Reviews (92)

Captain Ron
For a Wildly hilarious re-watchable comedy, this is your film. My review is of the movie as this is written pre-DVD. This film has the family of Martain Short, beautiful independent decorator wife and 8 year old son and 16 going on 25 yr old daughter all thrown together on an inherited sailboat they must sail back from the Caribe! They get the aid of one-eyed Captn Ron, a patch eyed Kurt Russel who seems to have no credentials, but to perturb Martain Short when against logic, he comes through time after time when the chips are down in the most humorous ways possible. Scene after scene has so much humor you can't pick it all up in one showing. Kurt Russell and Martian Short as Captn Ron and the father/ships owner are perfectly cast. You will not regret this film and if you are like a lot of folks will end up knowing many of the lines and jokes, the recollection of which will brighten your day with a smile long after the movie. Has a happy heart warming ending, some suspense, and a generally upbeat tone more movies should have. It's many sailors' favorite. I personally loved Steve Martain in The Jerk and to me they both rank one and two in terms of modern comedy movies. Suitable for a whole family and with a gut splitting ending.

That's okay, Boss, it could happen to anyone!
Even Captain Ron! Finally, on DVD!!! This is my family's favorite movie. We know all the lines and recite them along with the movie, and we still laugh so hard it hurts. Plus, the wisdom of Captain Ron helps bring humor into MANY real-life events. Something goes wrong at work? Just say, "That's okay, Boss, it could happen to anyone" and make everyone else wonder why you're smirking. Having trouble merging onto the freeway? Just say, "They'll get out of the way, they always do. Learned that driving the Saratoga." MUST HAVE DVD!!! CAN'T WAIT!!! Planning to buy several copies of the DVD. (rating the VHS version) (FYI, boaters, especially sailors, will probably find this movie more funny than land-lubbers.)

Don't cost much
Why are all the good movies so cheap within a month of me buying them? Try this one out. Don't cost much and it's worth a whole lot more.

Lets not get to serious here
This is just a fun movie. Yes, it is unbelievable, yes it is a bit dorky but hey so is Disneyland and it's a lot of fun. If you like movies like Goonies ect then get this film.

Funnier than it should be
First off, I laughed throughout this film. I suppose it qualifies as a 'guilty pleasure' since it isn't (and doesn't pretend to be) the Citizen Kane of boating flicks.

Kurt Russell gives an excellent comedic performance, something that isn't always easy to do. He plays his role straight, and really lets the antics of Martin Short and the rest of his family play off him. I love the scene where Russell is sleeping, and the daughter notices that he has his patch on the wrong eye...is Captain Ron for real, or a con man, or worse...?

This film brings a smile to my face whenever I watch it, or even think of a scene, or line, here or there. And what more do you want a comedy to do? Buy the film...you'll watch it more than once.

The cinematography is excellent, the boat beautiful, the Caribbean never looked better, and it's as good-naturedly funny as heck.

Recommended. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

hey! i'm back ! i love it
you know i just read comments about the nanny that i didn't really like so that's another reason why i'm back . i'm here to support the nanny all the way even when the show's over. i'm a nanny lover and the video is great . ok so now that i'm feeling better hey but it!see it!love it! you'll see what i mean , i promise you . the colombian franyfan. nannyfans are forever. maria.

A Fun Spin on the Television Show
All the characters from TV's 'The Nanny' (sans Grandma Yetta,Sylvia and Val) come together for the animated episode dealing with Christmas.

Even Chester the dog talks,and C.C. is a REAL ice princess! Fran and Max get a chance to become more romantic in this episode (exept that he is Santa Claus!)

The characters are drawn the way they appear in the animated opening theme song,and it really is a great way to celebrate Christmas.

This is a cartoon!
Boy, I was hopping to see a real nanny. I like Fran but was not crazy about the 25 min. cartoon.

A Holiday Cartoon Classic!
If you are looking for an original, creative, and hilarious Christmas special for the entire family to watch...check this one out. Fran Drescher is hilarious and the rest of The Nanny cast lends their voices in this clever and well written take on the holidays. A great gift idea for all!!

