UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

howardeisman Meanders along with the main characters speaking softly, sometimes whispering until the louder ending. Everything is low key. I guess this is supposed to be real life naturalistic acting, but the quietness and slowness of things are peculiarly unnatural. What things actually happen, the story devolves into a porn standard plot, written without the sex and with some nudity teases, which makes the whole enterprise rather immature..Life brings about changes, people do things but do not necessarily change. If you can identify with the characters and their lives, you might find it interesting. "Hey. gang!This movie is about us!" If not, it's pretty boring

writerasfilmcritic If my wife doesn't fall asleep in the middle of our evening movie, I know it's got something going for it, particularly if she's seen it several times before. I never get tired of watching this movie, either. It has Kate Beckinsale looking especially young and lovely. My favorite part is when she's out running in her leos and stops to take in the view. We see her from the rear and she certainly has a nice figure. Then there's Natascha McElhone, Christian Bale's attractive colleague at the mental ward where he works. She gives Kate some real competition, which isn't easy to do. The steamy scene in the car where Natascha and Bale confess in explicit terms just how much they want one another, has to be one of the more erotic interludes in recent movie history, and nobody removes even a stitch of clothing! A quick shot of a young blonde who decides to spend the day in the raw at the clinic provides another interesting moment for the guys in the audience. I especially enjoyed her little speech to "Dr. Bale" that "naked is inner," that she didn't wish to conceal her "warm supple skin," while alluding to the barren desert that is the world out there.Of course, the movie has much more going for it than just hot babes in erotic situations. Francis McDormand, of "Fargo" fame, who is getting a bit too mature to be judged merely for her appearance (although she looks awfully fit for a woman her age), nevertheless is interesting to watch and dominates the situation throughout the movie. The way she interacts with the the record company exec who keeps hounding her about getting the album finished before Christmas is always amusing. Her interaction with her son provides some fireworks, too. We could do without one or two of the scenes between her, her boyfriend, and Kate Beckinsale, but alas, they are integral to the plot's development. The way the band, including her boyfriend, finish off their work in the studio and arrive at the final "hit single" they will need to satisfy commercial interests, provides a backdrop that carries the story forward surprisingly well. Coupled with the romantic quandary faced by Christian Bale who must choose between fidelity to his fiancée, Kate Beckinsale, and a lustful fling with his alluring coworker, Natascha McElhone, gives this movie an entertaining edge that is not usually seen in more recent Hollywood offerings. All in all, the idea of life in Laurel Canyon is successfully conveyed. You get the distinct sense that the young couple from Boston got more than they bargained for when they moved to L.A.

Desertman84 Writer/director Lisa Cholodenko follows up her much-acclaimed 1997 debut High Art with this examination of a young couple seduced into a hedonistic, left-coast lifestyle. Taking its title from its central locale, Laurel Canyon focuses on a pair of upper-middle class lovebirds from the East Coast who relocate to Los Angeles.The film stars Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone, and Alessandro Nivola.Freshly graduating from Harvard,Sam and Alex are eager to continue their medical studies out West, but they need some lodging while they hunt for a home. Enter Jane, Sam's estranged mom, who's more than willing to put the couple up in her lavish digs. Jane is a successful record producer whose latest charge -- both in the studio and in her bedroom -- is Ian , a brazen, libidinous twenty-something Brit-rocker. As Sam and Alex settle in at Jane's, they gradually lose their straight-and-narrow approach to life and begin to experiment. Alex takes to Ian and Jane, while Sam is wooed by co-worker Sara.This film is a character-study about self-realization.The performances of the actors and actresses involved were worthy of commendation.Frances McDormand is terrific in her new role as record producer,mother,and corrupter of curious girls.While the rest like Bale,Beckinsale and Nivola were outstanding as well.But inspite of its unconventional storyline,the movie will leave people hanging and with a feeling unsatisfied as the movie turns into entertainment instead of providing better explanations about the characters in it except for the fact that they are seduced by the culture of Los Angeles - wherein Laurel Canyon is located and nothing more.

PWNYCNY A Hollywood touchy-feely movie that has all the subtlety of a lead rock. It doesn't take much to soon figure where this movie is taking the audience. The sexual threesomes or foursomes or twosomes or whatever soon dominate the story as the audience is asked to accept a whole range of implausibilities in order for the story to work. The mother, the son, the girl-friend, the musician, all clichés, all unbelievable, all annoying, most of all the son, played by Christian Bale, in a glaring example of miscasting that is egregious, even for a Hollywood movie, which is saying a lot. The setting itself is contrived, as if Laurel Canyon is some kind of stage, a place that's so special. C'mon! It's L.A. Nothing special about that. It's not even Hollywood. Nothing in this movie works accept the final scene where the two main male characters get into a fight. Only then does the movie come to life. This movie is further proof that Hollywood should stay away from the touchy-feely stuff and stick to what it does best - producing c-g action pictures with cartoon-like characters. After all, isn't that what the public wants?