Being John Malkovich (1999) - IMDb IMDb 29 December 2016 2:33 AM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC A puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich . Director: a list of 39 titles created 03 Apr 2011 a list of 49 titles created 05 Oct 2014 a list of 40 titles created 29 Nov 2014 a list of 30 titles created 05 Jul 2015 a list of 25 titles created 09 Dec 2015 Title: Being John Malkovich (1999) 7.8/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 3 Oscars.

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Despite not being able to earn a living solely through puppeteering, Craig loves his profession as it allows him to inhabit the skin of others. He begins to take the ability to inhabit the skin of others to the next level when he is forced to take a job as a file clerk for the off-kilter LesterCorp, located on the five-foot tall 7½ floor of a Manhattan office building. Behind one of the filing cabinets in his work area, Craig finds a hidden door which he learns is a portal into the mind of John Malkovich , the visit through the portal which lasts fifteen minutes after which the person is spit into a ditch next to the New Jersey Turnpike. Craig is fascinated by the meaning of life associated with this finding. Lotte's trips through the portal make her evaluate her own self. And the confident Maxine Lund, one of Craig's co-workers who he tells about the ... Written by Huggo Ever Wanted To Be Someone Else?

See more » Genres: Rated R for language and sexuality | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 3 December 1999 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Biti John Malkovich See more » Filming Locations: $637,721 (USA) (29 October 1999) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia Orson Bean and Charlie Sheen would later co-star in an episode of Two and a Half Men (2003). See more » Goofs When Lotte is chasing Maxine through Malkovich's subconscious, as Maxine drops into the school bus section you can clearly see someone's hand holding her skirt so she doesn't fall into the bus. See more » Quotes Lotte Schwartz : Craig, honey, it's time for bed.

[fade out and in] Orrin Hatch the bird: Craig, honey, time to get up, Craig, honey, time to get up, Craig, honey, time to get up, Craig, honey, time to get up, at the end of the cast listing is noted ...and John Malkovich See more » Connections (Michigan, USA) – See all my reviews BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999) **** Starring: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Orson Bean, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich, and Charlie Sheen Director: Spike Jonze Running Time: 113 minutes Rated R (for sexuality and language) By Blake French: It is not every day that I use words in my movie reviews such as unique, creative, inventive, imaginative, original, fresh, mesmerizing, and unmatched. Under the circumstances of "Being John Malkovich," a wonderfully hilarious presentation of an incomprehensible idea, I find myself using every one of those phrases and then some more being deserved. Everything about it is labyrinthine, intriguing, and very funny. It is one of the years best films, and should be well presented come Academy Award time.

"Being John Malkovich" details the relationship between Craig and Lotte Schwartz. They basically live an old fashioned life in a small apartment with a miniature zoo of pets and a puppet factory inside. Lotte is a typical, unattractive homemaker while Craig holds that unusual occupation of being a professional puppeteer. Desperately searching for employment, Craig soon visits a business for an interview as a filer when he discovers for some odd reason the construction of the office floor is all but several feet tall, forcing all employees to bend over backwards just to walk around. One of those employees is named Maxine, a highly seductive co-worker of Craig's. When he asks her out for a beer one night, Craig experiences lustful thoughts about her, and nearly begins an affair as his seemingly loving wife wonders around her happy little apartment all by herself. As you can see, the household isn't exactly a joyful situation. All things change, from blossoming sexual confusion to inner self-esteem, when Craig uncovers a small door behind a filing cabinet in his office. It is tucked away, hidden acutely well in a dark corner, which is found mysteriously by accident when Craig droops a paper behind the cabinet.

After Craig explores this deep miniature, seemingly endless hallway, he discovers this secret door leads to the brain of actor John Malkovich for fifteen minutes, then spits you out along the roadside afterwards. Wow, sounds like "Alice in Wonderland," doesn't it...well, sort of. Craig first tells his co-worker about his discovery, who continues to think he's nuts. Then, after explaining and showing this portal to his wife, who is hysterical, Maxine begins to believe Craig, and concoct a devilish idea. To sell tickets allowing a pedestrian to enter the mind of a famous celebrity. The tagline: Ever wanted to be someone else? Now you can. It is very intriguing how the narrative point of view is juggled between Craig and then Lotte after the problem is introduced and then solved: the couples dead-end lives are lifted in glory. This creates a second conflict moving us smoothly into the second act. Perfect internal problems are created with the two female leads; Lotte and Maxine find themselves physically attracted to each other in unbelievable character twists. The two end up having a femininity sexual relationship while one is entrapped in the mind of Malkovich, and the other experiences the actual Malkovich.

