NO. 2 All-Time? Please!!!

Rating: Null/10 (15 April 2000)

Ok, this movie has been hyped to ridiculous extremes. Simply put, this was an original idea (hell beneath the surface of suburbia) in 1954 when Rebel Without a Cause was released. The wife is a cardboard cut-out, the husband, who we the audience is supposed to identify with in his rebellion against stifling suburban life, lacks any redeeming value from the first scene. The character should have started as a schlemiel and THEN grown to fight back against his shallow life. I, personally, was happy his character was murdered. Cheap easy laughs form the basis of this tired script. If you want to see a better film in this vein, one with true depth, poetry and complexity that doesn't make it so easy for the audience to feel superior to the lives of it's pathetic characters, see the Ice Storm.

Oh, and by the way Academy voters, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH was the best picture AND original screenplay of 1999. Thank you.