Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

ejamessnyder The premise is simple enough: a moderately wealthy couple—whose last name is Rose—decides to get divorced after many years of marriage. But neither of them wants to give up their house, and both remain living in it, getting on each other's nerves as they deliberately and maliciously annoy and attack each other, each in an attempt to get the other to give up and leave.It's exactly the sort of film I don't normally enjoy, where two equally detestable parties go back and forth trying to one up each other with ridiculous shenanigans that are rarely funny and never make up for the ninety minutes of wasted time. It reminds me of dumb comedy films like Duplex—which pits neighbor against neighbor—and Are We There Yet?, in which Ice Cube goes up against his new girlfriend's mischievous kids. These sorts of films aren't typically my cup of tea, but it wasn't my turn to pick the movie, so I just sat back and watched.And then a funny thing occurred. Almost immediately, I got drawn into the story. That wasn't supposed to happen, but it did, and I was pleasantly surprised. I normally don't even care for Danny DeVito as a director, probably due to the fact that he made the awful Duplex, which I mentioned earlier. I mean, I did enjoy Matilda, but that was a family movie that I watched as a kid. War of the Roses was something else entirely, and despite my efforts, I couldn't help but enjoying it.It tells the story in a different way than others of its kind. Things unfold naturally and totally believably. Sure, some of the stunts that the characters pull reach the same levels of ridiculousness as in those other films that I didn't like, but here we get the impression that it's done for the sake of the story, rather than for just another cheap laugh. Instead of yawning, I was wide sitting wide-eyed on the edge of my seat. It's not just funny; it's also very real and poignant, especially considering the fact that most of us know someone who's had a really tough divorce and it's easy to see how things could go just as bad as they do in War of the Roses.And, unlike most of these kinds of movies and apart from my expectations, we actually end up caring about the characters, despite their overabundance of flaws. They're both selfish idiots, which makes the story so much better, but they're still believable and very well acted. From moment to moment we find ourselves siding with each one. Neither of them could be called true protagonists, as they constantly antagonize each other, but there's a balance of both deserved animosity and loathsomeness between them that is very well done. They got good actors to play these roles, and they play them so well that we almost don't notice that it could have been much worse in the hands of anyone else.The whole story is told by Danny DeVito, who plays a divorce attorney who is telling it as a warning to a prospective client who never says a word during the entire film. And the ending is great. I won't spoil it, but trust me, it's a good one. This definitely isn't the best film I've seen, but it's certainly the best of its kind, and makes me reconsider my attitude toward this type of film. I just thought the whole idea was bad, but it turns out that it's often just done very poorly.

Mr-Fusion There isn't a plethora of funny lines in "The War of the Roses" (it's just not that kind of comedy), but the blistering cynicism about marriage makes them stand out all the same (the stabbing victim in the hospital claimed most of these). If you want to call this a cautionary tale of divorce, I'm just fine with that. Watching these people bitterly drift apart is uncomfortable, and the filmmakers know this because the whole third act is the literal destruction of everything they've labored so long to build. The absurdity is almost a salve.It's a comedy, but also dark as hell. The dialogue, on the other hand, that's fantastic.7/10

Stefarooh-CPT I caught The War of the Roses in theaters back in '89 when it released and if my memory serves me correct it was over the Christmas period as I distinctively remember festive cheer everywhere in the mall. I was rather surprised when I exited the theater that The War of the Roses should be bundled into a Christmas release schedule when the reality was that the film was rather ruthless and relentless in its depiction of a marriage going sour and turning into two-way bloodbath of a divorce.Having done Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile together most audiences saw Douglas, Turner and DeVito on the poster and possibly subconsciously related it back to that level of comedy. I know I did after viewing the trailer before release. Even though the revenge aspect of the divorce was pretty clear from the trailer it still made things look light and flimsy even though it dealt with a serious issue - perfect Christmas fodder in fact. A comedy about the pratfalls of divorce over Christmas. It could only have one of those happy holiday endings Hollywood is so well known for. Oh how wrong, how very wrong, we we're to assume that! I remember a lot people hating this film. Most people saw it as an all out assault on the institution of marriage with many complaining it was just "too dark for enjoyment". Friends of the family that were going through a tough divorce themselves each walked out respectively, although not together of course, saying the film was too much to handle given the current point they were at in their lives. In fact I remember leaving the theater thinking I'd slipped into some parallel universe and by the looks of the faces on most of the audience, they seemed to have felt that too.The War of the Roses is a tale about a love being ship-wrecked and destroyed on the shores of bitter contempt. Sure it starts out like any love story would - two young strangers meeting in a destined place discovering a passion for one another that is raw and physical - a love at first sight if you will. It doesn't take very long for those pillars to fall leaving a void that is slowly filled with kids, a bigger house and the more trinkets to fill into that bigger house than you could fit into an antique roadshow sale. No longer able to window dress the void, which has now developed into a chasm, Barbara Rose announces that she wants a divorce. Oliver Rose doesn't take her seriously, which only hardens her contempt for him. She says she wants the house - having picked it out herself and slowly filled it with the things that have made it a home. He argues that he paid for the house and everything in it. It's not long before Barbara and Oliver start sinking to new levels of depravity against one another in pursuit of the valuables that defined them during their marriage as the battle lines are drawn.The War of the Roses constantly borders on veering off the edge of comedy and into full out horror. I love black comedies but quite frankly they don't come more darker, nastier and meaner than The War of the Roses. It's a testament to DeVito's brilliant direction here that he is able to pull back at just the right moments so that the film retains its comedic edge - albeit a very bizarre comedic edge that is peppered with spousal brutality unlike anything we have ever seen. Both Douglas and DeVito are in fine form but it's Turner's brilliant turn as Barbara Rose that steals the show. She goes from a loving and caring wife and mother to a cold, aloof almost assassin like vixen by the films end. She is absolutely outstanding in the role.If I do have a slight complaint about the film, it's that it tends to want to puts its leads into " good guy" , "bad guy" camps and somehow DeVito misogynistacly places his female character, Barbara Rose, firmly in the "bad guy" camp. I think this was an ill judgment on his part as he potentially alienates all his female viewers. And as we know in the messy arena of divorce, particularly the nasty ones, there really are no good or bad guys.I caught this on the TV the other night and it reminded me why it's such a much loved classic in my film library. Its lost none of its brutal comedic edge and its willingness to punch, batter and bruise its protagonists till the very bitter end is still alarming and discomforting in the way only a black comedy can alarm and discomfort whilst still trying to make you smile.

Red-Barracuda A middle-aged affluent couple hit marital problems and start fighting over the ownership of their mansion. This leads to increasing levels of antagonism and borderline sociopathic behaviour.The War of the Roses is very 80's, very loud and kind of fun. If you want a subtle study of marital breakdown then seek it somewhere else because this most certainly is not it. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner play the warring couple. We follow their story from their first meeting, through the happy early days to the outright marital war that constitutes the end of their relationship. Douglas and Turner are basically let loose on this film to chew the scenery and go cartoonishly over-the-top. And for the most part it's a great deal of fun seeing them do this, as both are very capable actors who can play mildly deranged very convincingly. I felt, however, that the film lost a bit of steam in its final section. As the pair went increasingly berserk in their antics, the film lost me a bit. Having said that, it is a funny film at times and it's quite a bit of fun watching both principal actors going hell for leather. It's probably a film that people going through a divorce can relate to best. It most probably will give them a few ideas.