Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

grantss Interesting and thought-provoking. The overarching sentiment of this movie - co-operation beats greed - was a great and admirable one. The director/presenter, Tom Shadyac, makes a compelling case for what is wrong in our society and, to a degree, how we can fix it. The interviewees and contributors are luminous and knowledgeable, and come from varied backgrounds and professions, making the discussions even more the interesting, as they are often on the same wavelength. However, there is a lot of padding and airy-fairy stuff that goes on that ultimately looks very gimmicky and like a smokescreen (the yoghurt scene...). Plus, while the conclusion is admirable, it is a bit idealistic.Still, overall, many lessons for our society in this movie.

Michael McAleer Fully recommend this film. Warning: if watched with an open heart could change your life forever and make you happier than you've been since you were a child. Big business better watch out .... we're waking up and we'll be coming for you soon ...... Parents show your teenagers this film, the utmost education you could provide for them.My only question is why does this film feel like the complete truth make such total sense to me and yet a couple of days after watching it I feel like I'm losing my mind - supporting a simple experiment that has mutated into an evil society making us all sick? I should feel healthy but society tells me I'm mad .... Guess I'll find out whose right soon enough.

billcr12 I Am is a documentary by director Tom Shadyac, best known for Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Bruce Almighty. He suffered serious injuries in a bicycle accident which caused him to reevaluate his place in the world. In doing so, he came to the conclusion that he was part of the problem and as a result he sold his 17,000 square foot home in Beverly Hills and gave up a private jet, among other things. Through interviews with great thinkers, such as Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, he analyzes the meaning of life and with several scientists, concludes that we are all connected in many ways. At one point, we meet his father, who, it turns out was one of the founders of St. Jude's Children's hospital, along with Danny Thomas. He has inherited his dad's need to make a difference in the world. His optimistic outlook for our future may be misguided, but I give him credit for being a good example to the rest of us.

Shazam-O Does Shadyac want a medal for moving into a (rather nice, upscale) mobile home lot in Malibu?This movie has no point. It is 90 minutes of some rich Hollywood guy who almost dies, has an epiphany that "Hey, maybe I've been a greedy bastard these past 20 years and maybe there's more to life than private jets, luxury cars and fancy homes," and makes a movie about it. In which he shows picture after picture after picture of his luxury homes and himself standing in front of a private jet and a luxury car. Three times we see the same photo of him standing on the tarmac. The thesis of his movie is something along the lines of Nature is holistic, all Living Things are of One, Man is by his own nature Good and full of Empathy and the Heart is more powerful than the brain. He takes sound bites from interviews with some popular academics such as Noam Chomsky and David Suzuki (neither of whom I think actually buy into his hippy Gaia hypothesis full scale). We are programmed by society, by competitive sports and spelling bees, to go against our Nature of Cooperation. Everyone is nice if just given the chance!He argues that Man can have revolution through peaceful means and that one person CAN make difference. And then he uses Gandhi as his example. Wow, one example out of thousands of years of war. He also gives a nod to Mandela, the Dali Lama, Martin Luther King. But he doesn't delve any deeper than that. He does not ask why Man can be Bad. But he is ecstatic that he can make yogurt smile.He really does not SAY ANYTHING in this winding, melancholic ramble. He does not offer The Answers. Which is kind of important seeing as he begins the movie asking his Two Questions. It is basically 90 minutes of being privy to some guy wonder about stuff. Wonder about Life as he stares up at the clouds and out at the rolling waves of the ocean from the private beach in his gated (mobile home) community.