Masked And Anonymous Movie
| Resolution | Size | Download | ||
|
720x524 | 1462.04 MiB | hidivx | |
|
592x432 | 862.42 MiB | divx | |
|
320x232 | 303.66 MiB | ipod | |
|
320x232 | 318.15 MiB | hpc | |
Storyline
TAGLINES
Would you reach out your hand to save a drowning man if you thought he might pull you in?
Are you humble before God?
Expect the worst and you'll get it.
Against the backdrop of a nation on the brink of revolution, Uncle Sweetheart (John Goodman) and Nina Veronica (Jessica Lange) are slimy promoters planning a benefit concert. They desire the services of legendary singer Jack Fate (Bob Dylan), and soon Fate is sprung from jail. A rock journalist (played by Jeff Bridges) investigates the concert, attempting to determine just who will benefit. Revolution may be raging outside the arena, but Jack Fate and the benefit concert play on as planned.
| Bob Dylan | Jack Fate |
| Jeff Bridges | Tom Friend |
| Penélope Cruz | Pagan Lace |
| John Goodman | Uncle Sweetheart |
| Jessica Lange | Nina Veronica |
| Luke Wilson | Bobby Cupid |
| Angela Bassett | Mistress |
| Steven Bauer | Edgar |
| Michael Paul Chan | Guard |
| Bruce Dern | Editor |
| Ed Harris | Oscar Vogel |
| Val Kilmer | Animal Wrangler |
| Cheech Marin | Prospero |
| Chris Penn | Crew Guy #2 |
| Giovanni Ribisi | Soldier |
| Larry Charles |
5.20 out of 10 (1740 votes)
Visitor Reviews
The Worst Movie I Have Seen In A Very Long Time
posted on 01 Jul 2009Bob Dylan, whose most recent albums are mumbled and incomprehensible, has somehow been allowed to create a movie that is worse than his albums.What was John Goodman saying half the time? Who wrote these lines? Did Latinos take over the US? What happened to cause the fall of the government? Why would anyone allow Dylan to be in a movie after Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid?This movie must have been some sort of allegory, but I couldn't make sense out of it.I don't usually toss DVD's but this one went out with the old dog food. Hey, that sounded like a bad Dylan line right there!
thank the lord I watched it on the tube alone
posted on 15 Jun 2009thank the lord I watched it on the tube alone and not back in San Francisco with my filmmaker friends who would have ostracized me for walking out on it. thank the lord I watched it on the tube alone and not back in San Francisco with my filmmaker friends who would have ostracized me for walking out on it.thank the lord I watched it on the tube alone and not back in San Francisco with my filmmaker friends who would have ostracized me for walking out on it. thank the lord I watched it on the tube alone and not back in San Francisco with my filmmaker friends who would have ostracized me for walking out on it. thank the lord I watched it on the tube alone and not back in San Francisco with my filmmaker friends who would have ostracized me for walking out on it.thank the lord I watched it on the tube alone and not back in San Francisco with my filmmaker friends who would have ostracized me for walking out on it.Is that ten lines?
very cool, beautiful music
posted on 03 Jun 2009Wow! I was blown away at the beauty of this film. Dylan is in a league of his own. I'll see it at least a few more times.The cast is outstanding. Since when do you see Christian Slater, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer do cameos? Plus, the songs used in the film fit perfectly. I never thought a movie would work well with a combination of, Like a Rolling Stone, Times They are a Changin, and Blowin' in the Wind with One More Cup of Coffee, Senor, and My Back Pages.I would highly recommend this for anyone. It speaks to everyone. To Bob fans, there are a lot of ironic statements about him he pokes fun at (such as the meaning of his songs). Beautiful movie with a beautiful score. Five stars!