It is a beautifully crafted structure, with act breaks so clear and complications so faultless it is no wonder while this is such an effective picture. Also first rate here are the performances. Although the film offers strange types of roles for these actors to indulge themselves in, they do a wonderfully energetic job. Cameron Diaz is flawlessly cast as Craig's sexually and mentally uncoordinated wife, and delivers us a comically riotous character. John Cusack as Craig himself is superior and believable as a down on his luck puppeteer, and possesses a perfect blend of humor and unpredictable qualities with his character. Also quite good here, John Malkovich, who has much more of a difficult role than one would think. He has some hard scenes where Craig controls him while inside his mind, which requires great skill to perform. However, better than any performance, and more amazing then any flawless characters or plot, is the concept of a human being thinking up such an absurd idea as the imagination behind the beauty of "Being John Malkovich." With such a penetrating, magical atmosphere to it, it is kind of a shame that the filmmakers created this film in the form of a black comedy instead of something more harrowing.

Although comedy is simply the most logical choice to categorize this type of film, wouldn't it have been interesting to see this movie as a drama, or perhaps as a spiritual awakening picture. Regardless, the film still has an oddly powerful message to it, which I will not, nor do I ever directly reveal in any of my reviews. You see, since different individuals come from different backgrounds, and thus see things differently. It is because of this that I do not allow my personal take on a message persuade another filmgoer whose idea of a moral may be much different than my own. But I will say that "Being John Malkovich" might not overtake the box office, but for appreciative movie patrons, this one is sure to be treasured for a long time to come. Brought to you by Gramercy Pictures. 131 of 192 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Being John Malkovich 1999 Movie Trailer - YouTube Being John Malkovich 1999 Movie Trailer Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading...

Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Dec 18, 2012 Subscribe to MovieTrailersByVD: More clips, photos, and news: Follow Videodetective.com on facebook Follow Videodetective.com on twitter Subscribe to GameTrailersByVD: Cast: John Cusack, John Malkovich, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, Orson Bean, Mary Kay Place Studio: Nitestar Home Video When autoplay is enabled, a suggested video will automatically play next. Up next John Malkovich on 'Being John Malkovich' - Duration: 3:50. FORA.tv 100,251 views 3:50 Being John Malkovich (5/11) Movie CLIP - Sad Man Becomes John Malkovich (1999) HD - Duration: 2:42.

Movieclips 37,210 views 2:42 Being John Malkovich (Philosophical Films) BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999) PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES: Personal identity CHARACTERS: Craig (John Cusack, puppeteer), John Malkovich (John Malkovich), Lottie (Cameron Diaz, Craigï¿½s wife), Maxine (Craigï¿½s romantic interest), Dr. Lester (business man) OTHER FILMS BY DIRECTOR SPIKE JONZE: Jackass: the Movie (2002), Adaptation (2002) SYNOPSIS: Unhappy with his marriage and unsuccessful as a career puppeteer, Craig takes a job filing documents in a Manhattan office. He meets and falls in love with office worker Maxine, who cares nothing for him. One day Craig finds a tunnel in a wall behind a filing cabinet. He climbs through it, and at the end he can see through the eyes of actor John Malkovich. Craig and Maxine embark on a business venture, charging people to crawl through the Malkovich portal.

To woo Maxine, Craig stays within Malkovich, and redirects Malkovichï¿½s career from acting to puppetry. But, Maxine loses interest in Craig, and has a lesbian relationship with Craigï¿½s wife, Lottie. Craig is trapped forever in another portal. The film received Academy Awards nominations for best director, best original screenplay, and best actress (Catherine Keener). DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 1. At the outset of the movie, Craig states to his wifeï¿½s pet chimp ï¿½consciousnesses is a terrible curse: I think, I feel, I suffer.ï¿½ Do you agree? 2. Craig states that he likes puppetry because it gives him an opportunity to get inside someone elseï¿½s skin, to think differently, move differently and feel differently. This is evidently the same pleasure that people get when experiencing John Malkovichï¿½s life. It is also behind John Malkovichï¿½s enjoyment of being an actor, and Lottieï¿½s empathy with animals.

In each of these cases, though, the vehicle is just as miserable as the spectator (think of how Craigï¿½s puppet characters were all tormented, and the psychological ailments that Lottieï¿½s animals had). How, then, could such an experience be a source of comfort? 3. One of Craigï¿½s puppet skits shows a man and woman separated by a wall. In fact, every major character in the movie is isolated from others in some major respect. Does the movie offer any solution to the problem of human isolation? 4. Craig states that the portal is a metaphysical can of worms and raises philosophical perplexing questions such as the nature of self, the existence of a soul, and whether I am me. Does the movie offer a solution to any of these questions? 5. Suppose that you didnï¿½t see the scene in which John Malkovich goes through his own portal. If you were then asked to speculate about what would happen in such an event, what would you say? 6. What is the symbolism behind the physical structure of floor 7 1/2?

