|
| Requiem for a Dream | 
| Category: Movie
Buy New: $9.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  919 reviews
Sales Rank: 13137
Rating: Unrated
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 102 minutes
ASIN: B000JCQCW4
Theatrical Release Date: October 26, 2000
Release Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Modern Classic July 31, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The only reason I rented this movie was because I loved the music on the trailer I watched.
Wow. Words really can't describe all the emotions this movie made me feel, ansd I think it may be the only film that has made me feel this way. I loved the story, character, tthe way it was filmed, and oh my god the symbolism! I think that if you had 10 diffrent people sit down at the same time and asked them some questions, you could have ten siffrent opinions, and maybe even what the people thought the movie reprsenrs. This is now one of my favorite films, the greatest part for me is the hauntingly beautiful soundtrack, that has entered my soul, and can make me weep. Please, watch this film, and decide for yourself. You may be really glad you did.
 What did I just watch? July 28, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
What a flaming turd. It made no sense. You have to be on drugs yourself to appreciate this movie. It was listed under horror in Unbox and that must be because it's a horrible movie. I'd like my money and 2 hours of my life back, Amazon.
Forced "Drama" for Adolescent Minds July 26, 2008
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
If I could give this coprolite of a film zero stars I would. This is the worst movie I have ever seen and ever hope to see. The fact that it could be rated so highly, here and on IMDB, indicates the abysmal emotional immaturity of film fans.
1. No likable characters - which isn't to say the characters just sit there, no. They scream off the screen with absolute annoyance. I hated the characters 15 minutes into the film and wondered how they could possible be turned into something worth watching. They weren't. Androgynous boy-man has the voice of a whining buzz saw cutting through a series of jagged metal chalk boards. Jennifer Connelly manages to disguise her attractiveness under a layer of creepout that was hard, physically hard, to keep eyeballs focused on. And the Wayans brother is just annoying token-black-man, thrown in to give the Semitic/Anglo couple some "street cred".
Okay, not all characters in a movie need to be appealing. But the kicker is, when you get to the end of the movie and you realize you are supposed to feel sorry for them...somehow. Despite the fact that they never displayed an ounce of decency or humanity. It's beyond comprehension how I could feel anything other than disgust for them all.
So maybe the mother character is sposta appeal? As she descends into a diet pill frenzy that borders on the comic, and increasingly chews the scenery like a dog with an old bone, you can only hope the movie will end soon so you can begin the process of extracting her visage from your catalog of humanoid faces.
2. Displays all the writing and plotting skills of a privileged, protected college student trying to imagine what life on the edge is like. It's truly laughable. Truly cliched and trite and laughable. Token-black ends up arrested by token-Southern-law-officer and sentenced to forced labor. Semitic junky loses his arm - oh yes, in the South doctors will call the police before treating a case of gangrene - we're just that inhuman. Creepy chick starts having sex for money and drugs, but we're sposta feel sorry for her cuz she doesn't enjoy it. Mother goes into an irrecoverable spastic state from diet pills (DIET PILLS!) and has her brain fried with electroshock. Yeah...that's a believable scenario. Zathura is more believable. Childish junk, this "plot".
3. Purposeless student film devices. The quick cutting, the meaningless split screens, the accelerated/decelerated time, the steady cams strapped to bodies - it all screams, "I am so creative, world look at my genius and despair." What's really lovable is the little montage that accompanies every heroin kick - gee, that never gets old.
4. Stereotypes - the lovable black heroin dealer, the horrible black sex fiend, the n-word using Southern law officers, the doting Jewish mother and her troop of aimless Jewish mother friends, the creepy bald successful guy. Every character in this movie is a hack job pulled from the yellowed pages of some pulp novel found on a bus stop rack.
5. Laughable drug use - For junkies, these people have awfully fussy biological clocks. They can go without for any length of time it takes to flesh out some worthless scene. But then suddenly, they're willing to become sex slaves for a slight taste. Whatever gets the director to the emotional non-moment he thinks will grab the ghoulies of pretentious film critics. And then the mother on diet pills? And she's so stupid she doesn't realize that taking several at a time is inadvisable?
6. Ridiculous plot devices - did I cover the hysterical creepy mental hospital where they go straight to the brain frying levels of ECT? Why didn't the director just do the lobotomy routine from Cuckoo's Nest? The drug shortage with a special Xmas delivery that means nobody in NYC can get heroin...yes, that's believable. The man who can't take care of an infection on his arm until...it needs antibiotics? No, that might be believable. No, it must be cut off. Ridiculous! And the Wayans character...he's operating with the Jewish guy, but he's also in the black mob and they are independent and have money but then don't and...was anybody allowed to review this? Did nobody giving this drut 5 stars think this was a problem? The mother with her TV addiction, who just happens to watch the same show ad nauseum? Believable? Or just meant to inflict despair? I claim the latter.
Dear dawg, I could go on and on about how insanely bad this movie is, and how I hope the director gets put on the next one-way rocket trip to the Andromeda Galaxy...but what's really disturbing is the number of people who could swallow this razor blade and call it candy.
 After the visceral impact fades, there's little to sustain the film... July 25, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This film reminds me of Gaspar Noe's Irreversible, in that it's initially an assault on the senses, and you feel as if you've seen great filmmaking because of it. When I revisisted Irreversible recently, I found out I'd been had. Noe's film is just an assault on the senses with nothing in its core. Aronofsky's film, while nowhere as overly graphic, sadistic or disgusting as Irreversible, has this same quality.
As many have said here, the main message here is a very simplistic one, DRUGS ARE BAD. It's almost on the level of an after school special, and that's a shame, as Aronofsky has a very good visual and editing style, but after nearly 2 hours of it, it's overkill. I felt totally numbed after seeing this film. I sat in my car afterwards, and I couldn't move. But aside from the pure visceral experience of the film (which feels like a drug, the drugs the movie is telling us not to use), there isn't much left there. There's some depth in Ellen Burstyn's character (she gives a great performance), but I believe that has to do with the fact this is based on Hubert Selby Jr.'s book. If there is any humanism in this film, it's derived from the novel, not Aronofsky, who is like a kid with his new toy. The characters of Leto and Connelly are especially bad, especially Connelly. She is supposed to be a junkie, but she looks way too beautiful to be one. Overall, the film is worth watching at least once, but it's essentially a visceral assault on your senses and little else.
A funny sidenote...Before this film screened (I saw it in a theater), the theater was playing The Wallflowers's album Breach, which is one of my favorite albums of theirs. After I recovered from this assault, I kept thinking about how wonderful and tuneful those songs were, and I pretty much forgot about Aronofsky's film (until I wrote this review). I bought Breach, and it's one of my favorite albums. Thanks, Darren...
Prententious Crappola (of rocknrola)!!!! June 25, 2008
3 out of 12 found this review helpful
Spun (Unrated Version)This is what happens when people who have never gotten hiiiiiigh in their life try to make a movie about gettin high. Get "Spun", instead....pretty much on the money. Or, maybe even:Blow (Infinifilm Edition)"Blow" which, at least, had the immortal line: "I once did 10 grams in 10 minutes....what can I say? I guess I have a high tolerance." Skip this second-rate bit o' fluff and read:PILATE: A Brutal Bible Taleinstead. Ever seen a vampire stoned? Ever seen the Christ smoke trees?
|
|
|
Wildlife, nature and the Environment
Sponsored Links
Learn how to get your own Amazon Book shop | |