Wonderful, in a quirky sort of way...
posted on 18 May 2009I think this move is greatly underrated, it is a sad reflection of the fact that when a movie goes beyond the boundaries of most people's morale and intellectual comfort zone, it ends up paying the price. If you don't believe me, think of what happened to British director Michael Powell, after making 'Peeping Tom', a movie which by contemporary standard can only be described as tame and which is now acknowledged by many as one of cinema all time classics, a promising career was cut short and Powell was all but run out of the movie business for some thirty years. The comparison may seem extreme, but to me confirms the fact that we leave our morale, intellectual and even political hangups get in the way with regard of how we perceive and judge movies. Think of how much cinematographic fodder is unleashed on movie-goers every week, this movie is packed full of original ideas, feeling, atmosphere, plus the star-studded cast most of the time delivers excellent performances! OK the movie is technically far from perfect, but who cares! The mere fact of being able to watch His Bobbyness for a couple oh hours would be more than enough for me, but the movie has a lot more to offer, a wonderfully surreal atmosphere, spirited performances by the likes of Penelope Cruz, Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, the latter clearly having the time of his life! But what I most enjoyed is the portrait of a futuristic dystopian US, transformed into some sort of banana-republic dictatorship, whose borders have now extended to include most NAFTA countries! I understand that the project was mainly the brainchild of a Mr. Dylan and it is quite true that the dialogue could have used a little bit of expert editing at times, but who cares! This is happening cinema! Enjoy!
Dylan self-analyzes in public--but cryptically
posted on 14 Apr 2009The "mask" could be Dylan's face so stoically does he hold his expression. And the "anonymous" could be any tin horn banana republic dictator. As The Who phrased it years ago: "The new boss, just like the old boss." The surprising thing about this film is how good it is. Clearly experimental in form (which often equals boring) Masked and Anonymous is instead a fascinating work of art with outstanding performances amid a meandering chaos replete with cunning little speeches that defy analysis. I was not really surprised to learn that credited screenwriter "Sergei Petrov" is really Bob Dylan. Kudos to him and to "Rene Fontaine" (actually Larry Charles of "Seinfeld" fame) for coming up with this little gem.However I have to say that without Dylan's music and the fine cast this could have been an unmitigated disaster.One of the things I love about Bob Dylan is the intensity. It's always there. He never stops. It's as though the next lyric will be the line to end all lines (pun intended) or that the next musical hook will exhaust the music.Like Emily Dickinson he invented a new kind of poetry that confounded the poetic establishment and confused academia. When I first heard Dylan's lyrics in the sixties referred to as poetry, I was an undergraduate at UCLA and thought (apparently along with Carl Sandburg): this ain't poetry. It's all clichés. And it is. But what Bob Dylan did was to use the phrases and the clichés and the rhythms of our world as the poet uses words. The clichés became the building blocks of his poems. And of course they filled his head to overflowing, echoing and ricocheting around in his mind like the wares of Quinn the Eskimo running all around his brain. And they had to get out, and he tossed them out with tune after tune and a lyric to string them together, and he ended up writing some of best poetry of the latter half of the 20th century. But of course his poetry, like that of all song writers does not stand entirely alone without its music. Still his phrases that look into our soul and chronicle our times are as indelible as the color of our skin. It is no coincidence that in the age of the soundbite, Dylan wrote his poems in soundbites.Like the 19th century academics who wanted to edit Emily Dickinson's poetry and improve her meter and adjust her "imperfect" (slant) rhymes and normalize her punctuation, the academic world of the 20th century wanted to get Dylan to eschew cliché. But what they missed is the poet knows the language better than they and his clichés are in the modules of our minds. They are the wings of the zeitgeist and the linguist's meme.Goodman was perfect as Uncle Sweetheart who might be a deeply buried persona of Dylan with his cryptic one-liners and his desolation soul, his corrupted heart and his huge appetite for life. And Jessica Lange was also excellent as were the cameos by all sorts of name actors appearing on stage to confront a stoic Dylan. In a way they were intriguing and perhaps nothing more than that. Like Shakespearean players they came and had their time upon the stage and were heard no more.Yes, this film seems to signify in the final analysis not much, but, isn't that the point of life: there is no point. Life is that tale by an idiot signifying nothing.Here's a nice string of quotes from the cynic, Jack Fate, Dylan's alter ego: "I was always a singer and maybe no more than that. Sometimes it's not enough to know the meaning of things, sometimes we have to know what things don't mean as well...Things fall apart...The way we look at the world is what we really are. See it from a fair garden and everything looks cheerful. Climb to a higher plateau and you'll see plunder and murder. Truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder...I don't pay much attention to my dreams...I stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago..." I have only one criticism of this film: I wish there had been a lot more of the hauntingly beautiful Penelope Cruz.
