving a young boy (it was a stroke of genius for the director to cast the child as a fat, socially inept stalker) and a kinky bargirl who has a fetish for Santas, Willie goes through a slight reformation..sort of. Don't get me wrong..there are no "It's a Wonderful Life" brush strokes of cinema in here. "Bad Santa" knows why some people spend Christmas in bars..and gets more than a few twisted laughs from its observations. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Dinner Rush is gourmet cinema, served with a generous helping of culinary panache. After countless commercials, music videos (including Michael Jackson's "Beat It"), and a few obscure features, director and restaurateur Bob Giraldi casts his own New York eatery as a TriBeCa hot spot where the owner (Danny Aiello) presides over a busy night of fine dining and mob entanglements. He's been a bookmaker for 25 years but he's going legit; his son (Edoardo Ballerini) is a nuovo cuisine genius, eager to inherit the business; the sous-chef (Kirk Acevedo) is deeply in debt to mafia thugs; an art-dealer snob (Mark Margolis) is antagonizing his waitress (Summer Phoenix); a charming stranger (John Corbett) harbors a climactic surprise; and a powerful food critic (Sandra Bernhard) is ready to pounce on any wrong move. In perfect control of this bustling environment, Giraldi directs like a great chef cooks: with Altmanesque delicacy, confident that every ingredient is vital to the success of his creation. It's utterly delicious. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (25)

I loved this movie
As a person who loves food, restaurants in Manhattan and Danny Aielleo, I think I loved this movie before I even saw it. But now that I've seen it I can't stop recommending it to every body I know. I loved this movie, the writing, performances, characters and of course, the wonderful recipes created by the kitchen staff.

One can't help but realize how food has changed in the last 20 odd years and perhaps nowhere as much as the New York restaurant scene. Where once diners were afforded large home made food, today we are afforded smaller portions wonderfully presented with moutwatering tastes. We eat from a myriad of spices, tastes and countries. Everything is prepared with thought and passion and presentation is the key word.

And it is Dinner Rush which presents to its viewers the old world of restaurants with mom and pop cooking in the back to today's world of tempermental chefs, sous chefs, matire d's, waiting in line and begging for a reservation. Dining today has become a palate of wonderful foods and memorable experiences. As one of the characters played by John Corbett says, "When did eating become a Broadway production?"

But lest you think that Dinner Rush is only set in a restaurant and kitchen, which it is, the restaurant is so much more and sets the stage for a microcosm of all sorts of people living their lives with all sorts of challenges. From Danny Aiello, the original owner of this restaurant (owned by the director Bob Giraldi) who wonders what happened to spaghetti and meatballs on the menu, to his son, the highly educated chef with his own ideas to the sous chef addicted to betting and finally to the two underworld gentlemen who occupy seats during one night, this movie is a banquet for the eyes ear and nose. It is as if one is tasting the food through the words of all of these fine actors. Not since Big Night with Stanley Tucci, have I enjoyed a movie about food and restaurants as much as I did the night I saw Dinner Rush.

And now you'll have to excuse me as I head out to a favorite Italtian restaurant. Just writing this review has made me hungry. Come to think of it, perhaps I'll see this movie again tonight I enjoyed it so much.

An order of Sausage and Peppers......per favore
I've spent the bulk of my adult life in the food business as a student in cooking school, a chef, in restaurant operations and in food procurement. So I can attest to the accuracy of the crazy, loud cacaphonous milieu that serves, not just as a back drop, but as an active character in Bob Giraldi's "Dinner Rush." Giraldi himself is the owner of the restaurant where this movie was filmed. So he knows of what he speaks. The story itself involves bookmaking, addiction to gambling, murder, art, old style cooking versus nouvelle, the chef as star and old courtly values vs new cavalier ones to name a few things. Danny Aiello is the owner, Louis Cropa his son the chef, Udo (Edoardo Ballerino) at a bustling, newly busy restaurant in Tribeca. Udo has recently "saved" the restaurant from extinction and red sauce and meatballs with his new ideas and recipes...or has he? Aiello, with his raspy, quiet voice and his total command of the screen acts as the voice of reason and experience and it is obvious he longs for the old ways and the old times when his wife ran the restaurant and where he good get a plate of sausage and peppers. Stylistically, "Dinner Rush" is more like "The Godfather" than "Casino," in that, not only was the film shot in beautiful earth tones in middle light (as was "The Godfather") but, the values put forth are more like those of the 40's and 50's than those of the the year 2001. Giraldi seems to be saying: let's return to a time when life was more clear-cut and simple and Italian food meant red gravy and meatballs and you could tell the bad guys by the shoulder holsters,stick pins and two-toned spectator shoes. Danny Aiello dominates the movie but Edoardo Ballerini, Vivian Wu (Nicole) and Kirk Acevedo (Duncan....late of HBO's "Oz") definitely make good impressions. "Dinner Rush" is a call for reason, re-evaluation and a reinstatement of old ways and values....and hey this makes more sense to me every day.

