Reviews (56)

Solid performance by you-know-who...
After 9 years, I finally got to see this movie on DVD. I've always wanted to see it, but you gotta admit that the price is pretty high considering the lack of extra features. I'm not disappointed at all with my purchase, but a few production notes and at least a theatrical trailer would have sufficed.

Anyway, Juice is about four best friends who quickly grow distant after a store robbery goes horribly wrong. It's a pretty involving story with some shocking scenes (though not as violent as they're reputed to be) and Omar Epps is okay in the lead role. But, let's face it. This is Tupac's movie. I didn't expect his debut role to be as powerful as it was! By now, I'm sure all fans have heard his now famous line, "I know I'm crazy. And you know what else? I don't give a ..." Truer words were never spoken about a movie antagonist. His character (Bishop) went absolutely nuts. I'm rambling, I know. But if you've seen the film then you understand why. Aside from Gridlock'd, this is Tupac's best performance.

So if you're a collector of Tupac material, pick the DVD up. Like I said, it ain't cheap, but it's worth it. And even if you don't like Tupac, it's still a very good movie.

2pac's most AMAZING performance ever
Juice is a hip-hop charged adrenaline rush of a movie that takes place in the busy streets of New York. The star is Q(Omar Epps) who is a DJ and kicks it with his click called the Wreckin Crew. His buddies are Raheem(Khalil Kain),Steele(Jermaine "Big Hugg" Hopkins), and Bishop(the late great 2pac Shakur). The wreckin crew have fun and roam the streets looking for trouble and doing what most teenagers do. Thry are surrounded by violence and chaotic occurences. Q sees a friend Blizzard rob a diner(with EPMD in it)and later reveals he was shot by police, and the Wreckin Crew is harassed by a rival gang led by Radimez, a Latin thug who at one point threatens Bishop. Q tries to get a spot on a DJ tournament unaware that his crew is planning to rob a convenience store. As soon as they get the money, Bishop deliberately kills the clerk. Two minutes later, Bishop kills Raheem. Obviously, Bishop has LOST HIS MIND and it is up to Q, who is the only person who knows the truth, to defend himself against one of the most psychotic and brilliantly menacing villains in the entire history of cinema! The most amazing scene is a part where 2pac is playing a video game in a bar and somehow breaks the arcade game. The close-up of his eyes shows what kind person Bishop has turned into. The bartender says "Man, what you do to my machine". One of my ten favorite films of ALL TIME!

WORTH A HELL OF A MORE THAN 5 STARS!!!!
IF I COULD WATCH "JUICE" EVERYDAY,I WOULD!!!! EVERY SINCE THIS MOVIE CAME OUT, I'VE BEEN RECITING IT LINE FOR LINE... EVERYONE HATES TO WATCH IT WITH ME.SO I WATCH IT BY MYSELF!! IF YOU DON'T OWN A COPY OF JUICE, THEN YOU DON'T HAVE A REAL COLLECTION.!!!!

Thirst Quenching!
Tupac's debut film was his best! His performance was hypnotizing and believable. A compelling movie about friends in the hood and how greed can turn one against the others.

Brilliant Film..Serious Stuff
Tupac is brilliant in this film alongside Omar epps.
This is a great example of Harlem Life. the word JUICE is very Powerful. This film is a classic. If you Like Black Action cinema such as Boyz N the hood, Menace 2 Society then you must watch Juice ... Read more

Amazon.com

Jack and his mother live on a farm where they are struggling to makeends meet. The mother decides that selling their beloved cow Bessie is the onlyway to earn enough money to sustain them. On the way to town,Jack happens upon a man who trades him five magic beans for the cow. Needless to say Jack's mother is less than pleased with Jack's trade and throwsthe beans outside. We all know what happens next. This lively retelling of theclassic fairy tale is courtesy of the "Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for EveryChild" series from HBO. The vocal talent of Robert Guillaume, Harry Belafonte,Jackee Harry and Tone-Loc gives the European fairy tale an African American slant(the giant's bellow is "fee-fie-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an African"), butthe moral never changes: need is one thing, greed is another. Ages 4-9, but adults will be entertained as well. --Peggy Maltby-Etra ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Awful Sequel
This movie is so bad that is not fun. Boring, awful direction, amateurish acting, the plot doesn't make sense. If you thought that SUPERFLY T.N.T. was bad this is worst ( Priest working for the cops to capture the big drug dealers? Give me a break!). Go back and watch the original SUPERFLY which is the one,I am sure, that the guy that gave this one five stars was thinking of. Avoid this one, you have been warned!

Don't even Bother
This is a Waste of Film.it almost's tarnishes the Original.After the First one the Producers&What not should have let well enough be instead of trying too milk another one out.Very Boring&Directionless.Avoid it.

Wonderful Blaxploitation film!!!
What a great film from the era of Blaxploitation. Tye Pierson give a tremendous short presentation! His best yet! ... Read more

Reviews (86)

So-so action film...
I've never watched the original Shaft, so I have nothing to base this remake on. It's not a very serious action film. Jeffrey Wright and Busta Rhymes providing most of the comic relief. It is interesting to note that Richard Rountree (the original shaft) and Gordon Parks (the original director) played parts in this film.

After watching this film, I can say I don't mind it. I've seen a lot worse, and I've seen better. Atleast with this film, you have Samuel Jackson playing another cool, suave character. It's too bad Venessa William didn't play a more integral part to the story. I would've liked to see a better dynamism between the two. But then again Shaft has always been a lone-ranger of sorts.

This is not a plot-heavy story. It's about a rich kid that murders an African American, but this crime is witnessed by a waitress who goes into hiding after being threatened. Shaft is disheartened by the inadequacy of the system and decides to investigate on his own. Like I said, not plot-heavy.

LEAP rating (each out of 5):
============================
L (Language) - 3 (nothing special, except for Jeff Wright's almost incomprehensible speech)
E (Erotica) - 1 (opening sequence and a good kiss scene)
A (Action) - 3.5 (unapologetic killings)
P (Plot) - 2 (simple plot)

This film should have gotten the "shaft"
"Shaft" (2000)

Shaft's (Richard Roundtree) nephew, also last-named Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson), is the star in this movie. But it is nothing like the original starring Roundtree and directed by Gordon Parks (although both of them make cameos in this film). The first "Shaft" was a blaxploitation flick and is a classic. This movie, directed by John Singleton, seems less black, more made-for-Hollywood. The plot is thin and unlike the original, the only love scene to be found is in pieces during the opening credits. And what was Busta Rhymes' purpose? It added nothing to the movie. Sorry, Sam Jackson is a hell of an actor but his Shaft doesn't make me forget about Roundtree's. -EJR

