Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Mark Rogers Rarely have I seen a movie so consistently inept. How do you even take Sean Penn, France McDormand, a David Byrne soundtrack, Robert Smith styling, and make it all suck? I love all of the above and detested the movie enough to wonder how anybody signed on for it.Disclosure here that I have no familiarity with the director and have not seen his previous works. So that I do not comprehend what he was trying to accomplish with this stilting disjointed film. But even the premise of the film is of negligible interest to me. This was simply on TV, and so I watched it, thinking how bad could a movie with Sean Penn and Frances McDormand get? Although with the plot synopsis I had forewarning it wasn't my type of film.This would appear to be the type of weird work that foreshadows that even the most accomplished actors make mistakes, get involved in films they probably shouldn't, and get swayed by something in order to be part of the project.I'm trying to fathom any portion of this film that is redeeming or that makes it worth watching. Very rarely would I state this, I want my 2hrs back.

moonspinner55 Sean Penn plays John Smith, a.k.a. Cheyenne, a Robert Smith-like former pop star with wild black hair, black mascara around his piercing blue eyes and a trepidatious mouth finely-etched in red lipstick. He has been out of the music business (and, indeed, absent from the mainstream of life) for 20 years, secluded in his Dublin mansion after two kids killed themselves while listening to his forlorn songs. Upon learning that his once-estranged, recently-deceased father was a victim of the Nazi atrocities of World War II, he consults with a Nazi hunter and embarks on a mission to kill the SS officer still living in the United States. Director Paolo Sorrentino, who also co-authored the screenplay with Umberto Contarello, is tantalized by offbeat humor so low-keyed it sometimes passes for pathos; he's also enamored of faces, and he allows Penn lots of screen-time (too much time, one may argue) for the actor to work his soulful stare into the camera. Penn doesn't quite work his way into the viewer's heart, however, and this is the fault of the filmmaker, who unfolds his highly unlikely story very slowly and with a great deal of artistic flourish (i.e., pretension). Cinematographer Luca Bigazzi's camera swoops and glides around barren landscapes and empty rooms with amusingly smooth panache, but the audience isn't picking up on anything substantial except for the technique. Penn goes out on a limb with his performance--talking in a prissy-timid yet direct way that recalls Andy Warhol's pattern of speech--but, in the end, the role is a costume, and many other actors could have played John Smith--and perhaps improved upon it. Sorrentino wants to make us laugh and squirm and take pause. He wants to break our hearts over the course of the lead character's picaresque journey, but there's no truth in it. *1/2 from ****

grantss Good start, confusing middle, dull ending. Set up was interesting, and you feel that it could lead to something profound. However, it takes off on a random tangent at some point and never regains its focus, or sense of profundity. Many red herrings though, and dead ends.Sean Penn plays the role he was required to play, but I am not sure I care too much about the character. Decent performances all round though. Also, as much as I like Talking Heads' "This must be the place", there are just so many versions you can hear, by various artists and actors, before you are irritated by the song...

danrdeneyer If there was a prize for overdoing the quirky, this movie would win it. Sean Penn plays ex-rock star Cheyenne, a mega rich guy who is married with a female firefighter. In real life, rock stars usually shack up with models and actresses. But not our Cheyenne, he wants a firefighter... and the two of them live boringly in a huge villa with an empty pool, where they play some sort of ball game. Yet another instance of overdoing the quirky.Besides dressing up like Robert Smith of the Cure, inclusive of red lipstick, Cheyenne does not have much to do, except cruising shopping malls. Then he learns that his long-estranged father is dying and decides to pay a visit. Once Cheyenne lands in the US, we switch to another movie.Now we are in road movie-with-a-vengeance territory. Unfortunately, this part – which sounded more promising than the first one – is carried out with the same quirkiness and lack of energy. Weirdos appear on screen and depart for no discernible reason in what seems the longest second and third acts ever.How does it end? I confess I do not know. I fell asleep because I did not care, and still have not mustered enough energy or interest to check.