GREAT! VERY FUNNY!
buy this tape! I love the nanny ... Read more

Reviews (81)

One of the most pleasing Hollywood satires in ages
Sadly it is often the case that Hollywood is unlikely to laugh at itself, but Simone is a rare example. After the lead actress on Viktor Taransky's (Al Pacino) latest movie walks out he's left footing a huge bill, unless he can find a suitable replacement in time. In steps a crazy computer genius who has created Simulation One, a piece of software that can create a digital actress - Simone - who won't walk out on her film, will always follow her director's guidelines and can also channel equal parts Meryl Streep and Audrey Hepburn through use of a complicated network.

What makes Simone so enjoyable is that it's very very clever without sacrificing its humour. As the attention is shifted away from Taransky and onto Simone, issues of creation versus creator and the fickleness of an audience are brought into play. Whilst the scales tip and Simone overshadows Taransky, he attempts to sabotage her in interviews and even on film with the deliberately atrocious yet attributed to Simone production I Am Pig. Here the nature of celebrity is explored in its entireity, even if not in the most surprising way.

Al Pacino gives a nicely lighthearted turn as the troubled Taransky and kudos should go to Winona Ryder for sending herself up so well. Unfortunately, Catherine Keener (so good in Being John Malkovich) isn't given much to work with, but apart from that the casting is pretty much spot-on. In addition, there are some absolutely hilarious scenes, most involving Taransky's attempt to sabotage Simone by making her say controversial things concerning smoking, immigration and the flavour of dolphin meat. All of this is great stuff, milked for every penny it's worth. Whilst the satire might not be as coldly effective as it was in Niccol's previous work Gattaca, it's certainly timely and at the end of the day just plain enjoyable.

A Star is Simone
Simone is a very interesting film about an aging director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) who is making a film called Sunrise Sunset and his leading lady Nicola (Winona Ryder) drops off of the set. With little time left to find an actress who will play the role, he receives a CD-Rom from a man named Hank who died recently and had an idea of how Taransky could solve his problem. In goes the disk and poof! Simone (a.k.a. Simulation One) is born. Simone (played by the beautiful Rachel Roberts) is the very actress that Taransky needs and is an instant hit with everyone. Simone's popularity leads to dozens of magazine cover shots, her own perfume, record deal, and an Oscar for Best Actress. Taransky becomes overwhelmed with trying to keep people from believing that something's up and tries to ruin her reputation but everyone still loves her! I won't tell you the end of the movie but in real life nobody could possibly get away with that act for that long. but that is the beauty benind Simone. It drags a little at the beginning and sometimes gets a little dull but is still a good film. The ending is very interesting and leaves the door open for a sequel but judging by the fact that this film didn't do too well at the box office, a sequel will most likely not be coming.

A wealth of riches that should have been so much better
Andrew Niccol, writer of director's Peter Weir's highly entertaining and thought-provoking "The Truman Show" takes the helm by directing what I see as an interesting and recurring theme in his work. In both "Truman" and "Simone," Niccol seems postulate that we accept almost everything in our lives without close examination. He goes further to theorize that sometimes what we tend to believe what we are shown even more that what we see for ourselves even if we take the time for a cursory examination. This perspective is particularly appropriate with regard as to how we are in such awe of celebrities and think that whatever they do is worth reading/talking about.

In my opinion, he's on to something, but although "Simone" begins with an interesting premise, Niccol squanders the opportunity and the end result is neither thought-provoking, sufficiently funny, or ever believable at any level even as satire. Although I generally hate to give anything away about the movies that I review, I will get into the main premise, so if you know nothing about this movie, you may want to skip the rest of the review. The movie starts out with much promise as director Viktor Taransky (played by the always great to watch Al Pacino) is having major issues with his impossible to please leading lady Nicola Anders (played with over the top gusto by Winona Rider). Since Nicola believes that she's not being treated like the star that she is, she walks out of the movie before it is finished due to what will be termed the usual "creative differences," even though it's all about ego.

At this point the movie had me hooked as I started to anticipate a satire/spoof of Hollywood a la "The Player" or the creation of an alternate universe a la "The Truman Show," or even better something that would up the ante on both. Regrettably, what follows is a mess. Due to circumstances that are best left unrevealed, Viktor is able to create "Simone," a computer generated actress who does not act like a diva and winds up charming all of Hollywood. It still sounds like it has potential, does it not?