Very Entertaining
The premise of this movie is rather simple - father/restaurant-owner/bookie wants to get out of the bookie business; son/chef who wants to take over the restaurant as part of growing up; young family friend in trouble with bookies.. BUT.. don't let that dissuade you from watching.

Except for the opening scene, the events of the movie all take place during one night and largely in one place when the conflicts built into the premise converge in the restaurant.

The cinematography is outstanding - the ballet of activity in the kitchen is wonderfully filmed

The acting is all top-notch. Even the minor characters (waiters, cooks, guests) deliver their roles well. The only drawback here is Sandra Bernhard as a food writer - she does schtick rather than acting.

The plot is simple and fairly predictable, but so was Casablanca which in some ways this movie's structure resembles.

Watch and enjoy.

Warning - eat a good meal first; the dinner scenes will make you hungry.

Deliciously Entertaining
The characters are what drive this movie and make it fun to watch. Though I realize that last lobster dish he created for the stuck-up food critic was meant to be ridiculous, I still found myself drooling all over the couch. Danny Aiello is perfect as the low-key restauraunt owner who is not impressed with his star chef son's cuisine.
The events are realistic, and I loved the pretentious, condesending "Fitzgerald" jerk who just rips his waitress to shreds with his lowbrow, rude remarks. The gay maitere D was hilarious as was the ... bartender who challenges his customers to trivia and rakes in the dough. My only semi-complaint was the ending which I found to be rather predictable and unbelievable, saw it coming a mile away.
Still, this is a great indy film, and a must-see for anyone who works or has worked in a trendy restaurant.

Buon Appetite!!!
It's Sat. morning and I just stumbled onto this awesome movie! What more could you want besides Pancakes and sausage served up with real maple syrup, black coffee. After watching Dinner Rush, I am ready for Lunch!!! Its a great cast acting in a very well written script! Danny Aiello's portrayal of "ol' Tony" in The Professional could be a side script to Dinner Rush. Old Dog on the block that will not be pushed around. Its every Italian restaurant in NYC with that one table that the owner reserves for himself. From the front of the house to back of the house, the restaurant is real!!! The conversations could take place anywhere fine dining is hustled. The stress and pressure is a big part of the food service industry and you can see the realism in this movie. When you see that server being tortured by a overly demanding customer, understand that they work hard for every penny!!! Food, food, and more food!!! As movies of food go this one should come with a recipe book. Finally, I suggest no dieters watch this movie, you can gain weight from just watching it!!! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Requiem for a Dream
Employing shock techniques and sound design in a relentless sensory assault, Requiem for a Dream is about nothing less than the systematic destruction of hope. Based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr., and adapted by Selby and director Darren Aronofsky, this is undoubtedly one of the most effective films ever made about the experience of drug addiction (both euphoric and nightmarish), and few would deny that Aronofsky, in following his breakthrough film Pi, has pushed the medium to a disturbing extreme, thrusting conventional narrative into a panic zone of traumatized psyches and bodies pushed to the furthest boundaries of chemical tolerance. It's too easy to call this a cautionary tale; it's a guided tour through hell, with Aronofsky as our bold and ruthless host. The film focuses on a quartet of doomed souls, but it's Ellen Burstyn--in a raw and bravely triumphant performance--who most desperately embodies the downward spiral of drug abuse. As lonely widow Sara Goldfarb, she invests all of her dreams in an absurd self-help TV game show, jolting her bloodstream with diet pills and coffee while her son Harry (Jared Leto) shoots heroin with his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) and slumming girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly). They're careening toward madness at varying speeds, and Aronofsky tracks this gloomy process by endlessly repeating the imagery of their deadly routines. Tormented by her dietary regime, Sara even imagines a carnivorous refrigerator in one of the film's most memorable scenes. And yet... does any of this have a point? Is Aronofsky telling us anything that any sane person doesn't already know? Requiem for a Dream is a noteworthy film, but watching it twice would qualify as masochistic behavior. --Jeff Shannon

