BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

RyothChatty ridiculous rating

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

HotToastyRag I was very excited to watch X,Y, and Zee, since I absolutely love Michael Caine and the plot synopsis made me think Elizabeth Taylor would shine in a villainous role. I'll cut to the chase: this is a fantastic movie. But it wasn't at all what I was led to believe.According to IMDb, Liz plays a "venomous and amoral" woman who "tries, any way she can, to break up the blossoming romance" between Michael Caine and Susannah York. That sounds fun, but that isn't the story. Liz and Michael are a happy, sexy married couple, but for no reason exposed at the time, Michael hits heavily on Susannah at a party. He tells her he wants to have an affair with her, and Liz can smell trouble from across the room, so she strikes up a conversation with the soon-to-be other woman and tries to stress how happy their marriage is. It doesn't work, and soon Michael and Susannah have an affair.Here's where it gets fascinating. There's much more than a love triangle in this movie. It's a movie about two couples: Michael and Liz, and Michael and Susannah. At first, the dynamics seem completely different. With Liz, there's fighting, quips, screams, violence, and drama. With Susannah, there's quiet, calm, and domesticity. As the movie continues, the black and white blends into intriguing grays. Susannah starts to show the promise of drama; Liz shows her deeper love and desire for a quiet family life. The realism makes you cringe. It's almost embarrassing to watch because you feel like you're intruding on their lives.And the most interesting part of the story? Liz knows her husband has a mistress. He comes and goes as he pleases, and although a divorce is not threatened or promised, no one seems to ask the question, "Why can't you choose?" He doesn't leave his wife; he just inserts another woman into the picture. This gives Liz hope. This is her motivation. Whatever she does to try and get him back is motivated by intense love. It's beautiful and sad, and it makes you question how far you'd go to keep the love of your life.By the way, I didn't give any spoilers. Everything I described is shown to the audience during the first 20-30 minutes of the movie, so don't worry. X,Y, and Zee is the type of movie that makes you want to talk about it afterwards. I loved it. I loved how it made me think about the characters, the questions it posed, and the unexpected sympathies it drew. And earning great respect in my book, the movie shies away from nudity or sex scenes, but it's incredibly steamy. Put the kids to bed and watch this one with your honeybun. It'll be a lot of fun!

Richard Chatten For anyone who ever hankered to see what a collaboration between the novelist Edna O'Brien and the director of 'Where Eagles Dare' would have looked like, look no further! After two war movies in a row, Brian G. Hutton obviously felt the need to try his hand at something a bit more dangerous; and Elizabeth Taylor in all her big-haired, loud-mouthed and even more loudly dressed glory dominates this delirious spectacle in a way little seen since the heyday of Bette Davis.Taylor and Caine give their all as a self-absorbed pair who make George & Martha from 'Virginia Woolf' look like The Brady Bunch. In reality Caine would probably have abandoned or murdered Taylor long ago; but she's entertaining to watch and listen to at least for the duration of the movie, and shows a delightful flair for mimicry mocking some of her co-stars. (I thought she jumped the shark, however, with her suicide attempt.)Susannah York understandably seems more than a little overwhelmed by the madhouse she's wandered into. A few spoilsports have already revealed the twist at the end of this tale. As a bloke I was as surprised and delighted as I was relieved that a woman wrote it; so it absolved me of feeling guilty at being served up with one of my favourite male fantasies about two women.Whatever happened to these three after the closing credits is anybody's guess; but the audience I watched it with at the Barbican tonight laughed appreciatively all the way through and gave it an enthusiastic round of applause as the lights went up.

Nazi_Fighter_David In this sexual melodrama—where the flow of bad language was new at the time—Liz is the dark heroine, a passionate woman who listens to blaring rock; Susannah York is the misty-eyed fair heroine, all prissy decorum, who listens to dignified classical music… Paunchy Michael Caine is the man between… The contest is merely an excuse for Liz, as the randy wife of a straying husband, to bask in the vulgarity she has such contagious fun with… Like Maggie the Cat, Liz-Zee is determined to ensnare her man, even going so far as to seduce her rival… Taylor's embrace of Susannah York is awfully tentative, altogether lacking the fervor of her attentions to Lassie or Paul Newman or Montgomery Clift…Overwritten but entertaining, this sexual melodrama is a blatant and hollow confection… Two hours of relentless bitching by Liz, it's a valentine to her fans, a good-natured send-up of her earth mother, sex goddess image

ONenslo Or at least see it with an eye for FABulous clothing and wild party scenes. This was made in that part of the seventies which people really mean when they say "the sixties." Every costume Liz stuffs her pneumatic self into is at least mildly atrocious and at best wildly elaborate. She's at the top of her form as a soulless, relentlessly destructive monster as unstoppable as any giant insect from the fifties. She takes her crass, unlikeable husband apart and puts him back together again at will, and the glint in her eyes shows she'll never never quit. Caine and York fill out their roles pretty well but in the end they are Liz's toys and she doesn't play nice. And since it wasn't made in America the movie doesn't dumb everything down and flake out into a happy ending for anybody but the conquering she-monster. This movie comes down right in the middle between Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and BOOM! - Not as grinding and emotionally draining as the former and without the lack of events and plot that makes it difficult for some people to enjoy the latter. And if for some reason you happen to like Three Dog Night, there's an extra bonus for you here as Zee likes to play them REAL LOUD first thing in the morning.