REVIEWS In this movie, a puppeteer named Craig takes his profession to the unrealistic next level of actually being able to control another human being. Having discovered a portal into actor John Malkovich, he goes into business with a coworker with whom he is secretly in love, selling fifteen-minute "rides" in Malkovich's head. In the meantime, Craig learns more and more how to obtain a more perfect control of Malkovich, being able to exercise more control for longer periods of time. Eventually, he is able to live inside Malkovich and use his fame to his own advantage. This movie explores quite a few interesting philosophical questions. For example, what defines the self? While Craig is in Malkovich, who is he? Is he Craig or is he Malkovich? This question is along the same lines as the Ship of Theseus problem. Also, there are many questions as to how someone could be considered morally responsible if they were being controlled by some intangible force. Probably the only problem that wasn't really clearly addressed in this movie was the irresistible question of what would happen if Malkovich jumped inside his own head. It was not adequately addressed what would even happen to Malkovich, even though the movie did tackle the question.

Instead, the answer came as a comedic scene where Malkovich was trapped in one of his own memories and could not distinguish anyone's face from his very own, nor anyone's words from the repetition of his own last name over and over. -- Godboy Being John Malkovich Movie Review (1999) | Roger Ebert Tweet What an endlessly inventive movie this is! Charlie Kaufman , the writer of "Being John Malkovich," supplies a stream of dazzling inventions, twists and wicked paradoxes. And the director, Spike Jonze , doesn't pounce on each one like fresh prey, but unveils it slyly, as if there's more where that came from. Rare is the movie where the last half hour surprises you just as much as the first, and in ways you're not expecting. The movie has ideas enough for half a dozen films, but Jonze and his cast handle them so surely that we never feel hard-pressed; we're enchanted by one development after the next. Advertisement John Cusack stars as Craig, a street puppeteer. His puppets are dark and neurotic creatures, and the public doesn't much like them.

Craig's wife, Lotte, runs a pet store, and their home is overrun with animal boarders, most of them deeply disturbed. Lotte is played by Cameron Diaz , one of the best-looking women in movies, who here looks so dowdy we hardly recognize her; Diaz has fun with her talent by taking it incognito to strange places and making it work for a living. The puppeteer can't make ends meet in "today's wintry job climate." He answers a help-wanted ad and finds himself on floor 7 1/2 of a building. This floor, and how it looks, and why it was built, would be inspiration enough for an entire film or a Monty Python sketch. It makes everything that happens on it funny in an additional way, on top of why it's funny in the first place. The film is so rich, however, that the floor is merely the backdrop for more astonishments. Craig meets a co-worker named Maxine ( Catherine Keener ) and lusts for her. She asks, "Are you married?" He says, "Yeah, but enough about me." They go out for a drink. He says "I'm a puppeteer." She says, "Waiter?

Check, please." Keener has this way of listening with her lips slightly parted, as if eager to interrupt by deconstructing what you just said and exposing you for the fool that you are. Advertisement Behind a filing cabinet on the 7 1/2th floor, Craig finds a small doorway. He crawls through it, and is whisked through some kind of temporal-spatial portal, ending up inside the brain of the actor John Malkovich . Here he stays for exactly 15 minutes, before falling from the sky next to the New Jersey Turnpike. Whoa! What an experience. Maxine pressures him to turn it into a business, charging people to spend their 15 minutes inside Malkovich. The movie handles this not as a gimmick but as the opportunity for material that is somehow funny and serious, sad and satirical, weird and touching, all at once. Malkovich himself is part of the magic. He is not playing himself here, but a version of his public image--distant, quiet, droll, as if musing about things that happened long ago and were only mildly interesting at the time.

It took some courage for him to take this role, but it would have taken more courage to turn it down. It's a plum. Advertisement Why are people so eager to enter his brain? For the novelty, above all. Spend a lifetime being yourself and it would be worth money to spend 15 minutes being almost anybody else. At one point, there's a bit of a traffic jam. Lotte finds herself inside his mind while Maxine is seducing him. Lotte enjoys this experience and decides she wants to become a lesbian, or a man. Whatever it takes. This is hard to explain, but trust me. The movie just keeps getting better. I don't want to steal the surprises and punch lines. Even a Charlie Sheen cameo is inspired. At one point Malkovich enters himself through his own portal, which is kind of like being pulled down into the black hole of your own personality, and that trip results in one of the most peculiar single scenes I've ever seen in the movies. Orchestrating all this, Cusack's character stays cool; to enter another man's mind is of course the ultimate puppeteering experience. Every once in a long, long while a movie comes along that is like no other.

A movie that creates a new world for us and uses it to produce wonderful things. " Forrest Gump " was a movie like that, and so in their different ways were "MASH," "This Is Spinal Tap" (1985), " After Hours ," " Babe " and " There's Something About Mary ." What do such films have in common? Nothing. That's the point. Each one stakes out a completely new place and colonizes it with limitless imagination. Either "Being John Malkovich" gets nominated for best picture, or the members of the Academy need portals into their brains. Advertisement Greatest Films of 1999 Title Screen Film Genre(s), Title, Year, (Country), Length, Director, Description All About My Mother (1999, Sp./Fr.) (aka Todo Sobre Mi Madre), 101 minutes, D: Pedro Almodovar Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar's emotionally-involving, character-driven melodrama was the Oscar and Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign Language Film.