Pi
Patterns exist everywhere: in nature, in science, in religion, in business. Max Cohen (played hauntingly by Sean Gullette) is a mathematician searching for these patterns in everything. Yet, he's not the only one, and everyone from Wall Street investors, looking to break the market, to Hasidic Jews, searching for the 216-digit number that reveals the true name of God, are trying to get their hands on Max. This dark, low-budget film was shot in black and white by director Darren Aronofsky. With eerie music, voice-overs, and overt symbolism enhancing the somber mood, Aronofsky has created a disturbing look at the world. Max is deeply paranoid, holed up in his apartment with his computer Euclid, obsessively studying chaos theory. Blinding headaches and hallucinogenic visions only feed his paranoia as he attempts to remain aloof from the world, venturing out only to meet his mentor, Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis), who for some mysterious reason feels Max should take a break from his research. This movie is complex--occasionally too complex--but the psychological drama and the loose sci-fi elements make this a worthwhile, albeit consuming, watch. Pi won the Director's Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. --Jenny Brown ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A Flash of Reality
I recently viewed the film Requiem for a dream and was extremely shocked. I have never seen a movie like this before in my life. A mix of sex, drugs, and vulgar language make Requiem for a dream not appropriate for a young audience, but i agree with many critics that this film should be viewed by every high school student. It teaches you about reality and how rough it can be when people start to do drugs. Everything is all good to begin with, but then there is a downside to it. No one has an endless amount of money to get drugs so in conclusion you must have to do something to recieve that money. Not everything in life is peachy keen, and some people are willing to do just about anything to aquire this drug money. Thats what makes this film almost like a slap in the face. You almost can't believe that you are seeing it. Your eyes widen and you may have to cover them. All i can say is Requiem for a Dream has made quite and impact on my life, because i learned things that i might have never learned. And i am only fourteen.

ATTENSION
I watched this movie a while back, and it pops into my head when issues that the movie revolved around interlude into my life. I remember take D.A.R.E. when I was younger, and thinking that everything I was taught was worthless, then I watched this movie, and the entire plot and characters and emotion that is portrayed throughout the film had a giant impact on me. Requiem for a Dream is an amazing achievement, and should be shown to people everywhere to get its important message across.

buy it
my brother bought requiem for a dream a while ago and i watched it for the fourth time today. instead of just watching, i really thought about what was happening during the movie and i have never been as shocked by a movie as this one. requiem for a dream shows in plain reality what heroin and amphetamines can do to people and others around them, without glorifying them like trainspotting does. What makes this movie even more powerful is the fact that it can happen to anyone. this movie is like a scared-straight video.

This a classic
Oh wow,honestly,this movie is terrifying and even if ther is a lot of violence in this movie,the story is great and more,I would like to say that the story is realist!!
If u don't like violence this DVD is not 4 you but if you don't care u must check this DVD.

One masterpiece, one flawed sign of future brilliance
Requiem for a Dream is a directing masterpiece, and all four lead actors give impressive performances. Often directors make their movies confusing with too-frequent cuts, or distract from the emotional impact. But in this case the rapid cuts strengthen the emotional power of the movie, showing the parallel course of the four lead characters' stories, without creating any confusion.

Pi had elements of greatness, particularly in the directing. The paranoia, madness, and mathematical mumbo-jumbo in the story might not appeal to all viewers. (And some people just don't care for black and white.) But the real point isn't the story, it's the emotional effect of the directing. One thing that makes it an important movie is that it shows director Aronofsky's skill almost full-grown. The dirt-cheap credit card budget limited the director to a small story, but didn't keep him from showing directorial greatness. No wonder he got a real budget for his next film. ... Read more

Reviews (165)

Great Sci-Fi... or is it?
In a year with somewhat meager sci-fi offerings one movie broke free from the pack by avoiding science fiction techniques almost entirely. "K-PAX," based on the novel by Gene Brewer, Academy Award Winner Kevin Spacey ("American Beauty") stars as prot, a mental patient who believes himself to be an alien from the planet K-PAX. Jeff Bridges does a great turn as prot's psychiatrist, proving his diversity as an actor -- although just as good as he was in "The Big Lebowski," the characters are worlds apart.

The film has very little in the way of the fantastic, yet still conveys an incredible sense of majesty that movies these days simply don't have, and it does it in a fashion bizarre enough that, combined with the premise, brands this movie as light sci-fi, although calling it "light" is to do it a disservice.

Something Different!!!
I loved this movie....I give it a strong 4 stars for the acting of Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges, for subject content and for writing. It is definitley not your run of the mill, forgetful, love story, war movie, car chase, slasher, art film or science fiction movie. It does not follow the typical movie plotlines we see too many of.

It contained many thought provoking levels and made one think about the possibilities within the universe as well as within our own lives. K-PAX is "Contact" meets "The Cuckoo's Nest", with class and grace.

I identified personally with many of the lines in the movie.... sat quietly and said "Wow" under my breath, numerous times.