"Subtle and Dense" Larry Charles at the 1/24/02 Screening
posted on 12 Apr 2009Just arrived home from yesterdays showing of Masked And Anonymous in Salt Lake City and would like to say that the movie is great. All of the actors do an excellent job of portraying their individual characters. The live footage of Bob Dylan and his band playing are sure to be priceless treasures, documenting one of the all time greatest live bands. Some stand out performances for me were Val Kilmer, Chris Penn and of Course Bob Dylan. Unlike the other two, Dylan is not an actor but brings confidence to every scene that he is in. This film has been criticized by many of the industry critics and I am sure that is going to continue. Any time you have a cast like the one that has been assembled for this movie it is going to be very popular among critics to tear it apart despite the great performances and underlying themes throughout this movie. I only saw the film once and feel like there is a lot that I missed and am looking forward to seeing it again to pick up on many of the subtleties that exist throughout. Look for this one in theaters hopefully sooner than later and don't be afraid to see it a couple of times. I think that even people who are not necessarily fans of Bob Dylan will come away from this movie thinking that it was very good and thinking about the world they live in as well. When you see it remember that the film was filmed entirely in Downtown L.A. and according to director Larry Charles, "with very little art direction other that the hanging of posters of the president." It is a powerful message about the world that we live in yet choose not to see.
a beautiful mind
posted on 04 Apr 2009yes, this is a film about cousin bob. this is the authorized bio of captain Dylan...most of the humor, the comedy of it is centered around the archetypes of humanity dying to know or, believing to know this man they want to know. hardcore Dylan fans have come out to say a resounding 'no'. and why not? when was this man ever pegged down? every actor is endowed with great lines and greater motivation, the screenplay is awesome for an actor: there is a deleted scene where goodman tells Wilson about Alexander the great that is, like most scenes, profound but hilarious--it is a tight rope to walk. and in the background of that scene, there is again the vision of the giant rabbit. it's quite possible that the logic of this film confounds more than a few because it is expected to make sense like the sense we have been relying on for centuries... but sense was never really established concretely. the pitfall of this film is to expect something from it, to not realize the little things: Luke Wilson says 'the glass is always empty, so is the place where the money should be.' ribisi's speech on changing sides; goodman says later to Dylan 'i'm on your side' and Dylan counters 'you have to be born on my side, sweetheart', dylans lines about what cows can digest. and this film is chock full of wonderful, little things... mickey roarkes speech after the president dies, the montage of friend grilling fate, they are all hysterical, the whole script is so dead on, you cannot hold back the laughter. this is a tragic comedy if ever there was one. if one were to witness the last of a species, a specimen that had never been seen before, it would appear strange and without a base, a reason; this film is that. every character is carefully written, carefully acted to breathe life into the archetypes they represent and they all want something from fate and they use whatever wiles they have to get it, but fate does nothing but let them choose their fates, respectively. he is the thing they want and cannot have. the thing, that if only they could nail it down, it could be done and buried. but fate says he has a few songs left. the story of his life, right?
Dylan Hit His Stride!
posted on 23 Mar 2009Dylan hit his stride with this move! This movie is like a lost song from, 'Highway 61 Revisited'; a tour-de-force of character and mood, like, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," you either get it or you don't, as Dylan used to try to explain to all those tight-ass, label-bound, black 'n' white geeks in the mid-sixties...Look around and you'll find that the children of such people are still (unfortunately), alive and unwell and not getting it.Still, good, the majority always underlines the importance of the majority...Dylan looks, acts, and fits very well in this movie. Penelope Cruz, playing a neurotic love-interest to an incredibly three dimensional (given Dylan's hated of them), member of the press), journalist, is a revelation.This is a mood-stricken, European type movie. If you are an all-American, Attack-Iraq type Roman-Empire bullet-head American, you'll probably puke on your shoes with venom...May God bless and judge you.Pat Brien.