Well, not when the movie never makes a convincing case that Simone is a good actress (in fact her scenes are not very good, but with only one exception, they don't seem to be intended to be funny) or on the other hand the movie does not make the case that her universal appeal might due to her beauty or any "X" factor that it was computer generated that somehow convinced or hypnotized people overlook her obvious lack of talent.

What follows are many attempts to be "zany" as everyone wants a piece of Simone, but that can't happen since she's not real; notwithstanding Vikotr attempts to give the people what they want in ways thar are not as funny or suspenseful as they could have been. Then the movie totally runs out of the little steam it generated entirely by rounding up the story in such a sappy and absolutely unsatisfying way, that you wind up feeling not only bored but cheated.

The performances are good all across. Catherine Keener plays Viktor's ex-wife with great aplomb and Evan Rachel Wood (a future superstar) plays his daughter. Winona Ryder also appears later in the movie and has a scene with Pacino that simply steals the movie; however in the end the story and its execution are so ridiculous that it's impossible to take the characters or their situations seriously or even laugh with/at them. Accordingly if you don't buy what you are seeing nor care what happens, it is a clear sign that the movie has failed even at a base level. It's a shame to see such an interesting premise with such a talented cast totally wasted.

As it stands Niccol does not do anything to further or make fun of a technological practice that is already with us to different degrees. First came actors doing their thing in front blue screens to enhance action/suspense movies. Then came the ability to create of masses of people via just a few to add magnitude to certain scenes/movies requiring scale. Just recently an integral character in "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy was the result of a marriage of an actor and computer animation, and there was talk of an Oscar nomination for the actor "part" of the character. Simone is already with us, but she would not be receiving double Oscar nominations for her feeble seductions in the real world, nor does the movie create one to make such a premise possible.

I give "Simone" 2 stars only because of Winona Ryder's short but vital scenes and because the cast is top-notch even as the movie falls deeper and deeper into a third rate sitcom. I hope that Niccol's next project is more than just a concept as I am sure that the mind that wrote "The Truman Show" is capable of taking a premise and making it work within its own universe.

Very good and interesting insight into cult of celebraty.
Humans will worship anything, be it a wooden statue, sports hero or movie star as shown by the excellent and amusing "Simone". This film stars Al Pacino as Viktor Taransky, a washed up movie director who is given a program by an odd man that enables him to create a virtual movie star. As he is fed up with snotty movie stars such as the annoying woman played by Winona Ryder, he soon starts making films using his virtual star Simone (short for simulation one) played by the easy on the eyes Rachel Roberts.

I enjoyed this film for many reasons. It's fun, witty, and realistic and really exposes our society's stupid obsession with stupid movies or rock stars. In this culture of instant celebrates such as those created on awful reality tv shows like "idol" , it's refreshing to see something like this come out of hollywood. As the song says: "there ain't no hope in brad and jen, stop grovelling at their feet. You worship any mortal man who lights up the silver screen."

God is the only one worthy of worship .

Thanks for reading.

Someone...should have said "hey, wait a minute"
The basic premise of S1m0ne sounds promising. However, as is the case with many movies having one person with too much control (written/directed/produced by same person in this case), someone needed to say "hey, wait a minute. What about...?"

What about computer technology? Using a 5.25 floppy in the movie is bad enough. Having a computer-illiterate movie director suddenly have instantaneous knowledge (and a dedicated keyboard) of a rather complex software package on a run-of-the -mill PC was a major stumbling block.

What about driving a car in the reclined position (with a mannequin in the driver seat)? The less said about that, the better.

What about having a teenage girl as the hero? (Well, technically, she was 12, but it's about the same thing). Never having any exposure to Dad's afore-mentioned-mediocre PC-with- fantastic-software, she is quite the hero on it.

With these three major blunders out of the way, the rest of the movie had unrewarded promise and yet, it was still mildly entertaining. I liked Winona Ryder for some reason. I would suggest renting rather than buying. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An exciting adventure in the Nome King's caverns
This film is a good choice, I would recommend it for most anyone who likes L. Frank Baum's Oz books. The writers borrowed some of the best ideas from there. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

oz kids mania
This is the greatest movie of all time!Just a couple weeks ago i bought this movie here at Amazon and could't wait to recive it in the mail.One evenig as my mom was reading the mail she saw a pakage that said my dads name on it so she called me over and told me to open the pakage. and inside the pakage was the oz kids toto lost in new york video!I ran inside to tell my sister and we both wached it together!I think you shoud buy this movie to!