K-PAX displayed some profound moments/lines and a dynamite, unpredictable, twisty ending. Just when you thought you had it all figured out, there were more and more levels to confuse you. It was fun to contemplate the ending throughout the entire film......I liked it a lot, it made me think and I will remember it.

good, but what the heck?????????
Fine acting for the most part, an enjoyable story line and good photography, too. But I have to ask: how does Spacey know the orbit trajectories or whatever it is of his supposed far-off galaxy? Did he secretly bone up on this one thing to sway the authorities? And the ending! A vibrant, intelligent (if troubled) person is turned into a drooling basket case by the brilliant doctors of Manhattan Institute. Now that's some serious doctoring! And then the good doctor finally bonds with his son? Huh?

"I have a beam of light to catch"
Kevin Spacey plays a character named Prot, who may be from the planet K-PAX, or he may be a deluded person from New Mexico with a painful personal secret. A case could be made for either scenario, but I find compelling evidence for the former.

In any event, Prot makes an unusual appearance at a train station, is involved in a minor altercation, and is arrested and put in a mental ward under the care of Dr. Powell (Jeff Bridges) and claims to be from the planet K-PAX, 1000 lightyears from Earth. Prot is questioned and hypnotized on several occasions, without conclusive evidence to his true identity. Without spoiling the end, Dr. Powell finally follows a clue to his apparent satisfaction, though uncertain conclusion.

Regardless of the outcome, getting there is pretty well done. Spacek puts a slightly unusual spin on things (especially fruit) and is quite humorous, and Bridges is good as well. Nice cinematography.

The DVD has a director's commentary, a behind-the-scenes documentary, deleted scenes, alternate ending, and the usual setup features.

"Your produce alone has been worth the trip."

A Psychiatrist Meets a "Fruity" Extraterrestrial
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This 2001 movie (120 minutes) consists of eighteen scenes. It is based on the novel of the same title. Like the novel, this movie is part mystery, part comedy, and part human drama.

The story is about a man who claims to come from the utopian world called K-PAX (a planet he says is in the constellation Lyra). This man is the prot-agonist of the movie and calls himself Prot (Kevin Spacey).

Excellent cinematography is one of the highlights of this movie. For example, the way Prot (pronounced pr-OAT) is introduced to the movie viewer is truly amazing. At the beginning of of the movie, we find ourselves in a busy and crowded train station and gradually the sunlight coming through the station windows brightens. Then the crowd parts and we see Prot standing in the center of the station floor with his sunglasses on. It's as if he entered the station "on a beam of light."

Eventually, Prot ends up in a mental institution and the psychiatrist that treats him is Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges). Most of the movie is concerned with the interaction and relationship that develops between Prot and Powell.

The acting, especially among the above two actors, is another highlight of this movie. Spacey does a superb job of getting across Prot's wit, humor, and extensive knowledge (especially in sciences like astronomy and physics). He also gets across Prot's passion for eating fruit. Bridges, as the psychiatrist Powell, does a great job in trying to analyze Prot. Powell finds Prot quite rational and later admits that this patient is "the most convincing delusional I've ever seen."

One of the best and most colorful scenes occurs at a planetarium where Prot demonstrates to some distinguished astonomers and astrophysicists that he knows the precise orbital pattern of his home planet in a newly discovered star system. The thing is he should not know this information! As well, Prot demonstrates certain otherworldly abilities. Thus Powell and the movie viewer don't know if Prot is indeed an extraterrestrial or a traumatized human.

Prot has a positive influence on all the people he meets especially on Dr. Powell, his family, and other patients in the mental institution. This gives the movie a certain warmth.

Suspense is created when Prot tells Powell that he must eventually return to K-PAX. As well, even though all his fellow patients want to go with him to his utopian world, he states that one can only come with him. As the announced "departure" date approaches, the question asked by Powell is: "What will happen when this day arrives?" As well, the other patients wonder whom Prot will choose to go with him.

This movie is perfect for the first 75 minutes. It retains its wit and humor for that time. After this, the movie seems to lose its humor and becomes serious. For about 15 of the remaining 45 minutes, Powell does some investigative footwork and he has no further interaction with Prot. In my opinion, this was a mistake since (as mentioned above) this story revolves around the interaction between Powell and Prot. (Note that the novel never loses its humor until the very end and an investigative reporter does all the investigative footwork thus allowing Powell and Prot to maintain their interaction.) However, some movie viewers may forgive this because the story is so engrossing.

The ending is well done. The movie ends on an ambiguous note and leaves you wondering. (However, some viewers may not think that the ending is ambiguous.) An ambiguous ending is also found in the novel.