Singleton ruins yet another legend. somebody stop him.......
Samuel L. Jackson in Shaft could have been a great movie. He has the talent and skill to effectively play the role. Unfortunately, he is prevented from doing a giving a good performance because of the weak direction and script by Hack Extrodinare John Singleton. Someone please stop Mr. Singleton Before he directs again.
Singleton's terrible script and direction turns Shaft into a campy over-the top superhero movie instead of an intruigung murder mystery. Most of the characters come off like cartoonish stereotypes instead of real people the way they did in the 1971 original. Shaft fans know he is smart, smooth and clever; he's subtle about the way he does things. He's not a black batman wannabe as depicted in this film. Perhaps Mr. Singleton dreams of doing a Batman movie and thought he could apply those concepts here. He was sadly mistaken.
In the openeing scene he comes off as menacing and threatening, that he scares the witness even more and puts the white racist (Christian Bale) on the offensive by arresting him. A litle subtlety would have helped the story here and made the character more interesting. In the subplot our menacing shaft threatens a neighborhood drug dealer (Geoffrey Rush) and arrests him on some trumped up charges. While in jail the two consipire to find a witness who can finger Bale's character for the murder he committed. Sounds a lot like Batman Returns doesn't it? Just so he can have something to do, Shaft goes on a macho search to find the witness who can help his case. Personally, I think Singleton wanted to have a ton of frames of Sam Jackson looking cool in Armani leather. This goes on until the last act the movie which turns into a great big comic book action sequence chock full of shootings and mayhem. To conclude the story, the scene where Bale's character is coming to court to finally stand trial for his crimes is ripped straight from Mario Van Peebles ending scene of New Jack City.
Singleton wastes yet another opportunity and fails to utilize his cast of talented actors who do their best with his terrible script. Sadly, Gordon Parks, the man who wrote and directed the original Shaft was on set and Singleton did take the opportunity not pick his brain for ideas or even ask him what he was thinking when he set up certain scenes. This film would have been better if Singleton would have done thatn andjust STUDIED the films of this genere and understood the subtle nuances that make them work before starting this project. Then when he understood what made those films work he could then apply those approaches to his work. John Singleton needs to go back to film school. He still has a lot to learn about the craft of moviemaking.

VERY GOOD REMAKE OF THE 1971 CLASSIC
SHAFT'S SAME-NAMED NEPHEW [SAMUEL L. JACKSON] GOES AFTER A DOMINICAN DRUG LORD AND A RACIST SERIAL KILLER. VERY GOOD REMAKE. IT HAS PLENTY OF GOOD ACTION, AN INTERESTING STORY, AND IT HAS GOOD CHARACTERS. THIS IS ACTUALLY NO BETTER OR WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL. RICHARD ROUNDTREE [WHO PLAYED THE ORIGINAL SHAFT] AND GORDON PARKS, JR. BOTH MAKE APPEARANCES IN THIS MOVIE.

wonderful remake
a great remake with Jackson being the man Shaft. good action with some unexpected turnabouts. Christian Bale is menacing as the racist who kills Mehki Phifer then has to answer to Shaft and Jeffrey Wright is a spectacular badguy as well. a good ride ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Dead and Alive is an oxymoron!
Having contributed in some small way to the making of this movie, I found it barely resembled the original cut. The excessive editing destroyed the continuity and artistry. I found the producers attempt at retitling and billing Samuel L. Jackson as the star... Gus Farace, to be shameful! Tony Danza plays the title role in this movie and Mr. Jackson is not even a first billing in 1992 when this movie was shot. Where is the integrity? ... Read more

Reviews (623)

movie is so strong it is unbreakable
I think M. Night Shyamalan has proven that he is one of the most talented new directors today. The Sixth Sense is truly awesome, and Signs is his masterpiece. Unbreakable is definitely the lesser of the three 'big' movies Night has made, but that isn't saying it is a bad film. It's just a testimony to how good Signs and Sixth Sense are. Unbreakable is a great film itself. Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson give great performances. As always the visuals (especially color) play a huge role in the telling of the story. And there is Night's twists at the end. The movie is shown in what can only be called a comic book style. I don't mean overdone or campy, but the colors, camera movements, everything about the film suggests a comic book feel. It's really a well done movie, and like his other movies, one that has to be watched many times to get it all.

The dvd is packaged in an elegant slip cover, 2 disc edition, with a replica of Alex Ross's art. There is no commentary track, which is a shame. Filmmakers like M. Night Shyamalan, David Fincher, Tarantino, and the Coen brothers shouldn't be allowed to not have commentary tracks on their dvds. There is just too much going on and too much that is missed by not having commentary. What it does have is a behind the scenes featurette that is very well done (not like all those we've seen that are basically 20 minute summary/trailer). There's also a featurette that discusses comic books and superheros. There are storyboards and deleted scenes (and some great scenes were deleted from this movie).

What makes this film especially interesting is that instead of making a movie about a superhero, like most filmmakers would do, Night makes the movie about a man discovering he is a superhero. That's it. Simple, elegant, brillaint. M. Night Shyamalan will one day take his place amongst the great directors like John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, and Orson Welles. And The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs are just the beginning.

Half good movie, half meandering thesis
It's been a while since I've seen a thriller with a more assured opening. The flashback to Elijah Price's (Samuel L. Jackson) birth. The scenes of David Dunn (Bruce Willis) on the train, trying in vain to make some human contact. And the train wreck, never shown but subtly alluded too in a way that made my heart skip a beat, that will bring both these men together. These moments are handled stylishly, but with a genuine purpose.

Director M. Night Shyamalan frames his shots wonderfully, controlling the symbolism with an iron hand and creating the tone with a painter's palette. Watch for his repeated use of the motif of things turned upside down (a comic book, a child watching TV, etc.) that, while being brutally obvious, never becomes heavy handed. And he seems to drag a wonderful performance out of Willis, an actor who usually bores me. Bruce plays a character in the midst of some depressing times, but manages to imbue him with a sense of play and willingness to go on. The film was building up a reservoir of good will; I was willing to let it meander, with a purpose, towards the twist ending that I'd heard so much about without learning of its details.

Sadly, things horribly go wrong.

Like Icarus, the film's wings melt when it tries to fly too close to the sun. Around the time David goes to meet Elijah for the first time in his art store, and Jackson lays bare the film's narrative conceit, Shyamalan ceases his attempts to make a movie, and what follows is more like a thesis paper:

"It is the purpose of this film to prove that comic books, like hieroglyphics, are an important communications tool in contemporary society, shaping our myths and defining what it means to be human."

Whatever. I didn't buy it. Maybe if I had a comic book collection of over 3,000 issues, and I'd spent over a year of my life reading through them (as the film's title card declares to be average statistics for a comics fan) I might have been able to follow the film down this precarious plane. But as things stand, I thought it was just silly.

Even though he begins the film with promise, and the idea of him as an unwilling, unknowing superhero is somewhat intriguing, Willis blows all the good will he'd built up in the film's first third. He rarely shifts out of first gear, playing all his scenes with that self-important whispered delivery he's developed over recent years. It subverts the few moments of charisma that he vainly tries to engineer, such as a dark but funny scene in his weight room, where he accidentally discovers some unusual powers. (Question: If David Dunn were truly "unbreakable", wouldn't he have been able to keep some of his hair? Just curious...)

