ign logo IGN.com | AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | GameSpy | FilePlanet | TeamXbox | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | Direct2Drive

RottenTomatoes.com

RT Bug Squash
Home Movies DVD Celebrities News Critics Photos & Trailers The Vine Forums
Box Office | Best Of | Certified Fresh | Showtimes
Register for free site & special features! | Log In | What is RT?
                       
MOVIES / ON DVD / AMERICAN BEAUTY
American Beauty

Rate This Movie

Write a Review
Share This Movie
Add to List
Buy Poster

Bookmark and Share

American Beauty (1999)

89%
100%
93%
N/A
N/A
N/A
89 %
Reviews Counted: 148 Fresh: 132  Rotten:16 Average Rating: 8/10
 
Consensus: Critics praise American Beauty for its wit and insight, as well as for its exceptional performances. Critics praise American Beauty for its wit and insight, as well as for its exceptional performances. more
 
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Synopsis:
AMERICAN BEAUTY tells the story of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), a suburban father who snaps when he becomes disgusted with his stale, repetitive existence. Burnham lets us know in voice-over from the film's opening that this is the day he dies (using the SUNSET BOULEVARD flashback... [More]
AMERICAN BEAUTY tells the story of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), a suburban father who snaps when he becomes disgusted with his stale, repetitive existence. Burnham lets us know in voice-over from the film's opening that this is the day he dies (using the SUNSET BOULEVARD flashback approach), a technique that adds an inevitable tension to the proceedings and keeps the story moving forward at all times. On a whim, Lester quits his job and begins a regression into young adulthood, lifting weights, smoking pot, doing nothing, and discovering the overflowing sexuality of his 16-year-old daughter's best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari). His wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening), has her own midlife crisis of sorts. A real estate agent, she experiences a youthful awakening when super-agent Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher) seduces her repeatedly. Meanwhile, Jane (Thora Birch), the Burnhams' daughter, is pursued by Ricky (Wes Bentley), the mysterious boy next door who carries a video camera around with him at all times. When Ricky's militaristic father, Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper), discovers something potentially horrifying on one of his tapes, and when Carolyn's rage for Lester's actions boils over, the time bomb finally explodes. [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari

Director: Sam Mendes
Screenwriter: Alan Ball
Producer: Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks
Composer: Thomas Newman

DVD Info

Release:

Dec 10, 2001

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35
  • Single Side - Dual Layer

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
  • DTS Surround 5.1 - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Making-Of - 1. AMERICAN BEAUTY...LOOK CLOSER
  • Audio Commentary - 1. Sam Mendes - Director, Alan Ball - Writer
  • 2. Sam Mendes - Director, Conrad L. Hall - Cinematographer
  • Film-to-Script Comparison
  • Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer

Text/Photo Galleries:

  • Production Notes
  • Storyboards
  • Biographies - 1. Cast & Crew

DVD-ROM Features:

  • Chat Links

Reviews

 
T-Meter Critics
 
 
Top Critics
 
 
RT Community
 
 
My Critics
 
 
My Friends
 
 
DVD
 
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Arrange By: Name | Fresh | Rotten | Date | Source
 
 
Ratings Image

One of the most startling, brilliant pictures to come out of a major studio in many years.

Full Review | Comment
02/20/08 01:15 PM
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Director Mendes guides an artful path between desire and self-disgust, playing youth against experience, male against female.

Full Review | Comment
02/09/06 03:17 AM
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Time and again, you fear Mendes won't be able to sustain such a confident shuffling of his pack, but somehow he does, and for once the result is a genuine surprise.

Full Review | Comment
12/02/02 08:26 AM
Kevin Jackson
Sight and Sound
Ratings Image

From the opening moment we know we're in the hands of gifted, assured, focussed filmmakers.

Full Review | Comment
12/10/01 06:33 PM
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image

As ever, Spacey is brilliant with his edgy, almost psychotic creation, delivering Alan Ball's quick-witted script in superb, deadpan fashion.

Full Review | Comment
04/17/01 04:49 PM
Kevin Lewin
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

An incisive, deliriously funny and profound vision of the American Dream hitting meltdown.