Hilarious!
posted on 13 Mar 2009That movie was great! It was so weird and funny! I have no idea what actually happened but it was so funny! Anyone who doesn't like it obviously has no sense of humour! All the characters were so weird! It was great! Greatly funny! And by the way? What was the journalist guy actually supposed to do? I didn't understand what he was trying to do, but he was funny. I have some advice for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. If you don't expect it to be a really good movie, you'll like it more. Go watch it expecting it to really suck and then you'll find it better, and funny. It's mostly the stupid little phrases that make it funny. So don't expect anything really ummmm, smart? Then you'll like it. Hopefully.
Masked and Anonymous Comments
posted on 06 Jan 2009This movie is a decent one at that,i hate to say that Dylan's performance wasn't very sharp,due to the fact that i love Bob.The taglines contained in the movie are rather interesting and make you think of your personal life as well as the problems in this world.The scene involving Val Kilmer "killing" a rabbit in front of Dylan as he says "ah,man" is quite priceless.There are many scenes where Dylan seems well educated and says some rather memorable quotes.To conclude,i would have to quote Bob Dylan for what i think of this movie since i am somewhat criticizing it and yet i do not understand it,"don't criticize what you can't understand".
Poetically creative
posted on 21 Dec 2008I had read so many bad reviews of this movie. I'd read it was impossible to follow; I'd read that the dialogue was banal; Roger Ebert gave it half a star, claiming it was too ambiguous. So, when I saw Masked & Anonymous, I was prepared for the worse.Instead, as soon as the movie began, and that Spanish Version of My Back Pages started playing to bomb explosions and imagery of a future gone wrong, I realize: I'm going to like this movie.First, the plot, far too incredible to really explain here (And it sort of depends on your point of view anyways) is very creative in that it conveys an incredible amount of symbolism. On one hand, this is a movie that mocks rock music (Think of the scene where Uncle Sweetheart tells Fate "You're gonna play rock and roll get rich launch your career and bring world peace all at the same time!") On the other hand, this could be Dylan's way of telling us who he really is. "Maybe I'm just a singer and nothing more" he tells us. He's tired of being made to be a counter cultural liberal protester. He's tired of people who think he only writes anti-war songs. Think of the scene where a woman brings her daughter to see Dylan. When Dylan learns that the little girl knows all his lyrics he asks "What'd she do that for?" And the mother quickly responds "Because I made her." This movie is about so many things: You just have to see it and every time you see it again you'll see more.Concerning the dialogue. Many people say the dialogue is contrived, banal, or mindlessly poetic. To such people I reccomend they read Shakespeare (He's in the alley). Dylan has been hailed as a modern Shakespeare, so it is not wonder that this movie has the same beautiful poetry that his songs do.But I will grant this: Bad actors would never be able to pull off this script. And this was probably the movie's strongest feature: Incredible acting. John Goodman deserves an Emmy for his portrayal of the scheming Uncle Sweetheart. Val Kilmer shocked me with his ability to portray the crazed Animal Wrangler. Jessica Lange gave the best performance of her career. The list goes on... Mickey Rourke, Ed Harris, Christian Slater, all surprised me with brilliant acting.If you have the chance to see this movie, just once, do so. And forgive its few shortcomings-- it was made on short notice, and its messages were meant to transcend all imperfections for movie rookie director Larry Charles. This movie will probably be forgotten one day, which is unfortunate, because rarely is a movie this original.