Thus this movie ends and the end credits start rolling. The movie is over. Right? Wrong! I'm not sure why this was done (and it seems that other reviewers never noticed this), but the movie actually continues AFTER the end credits have stopped!! (I found this out by accident.) For about a minute, we have a scene (with no dialogue) where Powell is looking through a telescope at a constellation. Readers of the novel will understand what this means but those who have not read the novel will probably not understand its significance. Then the movie ends.

Yet another highlight of this movie is its music. In a word, it's--beautiful. It is hard to describe but I might call it "quiet new age." This music seems to heighten the emotion experienced in each scene.

Finally, you don't have to read the novel to understand this movie. However, if you want to understand its finer nuances, I recommend that you read the novel first.

In conclusion, this movie is one that has extraordinary acting, cinematography, and music. Be sure not to miss this magical movie so you can experience what it's like to "catch a beam of light."

**** 1/2

<=====> ... Read more

Reviews (42)

Bollywood crosses Hollywood
Ramu Gupta (Jimi Mistry) is a dance teacher to little old ladies in Delhi. One day he decides to up and leave for Hollywood to find his fame and fortune. He gets a job in an Indian restaurant but is fired not long after after he pours chicken tikka masala over an angry customer. He then auditions for a role in a movie without knowing that it's a porn film. There he meets Sharronna (Heather Graham) who is a philosophical porn star. He doesn't manage to make the film because he has a problem achieving "wood" what with being surrouned by a film crem of 20 people. During a birthday party he disguises as a swami and starts talking about sex philosophy. He meets the birthday girl Lexi (Marissa Tomei) and they start up a relationship and partnership to turn Ramu into a sex Guru who eventually becomes successful. The thing is he knows nothing about sex philosophy so has meetings with Sharronna who teaches everything she knows about sex. Slowly Ramu finds himself falling in love with Sharronna but she's already engaged to Rusty who doesn't know that she's a film star.

There are some wonderful Bollywood dance scenes in the film but there aren't too many funny lines. I thought that the premise was good but it could have been so much funnier. Watch it if you have nothing better to do.

Lealing

Funny light hearted comedy with a fresh slant!
This is a fun light hearted romantic comedy with so much going for it!
Jimi Mistry is Ramu - a star struck young actor/dancer who has come to New York to make it big. When he arrives his good friend Vijay is not driving a Mercedes and living in a Penthouse...he is driving a cab and sharing a one room apartment with 2 other young Indian men.
Ramu gets into all kinds of predicaments ( his big movie break is in a porn flick with Michael McKean as director) and ends up becoming famous as a Swami- the Guru of Sex to uptight upper east side social types with help from Marissa Tomei.
It is not his own philosophy he spouts but that of his friend Sharrona played by Heather Graham. Sharonna is a porn star trying to become a good girl by marrying a normal guy ( who has some secrets of his own).
Things roll along with ease and a light and gentle touch- the humor is at times obvious- other times more subtle.
Not a serious movie- this is a nice light flick which will stay on my DVD keeper shelf as a pick me up for dark winter days.

Some mild language ,nudity and adult situations that go with the theme.

For another light hearted Indian themed flick check out Bend it Like Beckham.

dont waste your time on this movie
I brought this movie, not with very high expectations. Inspite of powerful performance by Heather Graham, playing an adult porn star in US, with an unusual sense of spiritual sexuality , Jimi Mistri, the Indian dance teacher who had come to US to become a big shot in Hollywood, and Marisa Tomei,the American girl who is obsessed with Guru culture, the plot has its inherent shortcomings. It ranks among one of the most disastrous and desperate attempts to make a comedy. Of course this movie should not be watched even with an ounce of seriousness....but even if you are looking for some light entertainment turning off your brains for a while (as many people want to do after a week's hard work), this movie will disappoint you....people are sort of hypnotized by the GURU ,so much so that they readily shake off their pants at his slightest indication...this is most unreal... can't they come up with something better if they are so desperate to profane the Indian Guru culture? the DVD is ok...sound and picture quality is average. i will give the movie 2 stars, mainly because of some good acting from Heather, Jimi and Marisa but the plot does not even deserve one star !

Fluffy and funny
I admit, I get hooked easily. This time, it was the opening scene, a dance class full of women in beautiful saris. The dance was the Macarena, and I almost fell off my chair laughing.

After that, the movie gets off to a slow start, with Our Hero (Ram) moving to America, the land of opportunity. The opportunities aren't quite the ones he expected, or even really wanted. The first was thrust upon him when a faker of a fakir falls down drunk just before a performance. The second happens when he fails to get up for another kind of performance.

Heather Graham does a great job as a warm-hearted woman of debatable morals. Marisa Tomei also does a great job as a warm-hearted woman of debatable judgement. No spoilers, but everyone ends up happy.