Contrived and flamboyantly over-the-top in its critique of conventional sexuality, it began when aspiring teenaged scriptwriter Esteban (Eloy Azorin) asked a hypothetical question of his mother Manuela (Cecilia Roth), an organ transplant coordinator/nurse: "Would you prostitute yourself for me?" The next day on his 17th birthday after the two watched a stage performance of A Streetcar Named Desire, his question began to be answered. But then she witnessed Esteban's tragic demise when he chased after a taxi to acquire an autograph from the play's diva actress Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes) and was struck dead. About a month later, the grieving single mother left Madrid and relocated to Barcelona, a place she had fled from nearly 18 years before when she was pregnant with him. Her first stop was to locate her ex-husband Esteban (Toni Cantó) and tell him about their son, even though he had since become a drug-using transvestite prostitute named Lola.

She reacquainted herself with a past circle of resilient female friends that she had left, in order to self-sacrificially shield her son and bring him up in a safer, middle-class environment. In her old haunts, she unexpectedly found emotional support and maternal sustenance with pre-op, drag-queen trans-sexual prostitute La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), and with fading performer Huma Rojo and her feuding lesbian lover and junkie co-star Nina (Candela Pena). She also became a surrogate mother for the child of good-hearted HIV-positive pregnant nun Sister Rosa (Penélope Cruz) who died during childbirth. American Beauty (1999), 120 minutes, D: Sam Mendes Director Sam Mendes' Best Picture-winning film opened with calm, voice-over narration from mid-life crisis-suffering suburbanite Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) who revealed: "In less than a year, I will be dead." In Lester's dark and tragic domestic tale about a marital breakdown, he saw himself as a powerless "gigantic loser" who was unable to speak his mind or actually feel much of anything.

He was overpowered by his demeaning job, a dysfunctional marriage to his obsessive-compulsive, judgmental, disrespectful realtor wife Carolyn (Annette Bening), and uncommunicative with his self-loathing and confused daughter Jane (Thora Birch). Carolyn was committing adultery with self-dubbed "King of Real Estate" Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher), while Jane had fallen for drug-peddling, video-voyeur neighbor Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley). During a mid-life spiritual awakening and mental collapse, Lester decided to make radical, ultimately fatal changes to his depressing life. He became lustfully infatuated with Jane's under-aged, blonde nymphet cheerleader friend Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) and eventually seduced her. But moments later, he was murdered - not by Carolyn - but by his shamed and latent homosexual neighbor: abusive, Nazi-loving, retired Marine Col. Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper).

Audition (1999, Jp./S.Kor.) (aka Odishon), 115 minutes, D: Takashi Miike This very unsettling Japanese psycho-horror film from Takashi Miike opened with single father Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) grieving over the loss of his wife from a terrible illness. After seven years, the lonely middle-aged widower, with the aid of a movie producer friend, staged fake movie auditions to find a suitably refined female partner. His ultimate bride-to-be was a seemingly-perfect selection - a demure, polite, smooth-skinned, fragile, dutifully-humble 21 year-old ex-ballerina named Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), but she became a disturbed, avenging angel, reminiscent of Kathy Bates in Misery (1990) - with an ominous burlap sack moving in the center of her apartment. The final 20 minutes were excruciating to watch, as Asami exacted sadistic torture and dismemberment revenge on Aoyama for exploiting her in the mock audition.

She drugged and paralyzed him, then used acupuncture needles to poke his entire body, including his eyelids. With piano wire, she sadistically and gleefully wire-sawed off his left foot (and then his right foot), before Aoyama awoke from a dark nightmarish dream - or did he? Beau Travail (1999, Fr.) (aka Good Work), 92 minutes, D: Claire Denis Writer/director Claire Denis' evocative yet austere drama was inspired by Herman Melville's allegorical short novel Billy Budd (1888), a story about cruelty on the high-seas in the late 1700s toward an innocent sailor, unfair societal justice, and latent homoeroticism. In tandem, this French film was also about petty jealousy that turned treacherous. It was set in the small multi-ethnic, E. African country of Djibouti among soldiers of the French Foreign Legion at a desert outpost, where the muscular male recruits were rigorously trained, exercised, and drilled in beautifully-choreographed and ritualized sequences. In flashback, troubled and self-destructive ex-Foreign Legion officer Sgt.

Galoup (Denis Lavant) recalled his disciplined and regimented military life there, marred by his irrational dislike for handsome new recruit Gilles Sentain (Grégoire Colin). In this metaphysical tale of good vs. evil, Galoup felt challenged and set out to destroy the dutiful, selfless, virtuous misfit (by sending him on a near fatal mission into the desert) when he became jealously suspicious that the likeable and popular young Sentain had replaced him as the object of Commandant Bruno Forestier's (Michel Subor) praise and interest. His displaced paranoia led to his expulsion and the ruination of his own career.