Taking their cue from the film's star, the rest of the cast seems to have trained at the Bruce Willis School of Comatose Acting. Samuel L. Jackson is stripped of his vitality as he's saddled with a hideous fright wig and a wheelchair, not to mention of series of ludicrous monologues, that aim for philosophical but land firmly on pretentious. Robin Wright Penn is quite ridiculous as Willis' wife. She tries in vain to bring some humanity to Audrey, but is weighed down by some clunker dialogue of her own ("No shooting friends, Joseph!" she says to her son at one point, with utmost sincerity; is a laughably bad line that got funnier and funnier after dozens of times rewinding to listen to it again and again). Spencer Treat Clark as Willis and Penn's son is not up to the task of the emotional scenes he's asked to play, and his affection for his father has no basis in reality.

As for that notorious surprise ending, well, Shyamalan proves once again that he knows how to catch the audience off-guard. Only by the time the sheet was pulled back, and the mystery revealed, I found myself asking "Yeah... so what?" By that time, the movie had so lost my trust that the ending truly didn't matter. If the rest of the movie were up to par, the ending would have been a mind blower. As it is, it is just a curiosity. Waiting for this final revelation was the only thing that kept me going. If not for that final gimmick, I would have given up much earlier.

The true, hardcore comic fan may get a kick out of this flick. For the rest of us, unable or unwilling to buy into its contrived mythology, the goings will be a lot harder. I found it to be a sloppy and sub-standard piece of filmmaking, loaded with potential but unable to nurture any of it to a satisfying product.

Interesting Premise But
It's just too slow and lugubrious. All the scenes are dark and depressing. I felt like asking someone to turn on the lights! Fine acting, cinematography and all that, but I'm really not a big fan of comic books, and especially not of movies made about comic books. If I had known that this movie was a comic book story I would have never rented it. If you like comic books, you'll probably love it.

What happened?
Sadly, this movie was not a box office smash. And that, my friends, I just cannot figure out.

This movie is outstanding. Pure and simple. Its one of the few in my collection that I can go back to time and again and really enjoy watching.

The acting is excellent, the editing flows very well and the cinematography is great. Then there is the story and concept. Take comics and strip away the leotards, capes and unbelievable super powers and you end up with people who are amazing for believeable "powers". This concept is put into great contrast with the two main characters.

The only downside is that I think most folks will have the ending pegged before it comes around. But it remains an excellent story that is well told.

Sadly, since it did not bring in the profits it should have, we may never see a sequel or follow on effort.

GREAT MOVIE
I agree that this could've been much better but it is still a great movie overall. This movie was written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan (Signs, The Sixth Sense). The main characters in this movie are David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson). David is in a terrible train accident and he is the sole survivor without a single scratch on him. He then meets Elijah who thinks David is a hero. Specifically he thinks David's a comic book hero. Elijah tries to convince David and his family that he is a hero while David tries to remember his past. David remembers that he never was sick and he never had a broken bone which leads him to thinking he is a hero which then he becomes frustrated and doesn't really know what to think of at all.

The ending was surprising but you could kind of see it coming. I thought the ending was going to be really great but it turned out just to be good.

There are about an hour of special features on the second disc, which are great, but I was hoping there was more.
Special Features:
-Behind the Scenes with Bruce Willis (15 minutes)
-Comic Book and Superheroes with Samuel L. Jackson (20 minutes)
-The Train Station Sequence multi angle
-A short film from M. Night Shyamalan (3 minutes)
-7 Deleted Scenes all introduced by M. Night Shyamalan (30 minutes):
Elijah taken Away
Audrey in waiting room
David in shower
Elijah at fair
David with priest
Audrey calls David
Weightlifting in locker room

I figured they could have put a couple of the deleted scenes in the movie especially David with priest and Elijah at fair.

Overall this movie was great and I am glad to own it. If you were a fan of Sixth Sense I recommend this. It isn't scary or anything like that but you do have to pay attention to it to finally get it at the end. It really comes together when you get it then you enjoy the movie more. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Animation studio Pixar (creators of Finding Nemo and Toy Story) reigns supreme: The Incredibles is another stunning example of their inspired storytelling and technical prowess. In a world where superheroes have been outlawed, the former Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) and Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) struggle to raise a family (with a teenager daughter who turns invisible and a super-speedy boy) while keeping their powers under wraps--but into their lives comes a supervillain with a particular grudge against Mr. Incredible. The Incredibles mixes comic book battles with middle-age crisis to daffy, delightful effect. Not only is the movie a dazzling visual experience, but the same care Pixar and writer/director Brad Bird (The Iron Giant) pay to visual details gets applied to the narrative as well. It's deeply satifying to see a movie where every turn of plot has been given as much attention as the blazing explosions. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Can Pixar Keep It's Crown?
At the time of writing we have little more than the trailer of this film to measure it's merits. Sure, Pixar have an unbroken track record including A Bug's Life which, on release, was unjustly compared to Toy Story and has always lived unfairly in it's shadow. Sure, the premise of a family of super heroes returning to work after a prolonged absence is high-concept enough to hold an interesting story (not to mention Pixar's now famous comedy writing). And sure, the trailer is funnier and better made than a lot of the films it has had the misfortune to precede (it was the only thing worth seeing at The Haunted Mansion). But let's look at the facts...
Several months ago, during the fine-tuning of this film, Pixar announced it's split from Disney. Disney had given Pixar it's leg-up only to see it's offspring out-perform it in every way. Shrewd as ever, Disney had got an iron-clad contract with Pixar for a seven-picture deal as well as, important this, control of all of the characters created for the films. This means that all hopes of the often rumored Toy Story 3 are shattered unless it is made without Pixar's involvement - and, considering Disney's output lately, I for one would prefer to not see it happen at all. Of course Disney, never one to shy from flogging a dead horse (Pocahontas 2 anyone?!), will immediately start churning out garbage featuring Woody, Flik, Sully and Nemo for a quick buck. This will be Pixar's sixth film for Disney (with Cars to follow next year) and it's possible that the fruitlessness of working FOR Disney as opposed to WITH them, may have made the folks at Pixar a little less willing to produce top-quality fayre. However, this would seem to be cutting one's nose of to spite one's face since Pixar would do well to maintain their high-standard so that when they leave Disney they leave with a better reputation than their 'parent' company. This will definately leave Disney with an 'empty nest' feeling. An empty nest that will soon be filled by Chicken Little - apparently Disney's move to produce all of it's theatrical features in CGI - the sounds you hear are Uncle Walt spinning and people snorting in disgust as they remember Disney's Dinosaur.
Also, for your consideration, is the competition. Finding Nemo knocked King Simba's crown off the top of the box-office charts only to have it picked up recently by a flatulent green ogre. Shrek 2 has shown that Disney and Pixar are not the only two names in animation and with many more studios jumping on the bandwagon we can only hope that Pixar don't suffer the same fate as Disney has over the past few years. The makers of Shrek 2 have already credited Toy Story of being the daddy, calling it the "Snow White of CGI". Let's hope that Pixar doesn't become the "Disney of CGI", which would have been a compliment as recently as 1997, but which now sadly isn't.
I hold my hopes high and proud for The Incredibles. I do the same for Cars and all of Pixar's future output - they deserve it.
The bile that I spit in the direction of Disney is fuelled by love and frustration - not hate. I am a long time fan and DVD competist - I even bought Treasure Planet! I just hope they know what they're doing and do it well. If anyone from Disney reads this please remember:- STORY FIRST! We love gorgeous animation but hate style over content. Walt knew this and Pixar know this - learn from the masters.