Dylan makes good
posted on 01 Dec 2008There was a time when music mattered, and the people that made that music mattered too. Bob Dylan was one of those people. Dylan has floated in and out of the public eye over the years, but has made somewhat of a return with the release of his 2001 album Love and Theft. He has tried to increase his current comeback, and extend his hand into another form of art, by written and staring in a new film.Masked and Anonymous is good no matter what your opinion of Bob Dylan may be. For Dylan fans this is a tour de force of film making. Written like a Dylan epic tune, think Desolation Row, Masked stays just out of reach of the explainable. Coupled with great cameos, Val Kilmer is far and away the best of many, Masked delivers. John Goodman and Jeff Bridges hold supply the majority of the nessecary acting with Luke Wilson helping out on occasion. However this is the Wilson of Old School, and a far cry from the Wilson of the Royla Tennebaums. None of that really matters, however, because this film was made for Bob Dylan, and he is the single most important character on screen.In Jack Fate Dylan has created a chracter that personifies his style. Fate, an aging rock star returning home for a benefit concert, symbolizes what h as become of Dylan's career as a musician. Masked isn't really the story of Bob Dylan's life, no more then any of his songs are, it can be, however, his response to what his life has been like. The story itself lacks a little and the characters are never fully defined, but like the supporting acting none of that matters. The important part of Masked and Anonymous, and the only reason it was ever made, is Bob Dylan. Taken that way, Masked and Anonymous is a truly excellent, and original, piece of film.
Tedious drudgery
posted on 26 Sep 2008I saw this movie at a special sneak preview hosted by Larry Charles himself.It is basically a self-indulgent Bob-Dylan-worship wet-dream put to film. It is tedious, pretentious, pseudo-intellectual drudgery, and the only reason I didn't walk out was because the director was sitting about 10 rows behind me. It was almost awe-inspiring in it's awfulness - kind of like a trainwreck.
I could of made a better movie than this.
posted on 30 Jul 2008I watched "Masked and Anonymous", and really thought it was going to be good. It had to be good, it had Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Bruce Dern, Ed Harris, Cheech Marin, Chris Penn, Luke Wilson,Giovanni Riblisi and Bob Dylan! This movie was awful and all sorts of levels, it did not make sense, it was disjointed, and the only decent thing about it was the music of Bob Dylan. After a brief period of time (about the time they introduced Cheech Marin's character, I just FF to Bob Dylan. All I can say is don't nus this piece of crap.Next time you assemble all these great actors together, call the Coen Brothers, P.T. Anderson, myself, a fourth grader or a crack smoking monkey with a pen and vengeance in his heart. Has to be better than this.Senor
I loved this movie
posted on 26 Jul 2008I loved this movie though I cannot explain exactly why. I loved the look, the language, the texture, the sound. I loved the lighting and the words. I loved John Goodman. I loved the cluttered sets, the dark and messed-up rooms and offices. I loved the subtext of treachery in music and journalism. I am not at all bothered by artificiality or pointlessness in a work of art. In fact, I loved the artificiality and pointlessness of it all. It was extravagantly artificial and pointless and I loved that. I loved the president. I even love the mystery of why I loved it.I saw it in a screening in San Francisco where Larry Charles was present. Afterwards people hung around and asked him questions, like he was a teacher, like they were students trying to up their grade. I didn't really get all that; acolytes, aspirants, wanting to be in the biz, but at the same time I too was seized by a desire to let him know that I really got what he was doing, whatever it was. So I told him I loved the "rich language," and felt silly for saying it, but it was true.I do not understand why people like what they like, but if you are idiosyncratic, perhaps you would feel as I did -- Oh, I know what it was: It was like watching Godard for the first time in the '60s, not even sure if it was good or bad or made any sense, but being intrigued, pulled, affected, being inarticulate about how exactly you were moved, being forced to think about what it was. I liked its opacity, even if its opacity was not a matter of complexity so much of sheer eccentricity. In a sense, I liked its stubborn failure to be a movie that will be liked. If it was a failure it was intransigent and unapologetic in its failure, and I liked that.
It's easier to hide behind what is and make money on it.