My daughter loves this
My daughter has been watching Wizard of Oz since she was an infant. Now that she is older it is scary to her. So I searched out an Oz Kids video and thought this one would be a good start since it has a familiar characher (Toto) in the title. She loves it and asks for it several times everyday. She hasn't been scared by it and in fact claps and laughs at different scenes. ... Read more

Reviews (81)

One of the most pleasing Hollywood satires in ages
Sadly it is often the case that Hollywood is unlikely to laugh at itself, but Simone is a rare example. After the lead actress on Viktor Taransky's (Al Pacino) latest movie walks out he's left footing a huge bill, unless he can find a suitable replacement in time. In steps a crazy computer genius who has created Simulation One, a piece of software that can create a digital actress - Simone - who won't walk out on her film, will always follow her director's guidelines and can also channel equal parts Meryl Streep and Audrey Hepburn through use of a complicated network.

What makes Simone so enjoyable is that it's very very clever without sacrificing its humour. As the attention is shifted away from Taransky and onto Simone, issues of creation versus creator and the fickleness of an audience are brought into play. Whilst the scales tip and Simone overshadows Taransky, he attempts to sabotage her in interviews and even on film with the deliberately atrocious yet attributed to Simone production I Am Pig. Here the nature of celebrity is explored in its entireity, even if not in the most surprising way.

Al Pacino gives a nicely lighthearted turn as the troubled Taransky and kudos should go to Winona Ryder for sending herself up so well. Unfortunately, Catherine Keener (so good in Being John Malkovich) isn't given much to work with, but apart from that the casting is pretty much spot-on. In addition, there are some absolutely hilarious scenes, most involving Taransky's attempt to sabotage Simone by making her say controversial things concerning smoking, immigration and the flavour of dolphin meat. All of this is great stuff, milked for every penny it's worth. Whilst the satire might not be as coldly effective as it was in Niccol's previous work Gattaca, it's certainly timely and at the end of the day just plain enjoyable.

A Star is Simone
Simone is a very interesting film about an aging director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) who is making a film called Sunrise Sunset and his leading lady Nicola (Winona Ryder) drops off of the set. With little time left to find an actress who will play the role, he receives a CD-Rom from a man named Hank who died recently and had an idea of how Taransky could solve his problem. In goes the disk and poof! Simone (a.k.a. Simulation One) is born. Simone (played by the beautiful Rachel Roberts) is the very actress that Taransky needs and is an instant hit with everyone. Simone's popularity leads to dozens of magazine cover shots, her own perfume, record deal, and an Oscar for Best Actress. Taransky becomes overwhelmed with trying to keep people from believing that something's up and tries to ruin her reputation but everyone still loves her! I won't tell you the end of the movie but in real life nobody could possibly get away with that act for that long. but that is the beauty benind Simone. It drags a little at the beginning and sometimes gets a little dull but is still a good film. The ending is very interesting and leaves the door open for a sequel but judging by the fact that this film didn't do too well at the box office, a sequel will most likely not be coming.

A wealth of riches that should have been so much better
Andrew Niccol, writer of director's Peter Weir's highly entertaining and thought-provoking "The Truman Show" takes the helm by directing what I see as an interesting and recurring theme in his work. In both "Truman" and "Simone," Niccol seems postulate that we accept almost everything in our lives without close examination. He goes further to theorize that sometimes what we tend to believe what we are shown even more that what we see for ourselves even if we take the time for a cursory examination. This perspective is particularly appropriate with regard as to how we are in such awe of celebrities and think that whatever they do is worth reading/talking about.

In my opinion, he's on to something, but although "Simone" begins with an interesting premise, Niccol squanders the opportunity and the end result is neither thought-provoking, sufficiently funny, or ever believable at any level even as satire. Although I generally hate to give anything away about the movies that I review, I will get into the main premise, so if you know nothing about this movie, you may want to skip the rest of the review. The movie starts out with much promise as director Viktor Taransky (played by the always great to watch Al Pacino) is having major issues with his impossible to please leading lady Nicola Anders (played with over the top gusto by Winona Rider). Since Nicola believes that she's not being treated like the star that she is, she walks out of the movie before it is finished due to what will be termed the usual "creative differences," even though it's all about ego.