It's sweet, silly amusement. It takes a while to get going, but it's worth the wait.

Avoid this
I won't spend a lot of time on this as I've already wasted 95 minutes watching it. In short, this was one of the stupidest movies I've seen. The jokes aren't funny, just crude, and the plot is banal. Don't waste your time or money. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Chutney Popcorn takes up where quirky lesbian-themed comedy Go Fish left off. The twist? Reena (director Nisha Ganatra) is of Indian descent, but her girlfriend, Lisa (Law & Order's Jill Hennessy), is not. This isn't a problem in and of itself. Reena's mother, however, views her daughter's sexual orientation as a "disability" and describes Lisa as Reena's "college roommate." Then there's Reena's uptight sister, Sarita, who discovers she can't conceive and draws even further away from her sibling. When Reena offers to be a surrogate, things just get worse. Lisa flees for fear that a baby will ruin her relationship with Reena, while Sarita changes her mind--but it's too late: Reena is pregnant (via artificial insemination). There's a happy ending, of course, but fortunately it isn't too happy--you get the sense that Sarita still has a way to go before she can accept herself as fully as her unconventional, artistic sister. --Kathleen C. Fennessy ... Read more

Reviews (29)

Jill Hennesey is great in this quirky flic
Jill Hennessey made this along with many other indy flicks between her stint on Law and Order and Crossing Jordan. I see a lot of Jordan in her character her- she is tough and guarded, yet needs friends and affirmation, hot headed yet caring.
Her lover is played subtly and with a light touch. I liked this lesbian movie- caught it on Showtime as one of their gay theme film specials. Works as a love story and a relationship movie- period. The fact that it is between 2 women is beside the point- the issues that face this couple are age old and handled well with a nice cultural flavor not seen too often in American cinema.

For my fav Indian/American romance check out Mississippi Masala with Denzil Washington.

ok
This is one of the better lesbian films. I must admit I have yet to see anything like it and I liked the fact that it dealt with other races and pregnancy options for lesbians.

Nisha Ganatra Rules!!
This is an excellent film, I first saw this movie back in June 2001, I don't know how many times I have watched it since, but from the very first time I saw Nisha I thought-Wow what a beautiful woman! The movie was and is outstanding. The other Actresses and Actors were good, too. The storyline was something positive to think about. Reminded me of my younger days, bringing out many emotions, in other words it touched me like hardly any movie has. Nisha is magic. Am looking forward to many more of her creations. This woman has it going on. I am very happy to have gotten the chance to see this movie, then own it, on VHS and DVD.

One of my favorites
Chutney Popcorn is one of the bessst cross-cultural lesbian films I've seen so far. It's not decadent or in this "admire us just because we're hot lesbians" mode, but has a plot and purpose. Above all - it's directed in a very artistic essence - the color juxtoposition and emotional interplay. Check that out next time you watch it.

...AND BABY MAKES THREE
This is a decent directorial effort by Nisha Ganatra, in this film about families, lesbian lovers, and cultural divides. This film is her first feature film and it shows in its somewhat amateurish constructs. Still, there are some flashes of promise.

Reena (Nisha Ganatra), an artist of Indian descent, and Lisa (Jill Hennessey of Law and Order and Crossing Jordan fame) are lovers, despite the fact that Reena's tradition bound Indian mother is in total denial. She is still trying to match Reena up with a member of the opposite sex, refusing to acknowledge Lisa as anything other than Reena's roommate.

When Sarita (Sakina Jeffrey), Reena's older sister gets married, she soon discovers that she is infertile. Reena offers to be a surrogate mom, and Sarita initially agrees. After some failed attempts through a fertility clinic, Reena, with the cooperation of Sarita's husband, Mitch, decides to get pregnant the old fashioned way, at home by using a turkey baster. She succeeds where the specialists failed.

Unfortunately, this causes problems with her relationship with Lisa, who is initially unable to come to terms with Reena's pregnancy and what it will mean to their relationship. Sarita is also having difficulty, changing her mind when it is too late to turn back. She sees it as a reminder of her own failing and questions the impact that it will have on her life and marriage. Reena's and Sarita's mother, however, grasps the irony of the situation, and eventually comes to terms with it, as well as with the nature of Reena's and Lisa's relationship.

Nisha Ganatra should have concentrated on just directing this film, rather than acting in it, as she is no actress and is the weak link in the cast. Moreover, there appears to be little chemistry between her and Jill Hennessey, which does not help the film. There are, however, some very funny moments in this moderately entertaining film, having mostly to do with the character of the mother.

