Mediocre at best

Rating: 2/10 (30 August 2000)

It is a sad day when a film like American Beauty wins an Oscar for Best Picture (although the Academy hardly ever chooses the absolute best film of the year anymore), and is currently 3rd on a list (IMDB Top 250) with Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Dr. Strangelove and so many other truly great films behind it. As far as the Academy goes, they can be forgiven because 1999 was such a poor year for good films. The Matrix, Election, Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, and maybe one or two others deserved attention. Since it had the hype, and an amazing actor in Kevin Spacey, winning over the above-mentioned films was easy. As far as the IMDB voters go, they (we) can be forgiven for pretty much the same reason. Films today suck. There are exceptions, as with everything, but when a mediocre film like American Beauty gets raves like it has, you know something is wrong. The script was the worst part of this movie. Colonel Fitts and all three females were caricatures and made me cringe anytime any of them did ANYTHING! Kevin Spacey was great as usual - I would love to see this character in a good film. Wes Bentley proved himself a very good actor, but didn't have much to work with. And talk about predictable! What's up with telling us Lester's going to die in a year? As soon as I saw the guns in Fitt's house, I knew he would kill him. As soon as we understood Fitts was a homophobe, I knew why he would kill him. (That scene where he watches through the obscured window belonged on a bad sitcom) As soon as Angela ran her mouth about sleeping with the photographer to get a job, I knew she was a virgin. There were so many scenes that were laughable (not funny, but so bad I had to laugh). Extreme amateur writing. Not that I could do any better, but hey, I'm an amateur too. Admittedly I usually figure out the mysteries 10 minutes in, and so most films bore me. But this one insulted me. It looked worth a rental from the trailer (mainly because of Spacey), but I finally gave in and paid to see it at a theater just before the Oscars so I could compare all of the nominees. Mistake.
Another reviewer said that anyone who rated this poorly missed out. Well, if missing out means liking amateurish scripts, then I'll gladly "miss out" the rest of my life. I urge all of you to watch this again and compare it to an Oscar winner from the 40s through the 70s (The Apartment, Annie Hall, On the Waterfront all immediately come to mind). Doesn't belong anywhere in the neighborhood of any of these.