His possible suicide (by blowing his brains out) was juxtaposed with his final dazzling, acrobatic, and spasmodic solo disco dance set to the tune of the late 1980s dance club classic "Rhythm of the Night." Being John Malkovich (1999), 112 minutes, D: Spike Jonze Spike Jonze's debut feature was one of the most original, bizarre, unpredictable and surrealistic films of the 90s - a fantasy about the quest for sexual identity, spiritual transformation, the obsessive attraction of celebrity, and the ultimate price for gender transgression. The incomprehensible plot is almost impossible to describe in a few sentences, although the basic setup involved the discovery of a secret portal in a Manhattan office building that led directly into the mind of actor-celebrity John Horatio Malkovich (John Malkovich). Disillusioned filing clerk/street puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) had entered the 'rabbit hole' and was transported into Malkovich's mind-brain to experience his thoughts or sights for about 15 minutes, until being thrown out by the side of the New Jersey Turnpike.

Along with Craig, his sexy co-worker Maxine Lund (Catherine Keener) and pet-loving, transgender-urged wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) realized the financially-profitable and personally-transformative power of the trip. The film raised questions about Craig's manipulative puppet-mastering and pulling of strings, the opportunistic commercialization of selling 15 minute trips at $200, and the irresistible nature of identity when hidden or masked. In the film's contemplative conclusion set years into the future, Maxine's daughter Emily (Kelly Teacher) was now revealed to be the new host ("the newly formed infant vessel") for the future where Craig had become trapped - "forever doomed to watch the world through someone else's eyes" and unable to leave Emily's mind. The Blair Witch Project (1999), 87 minutes, D: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez This media-savvy, low-budget cult horror film (of the "found footage" fake documentary subgenre) Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick was released at the dawn of the ubiquitous camcorder revolution.

The chilling, anxiety-producing horror film, a precursor to reality TV, was one of the most profitable independent films of all time, although it lacked stars, a marketing budget, a solid script (it was mostly improvised), state-of-the-art special effects, and a central monster character. Three Montgomery College amateur student film-makers (Heather, Joshua, and Mike) went to Maryland's Black Hills Forest (near Burkittsville) to investigate the local "Blair Witch" legend during a horrifying October 1994 camping trip. They feared the 'witch' was responsible for mutilating murders and strange disappearances - and became victims themselves when they too vanished but left behind their recorded video. Many were led to believe that their videotaped story was true, rather than the ingenious marketing hoax that it was.

Boys Don't Cry (1999), 116 minutes, D: Kimberly Peirce Bringing Out the Dead (1999), 121 minutes, D: Martin Scorsese The End of the Affair (1999, UK/US), 102 minutes, D: Neil Jordan Writer/director Neil Jordan's adaptation of Graham Greene's 1951 WWII novel was an achingly-real lovers drama of misunderstanding (retold from multiple viewpoints). In the setting of 1944 Britain seen in flashback, Oscar-nominated Julianne Moore portrayed ethereal, restrained yet philandering mistress-lover Sarah Miles. Although married to Henry (Stephen Rea), she engaged in an affair with her husband's best friend, disenchanted novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes). For unknown reasons, during one passionate love-making session when a rocket-bomb exploded in the building and Bendrix was injured, she abruptly stopped seeing him. The second half of the film, a few years later, revealed her heart-breaking reason for ending their affair.

During a religious epiphany, she had bargained with God to save his life from the explosion, in exchange for not seeing him, and she had to keep her promise when Bendrix's life was spared. Eyes Wide Shut (1999), 159 minutes, D: Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick's last completed film was titled 'eyes wide shut,' to imply self-contradictory opposites: at first being exposed or tempted, and then reflexively turning away or retreating. It was taglined simply with three words: "Cruise. Kidman. Kubrick." Tom Cruise starred as prominent, affluent NYC doctor Bill Harford, supposedly happily-married to Alice (real-life Nicole Kidman). In the opening sequence at a fashionable Christmas party, both were separately propositioned - jarring their comfortable conjugal state of marital harmony. He was ignorant of the fact of her past sexual infidelity with a naval officer (imagined fantasy or real?) which she confessed to him after smoking pot.

This propelled him onto his own prolonged, risky and dangerous night-long quest for sexual intimacy (also portrayed possibly as a waking dream or fantasy), including a controversial masked ball orgy sequence and the self-sacrifice of a nude masked reveler. He survived his traumatic, baffling encounters to return 'redeemed' to his wife - who bluntly encouraged them to resume their sexual lives together, although with an uncertain future. Fight Club (1999), 139 minutes, D: David Fincher David Fincher's dark and compelling satire on manhood was narrated by a nameless corporate office-worker (Edward Norton), a 29 year-old yuppie who was increasingly bored, self-help addicted, disillusioned and dissatisfied with his emasculated life. To enhance himself, he joined a macho, sub-cultural group known as "Fight Club," led by charismatic, anarchic punk and soap salesman Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). The men's club glorified self-destructive violence with bare-fisted, brutal fights in dark underground basements. By the film's end, it was revealed that Durden was actually one side of the split personality-psyche of the psychotic Narrator's own imagination.