PIXAR at it's finest (again)!
Definitely the top animation company so far this mullinium, PIXAR is ready to deliver another of it's extraordinary films with its highly acclaimed excellent sense of (clean) humor!

Aside from their amazing humorous story-telling techniques PIXAR is also at the top of its trade with its stunning animation and special effects. Fianally the new realm of computer animation that has been feared for nearly a decade is being conquered with excellent style!

This is definitely going to be the top film of the year for me and at least the top animated film of the year for many! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Vin Diesel is no James Bond, and he doesn't want to be. That's why XXX announced Diesel as the adrenalin-junkie Bond of the PlayStation generation, copying the Bond formula so shamelessly that this action-packed silliness would be a Bond movie if it starred Pierce Brosnan. Reuniting Diesel with his Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen, XXX has an attitude (if not a brain) all its own, plucking Diesel's Xander Cage from his celebrity as an extreme sports renegade, recruited by a National Security Agency big shot (Samuel L. Jackson) to foil a nasty Czech villain (Marton Csokas) who's eager to depopulate Prague with remote-controlled biological weaponry. Toss in a sulky, sultry Russian agent (Asia Argento) and you've got extreme Bond-age for anyone who thinks tuxedos are passé. With a handful of eye-popping action sequences, XXX launched a movie franchise with a cool guy, another cool muscle car, and plenty of box-office sizzle. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (355)

Best of the summer blockbusters, to date.
XXX (Rob Cohen, 2002)

Here's a surprise: Rob Cohen, whose The Fast and the Furious was not only one of the biggest surprise hits of 2001 but also by far the biggest of Cohen's career, teams up again with Vin Diesel. The major lineup change here is the addition of screenwriter Rich Wilkes. Anyone familiar with the name should be ready to crawl under their seats right about now; Wilkes has been responsible in the past for such deathless cinematic fare as The Jerky Boys and The Stoned Age.

Whatever Cohen did to Wilkes, though, he did it right. XXX is absolutely typical run-of-the-mill shut-your-brain-off spy movie fare, so cut from the cloth of James Bond that the opening scene of the film features a nameless tuxedoed secret agent getting shot in the middle of a Rammstein concert. Cohen and Diesel threw down the gauntlet from the get-go to Albert Broccoli and Co. (and if the trailers for the new Bond film are anything to go by, "Bond"'s death at the beginning of this film is most welcome. Actually, it probably should have come after A View to a Kill. But let's not be petty.)

XXX goes right into the wonderful world of Bond starting soon after, including a scientist/weapons geek (relative newcomer Michael Roof, last seen in Black Hawk Down), a number of fabulous one-liners, and the most beautiful women in Hollywood falling at his feet, in this case Asia Argento. (Asia fans take note: you won't see nearly as much of her, in any respect, as you did in b.Monkey. Grieve now.)

So what is it about XXX that makes it the best of the big-budget summer films? The movie does exactly what it promises. You go into XXX looking for a mindless action movie, and you get a mindless action movie. Diesel is one of Hollywood's hottest properties right now, Cohen is finally hitting his stride after two decades of failed attempts to be deep and meaningful, Wilkes wrote a script that actually contains some humor, and the three of them will be back together again for the sequel in 2004.

Eighteen films from now, hopefully, someone will shoot Xander Cage in the middle of a Rammstein concert, and there will be a new superspy. Until then, sit back and enjoy the ride. *** ½

MediaGab Review
Vin Diesel is XXX. Sorry I had to type that, actually Vin Diesel plays Xander Cage a adrenalin-junkie who finds himself in trouble with the law for his stunts he pulls and tapes for a website. With his latest stunt he gets noticed by the NSA who is looking for a generation X type of person to infiltrate a Czech villain named Yorgi (Marton Csokas) who wants to build and use biological weapons. The problem with typical agents is that they don't blend in with the new generation, they don't have the tattoos or style of new generation.

After the NSA captures Xander, Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) puts him through some real world tests to determine if he has the physical and mental toughness to complete the mission.

XXX is a James Bond movie Americanized. Really if you like the Bond movies you will love XXX. It has everything a Bond movie would have. Gadgets, Women, Action, Villains and an unbelievable plot.

I was actually really surprised with XXX. I thought this was going to be really poorly done but it came out as a high action film that is on the same level as Die Another Day.

Vin Diesel Revs Up in Triple X
Triple X is a non-stop thrill ride with an action hero as resourceful and clever as he is atypical of the secret agent genre. In this refreshing, highly entertaining vehicle, young Vin Diesel demonstrates he has inherited (actually co-inherited with The Rock) the crown of action movie star from the likes of Van Damme, Schwarzenegger, Willis, and Stallone.

The female co-star in here is pretty good as the moll of a Czech crimelord. She has a very expressive face, unlike the blank Barbie faces of some of the actresses in these types of roles.

Shameless
This movie had me lost within 10 minutes. As soon as Vin started spewing his tirade about how bad the government was because it tried to censor any cliched "Gen-X/Y" touchstone, i.e. video games and rap music, I looked at the rest of the movie through the eyes of someone who was trying to be blatantly marketed to. This never stopped, between the then trendy music, the constant attempts to be hip (mentioning Playstation a few times), it was obvious they were trying to create a franchise by throwing everything 20-somethings are supposed to like in a pot, blow stuff up around it and watch the money roll in. I have never felt so insulted by a movie in my life. If your idea of a good time is watching a movie that does nothing but pander to the cliche of what the "young generation" likes according the a studio's marketing department, watch "XXX" (even a porn reference in the title to "spice" it up). This movie is one of those terrible 60s beach movies with half the intelligence and 100X the budget. Marketing departments shouldn't write movies, writers should.

Better than Terminator 3
Triple X is much better than the last couple of Arnold action movies (End of Days, Collateral Damage). And now that Arnold and Sylvester Stalone are old geezers, Vin Diesel is a suitable replacement.

This is also much better than the 1990's James Bond movies. My opinion is that those 1990's versions were too BOREING and PRETENTIOUS.

Triple X has a lot of great action screens for the modern audience. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

The best film ever made about LA
Ten years after its release, Steve Martin's LA Story has a cult following for its adept interpretation of vapid and decadent Los Angelinos. Though LA Story came out in 1990 and seems to lampoon the 80s, Michael Tolkin goes way beyond his collaborative work with Robert Altman(The Player) with this pitch black comedy.

The film is way ahead of its time. Hollywood has yet to examine the decadent 90s in any way. Here we have characters who are more Clinton era than American Beauty. Pretty astute, considering that the film was released in 1994!