At this point the movie had me hooked as I started to anticipate a satire/spoof of Hollywood a la "The Player" or the creation of an alternate universe a la "The Truman Show," or even better something that would up the ante on both. Regrettably, what follows is a mess. Due to circumstances that are best left unrevealed, Viktor is able to create "Simone," a computer generated actress who does not act like a diva and winds up charming all of Hollywood. It still sounds like it has potential, does it not?

Well, not when the movie never makes a convincing case that Simone is a good actress (in fact her scenes are not very good, but with only one exception, they don't seem to be intended to be funny) or on the other hand the movie does not make the case that her universal appeal might due to her beauty or any "X" factor that it was computer generated that somehow convinced or hypnotized people overlook her obvious lack of talent.

What follows are many attempts to be "zany" as everyone wants a piece of Simone, but that can't happen since she's not real; notwithstanding Vikotr attempts to give the people what they want in ways thar are not as funny or suspenseful as they could have been. Then the movie totally runs out of the little steam it generated entirely by rounding up the story in such a sappy and absolutely unsatisfying way, that you wind up feeling not only bored but cheated.

The performances are good all across. Catherine Keener plays Viktor's ex-wife with great aplomb and Evan Rachel Wood (a future superstar) plays his daughter. Winona Ryder also appears later in the movie and has a scene with Pacino that simply steals the movie; however in the end the story and its execution are so ridiculous that it's impossible to take the characters or their situations seriously or even laugh with/at them. Accordingly if you don't buy what you are seeing nor care what happens, it is a clear sign that the movie has failed even at a base level. It's a shame to see such an interesting premise with such a talented cast totally wasted.

As it stands Niccol does not do anything to further or make fun of a technological practice that is already with us to different degrees. First came actors doing their thing in front blue screens to enhance action/suspense movies. Then came the ability to create of masses of people via just a few to add magnitude to certain scenes/movies requiring scale. Just recently an integral character in "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy was the result of a marriage of an actor and computer animation, and there was talk of an Oscar nomination for the actor "part" of the character. Simone is already with us, but she would not be receiving double Oscar nominations for her feeble seductions in the real world, nor does the movie create one to make such a premise possible.

I give "Simone" 2 stars only because of Winona Ryder's short but vital scenes and because the cast is top-notch even as the movie falls deeper and deeper into a third rate sitcom. I hope that Niccol's next project is more than just a concept as I am sure that the mind that wrote "The Truman Show" is capable of taking a premise and making it work within its own universe.

Very good and interesting insight into cult of celebraty.
Humans will worship anything, be it a wooden statue, sports hero or movie star as shown by the excellent and amusing "Simone". This film stars Al Pacino as Viktor Taransky, a washed up movie director who is given a program by an odd man that enables him to create a virtual movie star. As he is fed up with snotty movie stars such as the annoying woman played by Winona Ryder, he soon starts making films using his virtual star Simone (short for simulation one) played by the easy on the eyes Rachel Roberts.

I enjoyed this film for many reasons. It's fun, witty, and realistic and really exposes our society's stupid obsession with stupid movies or rock stars. In this culture of instant celebrates such as those created on awful reality tv shows like "idol" , it's refreshing to see something like this come out of hollywood. As the song says: "there ain't no hope in brad and jen, stop grovelling at their feet. You worship any mortal man who lights up the silver screen."

God is the only one worthy of worship .

Thanks for reading.

Someone...should have said "hey, wait a minute"
The basic premise of S1m0ne sounds promising. However, as is the case with many movies having one person with too much control (written/directed/produced by same person in this case), someone needed to say "hey, wait a minute. What about...?"

What about computer technology? Using a 5.25 floppy in the movie is bad enough. Having a computer-illiterate movie director suddenly have instantaneous knowledge (and a dedicated keyboard) of a rather complex software package on a run-of-the -mill PC was a major stumbling block.

What about driving a car in the reclined position (with a mannequin in the driver seat)? The less said about that, the better.

What about having a teenage girl as the hero? (Well, technically, she was 12, but it's about the same thing). Never having any exposure to Dad's afore-mentioned-mediocre PC-with- fantastic-software, she is quite the hero on it.

