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Unstrung Heroes

Unstrung Heroes

List Price: $9.99
Your Price: $9.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Beautiful
Review: A wonderful, sensitive film. See it for the score alone (by Thomas Newman), but also for a surprising, underplayed performance by Andie MacDowell. Keaton's light touch provides enormous weight to a too-often ignored subject in films: faith. While some object to the adaptation from its original novel, I enjoyed seeing it fresh, not having read the book on which the film is based. Books and movies are like apples to oranges--they cannot successfully be compared. I'm a filmmaker myself, and I have yet to meet another filmmaker who did not like this film. While it is by no means a masterpiece, UNSTRUNG HEROES addresses the importance of the role memory plays in forming a person's values and identity, connecting what has past with what will be in a heartbreaking, breathtakingly beautiful narrative. I applaud this film for its excellence and urge people to see it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A moving story .... albeit Hollywood style
Review: After reading the other reviews, I would love to read the book because it sounds like a wonderful book. With that said, every film watcher must face the reality that books and films often have very little similarity if the book probes into the deep emotions of its characters. Therefore, this review will focus on what the film has to offer relative to other films of its kind.

First, the cast is magnificent and do an excellent job in the movie. Although Michael Richards has type-cast himself due to his strong personality in Seinfeld, he did an amazing job of portraying an equally quirky character. John Turturro is generally amazing in everything and although Andy McDowell is a bit mechanical in her acting, she showed a range in this movie that was well beyond what we're use to in her other pictures.

Second, the story itself, albeit altered from the book, had a very nice flow and for a two hour film, conflict and depth was developed. These things made the film not only watchable but also thought-provoking.

So, if you like thought-provoking movies and willing to accept that character depth is difficult to achieve in a movie, you might just like this one. The price ... is not incredibly steep but a viewing from a library copy might be just the thing to convince you this movie is worth buying.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A moving story .... albeit Hollywood style
Review: After reading the other reviews, I would love to read the book because it sounds like a wonderful book. With that said, every film watcher must face the reality that books and films often have very little similarity if the book probes into the deep emotions of its characters. Therefore, this review will focus on what the film has to offer relative to other films of its kind.

First, the cast is magnificent and do an excellent job in the movie. Although Michael Richards has type-cast himself due to his strong personality in Seinfeld, he did an amazing job of portraying an equally quirky character. John Turturro is generally amazing in everything and although Andy McDowell is a bit mechanical in her acting, she showed a range in this movie that was well beyond what we're use to in her other pictures.

Second, the story itself, albeit altered from the book, had a very nice flow and for a two hour film, conflict and depth was developed. These things made the film not only watchable but also thought-provoking.

So, if you like thought-provoking movies and willing to accept that character depth is difficult to achieve in a movie, you might just like this one. The price ... is not incredibly steep but a viewing from a library copy might be just the thing to convince you this movie is worth buying.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Give me a break!
Review: ANYONE WHO WOULD EVEN CONSIDER LIKING THIS PIECE OF JUNK CLEARLY WORKS IN A KLEENEX FACTORY. CRAZY UNCLES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE CRAZY, NOT PREDICTABLE ECCENTRICS FROM SOME STUPID SITCOM. AND I SAW WHY THIS WAS BADLY DIRECTED AS SOON AS THE CREDITS ENDED, DIANE KEATON MUST HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP. ALSO I SEE WHY SOME KLEENEX FACTORY WORKERS ENJOYED IT TOO, IT MADE THEM REALIZE HOW EXCITING THEIR LIVES ARE. GIVE ME A BREAK PEOPLE, AND STOP TRYING TO SAY THAT TOP FIVE MOVIES ARE MOVIES THAT WERE ONLY OPEN FOR TWO DAYS IN THEATRES.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I haven't read the book
Review: but I really enjoyed this movie. Most of the reviewers seem to knock the movie because they have read the book. In any case, I think I liked it because the topic of hoarding is close to my heart and the eccentricities are charming and fascinating. I wish it had more depth and so I will probably end up reading the book. If you're interesting in gleaning- another side of hoarding- try "The Gleaners and I" for a superficial look at the subject.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Forget this watered-down adaptation: BUY THE BOOK!!!!!!!
Review: Diane Keaton's film of Franz Lidz's dark, hilarious memoir bombed in the States - amid charges of anti-Semitism - and it's easy to see why. It's norra lorra laffs. Lidz's book about his four (count 'em - 4, not 2!) crazy uncles and his borderline-crazy father has a Dickensian scope and a Joycian dynamic. His view is gently ironic, and propelled by pace, bite and pathos. In this movie, simplification and scaling down - plus huge Hollywood compromises and significant changes in ethnicity - lose the balance. A great opportunity lost and, ultimately, a terrible shame.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Movies aren't sopossed to put you to sleep..... or are they
Review: I am sorry refresh my memory... I fell asleep too soon to know what this movie was about... It was as bad as Mission to Mars, or The Ninth Gate.... C'mon ladies and jerks get with it.... this movie was BS! or do you like it b/c you don't have enough educatinon to know what the movie was about..... and another thing..... the book is WONDERFUL! really you should READ IT

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Lovable Eccentrics Overdose on Flimsy Whimsy
Review: I believe, having never read the book, that I can offer an unbiased opinion of this silly movie. Unstrung Heroes is packed with the kind of creepy-cozy sentiment that always spurs me to tune in to ESPN in fervent hopes of finding a good soccer brawl from Wales. An overbaked '60s memory movie about death and rampant crackpotism, infused with a subsidiary line of sugary pathos designed to squeeze from susceptible viewers a bucketful of crocodile tears. I can be as readily manipulated as the next person, but only in directions I want to go - and Light-Hearted Weepie has never been my favorite destination. Is there an honest moment in this film? I think not, which is why I intend to buy the book. I hear it's truly wonderful.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: bar-none, the best movie, EVER.
Review: I believe, having never read the book, that I can offer an unbiased opinion of this wonderful movie. The character development, cinematography, and plot all pull together to make you FEEL something, which is more than I can say for a lot of movies that I have seen lately. I don't care what people say about the book being better than the movie, and how they 'ruined' the story, c'mon, the movie was excellent, and you know it...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Many laughs, many tears
Review: I don't cry at movies. Really. Well, maybe a few. This is one of them. But this movie is not about crying, it's not a tearjerker, it's about a boy and growing up, and it is wonderful. It will bring you through many laughs and many tears and you will be so happy you saw it that you will recommend it to just about everyone you know. We rented it once because it had John Turturro in it- he's never failed in a movie yet!


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