Reviews

I enjoyed this film. I think that reviewers who claim it had nothing more to say than "plastic surgery is bad" are really refusing to dig critically into the themes of the film. It is about identity; it is about jealousy and fear; it is about vanity. These aren't exactly "easy" themes, and while I do think that the insanity of the heroine do make it difficult to relate to at times, the film had a lot to say that is applicable to all of us.. not just jealous nuts. That being said, I definitely viewed the film as a fable (especially because of the last scene). In some ways it reminded me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with this weird sense of starting with a clean slate.

The idea of not being able to recognize a past lover is extremely disturbing to me personally, and so I might have allowed myself to get taken in by this film more than some people would. Even so, I think that the film was executed very well and deserves high marks.

This movie has been criticized as being too long by many critics and viewers. Personally, I didn't find the movie's length to be excessive at all. There wasn't a single moment of the film that didn't add to its impact. I recommend that everyone see this film at least once. I'm not sure I'll be able to watch it ever again because the execution scenes were very upsetting, and I've never cried so much in a movie theater before (I almost hyperventilated). The ending was also rather depressing (at least the message I took from it personally was depressing). Still I still think it was an excellently written, acted, and directed film, well worth the three hours.

Heat is one of my favorite movies, and is definitely my favorite of the action film genre. My cousin (a male) told me he didn't like the film because there was too much "romance and c**p" in it. This seems to be a shared opinion with many of my guy friends.

Personally, I don't find action sequences all that interesting... something blows up, someone gets shot, someone gets punched, and that's the end of it.

I fell asleep during Lethal Weapon 4 in the movie theater. It is hard for me to care that much about what happens to a character during an action sequence when all that I have seen of him so far is his ability to handle action sequences, or maybe his sexual prowess in the occasional gratuitous sex scene.

I am a audience member who is begging to care about the main characters in a film.

Heat shows more of its characters' lives than just violence and action. It let's us into their personal worlds and shows us their relationships with lovers and friends. Heat makes me care about the people involved. I like that.

I like for instance, that we see DeNiro's character have a somewhat awkward conversation with a girl in a diner, or Pacino's character lose his temper over his step-daughter's emotional problems. These scenes, which my cousin would have cut out, make the characters real. It makes them three dimensional. It makes them people.

And I care a whole lot more about what happens to a bunch of people than I do a bunch of cartoony action heros.

This is why I hold my breath during the robbery scene, and wonder nervously who will come out on top during the final showdown between DeNiro and Pacino.

Heat gives me something to care about, and for that, I give it a 9 out of 10.

Sorry, I had to break up the monotony of review after review that essentially all read like this: "The Matrix is AWESOME!"

I'm as much of a Keanu Reeves fan as the next girl... I even think that he did a decent job in Much Ado About Nothing, but I was very disappointed in his performance in this movie. His acting was so wooden that I rarely sensed any well-conveyed emotion.

Also, what was up with the writing? I remember when I first saw the trailer for this movie, I laughed for weeks over the fact that the shot of a supposedly amazed Keanu saying "whoa" in a breathy voice was the highlight of the 30 second advertisement. There were several points during the ridiculously absurd and unbelievable movie that caused both my date and me to guffaw when we saw it on the big screen.

One thing I do have to say in the Matrix's favor is that it looked pretty damn good (this description does include Keanu, by the way, who looks excellent in the wardrobe they gave him). Lately a lot of bad computer generated effects have made their way into movies, but this one was nearly visually perfect. Some of the scenes involving the twisting of reality were pretty amazing. If only the actors could have been as convincing as the effects... and if only the plot they had to support wasn't so silly, I might feel differently about this film.