With these three major blunders out of the way, the rest of the movie had unrewarded promise and yet, it was still mildly entertaining. I liked Winona Ryder for some reason. I would suggest renting rather than buying. ... Read more

Reviews (81)

One of the most pleasing Hollywood satires in ages
Sadly it is often the case that Hollywood is unlikely to laugh at itself, but Simone is a rare example. After the lead actress on Viktor Taransky's (Al Pacino) latest movie walks out he's left footing a huge bill, unless he can find a suitable replacement in time. In steps a crazy computer genius who has created Simulation One, a piece of software that can create a digital actress - Simone - who won't walk out on her film, will always follow her director's guidelines and can also channel equal parts Meryl Streep and Audrey Hepburn through use of a complicated network.

What makes Simone so enjoyable is that it's very very clever without sacrificing its humour. As the attention is shifted away from Taransky and onto Simone, issues of creation versus creator and the fickleness of an audience are brought into play. Whilst the scales tip and Simone overshadows Taransky, he attempts to sabotage her in interviews and even on film with the deliberately atrocious yet attributed to Simone production I Am Pig. Here the nature of celebrity is explored in its entireity, even if not in the most surprising way.

Al Pacino gives a nicely lighthearted turn as the troubled Taransky and kudos should go to Winona Ryder for sending herself up so well. Unfortunately, Catherine Keener (so good in Being John Malkovich) isn't given much to work with, but apart from that the casting is pretty much spot-on. In addition, there are some absolutely hilarious scenes, most involving Taransky's attempt to sabotage Simone by making her say controversial things concerning smoking, immigration and the flavour of dolphin meat. All of this is great stuff, milked for every penny it's worth. Whilst the satire might not be as coldly effective as it was in Niccol's previous work Gattaca, it's certainly timely and at the end of the day just plain enjoyable.

A Star is Simone
Simone is a very interesting film about an aging director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) who is making a film called Sunrise Sunset and his leading lady Nicola (Winona Ryder) drops off of the set. With little time left to find an actress who will play the role, he receives a CD-Rom from a man named Hank who died recently and had an idea of how Taransky could solve his problem. In goes the disk and poof! Simone (a.k.a. Simulation One) is born. Simone (played by the beautiful Rachel Roberts) is the very actress that Taransky needs and is an instant hit with everyone. Simone's popularity leads to dozens of magazine cover shots, her own perfume, record deal, and an Oscar for Best Actress. Taransky becomes overwhelmed with trying to keep people from believing that something's up and tries to ruin her reputation but everyone still loves her! I won't tell you the end of the movie but in real life nobody could possibly get away with that act for that long. but that is the beauty benind Simone. It drags a little at the beginning and sometimes gets a little dull but is still a good film. The ending is very interesting and leaves the door open for a sequel but judging by the fact that this film didn't do too well at the box office, a sequel will most likely not be coming.

A wealth of riches that should have been so much better
Andrew Niccol, writer of director's Peter Weir's highly entertaining and thought-provoking "The Truman Show" takes the helm by directing what I see as an interesting and recurring theme in his work. In both "Truman" and "Simone," Niccol seems postulate that we accept almost everything in our lives without close examination. He goes further to theorize that sometimes what we tend to believe what we are shown even more that what we see for ourselves even if we take the time for a cursory examination. This perspective is particularly appropriate with regard as to how we are in such awe of celebrities and think that whatever they do is worth reading/talking about.

In my opinion, he's on to something, but although "Simone" begins with an interesting premise, Niccol squanders the opportunity and the end result is neither thought-provoking, sufficiently funny, or ever believable at any level even as satire. Although I generally hate to give anything away about the movies that I review, I will get into the main premise, so if you know nothing about this movie, you may want to skip the rest of the review. The movie starts out with much promise as director Viktor Taransky (played by the always great to watch Al Pacino) is having major issues with his impossible to please leading lady Nicola Anders (played with over the top gusto by Winona Rider). Since Nicola believes that she's not being treated like the star that she is, she walks out of the movie before it is finished due to what will be termed the usual "creative differences," even though it's all about ego.