Look for top performances from Peter Weller, Judy Davis, and great supporting work from Adam West, Sandra Seacat, and a pre-Pulp Fiction Samuel Jackson. Hopefully, some of the great camera work an slick visuals will find its way on to DVD in the near future.

maria ellingsen wasted- i got lost watching it
This film is a mess. It features a load of stars and made no sense at all. The great Icelandic actress Maria Ellingsen appears once or twice and is her exceptonal is wasted in this film. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

A brisk stroll through Yuppie hell
Michael Tolkin's "The New Age" was the most scathing movie indictment of the American dream gone Sonoma catalog since Albert Brooks' brilliant satire "Lost In America". "The New Age" re-teams the "Tracy & Hepburn" of indie film, Peter Weller and Judy Davis, who were also the wacked-out couple in "Naked Lunch". Instead of heading off in an RV to go "find themselves", Judy and Peter decide to "simplify" thier over-extended Yuppie lifestyle by chucking it all and opening up a Beverly Hills boutique. Hilarity ensues....right? Actually, the movie takes a more low-key,sometimes cruel, black comedy approach to its subjects as they proceed to go into a tandem midlife crisis. Along the way, most trendy southern California fads are lampooned, recalling the film "Serial", which savaged the Bay Area Yuppie/New Age scene in the same fashion. Good supporting performances abound; the biggest surprise is Adam "Batman" West, who is priceless as Weller's father. West plays the wryly acerbic, aging Lothario with much aplomb.(Where has he been?!) Highly recommended.

I like Michael Tolkin, okay?
This movie meant a lot more to me after I lived in Phoenix, Arizona for a year, which is as far west as I want to go for the rest of my life. It's much more interesting to observe empty, soul-less people from a safe distance. It's funny. See "The Rapture," too. Thanks. ... Read more

Amazon.com

With a core audience of gameboys and hot-rodders aged 25 and under, xXx: State of the Union is the kind of action movie that requires literally no thought to enjoy. With Vin Diesel's original character just killed in Bora Bora (for details, see the uncensored unrated director's cut of xXx), Ice Cube steps in to play bad-ass, and the whole franchise takes on a hip-hop edge that's almost admirably absurd. The asinine plot is anarchy in Washington, D.C., as an insanely hawkish Secretary of State (Willem Dafoe) plots a Capitol coup just as the President (Peter Strauss, playing it straight) is giving his state-of-the-union address. All of this is prefaced by Cube's recruitment as a former Navy SEAL turned new-xXx, escaping from jail (Dafoe's character put him there), hooking up with an old flame who runs a chop-shop full of the world's hottest wheels, and reuniting with his old commander (Samuel L. Jackson) for a bullet-train climax that feels like Mission Impossible Lite. You could argue that Diesel's the smartest guy in the franchise for cashing out early, but xXx: State of the Union gets the job done in passable fashion, with action veteran Lee Tamahori delivering the goods while he waits for a grown-up script to come along. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (16)

AKA Boyz in the Union or State of the Hood
If you like ridiculous storylines, loud Hip Hop music, improbable situations, unlikely characters, and woefully silly plot twists and wooden acting BUT love action - go see this movie. Ice Cube plays Darius, a former navy seal recruited by Samuel Jackson (Gibbons) to become the new XXX and relieve Willem Defoe of his desire to kill the President and take over the Country. If you can believe that a bunch of homeboys in suped up cars with bull bars can drive a tank down Pennsylvania Avenue unchallenged (after jacking it!) and beat numerous hords of highly trained troops, armed with little more than street wise attitude and a stolen truck load of guns, you'll be OK. For me this was laughably bad, and I only gave it 2 stars for the action content. The stunt coordinator must have been on triple overtime to come up with some of the amazing (if stupidly unrealistic) action footage, and the whole spectacle of it, just about carries your interest. I thought Vin Diesel was cliche ridden and cheesy in the first movie, but this is a real turkey in comparison. Action fans and viewers about 13 years of age will no doubt lap it up, but for me it was just too silly to be really entertaining. Of course at the end of the movie we are left with plenty of scope for another sequel, and one wonders who will be up next, Jet Li perhaps? for an oriental slant, who knows?

Exactly what you expect, if not skip it!
Ice Cube is the new XXX in this action blockbuster that loosely follows on from Vin Diesels original a couple of years ago. We find out early on that Xander Cage (Diesel) has turned up dead, and Gibbons (Samuel L Jackson) must look even further "off the grid" to find a replacement with even more attitude. It so happens that Darius (Cube) just happened to be a former Lt in the Navy Seals under Gibbons before being invited to do a 20 year stretch in jail, for among other things breaking his own generals jaw. That former general (Willem Dafoe), is now Secretary of State for Defense, and is planning a laughably absurd coup to oust the current administration and put himself in power. The reason for all of the drastic mayhem is of course to prevent the current President from passing a bill to reduce military spending (whatever happened to political lobbying?). The movie opens with a crack squad infiltraing Gibbons HQ and killing most of the agents, leaving Gibbons and quirky nerd sidekick Toby on the run. Ice Cube reluctantly steps up complete with former streetsmart gang of home boys equipped with a teenagers dream catologue of muscled up vehicles and high powered weapons to take on the bad guys. This is a fun movie, and as long as you view it that way you'll enjoy it - piles of action, some inventive if ludicrous stuntwork, and a fast pace keeps your attention. If you're looking for a tense credible storyline this is NOT the movie to go see, and is rather more suited the the Hip Hop action seeker who basks in the eye candy, and could care less about the plot. There are some OK performances though, and this is by no means BAD - Willem Defoe as the erstwhile senior officer, and now main Baddie oozes villanous charm, and seems to be cornering the market in bad guy roles lately. Jackson is as usual engaging, and Ice Cube brings a nice streetwise Badass edge to the role, preventing comparisons with Diesel. Scott Speedman (Underworld) plays the NSA agent who believes Darius and in so doing puts himself in danger, with a nice buddy buddy sideline. It was also nice to see Peter Strauss again, albeit in a small role as the President, and all round this was a lot of fun. For fans it's a must, and certainly on a par with the first movie in terms of action and thrills, just put your brain in neutral and grab the popcorn. Enjoy

xXx 2 vs. xXx 1.
I'll admit that I'm a huge Vin Diesel fan and I loved the first movie mostly for him. But I did get surprised by that movie having an enjoyable action packed plot.
If it wasn't for most of the original cast being in this one and Xibit and Ice Cube, I probably wouldn't have checked it out until it was on pay per view.
I was pleasantly surprised after watching this film. It does have plot(unlike what some may say.) And I'm not going to try and convince you by telling you plot. I'm not a spoiler type reviewer. I will however say I enjoyed the mix of conversation, busywork and action. The only reservation I may have is that some of the stunts seemed too hollywood and not as believable as the first film.
The new X is a whole lot more serious. This film doesn't have the same jokes per minute like the last one. Which to some action movie viewers that's just fine. For me, I could have used a few more. That's not to say this movie is completely dry of jokes either, and I'm sure there are ones I missed the first time around that I'll see later.
My personal thought is that this film left things wide open for even more sequals and has the potential to be the American Bond. Though it's still too new to know for sure. As a loyal Bond fan I'm heasitant to commit to my above comment too deep.
My reccomendation? Ignore the post from people who always post negative posts. Take the time to view it for yourself and make up your own mind. My personal thoughts are that this film holds up well on it's own and that if it wasn't made as a sequile that many wouldn't be disregarding it the way they are now. Enjoy!

xXx oh my!
That's right.xXx is out in theaters.And no I didn't get to see any nudity.It should be a shame.