As a director Ms. Ganatra displays some promise. It is hoped that in the future she will concentrate on where her talents seem to lie. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Employing shock techniques and sound design in a relentless sensory assault, Requiem for a Dream is about nothing less than the systematic destruction of hope. Based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr., and adapted by Selby and director Darren Aronofsky, this is undoubtedly one of the most effective films ever made about the experience of drug addiction (both euphoric and nightmarish), and few would deny that Aronofsky, in following his breakthrough film Pi, has pushed the medium to a disturbing extreme, thrusting conventional narrative into a panic zone of traumatized psyches and bodies pushed to the furthest boundaries of chemical tolerance. It's too easy to call this a cautionary tale; it's a guided tour through hell, with Aronofsky as our bold and ruthless host.

The film focuses on a quartet of doomed souls, but it's Ellen Burstyn--in a raw and bravely triumphant performance--who most desperately embodies the downward spiral of drug abuse. As lonely widow Sara Goldfarb, she invests all of her dreams in an absurd self-help TV game show, jolting her bloodstream with diet pills and coffee while her son Harry (Jared Leto) shoots heroin with his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) and slumming girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly). They're careening toward madness at varying speeds, and Aronofsky tracks this gloomy process by endlessly repeating the imagery of their deadly routines. Tormented by her dietary regime, Sara even imagines a carnivorous refrigerator in one of the film's most memorable scenes. And yet... does any of this have a point? Is Aronofsky telling us anything that any sane person doesn't already know? Requiem for a Dream is a noteworthy film, but watching it twice would qualify as masochistic behavior. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (710)

A truly horrific masterpiece
"Requiem for a Dream," directed by Darren Aronofsky, affected me like few other films I've ever seen. "Requiem" tells the intertwined stories of Sara Goldfarb, a lonely widow (Ellen Burstyn), her son Harry (Jared Leto), Harry's girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly), and Harry's best friend (Marlon Wayans). As Sara sinks into a nightmare of prescription drug addiction, her son experiences a parallel hell of "street" drugs. Thus, the film explore two sides of drug addiction in the life of a single family.

Aronofsky directs this film brilliantly, and his ensemble cast gives outstanding performances. Ellen Burstyn is heartbreaking in the starring role. In addition to the principal actors mentioned above, Christopher McDonald gives a creepy performance as a talk-show host with whom Sara is obsessed.

This is an incredibly intense, upsetting film. Never before have I seen such graphic and relentless images shown in a theater. Aronofsky turns his cinematic eye on the extremes of human suffering, disorientation, and exploitation, and he never flinches. The images and sounds he presents were, to me, more upsetting than Holocaust video, Klan rally footage, or other real-life horrific material which I have seen over the years. And most conventional horror films will look like children's cartoons next to this movie. The final 20 or so minutes of the film are particularly intense; the unsettling musical score and sound effects blend perfectly with Aronofsky's visual symphony of pain.

Despite the shocking images, I did not find "Requiem" to be exploitative. I believe this is because Aronofsky never loses sight of the humanity of these characters. Sara and the others are not just cinematic "cannon fodder"; they are characters with whom, despite their faults, we can empathize.

"Requiem" is a technical tour-de-force. Be warned: the graphic scenes of sexual exploitation, cruelty, and suffering will, I believe, be simply too much for many viewers to bear. But the discriminating film lover may, like me, find "Requiem" to be a haunting masterpiece.

a beautifully tragic film with stunning visuals
Wow. I just saw Requiem For A Dream for the first time. I don't really know what to say about it. What a stunning film. Gorgeously filmed, beautiful visuals...wholly depressing...crystal clear filmmaking. Excellent performances by the cast. The story almost seems inconsequential somehow (even though it's not)...mostly, I felt like I was was watching a moving painting.

Ellen Burstyn's performance as the mother, a lonely widow whose hope of being on TV (so that her loser son and deceased husband would be proud of her) leads to an addiction to diet pills and a severe case of dementia, was one of the finest moments of acting I believe I've ever seen.

The film style itself employs a variety of different camera angles, split screens, and some truly beautiful juxtapositions. The scenes become darker, more jagged and frantic, as the movie progresses and the four main characters spiral steadily downward.

The music and the sound in this film is also extremely powerful. The popping of pill bottles, the quitly mocking laughter of the empty mailbox...those are the two sounds that really stick out for me. Then the music, the haunting background theme that plays nearly constantly over much of the film, will stick in your mind and haunt you long after the movie has ended.

I believe everyone I know that has seen this movie has loved it, and I have to say that despite its disturbing content, I really loved it too. That said, this is definitely one of those films that people will either love or hate...it's really not a middle-ground type of movie. It's truly an example of movies as an art form. As you can see from my first impressions of it there, first viewings of it seem to lend themselves more to the art of the filmmaking itself rather than the actual content of the movie...it was so clear cut that I don't think there's a lot left to 'understand', but at the same time, repeated viewings will likely be necessary just to let it sink in.