At this point the movie had me hooked as I started to anticipate a satire/spoof of Hollywood a la "The Player" or the creation of an alternate universe a la "The Truman Show," or even better something that would up the ante on both. Regrettably, what follows is a mess. Due to circumstances that are best left unrevealed, Viktor is able to create "Simone," a computer generated actress who does not act like a diva and winds up charming all of Hollywood. It still sounds like it has potential, does it not?

Well, not when the movie never makes a convincing case that Simone is a good actress (in fact her scenes are not very good, but with only one exception, they don't seem to be intended to be funny) or on the other hand the movie does not make the case that her universal appeal might due to her beauty or any "X" factor that it was computer generated that somehow convinced or hypnotized people overlook her obvious lack of talent.

What follows are many attempts to be "zany" as everyone wants a piece of Simone, but that can't happen since she's not real; notwithstanding Vikotr attempts to give the people what they want in ways thar are not as funny or suspenseful as they could have been. Then the movie totally runs out of the little steam it generated entirely by rounding up the story in such a sappy and absolutely unsatisfying way, that you wind up feeling not only bored but cheated.

The performances are good all across. Catherine Keener plays Viktor's ex-wife with great aplomb and Evan Rachel Wood (a future superstar) plays his daughter. Winona Ryder also appears later in the movie and has a scene with Pacino that simply steals the movie; however in the end the story and its execution are so ridiculous that it's impossible to take the characters or their situations seriously or even laugh with/at them. Accordingly if you don't buy what you are seeing nor care what happens, it is a clear sign that the movie has failed even at a base level. It's a shame to see such an interesting premise with such a talented cast totally wasted.

As it stands Niccol does not do anything to further or make fun of a technological practice that is already with us to different degrees. First came actors doing their thing in front blue screens to enhance action/suspense movies. Then came the ability to create of masses of people via just a few to add magnitude to certain scenes/movies requiring scale. Just recently an integral character in "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy was the result of a marriage of an actor and computer animation, and there was talk of an Oscar nomination for the actor "part" of the character. Simone is already with us, but she would not be receiving double Oscar nominations for her feeble seductions in the real world, nor does the movie create one to make such a premise possible.

I give "Simone" 2 stars only because of Winona Ryder's short but vital scenes and because the cast is top-notch even as the movie falls deeper and deeper into a third rate sitcom. I hope that Niccol's next project is more than just a concept as I am sure that the mind that wrote "The Truman Show" is capable of taking a premise and making it work within its own universe.

Very good and interesting insight into cult of celebraty.
Humans will worship anything, be it a wooden statue, sports hero or movie star as shown by the excellent and amusing "Simone". This film stars Al Pacino as Viktor Taransky, a washed up movie director who is given a program by an odd man that enables him to create a virtual movie star. As he is fed up with snotty movie stars such as the annoying woman played by Winona Ryder, he soon starts making films using his virtual star Simone (short for simulation one) played by the easy on the eyes Rachel Roberts.

I enjoyed this film for many reasons. It's fun, witty, and realistic and really exposes our society's stupid obsession with stupid movies or rock stars. In this culture of instant celebrates such as those created on awful reality tv shows like "idol" , it's refreshing to see something like this come out of hollywood. As the song says: "there ain't no hope in brad and jen, stop grovelling at their feet. You worship any mortal man who lights up the silver screen."

God is the only one worthy of worship .

Thanks for reading.

Someone...should have said "hey, wait a minute"
The basic premise of S1m0ne sounds promising. However, as is the case with many movies having one person with too much control (written/directed/produced by same person in this case), someone needed to say "hey, wait a minute. What about...?"

What about computer technology? Using a 5.25 floppy in the movie is bad enough. Having a computer-illiterate movie director suddenly have instantaneous knowledge (and a dedicated keyboard) of a rather complex software package on a run-of-the -mill PC was a major stumbling block.

What about driving a car in the reclined position (with a mannequin in the driver seat)? The less said about that, the better.

What about having a teenage girl as the hero? (Well, technically, she was 12, but it's about the same thing). Never having any exposure to Dad's afore-mentioned-mediocre PC-with- fantastic-software, she is quite the hero on it.

With these three major blunders out of the way, the rest of the movie had unrewarded promise and yet, it was still mildly entertaining. I liked Winona Ryder for some reason. I would suggest renting rather than buying. ... Read more