posted on 16 Jul 2008This film is about Dylan, period. There is 2 Dylans for me and I this film doesn't help me much to decide which Dylan is the more true. It seems to be a low-budget film, in which every-body worked for free, more or less. If so and if there was no gun pointing to Dylan's head to keep him in line and he had free hands to do whatever he wanted to do and if there was no danger for him stepping over the line (and here it gets tricky and hard to evaluate) then my first Dylan, which I will present now, i more true than the other. Dylan # 1: In one of his songs Dylan sings of 'Maggies Farm', suggesting a life spent in labour under the rule of Margaret Thatcher (well, not really, because the song was written before Margaret's Rule but later on it was used the way I just described). But Bob Dylan never worked for long on any farm and if so it must have been when he was very young and in order to get pocket-money and not in order to support a family for a lifetime. In fact, Bob Dylan has been adored like a God since his early twenties and has very little personal experience of being exploitated by hard meaningless labour. Well, you don't get any smarter by constantly being kicked in the ass and getting peanuts for it but it's more understandable if, as for your own personal behalf, you are more dissatisfied then, than if you live the life of a Bob Dylan. In fact, not grasping that you are extremely privileged, living the life of a Bob Dylan, is just being a spoilt brat. So, personally, Bob Dylan # 1 has no reason to be dissappointed over what he has got out of society but, on the account of a vast majority of others, he has the obligation to be dissappointed most vigourously. Does he live up to that dissappointment? Not with this film he does. Compare it with 'They Live' by John Carpenter and you see what I mean. This film is open to wide interpretation. Doing a film or a song that is just the opposite, that is an open assault on power and money, not to be interpreted in any other way, now, that is brave and Dylan did that once in public life, that I happened to be a witness to, which brings us to Bob Dylan # 2.Bob Dylan # 2 is the guy, who in the 'Live-Aid-Gala' said something to the meaning of: "...and let's give some of the money back to American farmers, who go robbed by the banks and had to leave their homes." This brought the issue of Live Aid back to where it belonged. This was a reminder of that famine is the result of money-grabbing people in power given free reign as soon as they are powerful enough as in the USA. I saw a long rerun of the Live-Aid, where this section was carefully cut out and had it not been for the fact that I had taped it, I might have thought that I imagined it all. Unfortunately my Beta-max broke down and so I cannot give the correct quote here (the tape was on Beta and I don't know where it is now but having seen it more than once is enough for me to trust my memory). This B D # 2 is a dear brother to me. Is he dead? I wonder. This film doesn't give a clear answer. Maybe the film BD#2 wanted to make, he was not allowed to make or maybe BD#2 died long ago, only leaving some confused remnants like this film. I sent BD a book of mine some ten years ago. Didn't get an answer. Guess he had 'protected himself' from unnessasary disturbance or the like. Like royalty. Here, I double-dare him and anyone else to show me a poem of BD that is more outspoken against injustice than this: When the Reign of Disgrace is Over"Let all of us rather be poor, than allow one of us to be rich amongst the poor! Let all of us rather be utterly helpless, than allow one of us to be powerfull amongst the helpless!For: Which poverty and which helplessness could prevail, when there is noone who profits by it?
And which love could be controlled from breaking out and which spirit denied its development, when the reign of disgrace is over."But I also wrote, which is more like Dylan:You Will not Feel for Them"You talk and scheme, confess and dream and will not feel for them. You blame and frame, join any game and will not feel for them. Betraying worries and seeking glories you do not wake to end your take and will not feel for them.For every day that so goes by beneath your feet they all will die and lost in fear that cannot hear you run your mill and can't keep still and cannot feel for them."It's easier to get emotions from attack and indignation and more difficult to point in the direction for what ought to be, in which case you often open yourself for ridicule because nobody is used to it. Ask of anyone to express his ideal society and you will notice how small they really are. My ideal is POWERLESS SOCIETY and I double-dare anyone, including Dylan, to express a better one and not just say that it is impossible, so that he doesn't have to deal with it. I expect more daring from You, Mr. Dylan!
AWWWWWFUL!
posted on 26 Jun 2008I saw this movie at the Sundance Film festival in Jan. and you can usually tell by the applause of the audience how well the movie was liked. This applause sounded like the type that a few people were desperately trying to get everyone one else in on the clapping and were failing. Also, there is always a Q & A session at the end of the movie to which all the stars (including Bob Dylan who I am a HUGE fan) and the directors came on stage. Everyone just sort of stared at around until one brave soul raised his hand and asked "Uh yeah-what the hell was that movie about". It's one of those movies that tries to be weird and vague just for the sake of being artsy and the ones who say they liked it really don't know what they're talking about.
