Read forward if you want to know the reason why this film is overrated

Rating: 4/10 (6 February 2005)

As an active member of the Internet Movie Database, I was anxious to watch this movie because I had read about it's good reviews; as a matter of fact, it had it's place in the best 250 films ever, although only for a short while (of course it is no longer there nor will it ever climb that high again)... but I was disappointed.
The clue to this film is that it brings an almost (almost) absolutely new script line, which -I must admit- get's you caught until the end.
The bad news are that the film has (in disgusting order): 1)Completely unnecessary rudeness and violence. I keep wondering how can it be possible that when I watch any film made 20 years ago, I do not have to worry about my little kids being around, while when I watch *any* present time film I do have to be extremely careful! 2)Serious script flaws. I'm not script flaw obsessive, but this one has HUGE script flaws.
3)(this one's local) Some imbecile-alike executive in South America took the liberty of discarding pan-scan/widescreen DVD aspect and leave *only* a 3/4 distorted old TV aspect ratio, resulting in silhouettes 1/4 higher like in that old English terror series of the '70s. Awful.
Anyway, -relax-, it's not a bad film.
Still it's a pity, because given this script to Stanley Kubrick it would have been resulted in a multiple Oscar winner (yes, I do know he's dead).
Director Adrian Lyne also, would have been astonishingly good in this line; as a matter of fact, his unique and never fairly appreciated "Jacob's Ladder" might be one of the only two films I know of, that resemble this one, only that "Jacob's Ladder" is simply a masterpiece (so this is the one film you should watch first in any case).
The other one is the (very complex but) great thriller "Mulholland Dr." by David Lynch (which you *will* have to watch at least twice)
The ending, however, is very good.
In conclusion, this is a 5/10 film; maybe a 6/10 one if you are happy the day you watch it, but that's it. I give it 4/10.