Full Review | Comment
01/01/00 12:00 AM
Ian Nathan
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

An incisive, deliriously funny and profound vision of the American Dream hitting meltdown.

Full Review | Comment
01/01/00 12:00 AM
Ian Nathan
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

I think it unfolds as a profound masterpiece, then collapses in a muddle of probably unintentional, certainly unnecessary pessimism.

Full Review | Comment
01/01/00 12:00 AM
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
UK Critic
Ratings Image

An elusive and allusive work of art that won't be pinned down easily.

Full Review | Comment
07/23/07 06:53 AM
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com
Ratings Image

Recently, Happiness and Election have taken pot shots at suburban morals and ethics, but none has hit so close to the bone and so on-target as American Beauty.

Full Review | Comment
07/14/07 06:00 AM
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound
Ratings Image

It's like Norman Bates getting good advice from Mother.

Full Review | Comment
05/23/07 07:41 PM
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central
Ratings Image

As the latest mainstream movie symptom of our premillennial malaise, American Beauty is so brilliantly acted, written, directed and visualized that for all its despondency and despair, it is a lot of fun.

Full Review | Comment
04/27/07 03:15 AM
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Ratings Image

An incisive if over-the-top take on familial dysfunction.

Full Review | Comment
01/04/07 05:47 AM
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy
Ratings Image

Above all, "American Beauty" is about finding peace and a sense of wonder in the least likely of places, such as your inner torment or, failing that, perhaps a floating plastic bag.

Full Review | Comment
08/25/06 07:59 AM
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star
Ratings Image

Brit Sam Mendes makes an impressive directorial debut with a glossy, well-acted satire of the American burbs, a theatrically stylized meditation that combines the zeitgeist of 1950s Eisnehower with that of 1990s Clinton.

Full Review | Comment
07/29/06 10:37 AM
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image

Dark, intelligent, scandalous, emotional, and truthful -- one of the year's best.

Full Review | Comment
05/26/06 03:17 AM
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
Ratings Image

This is what movies are all about.

Full Review | Comment
04/09/05 04:12 AM
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews
Ratings Image

Complexity, say quite a few of my colleagues. Lies, I say.

Full Review | Comment
03/03/05 10:16 PM
Stuart Klawans
Nation
Ratings Image

As the world changed in the past five years, so did the relevance of American Beauty.

Full Review | Comment
02/16/05 11:14 AM
Dragan Antulov
Draxblog Movie Reviews
Ratings Image

A stylish film about an American family that pretends to be moral and enlightened, but revels in its mean-spirited sarcasm and its championing of self-interest.

Full Review | Comment
12/06/04 05:11 PM
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
See More Topics...

Related Forums

Production begins on untitled contemporary comedy directed by Sam Mendes!
by: FlailingArm 4/21


awful
by: sam 4/4


watch this movie free online
by: BoineCracker 3/22


What IS this movie about?
by: ADP 10/4/07


Similar Movies
by: georgie pants 4/8/07
all

News

Sam Mendes Making With the Funny for Focus Features
posted by Jeff Giles January 25, 2008
He made his cinematic bones with dramatic films such as American Beauty and Road to Perdition, but director Sam Mendes...


Critical Consensus: "Fire" Blazes; "Scissors" Isn't Sharp Enough; "Saw III" Not Screened: Guess The Tomatometer!
posted by Tim Ryan October 26, 2006
This week at the movies, we've got the return of Jigsaw ("Saw III," starring Tobin Bell), a tale of rebellion...


Paramount Buys Itself a Christmas Present: DreamWorks Pictures
posted by Scott Weinberg December 12, 2005
Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., has signed a definitive agreement to acquire DreamWorks SKG for $1.6...


With Domino Deceased, the Movie Moves On
posted by Scott Weinberg June 30, 2005
Domino Harvey, daughter of actor Laurence Harvey, model-turned-bounty hunter, and subject of the upcoming Tony...

Around the Network

• American Beauty at Rotten Tomatoes
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | ModCenter | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive

By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2008, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.