Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

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

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

razorwirekiss-1 I was 25 when it came out and I saw it in the theater in England. I loved it. I loved Kevin Kline and I loved the writing. Now I'm 50 and I re watched it for the first time in years. Still beautiful but now? It resounds within me somehow. How quickly time passes. The changes we go through. All the little miracles we never notice. I now live in California, married to a woman who fixed my sunglasses at LensCrafters when I just popped in there one day without a thought. A moment in my life that turned into miracle. A teenager for a child. Bills, work and life flying past. No plan, just life. This film has no pat answers, no resolution as such. Just struggles, the overwhelming power of love and the fleeting freight train that is our lives blasting along.At 25 it was a sweet movie. At 50? It's a glorious fable of existence.

vincentlynch-moonoi Although the movie occasionally tries to hard to make its point, it's still quite an amazing work of cinematography. I think what is most impressive is that you have multiple stories, each of which could have been a film it's their own right, but they are woven together into a tapestry of the philosophy that we are all interconnected.First you have the married couple Kevin Kline and Mary McDonnell, who are having a bit of a mid-life crisis (although saying crisis is an exaggeration...more of a bump), when she finds a baby left in the thicket while she is out jogging. Meanwhile, Kline is saved from a night time ghetto incident by a tow truck driver (Danny Glover). Glover is no longer married, and Kline introduced him to a single Black woman (Alfrie Woodard). And, Kline helps move Glover's sister and two children into a better neighborhood than their previous gang-infested one. While Kline's son (Jeremy Sisto) is adjusting well to life, Glover's nephew (Patrick Malone) isn't, and is torn to go back to the gangbangers he once knew.All of the stories work , except on -- movie director Steve Martin. This part of the puzzle never quite seems to gel, unless it is a device to get other characters to be able to verbalize what they are experiencing.In terms of the acting, Kevin Kline is very good, as usual, although here (as often), he essentially played Kevin Kline...but it works! I'm simply not a fan of Danny Glover, but I must admit that his performance here is just right for the story. Mary McDonnell is one of those actresses whose name is unfamiliar to most, yet she consistently turns in fine performances...as here. It isn't that Steve Martin's performance is below standard...it's the part that is the problem. Alfre Woodard is charming, as always. Jeremy Sisto does a nice job as the son. Patrick Malone is very good as the ghetto-torn son! I was a tad bit disappointed in the very ending. What exactly is so special about the Grand Canyon to the story?

kaitlin-ej-ketring The Grand Canyon (Kasdan, 1991) is a film about the obstacles of life that people face on a daily occurrence and the impact these obstacles have on the rest of civilization. In this film there are four important characters that experience life changing events and each of these events either directly or indirectly affects another character in the film. The first character, Mack (Kevin Kline), ends up stranded in a poor neighborhood and is confronted by a street gang. The second character, Davis (Steve Martin), is shot in the leg by a man that is trying to take his Rolex wristwatch. The third character, Claire (Mary McDonnell), finds an abandoned infant on her morning jog. The fourth character, Simon (Danny Glover), finally finds love after being divorced for many years. The Grand Canyon National Park, becomes a metaphor for the theme of the film; that no matter how insignificant and out of control people may sometimes feel, they are still capable of bridging the gaps in their lives. All of the characters prove that despite their circumstances, they are able to find what they have been searching for all along. The focus of the film's theme is on mixed emotions. Another film with a similar type of theme would be The Royal Tenenbaums (Anderson, 2001); another story with several important characters whose personal experiences and actions are interconnected with other character's lives. In addition to the national park being conveyed as a metaphor to the film's theme, it is also used as a motif; being referenced several times throughout the film. The very first instance the national park is mentioned is actually on a television set. The second time it is referenced is when Mack and Simon are talking at the garage just after having towed Mack's car. Simon mentions that, after having seen the Grand Canyon up close one can really get a feel of just how small you really are in the world and how the events in your life are just little parts of a bigger picture. The reference to the national park not only highlights the metaphor being used but also foreshadows the ending of the story; that Mack will finally get to see the Grand Canyon.The cinematographer uses the objective point of view to convey depth in the film. One specific example of the use of the objective point of view is when Mack's car dies on a vacant street in a poor neighborhood; the camera is angled high with a clear view of the vacant street, Mack and his car, and the car being driven by a street gang that, soon confronts Mack and harasses him to get him out of his car. The depth of emotion that develops from the use of this type of camera angle also supports the mixed emotion theme of the film; it provides suspense and excitement while the viewer wonders what will happen next.I really enjoyed watching The Grand Canyon. Life is mysterious and full of devastating experiences and sometimes it is comforting to know that other people live in chaos too. The mixed emotions theme that was portrayed in the film is so realistic to the emotions people feel in everyday life. One moment life can make you feel the best you have ever felt and yet, in only a matter of seconds you could feel as though you have lost everything you have ever known. This film had a beautiful storyline and despite the clear visual indications of the era in which it was produced, the theme is unmistakably universal. Life will always be unpredictable.

flyingcandy If anyone thinks MAGNOLIA is the most pretentious movie ever made, as Richard Dreyfuss tells Robert Shaw in JAWS: "I got that beat." This movie, about rich and poor people in Los Angeles whose lives intertwine, all discussing their own philosophies of life, takes the pretentious nasal-gazing gold medal. Lawrence Kasdan, who's written and directed modern classics like SILVERADO and THE BIG CHILL (and wrote the script to THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK based on George Lucas's story), penned this do-gooder doozy with his wife, Meg. Kevin Kline's car breaks down in Inglewood (after a Laker game) and is almost killed by gangsters; Danny Glover, as a tow truck driver, saves him; they become friends and we follow each of their (and their friends and families) lives and basically learn: we're in different sized boats in the same raging sea. Hollywood bigwigs with tons of money obviously have a lotta guilt, and the Kasdans probably wrote this to assure their diamond-studded cronies: "No matter if we're millionaires, at least WE care". Or something. This film is God-Awful. Every sentence has a POINT; every camera angle an AGENDA. "I dare you to watch this and NOT LEARN SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR LIFE", is in parentheses throughout. As one character says: "People who excel at one thing think they know about everything." I think Lawrence and Meg might have been projecting here. And, at the very end of the two-and-a-half hours of ponderous diatribes (people carrying- on as if they've had that perfect amount of alcohol)... as the cast (including Steve Martin as a film producer who, after being shot in the leg, realizes his billion dollar bank account is pointless; Mary McDonnell, whose very countenance screams "I'm Better Than All Men", playing Kline's wife who finds an abandoned baby; and Jeremy Sisto as Kline's not-spoiled but very privileged son who works with the handicapped) all stare off into the actual Grand Canyon... realizing their problems are tiny in comparison... Don't be surprised if you hear yourself screaming "JUMP!" like I did.