Well the movie starts out nice and stupid.I love the intro affect right in the midst of day time the stealth bad guys decked in full BLACK uniforms.I guess dressing in black helps prevent people seeing you in the day time when the sun shines all over your bum and while they are scouring the building with walls that were white.So yeah I can definately see blending into the building no problem (sarcasm it's a living).

I have never seen anything funnier than an overweight man tromping through woods and mud and water.Very funny.Darius Stone is his name and he was a fat NAVY SEAL.Oh sure....I'm 100% posative
a guy with his perfectly orbed body and massive ONE (count them ONE) giant AB.It's not that i'm against heavier set people being the lead action hero in movies.Just that i'm against heavier set people being the lead action hero in movies.You will definately see the comic of chunky climbing the rope.

My FAVORITE most stupid line said in the movie was:"Deckards little boy scouts are gearing up for World War 4."
Of course that was really NOT Ice Cube Trays fault.Unless he added that line in himself.Gee, I didn't realize we already had World War 3.

The final perfect touch to the movie.Gangsta!That's right!You read correctly.Gangsta not gangster.This is the ghetto crap rehash of the first xXx.Granted Vin Diesel isn't what you'd call a well educated man with his vocabulary.But at least the set up was right and proper.If you go ghetto go ghetto.Please don't try to mix that ROCK/RAP compilations.It doesn't work.Should have just had plain rap in there.Would have set the atmosphere well enough for awefulness.

As far as the goodness of the movie.If you want to see something that would NEVER happen in a million years.You'll definately want to see this.It's always a pleasure to watch things go boom!Next time I watch a movie with Ice Tray (Ice Cube for those that are slow at catching on) I will definately bring a dozen doughnuts with me to "FILL IN" the atmosphere that is emitted off him.

for craps sakes
typical modern hollywood action packed blockbuster. there is no story, the action is cheesy, and ice cube blows. guys who are in to crappy action movies like this are no better than girls and their chick flicks. stop supporting heaps of garbage labeled, "action thriller of the year." ... Read more

Amazon.com

The dancing daughters have relocated from Northern Europe to Spanish- speaking southern climes in this animated HBO Happily Ever Afterproduction. El Rey Marti (Hector Elizondo of TV's Chicago Hope) despairsof divining the method by which his dozen daughters escape the palace each nightto ruin their perfectly good dancing shoes. So he makes a royal proclamation:Whoever solves the mystery gets a kingship and the daughter of his choice. Theoffer brings a long line of men to the palace, ranging from a sexist pig of aprince to a humble singing soldier (Latino warbler Jon Secada). The lowlyenlistee and one of the royal daughters (TV hostess Daisy Fuentes) fall in love,and one can guess by the series title what happens. This 26-minute retelling ofthe classic fairy tale is jauntily narrated by Robert Guillaume and furtherlivened up by mariachi music, a conga line, and a big dollop of humor. Ages 3and older) --Kimberly Heinrichs ... Read more

Amazon.com

Now it can be told: The seductive music that the Pied Piper played to woo the children of Hamelin was jazz. At least, that's the take in this installment from the delightful HBO series, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child. Mixing old tales with new world vision, this series adds other races to the white European stereotypes. Here, the selfish King of Hamelin (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) loves to dismiss all politics so he can count his money. Unfortunately, the rat problem becomes so severe that plans must be put into action. When a smooth, jazz-playing stranger (Wesley Snipes) wanders into town proclaiming that he can address the problem, the city council is ready to give him riches. When they fail to deliver the reward, they pay a high price. Sharply animated and wonderfully scored, The Pied Piper is another high-quality 30-minute short from this great series. (Ages 5 and older) --Doug Thomas ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Excellent! Job well done
I enjoyed this video so much that I had to do a search for ever Happpily Ever After video ever done. I don't know why I am just learning about them - oh! yeah, I have a three year old daughter. The 'The Pied Piper' teaches that greed has a payday.

These videos need to be on TV entertaining children. I just happened on 'The Pied Piper' in the library and from that point on I have been hooked. I am finding that a handful of these are out of stock. I am going to own them all - it is just a matter of time. Yes! I have a three year old, but I want these videos for myself. She can look at them too.

Our favorite!
We own several of the videos in the series. This one is watched the most. It is delightfully musically and quite funny. Wesley Snipes does a nice job.

Cute & Jazzy
This tape gives a jazzy twist to an old story. Samual L. Jackson's voice makes it interesting. My kids loved it. This tape was in the 4 tape package that I bought. Seemed to be the better deal to get all 4. ... Read more

Reviews (623)

movie is so strong it is unbreakable
I think M. Night Shyamalan has proven that he is one of the most talented new directors today. The Sixth Sense is truly awesome, and Signs is his masterpiece. Unbreakable is definitely the lesser of the three 'big' movies Night has made, but that isn't saying it is a bad film. It's just a testimony to how good Signs and Sixth Sense are. Unbreakable is a great film itself. Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson give great performances. As always the visuals (especially color) play a huge role in the telling of the story. And there is Night's twists at the end. The movie is shown in what can only be called a comic book style. I don't mean overdone or campy, but the colors, camera movements, everything about the film suggests a comic book feel. It's really a well done movie, and like his other movies, one that has to be watched many times to get it all.

The dvd is packaged in an elegant slip cover, 2 disc edition, with a replica of Alex Ross's art. There is no commentary track, which is a shame. Filmmakers like M. Night Shyamalan, David Fincher, Tarantino, and the Coen brothers shouldn't be allowed to not have commentary tracks on their dvds. There is just too much going on and too much that is missed by not having commentary. What it does have is a behind the scenes featurette that is very well done (not like all those we've seen that are basically 20 minute summary/trailer). There's also a featurette that discusses comic books and superheros. There are storyboards and deleted scenes (and some great scenes were deleted from this movie).

What makes this film especially interesting is that instead of making a movie about a superhero, like most filmmakers would do, Night makes the movie about a man discovering he is a superhero. That's it. Simple, elegant, brillaint. M. Night Shyamalan will one day take his place amongst the great directors like John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, and Orson Welles. And The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs are just the beginning.

Half good movie, half meandering thesis
It's been a while since I've seen a thriller with a more assured opening. The flashback to Elijah Price's (Samuel L. Jackson) birth. The scenes of David Dunn (Bruce Willis) on the train, trying in vain to make some human contact. And the train wreck, never shown but subtly alluded too in a way that made my heart skip a beat, that will bring both these men together. These moments are handled stylishly, but with a genuine purpose.

