GazerRise Fantastic!

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

jm10701 All of the weaknesses in this mostly spectacular production of Angels in America are inherent in the play on which it's based. Except for one serious mistake in casting, Mike Nichols did an astounding job of turning a deeply flawed but occasionally brilliant play into a much better movie.The biggest problem with Angels in America is the angels. The entire "heaven" theme that's only hinted at in the first half comes in with such force in the second that it nearly torpedoes this hugely ambitious production.Poor Emma Thompson is given such stupid, pretentious lines to read, lines that I'm not sure the greatest actor who ever lived could have spoken without coming off as a moron, that it's amazing her career survived this.Her long, LONG, excruciatingly bad speech to Prior about the history of the universe is unbelievably stupid, so stupid and so awkward that at best it may be a bizarre attempt at comic relief by a writer with no sense for comedy.But the nurse she plays isn't much better, even though those lines are better written. Thompson is just miscast in those roles. In large part it's because her clumsy American accents make it a strain to accept those characters as real. She's working so hard (but failing) to get the accents right that it sounds like she has marbles in her mouth.But, as I said, I'm not sure any actor on earth could do much better, at least with the insufferably stupid angel character (although I'd like to see what Meryl Streep would have done with that role). Even the otherwise well-written (and impeccably acted) role of Belize degenerates into pretentious gibberish near the end when Kushner has him telling Cohn what the afterlife is like.A writer who doesn't know anything about or even believe in the afterlife shouldn't make it such an important part of his work. Those scenes are SO false and SO pretentious that they almost sink an otherwise unique and often fascinating play.If Kushner had stuck to the human beings and left out the angels (and the whole absurd supernatural construct they represent), if he had sidelined his own petty, personal, spoiled-childish animosity toward God instead of making it central, he'd have had a much more powerful play. It's completely appropriate that the first half won a Pulitzer Prize but the second half didn't.The other actors are fine, especially Streep as Mother Pitt and Ethel Rosenberg, Mary-Louise Parker as Harper and Jeffrey Wright as Belize, a role he obviously was born to play. Mike Nichols is a genius, and the overall production is among the best ever filmed.The sets, costumes and effects are brilliant and flawless. This is a fully and richly executed movie - it was released as a TV miniseries only because the movie studios wouldn't finance it. Except for the stupid angel and afterlife parts in the second half, the nearly six hours fly past, which is a huge compliment from someone with a short attention span like me.(It's funny to see how many of the negative reviews are from clueless people who watched this based only on its title and ran screaming when they discovered it's not a sterile, patriotic, inspirational product of the Billy Graham Studios.)

bkoganbing Angels In America may not have the cast of thousands that epic films are supposed to have. It has the length, but more to the point it has the heart. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is still very much with us, AZT is still the preferred method of treatment and control, but we can thank God and a lot of concerned activists that it is not the rare item reserved for the privileged few as we see here.This epic takes it cues in structure and format from such big screen films as Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and later on Crash. A select group of individuals, all fictional but based on people that Tony Kushner knew no doubt. I spotted a few in their I knew including flashing glimpses of myself in passing. That made for some uncomfortable viewing at certain points, but it was appreciative.One real person is here and possibly in a couple more generations people will look at Roy Cohn and ask could such a monster exist? I'm here to say he very much did exist. The Jew who turned his back on his own people, the gay man who refused to admit it to himself because he saw his people as weak and oppressed. These people exist, I knew a gay man who absolutely refused to admit his same sex attraction, he's still with us involved in right wing homophobic groups. And as for his Jewishness he renounced that religion and converted to Russian Orthodox. Talk about self hatred. These people are very real and in positions of power they are deadly.Roy Cohn is played here by Al Pacino and Pacino gives us one bravura performance as the dying monster who gets for himself the precious and at that time rare AZT to prolong a miserable existence. He's the self hating gay who moves with the elite who use homophobia obtain and retain power. Cohn first got public attention as one of the prosecutors in the famous atomic spy case. With what we know now there's no doubt Julius Rosenberg was guilty as charged. What Ethel's role in the case remains murky, she was a devoted wife and a believer in Julius's Marxist ideals. The government however wanted a confession from Julius and Cohn sought to get one. He held Ethel's life in the balance and neither Rosenberg would give up their crime or their accomplices if there were more. The bluff was called and Cohn with the zeal of a rabid dog pushed for her execution.In his miserable last hours on earth Cohn resisting the grim reaper is visited by Ethel Rosenberg and who could blame her for exacting some sadistic torment of Cohn. Her spirit is one of many played by Meryl Streep who took her cues from Alec Guinness from Kind Hearts And Coronets. With two great players like these, these moments in the film are choice.Others in the cast are Ben Shenkman another Jewish gay man involved with Justin Kirk who has come down with AIDS. There's Jeffrey Wright playing a black gay man who is nurse to both Pacino and Kirk. Shenkman works in the xerox room of a white shoe law firm that Cohn has his hooks into and his fair haired boy there is Patrick Wilson, a Mormon married to Mary Louise Parker but who has some same sex attractions.This is quite a mix of characters and away from Pacino and Streep my favorite moment is Shenkman who has broken under the strain of the health issues around Kirk got himself involved with Wilson. When he goes to the law library and reads some of the decisions, the inhumane decisions that Wilson has written for his senile judge for whom he is a clerk, the rage comes forth. He shames Wilson, but in a large degree he expiates his own sins.Pacino as Cohn, Streep as Rosenberg and many others and the rest of this stellar ensemble have created a masterpiece. This will last for centuries as a monument to the many who died, many whom I knew and loved and those who survived and fought to retain dignity and hope.

Alex Pettigrew The mini-series Angels in America is a story of epic proportions, the playwright re-written into a screenplay by the original writer Tony Kushner, has multiple stories connecting through the deadly disease of AIDS, takes them on a journey of discovery through hallucinations of angels. The entire cast give a stunning performance, with actors like Meryl Streep, Jeffrey Wright, Justin Kirk and Emma Thompson playing up to two to three roles, giving the film that extra little bit of magic. Each character has a story that we follow through out, with every character relating in someway to sexuality, following confusion, acceptance and frustration. On top of it all is the wonderful score by Thomas Newman, who scored such films as "American Beauty" and "The Shawshank Redemption", Newman takes you on a magical flying carpet ride through a world of almost cinema, giving the television series a strong beating heart that will stay with you for a long time.The story is in 6 chapters rolled over in two 3 hour episodes, which gives the series a triumphant legacy, as a part of HBO's outstanding library of film, television and documentaries. This is truly a major milestone in cinematic history and should be recognized for it sheer emotion and storytelling.

shaunandria I had no idea what to expect when I started watching and then recording the series! I loved every minute of it! It was a most humble journey, which was probably very painful for some, but strong, emotional and unbelievable for others. I found myself riveted to the television, which doesn't happen often! The fact that this has been aired so long after the subject itself hit the headlines, and we as a nation have evolved with knowledge and help, has meant that Angels was in it's own time an incredibly controversial film, that we can look back with hindsight and be thoroughly disgusted with our attitudes towards the 'gay' communities. I personally feel that it would most definitely benefit a second viewing. Well done to all who were involved.