Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

rooprect ...or as I like to think of it, THE END OF VIOLENCE is the greatest scifi crime thriller that never was.As always with Wim Wenders, the plot is fantastic. But, as always with Wim Wenders, the movie isn't about the plot, and those who expect to be carried by the plot will be disappointed. In the same way WINGS OF DESIRE had a great plot about angels but was not a fantasy; in the same way UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD had a great plot about a high tech dream machine but was not about technology; in the same way LISBON STORY had a riveting plot about a missing person but was not a mystery, here we have the same Wendersian formula which he pulls off flawlessly.The plot, if you're curious, is about a futuristic "God machine" that can eliminate people with the push of a button. Designed ostensibly for crime prevention & surveillance (the old "to protect & serve" - where have we heard that before?), it gets out of control and takes murder & corruption to the next level of clinical perfection. Caught up in the game is Mike Max, a movie producer struggling with his own intense xenophobia and paranoia, which, like a disease, he himself spreads to society through his films.That's all I'll say about the plot because (a) I don't want to ruin anything, and (b) like I said, the plot is secondary. What's really important, as you watch this movie, is to pay attention to the thought-provoking dialogue, the philosophical allusions and the overall metaphor of the situation. If you can tune into that stuff, then you're set for a great experience.I'll give you just one example of the philosophy. There's a scene early on where they talk about the "observer effect" (you might recognize it as the paradox of "Schrödinger's cat" which you can look up on wikipedia). This is the fundamental theme of the film: the idea that, even by "impartially observing", we change the situation or in some cases destroy it. As one of the characters says, it's like "flipping on the light to observe the darkness." What a poetic & appropriate analogy.This movie is choc full of that kind of stuff, and you may miss it if you're expecting car chases and gunfire. No, instead you get the ultimate anti-violence violence film, and I gotta give Wenders a standing ovation on being the first director I've seen pull it off. A lot of movies in the past have carried a message of anti-violence; yet the films sink to the thrill of showing violence themselves and often glorifying it (the biggest example would be Norm Jewison's classic ROLLERBALL), and this becomes confusing if not outright hypocritical. But in this case, we get a chilling depiction of the epidemic of violence without showing any blood & guts to excite our savage instincts. It remains an intellectual film, not visceral. Don't get me wrong; this movie is plenty suspenseful, and on more than one occasion it'll have your heart flopping like an electrified noodle. But it's all done by way of the mind. To me, that's what makes this depiction of violence all the more effective & frightening: the way it's so clean & neat like in a video game. And without any fuss, someone's head could just go pop.This is the best film I've seen in a while. I'm only taking off a few points because I wished it was twice as long & had more monologues, like some of the older Wenders films. But I have to say this film sticks to its objective and delivers a perfect product.

lastliberal Wim Wenders(Buena Vista Social Club: Paris, Texas) is not for everyone. His films are slow and methodical. They do not hit you hard, but creep along unwinding in layers so that you can savor them like a fine single malt scotch.This film came out before Crash, but it is still that same format. There are many stories going on at once, and they are interconnected.Bill Pullman (Independence Day, The Grudge) is a movie producer (Mike Max) who finds himself in a situation that allows him to change his life. It wasn't such a great life anyway. He was only married to Andie MacDowell (Groundhog Day, Four Weddings and a Funeral). How can a man stand that! But his situation has been observed by a computer scientist that is working on a new tool of Big Brother to watch our every move. Like they don't have that now.There were some very interesting characters floating through the story. This was Traci Lind's last movie (?). She was an actress who lost a job when Max's movie gets shut down, and she runs into him, and she connects with a cop who is pursuing her and working the case, and he connects with the computer geek and well, I said it was all interconnected while separate stories are going on.It's Crash. It's Babel. It's both. It's neither. It's about life. It's about Big Brother. It's about relationships between the races. It's about Hollywood.It's Wim Wenders, so it takes some effort, but it is worth it. It's not about sex and violence: it's about people.Besides that it has Ry Cooder's music.

jojairus This film is more about people adapting to change than about thrills. Bill Pullman is a very successful producer who uses people. His wife decides to leave him, but at the same time he gets caught up in a bizarre plan to introduce a pre-emptive high-tech crime-intervention system based on the ubiquitous "Big Brother" cameras that we've all become so used to in the developed world. All though he actually knows nothing yet, he's targeted for assasination. He finds refuge with his Mexican gardeners, and, while trying to discover why he's now hunted he goes through an epiphany of his own. This film is full of lovely characterisations. It's much more than a conspiracy movie.

Eric_Norton Oh my gaaaawwd, what a stinker! Rented this. On paper it looks good - good cast, director, intriguing sounding premise. Started watching, and waited for the film to develop.And waitedAnd waitedAnd then the credits rolled, with nobody having said or done anything of any import whatsoever. I have seen plenty of poor films, but everybody involved in this one should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. I'm surprised none of the actors torched the celluloid before it could reach a screen.