Director M. Night Shyamalan frames his shots wonderfully, controlling the symbolism with an iron hand and creating the tone with a painter's palette. Watch for his repeated use of the motif of things turned upside down (a comic book, a child watching TV, etc.) that, while being brutally obvious, never becomes heavy handed. And he seems to drag a wonderful performance out of Willis, an actor who usually bores me. Bruce plays a character in the midst of some depressing times, but manages to imbue him with a sense of play and willingness to go on. The film was building up a reservoir of good will; I was willing to let it meander, with a purpose, towards the twist ending that I'd heard so much about without learning of its details.

Sadly, things horribly go wrong.

Like Icarus, the film's wings melt when it tries to fly too close to the sun. Around the time David goes to meet Elijah for the first time in his art store, and Jackson lays bare the film's narrative conceit, Shyamalan ceases his attempts to make a movie, and what follows is more like a thesis paper:

"It is the purpose of this film to prove that comic books, like hieroglyphics, are an important communications tool in contemporary society, shaping our myths and defining what it means to be human."

Whatever. I didn't buy it. Maybe if I had a comic book collection of over 3,000 issues, and I'd spent over a year of my life reading through them (as the film's title card declares to be average statistics for a comics fan) I might have been able to follow the film down this precarious plane. But as things stand, I thought it was just silly.

Even though he begins the film with promise, and the idea of him as an unwilling, unknowing superhero is somewhat intriguing, Willis blows all the good will he'd built up in the film's first third. He rarely shifts out of first gear, playing all his scenes with that self-important whispered delivery he's developed over recent years. It subverts the few moments of charisma that he vainly tries to engineer, such as a dark but funny scene in his weight room, where he accidentally discovers some unusual powers. (Question: If David Dunn were truly "unbreakable", wouldn't he have been able to keep some of his hair? Just curious...)

Taking their cue from the film's star, the rest of the cast seems to have trained at the Bruce Willis School of Comatose Acting. Samuel L. Jackson is stripped of his vitality as he's saddled with a hideous fright wig and a wheelchair, not to mention of series of ludicrous monologues, that aim for philosophical but land firmly on pretentious. Robin Wright Penn is quite ridiculous as Willis' wife. She tries in vain to bring some humanity to Audrey, but is weighed down by some clunker dialogue of her own ("No shooting friends, Joseph!" she says to her son at one point, with utmost sincerity; is a laughably bad line that got funnier and funnier after dozens of times rewinding to listen to it again and again). Spencer Treat Clark as Willis and Penn's son is not up to the task of the emotional scenes he's asked to play, and his affection for his father has no basis in reality.

As for that notorious surprise ending, well, Shyamalan proves once again that he knows how to catch the audience off-guard. Only by the time the sheet was pulled back, and the mystery revealed, I found myself asking "Yeah... so what?" By that time, the movie had so lost my trust that the ending truly didn't matter. If the rest of the movie were up to par, the ending would have been a mind blower. As it is, it is just a curiosity. Waiting for this final revelation was the only thing that kept me going. If not for that final gimmick, I would have given up much earlier.

The true, hardcore comic fan may get a kick out of this flick. For the rest of us, unable or unwilling to buy into its contrived mythology, the goings will be a lot harder. I found it to be a sloppy and sub-standard piece of filmmaking, loaded with potential but unable to nurture any of it to a satisfying product.

Interesting Premise But
It's just too slow and lugubrious. All the scenes are dark and depressing. I felt like asking someone to turn on the lights! Fine acting, cinematography and all that, but I'm really not a big fan of comic books, and especially not of movies made about comic books. If I had known that this movie was a comic book story I would have never rented it. If you like comic books, you'll probably love it.

What happened?
Sadly, this movie was not a box office smash. And that, my friends, I just cannot figure out.

This movie is outstanding. Pure and simple. Its one of the few in my collection that I can go back to time and again and really enjoy watching.

The acting is excellent, the editing flows very well and the cinematography is great. Then there is the story and concept. Take comics and strip away the leotards, capes and unbelievable super powers and you end up with people who are amazing for believeable "powers". This concept is put into great contrast with the two main characters.

The only downside is that I think most folks will have the ending pegged before it comes around. But it remains an excellent story that is well told.

Sadly, since it did not bring in the profits it should have, we may never see a sequel or follow on effort.

GREAT MOVIE
I agree that this could've been much better but it is still a great movie overall. This movie was written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan (Signs, The Sixth Sense). The main characters in this movie are David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson). David is in a terrible train accident and he is the sole survivor without a single scratch on him. He then meets Elijah who thinks David is a hero. Specifically he thinks David's a comic book hero. Elijah tries to convince David and his family that he is a hero while David tries to remember his past. David remembers that he never was sick and he never had a broken bone which leads him to thinking he is a hero which then he becomes frustrated and doesn't really know what to think of at all.

The ending was surprising but you could kind of see it coming. I thought the ending was going to be really great but it turned out just to be good.

There are about an hour of special features on the second disc, which are great, but I was hoping there was more.
Special Features:
-Behind the Scenes with Bruce Willis (15 minutes)
-Comic Book and Superheroes with Samuel L. Jackson (20 minutes)
-The Train Station Sequence multi angle
-A short film from M. Night Shyamalan (3 minutes)
-7 Deleted Scenes all introduced by M. Night Shyamalan (30 minutes):
Elijah taken Away
Audrey in waiting room
David in shower
Elijah at fair
David with priest
Audrey calls David
Weightlifting in locker room

I figured they could have put a couple of the deleted scenes in the movie especially David with priest and Elijah at fair.

Overall this movie was great and I am glad to own it. If you were a fan of Sixth Sense I recommend this. It isn't scary or anything like that but you do have to pay attention to it to finally get it at the end. It really comes together when you get it then you enjoy the movie more. ... Read more

Reviews (137)

The hard choices that have to be made every day
Starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson, this is the story of how a seemingly small fender-bender incident changed the lives of two men forever. Affleck is cast as Gavin Banek, a young Wall Street lawyer married to the boss's daughter, who is on his way to court to file some papers that were obtained unethically. He doesn't have the document with him, however, and realizes he lost it during his encounter with Jackson on the expressway. Jackson, cast as Doyle Gibson, is a recovering alcoholic, who is also on his way to court. He's in the process of obtaining a mortgage on a modest house and is trying to keep his wife from moving across the country with his two young sons. When he is 20 minutes late for the custody hearing, he loses his case. Both men are now hurtled into a series of confrontations with the kind ofescalating intensity that kept my eyes glued to the screen as the tension increased.

The screenplay, by Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin, was excellent, and kept the audience not only wondering what would happen next, but also gradually understanding the character of each man, and how this affected their next moves. The plot twisted and turned as the men became more and more real, with the human frailties that hurtled the action along, showing how the way that each had been living his life contributed to what would happen next. Some deeply moral and ethical questions were raised with no easy answers. And in, at the end, as each man had to deal with his own personal demons, the conclusion was resolved on a positive note, leaving everyone wiser.