Bob Dylan = The Living God (to some people)
posted on 12 Jun 2008Bob Dylan has figured out one important fact: Sing simplistic songs and shut up. People will think you are a genius. Possibly even a God.This movie is a dreadful star vehicle for countless pretentious Hollywood people to tag themselves to the Bob Dylan legend (which is born out of thin air). It seems to me all the professional actors in this are a bunch of desperate direction-less people. Most of them by the way appear to be drunk or high on something else. Sad indeed.Bob is a genius in one single regard - no one has a better grasp on selling himself by NOT doing things.One of the many, many annoying things in this movie is the tendency to trivialize anything that is not "Bob Dylan music" and to turn the entire World into a prop or stooge for the sheer majesty and brilliance that is "Bob Dylan". Why, I would suggest to trademark "Bob Dylan" like some lemonade ... but I think it's already happened. In fact Bob is given a chance to comment on Zappa and Hendrix. They are similar enigmas, so why not take them on in the WWF (Who Writes the best .ucking music).One of the many low points is a black girl singing "Times they are a-changing"... I'm pretty sure this movie was sponsored by some U.N./Unicef/Hollywood conglomerate of detached people living in P.C.-Land.Just watch the scene where Bob and his band are on stage and he sings one trivial line over and over and a carefully selected crop of people from all around the World including by sheer coincidence Gandhi and The Pope stand in awe watching this holy miracle unfold. In one other telling scene in this botch the aforementioned Gandhi and The Pope are sitting side by side but wait ... Who is sitting in between? Why, it's Penelope Cruz! I think that is all you need to know about this piece of horse manure.Of course the movie ends exactly the way it should with Bob rambling about how things don't have to have a meaning etc. etc. etc.
A terrible film, which should stay as masked and anonymous as possible
posted on 15 May 2008Bob Dylan may well be a great poet - but he can't sing...and he certainly can't act. Bob sleeps through this film with an expression that remains the same no matter what he's doing. He can be fighting, loving, being invaded by men with guns...going down for something he didn't do, and he still just stands there. Emotionless. Fans of his, and no doubt the man himself, will say that he's playing an emotionless character, but at the end of the day; this isn't acting, it's just appearing in a film. It's a real shame that Bob is the star because when the star can't act, there's going to be problems. He could have gotten away with a (small) support turn, or even just singing his songs; but people that cant act shouldn't be given a starring role. It's as simple as that. A whole host of big names have been hired to try and hide Dylan's awful acting, however, and the list includes the likes of Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, John Goodman, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Chris Penn, Giovanni Ribisi, Cheech Martin and even Christian Slater joins the...ahem, fun. But sadly, not a single one of these big names can save this mess.I was surprised to find that this crap was co-written by Bob Dylan himself. Judging by his lyric writing abilities, I always had Bob down as a wise man; but according to his work here, he's a self-indulgent egomaniac. The film is really just a poor excuse to show Dylan performing his songs, and far too much of the running time is spent watching Bob perform. The rest of the film is spent watching Bob stand around while the big names try and make the scenes interesting. Watching Bob clutter up the scenes is really funny at first, but it soon gets boring and the messy plot with it's even messier message doesn't help the proceedings at all. It's not even like you can ignore the lead and just enjoy the plot because that's terrible as well. In fact, the only positive element of this film that I can think of is Sertab Erener's cover of Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee", which isn't a far cry away from being as good as The White Stripes' version. The only reason I watched this film was because it was late and there was nothing else on. If I could have turned it over, I would and if you haven't got a real good reason, like that one, you really shouldn't be watching this film.
Wow.
posted on 15 Jul 2009OK, I am an admitted Bob Dylan fan, so it's impossible to have an unbiased opinion, but having said that, I find this movie fascinating. Dylan has basically zero personality when he isn't singing, but somehow it works.forgetting Dylan completely, this is still a fine piece of work. It is a political statement (sadly, NOT a satire but painfully close to reality) along the lines of "Wag the Dog." Not light entertainment, and with somewhat of an "Indie" feel, but highly recommended. You will likely either love it or hate it. Ten stars.