Scanialara
You won't be disappointed!
Vashirdfel
Simply A Masterpiece
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
jfarms1956
This movie "Metroland" is best enjoyed by those who are 25 or older and are looking for a way to fill a time slot either in the afternoon or in the evening. It is also one of those movies easily turned on to hear some noise coming out of the TV. It is also a movie which can be gotten into almost anywhere in the movie. Metroland is not very memorable and easily and quickly forgotten. No need to watch it again. Once is more than enough. The stars do okay in the movie. It is difficult to be memorable in a movie with little purpose except to entertain. This is what I call a "Busy" movie -- one that you can move around the house and still not miss much, but gives satisfaction of hearing the TV noise. Don't worry about the popcorn here. You'll be to busy to enjoy eating it.
macpet49-1
The acting was OK. It's refreshing to see the protagonist with his 'boy body' before he found steroids in 'American Psycho'! Now he just looks like everybody else.This story is not original. The theme has been explored a thousand times in a thousand films that were better. I hate movies portraying other times. It's always impossible to 'recreate an era'! When will Hollywood learn that? The mood, the people, the mores are gone forever. Everyone wants innocence back but you cannot erase the smugness and skepticism of now. It just creeps through everything we do. This is at best someone's dream of what some 1960s young people thought and discovered. I notice that nobody ever tells stories about working class people anymore. The working class never had the luxury of these choices. There was no question about life--it was just survival. One went to school if one got loans or scholarships or worked his way through. One went to war if one was drafted. One went to factory if one was below average. One got married or lived with parents. The act of getting a license to drive or see a movie was special. You took nothing for granted. Your parents didn't adore you; they put up with you. You were most likely an accident. You rarely questioned anything because what you had was such a struggle to obtain and the daily chore of trying to keep it was huge. Just once, I'd like to see this investigated in film. It's a reminder that the film industry is owned/run by wealthy people of the Mideast faith and they delight in reflections of themselves only.
moonspinner55
One of Christian Bale's more benign vehicles, an adaptation of Julian Barnes' novel which mixes moods playfully, if not incisively. In 1977, a British married couple in their thirties have their household mildly disrupted after the husband's boyhood best friend sweeps into town, encouraging the man to test the boundaries of his commuter lifestyle. Somewhat reminiscent in content of the British kitchen-sink dramas from the 1960s--and yet innocuous enough to remind one of the later "The Banger Sisters"--the film is solidly-performed and designed, interesting without cutting very deeply. The flashbacks to Bale's young adulthood, living in Paris with dreams of being a professional photographer, are starry-eyed and dewy, helped along by the actor's effective boyishness. The film hopes to paint a portrait of one life which may (subtly) mirror thousands, but it is ultimately too mild and tidy to be a thorough character study. ** from ****
noralee
"Metroland" should appeal to boomers, particularly ones who now find themselves in the suburbs and/or with families. (It did not appeal to the two senior citizen couples next to and in back of me who did not shut up throughout the whole movie as they didn't seem to grasp the concepts of flashbacks or fantasy images) I'm sure there's other movies that have a friend and/or sibling interfering in a stable relationship and shaking the tree (my friend thought of "Hilary and Jackie"-- but maybe because both have Emily Watson, here bundled up in sweaters to try and make her less ravishing) but I couldn't think of one that deals with our time period of post-'60's measurements of personal happiness and fulfillment. We could relate to the English and Parisian experiences with parallel ones here from the same time periods of '68 vs. '78 (nicely accurate hair styles, make-up and clothes).While there are no shortage of shots of gorgeous naked women, there's ironic visual comment regardless the lead character's lovemaking techniques don't improve over the decade of experience. One sees plenty of Christian Bale, such that I think it would, I imagine, appeal to gay men as well.Nice use of punk music (freaking out the senior next to me!), otherwise the score was quite lovely by Mark Knopfler, with a closing song original to the movie, with apropos lyrics.(originally written 4/17/1999)