His extreme anti-capitalistic philosophy, dubbed "Project Mayhem," resulted in an explosive finale when the self-wounded Narrator threatened to destroy major corporate buildings after unsuccessfully trying to blow his own brains out. The Insider (1999), 157 minutes, D: Michael Mann The Iron Giant (1999), 86 minutes, D: Brad Bird Magnolia (1999), 188 minutes, D: Paul Thomas Anderson Creative writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's challenging third feature, an ambitious, artful, soap opera-like drama (at over three hours length) featured a compelling, bold and overlapping multi-strand narrative. The melancholy lyrics of singer-songwriter Aimee Mann underscored the film's motifs. Set in the San Fernando Valley over 24 hours, the ensemble-casted film reflected the emotional desperation and personal traumas of many bruised characters - a disparate collection of misguided, sad and miserable souls plagued by fractured relationships.

Themes of life's meaning, the twists of fate and life's regrets, the painful and haunting past ("We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us"), the elusiveness of love and pervasiveness of death, and the transcendent, surprise raining of frogs from the sky (biblically-true) highlighted the exhilarating piece. Superstar Cruise memorably portrayed Frank Mackey, a sleazy, cock-worshipping, stud-huckster who evangelized with 'Seduce and Destroy' seminars for sex-starved woman-haters. Julianne Moore portrayed Linda Partridge, the strung-out, grieving trophy wife of aging, terminally-ill TV producer Earl (Jason Robards). In one of her best scenes as a psychologically-fragile, obscenity-spewing, distressed wife, she had just collected his drug order for morphine. She had an epic breakdown toward two prying pharmacy clerks for their callous insensitivity, for asking questions and for treating her suspiciously: "I'm sick. I have sickness all around me and you f--king ask me my life? What's wrong? Have you seen death in your bed? In your house?

Where's your f--king decency?" Paranoid and self-loathing, she was dealing with her husband's imminent death and her own guilt over marrying him for his money, and would soon attempt suicide with a drug overdose. By its end, one recalled the narrator's conclusion from the off-beat prologue - that some coincidences can't be explained: "…strange things happen all the time." The Matrix (1999) , 136 minutes, D: Andy and Larry Wachowski The Wachowski Brothers' popular, imaginative, visually-stunning science-fiction action film - the first in a trilogy with inferior sequels: the somewhat successful but critically derided The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and the artificially-expanded The Matrix Revolutions (2003) . The high-tech cyberpunk epic featured a new male hero archetype - a tough-guy computer techie programmer and illegal hacker named Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) (with screen name alias Neo). He was contacted by the mysterious, vinyl-clad heroine Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and the super-cool, messianic space-ship captain Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who was the leader of the rebel forces.

He was told (with an Alice in Wonderland reference) via his computer: "The Matrix has you. Follow the white rabbit." Neo was informed that he was the champion or chosen one to save Mankind from a malevolent, sentient machine race, that had entrapped all of humanity, in the year 2199!, inside a computer simulation (The Matrix) dreamworld, and tricked them into believing that the simulation was reality. The Artificial Intelligence system also used the brains and bodies of the trapped human beings as expendable "living batteries." Freed by this knowledge, Neo soon learned to take advantage of the Matrix, bending the malleable laws of physics to his will, such as impossible feats of physicality (such as running up walls or leaping impossibly high) and altering his perception so dramatically that he saw bullets in flight in order to dodge them. The true standout of the film was the menacing Machine Army agent "Agent Smith," played with a tongue-in-cheek, edgy pseudo-serious flair by Hugo Weaving, whose mannerisms recalled 1950's Cold War governmental "Men In Black" agents.

The Matrix became best known for its revolutionary visual effects - airborne kung fu, 3-D freeze frame effects with a rotating or pivoting camera, and bullet-dodging. The film became a smash hit, featuring elaborate fighting and stunt sequences, as well as a convoluted screenplay that blurred the edge between reality and fantasy without losing the audience's grasp of the story. The Sixth Sense (1999), 105 minutes, D: M. Night Shyamalan Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan's twisting ghost story and psychological thriller was the second highest-grossing film of the year. It was his first major film with his trademark plot-shifting twist revealed by the film's conclusion - and it came to be known as the "Shyamalan twist." Subdued Philadelphian child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) counseled a haunted, psychic young boy named Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) who was seeing the spirits of dead people. Crowe feared that his marriage to depressed, uncommunicative and forlorn Anna (Olivia Williams) was disintegrating and becoming distant.

