American Beauty (DVD) > Reviews

Advantages: Kevin Spacey
Disadvantages: Ho hum plot

...the story of your typical American family. Mom & dad only sleep together now, don’t like each other, dad is having a mid life crisis, mom is having an affair, daughter thinks dad is a creep for fancying her friends and mom is a hypocrite. Familiar? Yes, it was a bit for me as well. Overall this is not a bad film but somehow is less than the sum of its parts. Kevin Spacey again shows why he is one of the best actors currently around with a ... Read review

Advantages: Excellent acting, keeps you watching, brilliant soundtrack
Disadvantages: Dream sequences can be confusing sometimes.

American Beauty follows the lives of a small group of people who are all related by the fact that they live within 3 doors of one another and while everything may look peaceful and serene from the outside, we are given a glimpse of what is really going on inside. Cast ---- Lester Burnham - Kevin Spacey Carolyn Burnham - Annette Benning Jane Burnham - Thora Birch Ricky Fitts - Wes Bentley Angela - Mena Suvari Colnel Fitts - Chris Cooper Barbara ... Read review

Advantages: Excellent Acting
Disadvantages: Can Be Hard To Follow

...opinion, basically all about the American Dream going rotten and families falling apart. And it does have a definite appeal, the confidence and flow of the acting and gorgeous images stand out. And watching this film, you will need full concentration, if you turn it off and come back you will perhaps miss it's appeal. But if your prepared to sit and watch all the way through, then you will definitely be able to find something to interest you in this. ... Read review

Advantages: cast, story
Disadvantages: none

American Beauty is a very strange beast of a film; it should have been critically acclaimed but made no money. It is directed by a first time director with a theatre background and is a study of families falling apart in American suburbia, normally the plot of a daytime TV movie rather than a box office smash. But thanks to a great script, superb acting and wonderful debut director Sam Mendes the film made $336m at the box office. The Film Unlike ... Read review

Advantages: Close to truth.
Disadvantages: The truth is sad.

...not in fact just the American dream, as it is not confined to Americans, but in fact touches on human needs in general. The story tells about average people in average lives, and their situations are a little exaggerated to get the point across, but what comes from a story like this is a list of questions that I ask myself about my life, and about the lives of people around me. It portrays a husband in an unsatisfactory marriage, where communication ... Read review

Advantages: Billiant, funny, different, thought provoking
Disadvantages: Not the ending you wanted, but you were expecting that

With his first production for the silver screen director Sam Mendes has created a film that really does live up to it’s name – it’s a real beauty. It tells the story of Lester (Kevin Spacey), a man fed up with his mundane existence, his ‘stepford wife’ and his oh so grateful daughter for either of who he can do nothing right. From the moment the film starts and Lester announces that he only has one year to live, although ... Read review

Advantages: The acting is on the whole superb
Disadvantages: The humour is a little twisted and is often at the expense of certain minority groups.

A deeply disturbing film that some will find just plainly odd and offensive, this is a sophisticated and wickedly funny look at suburban life when things go wrong. Of the two families concerned, the first is headed by Lester Burnham (played by the dryly funny Kevin Spacey) as the patriach who leaves his job after blackmailing his boss. He yearns for meaning in his life and sets out to do so in his own strange way. His wife Carolyn (played by Annette ... Read review

Advantages: Funny, Thought Provoking, Well made and acted, Great music
Disadvantages: You'll want to watch it again, too much to write about

I've been avoiding writing this review since I watched the video over Christmas, because I am afraid no matter what I write I cannot do the film justice. It has so many different themes, different threads to follow that nobody could hope to sum it up in anything less than a dissertation. So be aware that this is inevitably less than the film as a whole. Our hero is Lester Burnham, a middle-class white man living in suburban America. His life is ... Read review

Advantages: Original!
Disadvantages: Hype

...more a comment on contemporary American society. I find it hard to imagine this working quite as well in a British setting, but in the middle class American setting it's in, it's perfect and a disturbing commentary. From the obsessive housewife Carolyn (Anette Bening) to the nubile cheerleaders and beyond, these are characters right out of America's Dream..but with a very bitter twist. Interesting that the director, Mendes, is a Brit - maybe this ... Read review

Advantages: well-shot, acted, directed
Disadvantages: --

...benchmark by which all multi-layered American dramas are judged, Altman's 'Shortcuts'. The reason this structure works so effectively is that it doesn't insult the audience's intelligence by employing scenarios that entirely rely on coincidence, alternatively using a more realistic narrative approach. The movie has a feel of 'Peyton Place' gone awry, or a 'Blue Velvet' minus the Lynch-esque surrealism. It's a tribute to the faith invested in debutante ... Read review

Advantages: Brilliant cast, all delivering brilliant performances, with an outstanding script.
Disadvantages: None - it really is that good.

...her talents extend further than American Pie, and is brilliantly suited to her part. I must admit that the first time I watched this film, although I really enjoyed it, I wasn't quite sure why. Then I saw it again and everything became clear. The film somehow succeeds in showing the true beauty of life, without being naive to the horrors of reality. I think one of the main things it demonstrates is the insignificance of society in comparison ... Read review

Advantages: great film, quality extras
Disadvantages: not DTS or dvd -rom features on R2

American Beauty was the 1999 big award winner, was it worthy of all the praise? In a word yes. It has a great script, great acting and is well directed. It also has a great look at a suburban american life that isn't all roses and actually doesn't have a happy ending. But what I like is that it's darkly funny. BRAD[reading Lester's job description] "My job requires mostly masking my contempt for the assholes in charge, and, at least once a day, ... Read review