I resisted watching it for a very long time because no one could tell me why they loved it so much and I had it in my head that it was going to be 'just another of those stupid drug movies'. I understand now why they couldn't explain it, and I only wish I could explain it myself. :) Unfortunately, I think I'm going to fall short of that wish tonight.

Disturbing, Graphic and Great
I went to this movie hearing plenty of buzz about how graphic the content was. Over the course of the movie you see just how Aronofsky wants to send his message to the audience. The characters start off with somewhat mild addictions and then next thing you know the four main characters are living in hell. I couldn't believe how low they all fell. This movie may be the greatest anti-drug message of all time. I dare anybody to watch this and to not be touched and frightened by these characters. Before the movie started I noticed the audience was quite loud and garrulous, but as it ended and the credits rolled the whole place was stone cold silent. It was amazing.

As a whole I felt the movie was excellent. The visuals were well done and the editing was outstanding. The actors really put themselves into their roles. Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly had very good chemistry, while Marlon Wayans showed he is a talented actor and not just a talented comic. Ellen Burstyn. Wow! She was amazing. I can't believe an older woman would allow herself to be filmed like that. She has some serious guts. Hands down the best female performance I've watched this year, not even close. I was totally amazed by her.

All in all, I would say Requiem For a Dream is a great movie. It had a profound impact on me and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I watched it on opening night. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone. This is a movie everyone should see, but unfortunately not enough will.

A dream of a Movie
Ooooooh baby!
If one appreciates Independent Films, this is one of the best.
Three characters (mostly)--- Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connelly, and Jared Leto make up the brilliant cast.

each of them despartely stuck in situations they appear they cannot get out of, each of them pathetically sick (in different ways), each of them will grab the viewer by the neck and demand their full attention.

they will get it.

Ellen Burstyn in one of the most superb roles of her career...absolutley stunning as the old, lonely, heart-wrenching widow with nothing to look forward to except a pathetic, no-mind game show.

Jennifer Connelly and Jared Leto as heroine junkies...who need it so bad they steal, lie, she sells her body, performs at stag parties---and all of this for a temporary high.

This movie is powerful, will bring you out of your seat (if you're alive), will bring you into places you do not want to be, dark, lonely, bug-filled filth.
But you'll stay...because you cannot bring yourself to leave..,
because you want so much for the characters to change, to be what they are meant to be.

But they don't---they only take up space---only exist while life happens around them. They are like bugs, moving, eating, breathing, but really nothing. Nothing.

This movie was directed beautifully, multi-layered, poetry on the screen (the kind of poetry that will make you cry, feel, and think about for weeks on end.

Another film about what happens when you do drugs.
Alright the plot is simple. A movie about four individuals who are junkies. Three are addicted to illegal drugs and one is addicted to prescription drugs. This movie has been done before. But what sets it apart is how the movie reflects the four seasons. The movie starts with the excruciating heat of summer where the four characters becomes agitated, restless, due to drugs. Then Fall, which means when their lives starts to unravel before being doomed to the the dark uncertainties of drugs. Winter becomes their death. When we think of winter we think of bare tress, lifeless like the characters. The director associated the lives of the four individuals with the four seasons. Except at the end there is no spring because spring is hope, spring is a where life starts again. For them there is none anymore. A simple plot based on how we live our lives with the seasons of changes. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

My All Time Favorite Movie
Whatever you do, don't miss this jewel. I have enjoyed this movie since it came out in 1988. Frankly, it remains my favorite all time movie. This movie is just PURE FUN to watch and moves along in a brilliant manner. You can't watch this movie without laughing out load. Now, isn't this the reason we watch movies? The complete cast should be applauded for a wonderful performance. If you have not seen this movie, buy it or rent it as fast as you can and join in the FUN!

This is quite an exquisite movie.
WOW! what excellent promos. You cant do any better, I mean Judge Reinhold and fred savage in the same film. It is a really good movie. Al i've got to say is, "GIMMIE TWO FOR MALICE"

Vice Versa
Judge Reinhold was very funny transforming into a young boy. But the most amazing thing in the whole picture is my ex-wife, Michelle Philpot. She was brilliant as the cosmetic salesgirl; smearing eye cream on the bad guy. She was amazingly beautiful and funny in her short but sweet part. I still feel proud when I see the movie and, by the way, I own it! Look for her 51 minutes into the film. Everyone on the set gave her the nickname Pebbles. Watch it and you'll see why!