SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Paul J. Nemecek Last week I reviewed a film called The Contender. The title would have been even more appropriate for this week's film Pay It Forward. In the 1954 Oscar-winning film On the Waterfront Marlon Brando has a great speech in which he says, "I could've been a contender, instead of a bum, which is what I am." I left Pay It Forward thinking a great deal about what it could have been.The premise is engaging. Kevin Spacey plays a middle-school teacher who challenges his students to come up with a strategy for changing the world. One of his students, Trevor, comes up with the interesting idea that is the heart of the film. He says that we worry about paying people back when they do us a favor--maybe we should pay it forward. He decides that he will do something for three different people, instructing them each to do something positive for three other people instead of paying him back. If this exponential altruism catches on it might just change the world.One of Trevor's not-so-random acts of kindness is to get his mother together with his teacher. Trevor is an only child living with an overworked alcoholic mother. His teacher is a single man with a badly scarred face. He knows that they would be good for each other and does everything he can to get them together.There are, of course, complications. The primary weakness of the film is best described by quoting Richard Foster. Foster tells of a publisher who responded to a manuscript by saying "this is original and creative . . . unfortunately the parts that are original are not creative, and the parts that are creative are not original." Once we get past the engaging premise the film becomes a virtual compendium of cliches. We move back and forth between the chain of altruism and the budding romance but both plot lines are chock full of melodramatic machinations.The sad thing is that with a little better writing this could have been an excellent film. The performances are outstanding. Kevin Spacey is excellent as always, Helen Hunt gives one of the best performances of her career, and Haley Joel Osment proves that he is, pound for pound, one of the best actors working.I liked the film overall, but I really wanted to like it more than I did. In this season where we are drowning in the politics of self-interest, anything that encourages civility and compassion is a refreshing change. My expectations were so high that I left a bit disappointed. I am hoping that if I lower your expectations you might see it and like it more than you thought you would. It would please me greatly to do you that small favor. If it does work out that way, no need to thank me or pay me back, just pay it forward.

sol- Given an assignment to affect a major change in the world, an impressionable junior high student invents a favours system that sounds good in theory, but can it work in practice? While such a plot summary might make 'Pay It Forward' sound more interesting than it really is, there is no doubting the thought and intelligence of the proposed system: do three big favours for three individuals, who (instead of paying you back) pay a favour forward for three other people. Clever as this may sound, the filmmakers struggle to craft a solid narrative from the idea. While we see the flow-on effects of the system with random strangers doing favours for other strangers in a journalism side-plot, our young protagonist is simply interested in doing favours for those who he knows - which is hardly novel. He has a lonely mother, a sad teacher and a bully target friend, and there is nothing whimsical about his desire to help out these stock characters. By comparison, the best scenes occur in the side-plot as a lawyer gives away his new car and an elderly lady helps a thief evade the law; in fact, the best part comes in the first ten minutes as the reporter suspects a 'Strangers on a Train' trade will pop up before accepting the car. The film is sentimental to boot too with a weak ending that oddly borrows from 'Platoon'. And yet, despite all flaws, the film is engaging while it lasts. Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt do well within the confines of their roles and Thomas Newman's enchanting score is superb. It is just a shame that such an interesting idea could not make for a more satisfying tale.

denireguerrero The term pay it forward means when someone helps you out in a situation be thankful for it and you should help out another person. Like passing on the act of kindness. In the this heartfelt movie I learned how life can be taken away from anyone at any minute. Trevor who is the little boy in the movie is assigned a project by his teacher which is to change the world. He decided to help a homeless man and his mother didn't approve because the man was a stranger. Later in the movie Trevor pays it forward by helps a boy at school that is being bullied by a group of kids his age. The group of boys kick and punch the boy on the ground. Trevor helps the boy by running into the group of boys with his bike. A fight starts between him and one of the boys then one of them pulls out a knife and stabs him. Trevor dies after being stabbed. Before Trevor died he helped many people in need. As a young actor his role in this movie was very inspiring and changed the way I look at life. This is definitely a movie that will make any person with a good heart cry.

Reno Rangan After watching this film I just remembered the quote from 'Sullivan's Travels' which says 'film's the greatest educational medium the world has ever known'. Indeed, cinema's for entertainment as well acts as a message deliverer. This was an inspirational movie, and everybody must see it. I know I'm a bit late to see it, better late than never, right? I'm really glad for having it at the right time because 15 years ago I did not have this blog to write about it.OK, the name of the movie represents the theme of the story. No matter its a developed or developing country, society needs something like the idea this movie talks about. Carrying a good social message, the movie slightly lags behind the too much on the emotions, especially the end part. There won't be a problem if you like melodrama. Other than that, I feel the conclusion was smart and strong, a better solution which would appeal for certain group rather alternate finale.The film was based on the novel of the same name, crafted by a fine director with the wonderful cast. Haley Joel Osment had a great career as a child-star, you should check some of his films if you love children's movies including this title on the top of that list. As a middle aged actor, Helen Hunt's one of the last best performances before turning into a senior artist. It's not a usual role for Kevin Spacey, but he nailed it with the good dialogues. Especially his talk about the topic 'child abuse' was a great thing from the movie. Overall, the actors get more credit for the first- class acts as the script demanded for their respective roles.What did you ever do to change the world. A movie about a man who achieved in science gets the Oscar, not that real man. A movie about a man escapes from the war prison camp and slavery gets the award, and again none of those real persons. But a movie with the original, intelligent, inspiring, specially designed for a movie was not even a contender of the Oscars. Of course, it was transformed from a book, though there are/were no real people behind these great characters, all are imagined/created for the book and the movie. I never understood the American Academy Awards.By now you would know that I hate critics badly if you are a regular reader of my blog. Once again they failed to recognise how great the morality of the story is, rather they have concentrated to criticise the writing and the technical aspect of the film. Although, it was not a box office flop or earned beyond, but got a lot of praise from the families. It's a wonderful family drama, but still too far from being a masterpiece. Intelligent enough one to get motivated towards the social issues. Being practical in the real world is a concern as it is risky, depending on the situation and the person, just like this movie's ending. Rare to find a movie like this, you must check it out.8/10