Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

TinsHeadline Touches You

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

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

tbills2 Halle Berry's sexy for every single second in this monster of a movie and her phenomenal, beautiful performance is just flawless, just like Halle.......is just flawless and phenomenal and beautiful and sexy for every single second in life. Billy's great, Heath's really great, Diddy's Diddy, and Peter's real nice. Monster's Ball offers true captivating characterizations, nudity, racialism with realism, and a lens into the close, personal and evil relationships that can exist up on a platter all while gently walking you down the pathway to forgiveness, to real redemption, and hope for a newer, a nicer and a much more brighter future.Halle's sweet nude scene in Monster's Ball with Billy Bob Thornton is the sweetest, best, hottest nude scene ever OMG I LOVE HALLE BERRY it's beautifully shot and beautifully written and beautifully set up and beautifully did by Halle. I love Halle Berry. She has the best body ever.

Dalbert Pringle I loathe these "change-of-heart" movies. I really do. And Monster's Ball has got to be one of the most loathsome "change-of-heart" flicks that I've seen in a mighty long time.Take, for instance, the despicable main character in Monster's Ball - Georgia prison guard, Hank Grotowski. At present Hank is working execution detail on Death Row. What Hank is, is a really, really nasty, bitter, crybaby of an ex-cop. And if that side of Hank isn't detestable enough, then Hank's also one hell of a lousy drunk, and a mean, cussing, foul-mouthed, hateful racist, to boot. (These, of course, are all of Hank's good points.) With that firmly in mind - What bothers me here is that suddenly, like, overnight ("Presto! Change-O!") Hank does this complete about-face thing. Not only does Hank immediately stop hating Blacks, and begin treating them respectfully, but he also starts fornicating with a black woman named Leticia.And I don't care what anyone says - Nobody - I repeat - Nobody with such a deep-rooted hatred and animosity, as Hank had towards blacks, could ever possibly change so bloody fast as he did. It was a goddamn miracle. There would always be some remaining residue of hate and racism left smouldering under that cool, mild-mannered facade. It's impossible to be otherwise - We humans don't work in any other way. We don't.Now, please, don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't believe that people can change - People can and do - But this is something that takes a lot of time, many years, in fact. And, I'm sorry, but considering Hank's background; this change in him was too unrealistically abrupt for me to accept. It seemed so phony and pretentious. Since the overall essence of this flick's story was directed at "realism" Hank's instant "conversion" to black-lover ruined that effect completely.

James Hitchcock The title refers to a supposed tradition in England of holding a party for a condemned murderer, the "monster's ball", the night before his execution. This "tradition" appears to be an invention of the scriptwriters; the death penalty was abolished in Britain more than thirty years before the film was made, and I have never come across any reference to its existence before that.The film tells the story of a love affair between Leticia Musgrove, the widow of an executed murderer, and Hank Grotowski, a prison officer at the local jail. What Leticia does not realise is that Hank actually participated in her husband Lawrence's execution. Other plot lines include Leticia's attempt to bring up her son Tyrell after his father's death and Hank's complicated relationships with his son Sonny and with his own father Buck. Much of the tension in the Grotowski family arises from the fact that Sonny is himself a prison guard at the same jail and that Hank regards him as too "soft" to do the job. Leticia is black and Hank white, so this adds a certain racial tension to their relationship, especially as Buck is a confirmed racist and Hank seems to have inherited some of his father's attitudes. I won't set out any more of the plot, although I can say that it involves some very dark twists; Lawrence's execution is certainly not the last death. At times it almost seems too dark, as though tragedy were being piled upon tragedy.(I said that Leticia is black, but she is of course played by the mixed- race Halle Berry. Hollywood, however, has always treated mixed-race actors as black for casting purposes, hence the casting of the Scottish- Nigerian Carmen Ejogo as Coretta King in the recent "Selma". I doubt if in reality Berry would have had a son who looked like Tyrell).Whether Berry deserved her "Best Actress" Academy Award is something I am not sure of- personally I would incline more towards Judi Dench for her role in "Iris"- although this is probably the best of all Berry's performances which I have seen. The one really outstanding performance, however, comes from Billy Bob Thornton as the violently conflicted Hank. The late Heath Ledger is also very good as Sonny, desperately trying to live up to his father's unrealistic expectations of him.Roger Ebert said of "Monster's Ball" that "The movie has the complexity of great fiction" and considered it the best film of 2001. Not everyone agreed with Ebert- the film was not nominated for "Best Picture"- but in one way he was right; I can certainly imagine a great novel being written around this story. That does not, however, necessarily mean that it is a great film. In a novel the author would have more space to do justice to all the many themes and characters which here are rather swept under the carpet. He would have had room to examine in more detail the relationship between Lawrence and Leticia, the crime for which he was sentenced and the American justice system which sentenced him. He could have paid more attention to the obviously troubled history of the Grotowski family- we learn, for instance, that Buck's wife committed suicide without learning why- and to the toxic father-son relationships between Buck and Hank and between Hank and Sonny. Sonny in particular seems a tragic, haunted figure, so it seemed a pity to me that he died early on and that his death was treated mostly as a prelude to the main event, the affair between Hank and Leticia. Trying to deal with all these matters in the scope of a normal two-hour film results in a claustrophobic, over-intense piece of hothouse film- making. Despite its shortcomings as a piece of story-telling, however, the film nevertheless gives scope for some good acting. 6/10

chrissyt1986 Iv just finished watching this film and it left me SO disappointed as I had really high expectations.First off Halle Berry is brilliant in the movie and you really buy into her character and her emotions and heart-break, she's effortless in what appears to be her comfort zone. Billy Bob Thornton is brilliant in the movie also, I've not seen him in a lot of movies but based on this I have become a fan, he's very convincing and again effortless. My problem with this movie is that it failed to be compelling and the story seemed rushed. The movie is very dreary and depressing, it plods along, the story lacks any real depth, there's no outstanding part in the film that makes you sit up and take notice. They infamous sex scene made the film no better and felt un-justified especially the long length of time it was on, a talented actress like Halle Berry lowering herself to do something like that made me cringe in all honesty. They could have made it shorter or cut away after they started they initial moves. The oral sex scene again felt totally un-necessary and just took away from the drama and emotion in the film.I found myself relieved when it ended after a very weak ending that left me wondering why I wasted my time watching the movie, damn high expectations! Did Halle deserve an Oscar, I personally don't think so, she was very good but not outstanding she was in her comfort zone and didn't really push herself to an Oscar worthy performance. She played the role by numbers nothing more, nothing less a thousand other actresses could have played the part, it wasn't a stretch for her in anyway in my opinion.