And then his marital worries were suddenly justified in the film's well-known concluding reveal - he was one of the dead people or ghosts seen by the troubled boy. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), 88 minutes, D: Trey Parker Watch online full movie: Being John Malkovich (1999), for free | ffilms.org Watch online full movie: Being John Malkovich (1999), for free. arabic subtitles A puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of the movie star, John Malkovich. Director: Spike Jonze Stars: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener Your rating: none Being John Malkovich (1999) Trailer (VHS Capture) - YouTube Being John Malkovich (1999) Trailer (VHS Capture) Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Apr 10, 2015 Trailer for Being John Malkovich (1999) captured from the Man on the Moon (1999) VHS tape. This tape is labeled 84440 and released in (2000). Category Super Reviewer ½ [img] Spike Jonze's wittily-written, incredibly acted comedy drama about a disgruntled but ambitious puppeteer who to his amazement finds a peculiar, mystical portal into the mind of John Malkovich, is a brilliantly surreal and mind boggling experience. It's profoundly original dream-like narrative exploring humanities selfishness and one's desire to be something else makes it consitently entertaining and builds up to an utterly unforgettable cinematic experience. Charlie Kaufman's clever yet non self-indulgent script creates some very awkward but hilarious situations for the characters and flawlessly disguises the insane fableness and fantasy of the story and it's characters infinitely believable. He went on to work with director Michel Gondry and wrote his masterpiece; Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, which I think is one of the best films ever made.

He is arguably one of the most talneted art-house writers out there today and although he makes very few films the one's that he does work on are always brilliant. In the interesting case of Being John Malkovich, performance-wise it is perfect, Cameron Diaz and John Cusack advertise some fantastic chemistry, but the greatest stand-out is easily John Malkovich who is just perfect and undeniably engaging at being/playing John Malkovich. Catherine Keener is also great as the bitterly inhuman anti-hero, and Jonze's outstanding direction nails the film as a landmark. I think it's one of the best directorial debuts of all time, and if your not laughing at it, or being moved by it, you'll certainly be admiring it. It's a strange and emotionally detatching screen presence but in my opinion it's one of the best of it's kind. Endlessly fascinating and completely extraordinary. Directors Cat Super Reviewer Lotte Schwartz: I think it's kinda sexy that John Malkovich has a portal, y'know, sort of like, it's like, like he has a vagina. It's sort of vaginal, y'know, like he has a, he has a penis AND a vagina.

I mean, it's sort of like... Malkovich's... feminine side. I like that. "Ever want to be someone else? Now you can." Charlie Kauffman's and Spike Jonze's first team up is a complete masterpiece. This is a movie unlike any you have ever seen and is only equaled in brilliance and originality by another film that was written by Kauffman, Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind. Being John Malkovich is a bizarre, eccentric, out in outer space film that is sure to turn some people off based purely on just how weird a film it is. For those who love bizarre, when it is genius, will love this one. Craig Schwartz is a puppeteer, but there isn't much demand for his profession, so he has to take a job as a filer. While there, he finds a small door behind a filing cabinet and enters. Turns out that door is a portal into John Malkovich's mind. He teams up with a beautiful co-worker, who he is smitten for and starts selling trips into Malkovich's mind at $200 a pop.

There's a lot of weirdness going on including a secretary that can't understand a word anyone says, an office on the 7 1/2 floor that is half the height of a normal floor, and a love... square. Describing a film like Being John Malkovich is a hard thing to do. People who love, don't see it as just a weird movie, while people who hate it see it only as that. With all the weird stuff that is going on in Kauffman's screenplay, there is just as much intelligent stuff going on. Most of it is the same. There's something altogether brilliant about every single thing going on here. From looking into the mind of a chimp to having a setting placed on a floor that isn't really a floor to Keener's character being in love with Diaz's because she senses Diaz's presence in Malkovich's when they make love. You can't help but just be swept up by it all. Or at least I can't. If you're familiar with Kauffman's and Jonze's other works, you know that both of them are in love with the bizarre.

So when they get together for movies like this and like Adaption, the end result is no less than warped, but also no less than amazing. If you want to watch something truly original in just about every facet; this is a must watch. If you don't like movies that are trying to do something outside of the routine, boring movies that are mass made each year, don't watch it. For those who can accept the films eccentricity, you'll find a movie that is made with pure imagination and love. Being John Malkovich is easily one of my favorite movies of all-time. I could watch it a thousand times and still love every single moment of it. Melvin White Super Reviewer Be All That Someone Else Can Be Excellent FIlm! I enjoyed it alot! Great acting and storyline, funny, clever and insane film. Don't worry if this all sounds a little strange to you, it should do, it's probably the most surreal film ever made. Go see it! Craig, a puppeteer, takes a filing job in a low-ceilinged office in Manhattan. Although married to the slightly askew Lotte, he hits on a colleague, the sexually frank Maxine.

