Oscar85

Spielberg once again proves why he is the amazing filmmaker he is. Minority Report's clever noir tale of a "pre-crime" officer's quest to discover how and why he is soon to commit a murder is as fresh and unique as any spun on the screen in the last several years. Just the idea of it is enough to captivate the viewer, but Spielberg's direction makes for a pay-off ten times greater than one could imagine. Everything that could work in this film does and works in a way the viewer didn't see coming. Summing up the merits of this film is impossible because they are merits incapable of being condensed. It is a movie entirely free of convention and tacky hollywood cliches. One really fun trip into the mind of the greatest mind in the movie business. Easily the best movie of the year and one of the finest ever made.

10 out of 10

The Coens have created another masterpiece. This is their finest work. The screenplay is full of ironic humour at every turn. Thornton is wonderful as Ed Crane, the man who works at a barber shop who doesn't really consider himself a barber. Out of boredom, he goes into blackmail so he can earn money to invest in a dry cleaning scheme. There, that's it! Amazing isn't it? Only the Coens could ever devise a film on this premise and make it work its wonder for 116 minutes of black-and-white glory. I liked the film after the last elegant line spun. After a few days of going over it in my mind, I loved it more and more. It's skeletal elegy of an everyman taps straight into your mind and holds you there long after the final shot.

Eerie and shocking, "The Man Who Wasn't There" gets a solid 8.5 out of 10.

The new trilogy cannot in any way be compared to the first. This one is synthetic, technically-driven, and far from the innocent simplicity of the first three entries.

When "The Phantom Menace" was released in 1999, a large percentage of the Star Wars devotees fell away, and such was to be expected. The feeling of the film was different--distant, esoteric at times. But this is an entirely new set of films and entirely new sets of objectives. Now that a second entry is in the books, perhaps the animosity toward Lucas and his new creation can go away at last.

"Attack of the Clones" is startling, mystifying, dazzling, provocative, and fun through-and-through. It employs the eye-candy graphics initiated with "The Phantom Menace" and takes them to a whole new atmosphere. Even though the film is 95% computerized, one can still feel a part of the picture, another spectator in the arena. The writing was refreshingly better than that of "The Phantom Menace." Full of quirky exchanges and chilling references of things to come, the script manages to keep the movement of the film fluid while not getting too bogged down in the politics of the story. A finely crafted dialogue and delivery onto a screen filled with enough going on to thrill even the biggest skeptic.

The last half-hour of the film puts the viewer on a conveyor belt, sets the speed to hyperdrive, and throws them straight into the door leading to Episode III. After seeing the film at 12:01 on the morning of 16 May, there was a great deal of material there to sink in. I am quite confidant that this film will appeal on many, many levels and take its place gracefully on the shelf next to "The Phantom Menace." And when all is said and done for this prequel series, movie lovers will have two wonderfully unique trilogies to sink their teeth into, for many years to come I hope.

"Attack of the Clones" gets a 7.5/10