BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Doug Scott Not sure why this film received good reviews. The writing is amateurish, like that if a college freshman English major. Few of the characters have a unique, real voice. Almost everyone speaks like they have an Ivy-league education, despite the fact that everyone but the writer is poorly educated. A Brooklyn cigar-shop owner who quotes Shakespeare? A poor black inner city teenager from a broken family who speaks like a preppie fresh from vacation in the Hamptons? Totally unbelievable to the point it is impossible to think of these characters as anything but cardboard cutouts. The plot twists seem contrived, and are blandly predictable. This film comes off as fake and pretentious. Even talented acting can't save a terrible script.

SnoopyStyle Auggie Wren (Harvey Keitel) owns a Brooklyn smoke shop where regulars hang out. He takes a photograph of his shop from the streets everyday at the same time. Paul Benjamin (William Hurt) is surprised to see his dead wife Ellen in one of the photos. She was pregnant when she was killed. Rashid (Harold Perrineau) saves Paul from on-coming traffic. In return, Paul lets Rashid stay with him and starts mentoring the young man. Rashid reconnects with his father Cyrus Cole (Forest Whitaker), who lost his arm and love in a car accident, without revealing their true relationship. Auggie's one-eyed ex Ruby McNutt (Stockard Channing) asks him for help with their pregnant daughter Felicity (Ashley Judd). Paul is assigned by the NY Times to write a Christmas story and Auggie gives him one.I love the idea of Auggie's photographs. There is something compelling and poetic about it. These characters are interesting. Some of the stories are more compelling than others. The cast led by Hurt and Keitel are doing solid work. These lives each have their own stories but I'm not sure that every plot finishes. It's like Auggie's photographs. Every one is unique and has a story to tell but it is the congregate where the true beauty is revealed.

pontifikator An inspired script by Paul Auster, directed by Wayne Wang. There are excellent performances by a large ensemble cast that includes Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Forest Whitaker, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, and other great character actors I've never heard of.The problem with the movie is that it barely hangs together on the thread of a tobacco store. The philosophical issue is whether you think your life has meaning, starts at the beginning, goes to the end, and you get your reward; or whether you think your life is a series of happenstances that may not be related at all to what's gone before and that you don't build on, but go through and learn from. Maybe.Keitel plays Auggie, the owner of the smoke shop, and the cast of characters comes into his store and his life, and they smoke and tell stories. Most of the stories work - some of them are told, but many of them are 'shown' as the character spins the yarn. Some of the stories didn't work for me, but the promise of more kept me hanging in.This is a quiet movie, a thinker's movie. If you've lived a life that's had its ups and downs, you'll fit right in. Who knows - one of the stories they tell may be yours. And Tom Waits's "You're Beautiful When You Dream" will break your heart.Auster wrote, among other screenplays, "Lulu on the Bridge" (which he also directed), and Wang directed "Joy Luck Club" and a number of other quiet movies.

shark-43 SMOKE amazes me - I loved it when it first came out and I searched for more of Paul Auster's writings - I found this non-fiction work by him HAND TO MOUTH - about his early days struggling as a writer - it is one of the best books I have ever read. I just rented it again and watched it this Christmas (which is perfect seeing how it ends at Xmas and with Keitel telling the beautiful and true(?) Christmas story) - the film is even better than I remembered. Keitel. Hurt, Whitaker, Channing deliver fantastic performances and Ashley Judd is stunning in her one, angry, venomous scene as Channing's drug addicted daughter. Simple story about a good, smart man who happens to run a Brooklyn Cigar Store and all the individuals who come in and out on a weekly basis - it truly is about wounded people trying to heal and how (even in a harsh, ugly world) one can find peace and beauty.