Roger Michell, the director, was able to get outstanding performances out of all of the supporting cast members, as well as the stars - most notably Toni Collette as a colleague and sometime mistress of Affleck, Amanda Peet as his wife, Sidney Pollack as the head of the law firm, and Kim Staunton as Jackson's wife. The New York setting was also wonderful and I'm glad that a decision was made not to edit out the World Trade Towers. It was a real and important part of New York, and I personally enjoyed seeing them there, a visual reminder of how quickly things can change, which fit in perfectly with the story.

I highly recommend this film, not just for the action, but also for the uncompromising view of how a person's character determines the outcome of situations and the hard choices that have to be made every day. See it!

A surprisingly good film about modern morality
Despite trailers portraying the movie as an action flick, Changing Lanes really is a morality story. How far would you go, who would you hurt, to save yourself?

Skillfully telling the story of an essentially good-at-heart lawyer (Ben Affleck) at the verge of becoming corrupt amidst an unsavory law firm, and the story of a father (Samuel L. Jackson) losing custody of this two sons, Changing Lanes presents the dark side that is present in everyone. This is a small story about how a minor car accident can escalate and bring out the worst in people. Everyone's been in similar situations, and that experience makes this film very personal.

Aside from the questions this film raises on morality, it remains unpredictable. Where is it going? How will it end? So many films follow a predictable storyline today, its refreshing to not know the outcome here.

Changing Lanes is a surprisingly good film, and while it may not be a masterpiece, it is an intelligent and thought-provoking film that will force you to contemplate your own moral identity.

It is a crime to make movies this bad
Yet another masterpiece that everybody is praising. Starring Ben Affleck(who plays a hotshot lawyer and whose long chin and bad acting always get on my nerves) and Samuel Jackson( who plays divorced father of two). Ben is supposed to be in court and so is Samuel. They get in the traffic accident and when Ben wants to just give Samuel a check because he is in a hurry, Samuel wouldn't take it because he wants everything to be "just right"(whatever the hell that means). Ben decides the hell with this and leaves. Samuel is late for court and because it was for a custody hearing, judge awards custody to his wife. He is royally pissed. Then, we go back to Ben who realizes he left an important document in Samuel car. Okay, Ben is pissed too. He tries to track down the other guy who promptly tells Ben to go to hell. Shortly thereafter he realizes that there is some fun to be had at Ben's expense and sends him a fax(although how he gets Ben's number is not explained) indicating he has the document and is not giving it back. Ben, who is pissed beyond belief decides to have some revenge and hires a hacker to screw Samuel's credit history. Next step, Samuel unscrews the wheel of Ben's car making a serious car accident a sure thing. Ben has the stage at this point and he threatens Samuel's kids. And so it goes. Oh, somewhere in the middle, Ben discovers that his boss(who is also his father-law) is a crook and he has to do some serious soul searching which almost made me lose my lunch(it was that painful to watch). Of course, at the end, everybody does the right thing-meaning that both men stop acting like lunatics and try to make amends. To say that it was boring, would be an understatement. To say that it was a good movie would be a crime against humanity

Many wrongs never make right
This is a movie with no heroes, no nudity, no CGI and practically no fancy stunts, yet somehow it manages to hold your interest.

After feeling genuine hatred for the two lead characters, more so for Banek (Affleck) than Gipson (Jackson), I found that the ending wrapped up too quickly, too conveniently and too smoothly, and while it was reasonably watchable the first time, I probably wouldn't want to see it a second time.

Both Affleck and Jackson play their parts convincingly, and make it almost believable that a fender bender could lead to such chaos. In the real world however, Banek should have wised up to his work situation from the beginning, and Gipson would have certainly fallen off the wagon. Personally, I could never be charitable to a man who purposely sets out to destroy my family's chance for happiness, or lies about my kids safety, which makes the somewhat neat ending leave a bad taste in my mouth.

The bankruptcy story thread was unconvincing. The highly paid professional just accepting his failure with a shrug off is just not realistic. There are other parts of the movie where the lead characters cause significant damage to office property without repercussions, and some of the support actors tenuously cling to the storyline like afterthoughts.

Considering that this movie is about greed, arrogance, despair, revenge, deceit and blackmail, it does very well to maintain a reasonable entertainment value. The "positive message" comes too late to be of significant redeeming value.

Jackson's performance carries the movie as far as it can go.

"You're addicted to chaos."
'One Wrong Turn Deserves Another", that's the tagline for the film Changing Lanes (2002), starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson, directed by Roger Michell, someone I've never heard of before here, but I found out he also directed the Julia Roberts film Notting Hill (1999), which I have yet to see, mostly because Julia Roberts kinda scares me with those big horse teeth of hers.

As the film begins, we sort of meet two individuals, a fancy schmanzy lawyer named Gavin Banek (Affleck) and a telephone insurance salesman Doyle Gipson (Jackson). The two men, while both on their way to court, Banek involved in a case worth a lot of money to the law firm he's a partner in, and Gipson involved in a custody hearing with his divorced wife, get into a car accident with each other. Gipson wants to handle the situation in the correct manner, but Banek, who caused the accident, has little time to deal with the formalities, tries to deal with the matter expeditiously, pawning off a blank check on Gipson, leaving not only the scene of the accident, but leaving Gipson stranded as his car is totaled. In his haste, Banek accidentally leaves an important document with Gipson, one that could potentially cost his firm over 100 million dollars and even prison time for Banek. As a result of the accident and being stranded by Banek, Gipson misses his appearance, and the court rules against him, allowing for his ex-wife to move away with their two sons. Banek, in the meantime, is allowed until the end of the day to produce the lost document, and later discovers Gipson still has possession of it, but is disgruntled over the treatment he received from Banek and losing his custody hearing, setting up a cycle of revenge between the two men, each sort of 'one upping' each other to increasingly dangerous and life-altering levels.

First of all, I just had a hard time buying Affleck as a partner in a big law firm, despite the fact that his father-in-law, played wonderfully by Sidney Pollack, is also a partner. I think he's a decent actor, a bit over-rated, and he's certainly got the smarmy quality down, inherent in many of his roles, but I didn't feel like he had the level of intelligence required to hold the position he does...and are all lawyers smarmy, greedy, opportunistic liars looking to rip people off? Maybe...I don't know, but this movie would have you believe so...Jackson is pretty good, but he's pretty much playing a role I've seen numerous times before from him, the angry, loud black man who yells a lot. It's toned down a little here, but not much. In the film, we find his wife left him because of his problem with alcohol and his addiction to rage. Throughout the film, she would seem on the verge of possibly reconciling with him, but then would quickly change her mind. This happened three or fours times, and given the film takes place over the course of one day, I could see where Jackson's character might react the way he does, given that she has such a penchant for flip flopping. One of the things I disliked about this film was each time one of the main characters would initiate some form of revenge on the other, they would suffer from moralistic pangs, which would soon pass as the cycle continued. And honestly, there weren't really any likeable characters in this film, despite any attempts of redemption by the characters within the story. Banek is a self-serving lawyer, one whose professional dealings seem awful shady (he struggles with this throughout most of the movie, as we are supposed to believe his conscious is now bo