She's bored but snaps awake when he finds a portal leading inside John Malkovich: for 15 minutes you see, hear, and feel whatever JM is doing, then you fall out by the New Jersey Turnpike. Maxine makes it commercial, selling trips for $200; also, she's more interested in Lotte than in Craig, but only when Lotte is inside JM. JM finds out what's going on and tries to stop it, but Craig sees the portal as his road to Maxine and to success as a puppeteer. Meanwhile, Lotte discovers others interested in the portal. Manu Gino Being John Malkovich - Rolling Stone Being John Malkovich All Stories Yes, this is the movie about a puppeteer named Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) who finds a magic portal that sucks you into the head of John Malkovich, where, for fifteen minutes, you watch and feel from the inside as the Oscar-nominated actor showers, shaves, picks his teeth or bangs a babe – it depends on the hour – before time runs out and you get booted into a ditch beside the New Jersey Turnpike. No, this is not a movie you should rush to avoid.

The crazy-ass imagination at work in Being John Malkovich hits you like a blast of pure oxygen. Unblemished by solemnity, intellectual pretensions or elephant dung, this movie of constant astonishments will make you laugh hard and long. More News All Stories Charlie Kaufman, in his first time out of the gate as a screen-writer, has devised the freakiest fun house since Dorothy discovered Oz. And debuting feature director Spike Jonze, 30, orchestrates the teasing absurdity of the plot as if nothing could be more natural than climbing into a celebrity's head. Maybe you know Jonze from his TV commercials (Nike, Nissan) or his music videos (Beastie Boys, Weezer, Fatboy Slim) or his acting ( Three Kings ). Maybe you know that his real name is Adam Spiegel, of Spiegel catalog fame, and that he recently married Sofia Coppola and that he's a nut for skateboarding. What you won't know until you see Being John Malkovich is that Jonze is a virtuoso, a weaver of images who realigns the dull old world to his own thrillingly unique vision. And he's also a whiz with actors.

Jonze does wonders with a let's-try-anything cast. Cusack excels at nailing the seedy self-absorption of Craig, the unemployed puppet man stuck with a pet-obsessed wife, Lotte (Cameron Diaz, deglamed with a vengeance and funny as hell). Craig has no prospects until he takes a job as a file clerk in a Manhattan office run by Mr. Lester (the priceless Orson Bean), a boss so old (105) and so cheap that he rents the 7 1/2th floor, where the low ceilings force employees to walk in a perpetual stoop. It's there that Craig falls for co-worker Maxine (delicious Catherine Keener is in dazzling form), a babe with a mouth on her. She's not into fucking a guy who plays with dolls, not until Craig finds the door that leads to Malkovich's cranium. Maxine knows just what to do. "We'll sell tickets," she says brightly. For $200 a shot, every loser can have his fifteen minutes of Malkovich. The line forms quickly, even though most of the customers have only the foggiest notion of who Malkovich is.

Wasn't he in that jewel-thief movie? No? It doesn't matter. He's a celebrity. They want in. Craig wants the money, and Maxine. But for Lotte, being John Malkovich is a drug. After entering Malkovich's head when he's having sex with Maxine, Lotte is so turned on, she considers sexual reassignment. But Maxine only feels attracted to Lotte when she's in Malkovich: "There's something about that too-prominent brow and the male-pattern baldness." What of Malkovich himself during all this howlingly comic gender bending? Whatever it took for Jonze and producer Michael Stipe to convince the actor to be the ultimate good sport sure paid off. Suppose he'd said no? Would we be watching Being Steve Buscemi? No sweat. Malkovich gives the performance of his life as himself. He's especially acute in the vanity-skewering, visually amazing scene in which he enters his own head and finds a world where everyone – men, women and children – look like him and repeat only one word: Malkovich. More whacked-out wonders abound as Craig enters Malkovich and uses his puppeteer's skill to stay inside permanently.

Suddenly, it's Craig deciding how Malkovich should touch Maxine's boobs. It's Craig who pulls the strings that make Malkovich do a wild puppet dance in his underwear. It's Craig who decides that Malkovich should marry Maxine and switch careers from acting to puppetry. And Malkovich, outdoing Face/Off in the role of a man possessed, riffs on the nature of acting in ways that are as haunting as they are hilarious. The film's pièce de rèsistance, stunningly realized by Jonze, is a chase through Malkovich's subconscious. As a jealous Lotte pursues Maxine through the Malkovich mind – showing the lonely childhood of little Johnny as a bed-wetter and panty sniffer – the film reveals unexpected layers. Amid the silliness of in-jokes about Gary Sinise and star cameos from Sean Penn and Charlie Sheen ("Machine," says Malkovich in greeting; "Malcatraz," counters Sheen) and a sinister subplot out of Rosemary's Baby, Being John Malkovich cuts to the heart of longings that a brush with fame can't appease. Jonze is a true Puck for the new millennium: He's given us a movie to dream on.

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Question: The title of a 1999 film was "Being John ... " who?
Answer: Malkovich