Genres

Visitors Review

camaross1032 2012-05-25 00:08:06

decent movie until its spoiled by the dumbest ending

i thought this movie had a great plot throughout the first 95% of themovie, keeping me close to the edge of my seat with a plot that alsoseemed pretty believable. it seemed like the makers of this movie,however, realized they were about to hit a certain time limit, and said"oh crap, we gotta end this" so they conclude all that has happened inabout 2 minutes. this ruined the movie for me. i went from thinking"what a great movie" to saying to myself "this is possibly the dumbestmovie i have ever seen" just because of the ending. if not for the poorconclusion, i would have given this movie a 8 or 9 out of 10, but thefinal few minutes of the movie deserve a negative rating.

2012-05-24 17:18:28

A theme overdone and yet still unable to be done correctly

I saw this movie and have to say that it wasn't all that bad. But as this genre of pitting two people against eachother because one messes the other one over and the one that was done over retaliates, has been overdone and it is a shame that two decent actors have to take these roles. I believe that they should choose more captivativating, unique and out of the blockbuster category and maybe they could retain some of their fans.

poc-1 2012-05-23 12:50:28

Disappointing

Despite nice camera work, good performances and good lines thismovies spoiled by being too long, too slow and has a bad ending.There are many successful and enjoyable movies with silly plottwists.This is not one of them. The difference is that in other movies,suchas Minority Report or No Way Out, the director will quicklydirectyour attention elsewhere. It feels like a short story thatwasextended too much. That said, I liked many things aboutChangingLanes, Affleck and Jackson are good in their roles. William Hurtalsohas a nice cameo. The camera work is a treat in many places.Thescript has some excellent dialogue. Ultimately however the film isletdown by its lack of pace and syrupy ending.

Pablo Villaca 2012-05-22 19:32:12

Evitando o maniqueísmo, o roteiro cria dois personagens complexos e ambíguos ao mesmo tempo que recheia a narrativa com diálogos bem construídos e instigantes.

2012-05-19 11:11:42

Starts Great But Doesn't Follow Through

I was really impressed with the first thirty minutes or so of this film. The movie is set in a very specific time and place - a rainy Good Friday in contemporary Manhattan (sometime before 9-11 as we see the World Trade Center and the release date was early 2002). In a morning auto accident hotshot Wall Street lawyer "Gavin" played by a barely adequate Ben Affleck hits a car driven by recovering alcoholic insurance salesman "Doyle" excellently portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson. Both men are made late for court appearances and Affleck's character has inadvertently left an important legal file with Jackson causing repercussions that lead to escalating and improbable acts of revenge during the course of this spring Friday.One of the problems with the film is Affleck is unbelievable as Gavin as he does not impart the intelligence or drive one would expect to see in a rising Wall Street attorney. One can never imagine him possessing the power and gravitas his father-in law (played by Sydney Pollock) commands as a senior partner. Both his soft spoken pretty wife (Amanda Peet) and his career girl mistress (Toni Collette) are much stronger and decisive. Furthermore Gavin's "ethics crisis" seems phony as we are supposed to believe an insider in a high power firm is suddenly opposed to white collar flimflam when he is not above some evil mischief against Doyle or cheating on his wife. Samuel L. Jackson is excellent as Doyle a man who has anger and alcohol problems but desperately wants to get back in the good graces of his divorcing wife and two sons. However he is so out of control (in one day we see him throw a computer through a bank window, beat up some characters he meets in a bar, attempt to kill Gavin by loosening his wheel and yell and scream at various other people) even when sober that it is difficult to believe he is functioning at all in life let alone on a job with some responsibility. The premise of the film is good but the script needs more believability to rise above the typical Hollywood offering.

ahmed elshikh 2012-05-18 22:52:56

Who Said That Ben Affleck Should Be The First Name In The Credit ?!

This is great as a dramatically saturated thriller. It is one of themost important movies in the last 10 years.Firstly it's in the script. The good story, the good cases, the maincharacters, the 24 hours plot, and the intelligent harmonizationbetween the social satire and the fast pace like we're watching a veryattractive action movie but with a lot of serious things to say.I loved the good meaning of "Changing Leans" when you suddenly have theability to review and reexamine everything; your behaviors, feelings,thoughts, ideals, so what you believe in, and your relationships withthe others. In brief reexamine you, everybody and everything aroundyou, to make the decision : what way would you want to walk into ? It's excellent idea to turn away accidentally from your ordinaryfamiliar way to stop a little, get in touch with new people and newexperiences, and win a powerful knowledge. A knowledge which wouldlearn you a lot about the world and yourself in it; like having thepower to revolt against falseness, opportunism, corruption andmanipulation by law; as for (Ben Affleck), and suffering from addictionof nervousness, anarchism and anything makes us lost love; as for(Samuel L. Jackson).Actually it was about perfection. I must mention the scene in which(Affleck) is trying to make up a fire in the company to get theopportunity to be alone in it. Just WAW ! This short yet dexteroussequence just condenses the unique quality of the whole movie. It waswell written, cinematographed, edited.. etc. I loved the metaphor ofit; as (Affleck) himself was the real fire by his anger. And being thevirtuous pure one, by uncovering the corruption, made him theconflagration and the fire fighter in the same superb time.The thing that I hated the most in that clever script was the abruptidealistic attitude of (Affleck) at the very end (the restaurant scene)whereas it's so difficult to believe that revolutionary stride when heforced his boss/ that influential old sharper to admit the robbery ! Itwas so simple when (Affleck) compelled the man to return 3 milliondollars to its original owners !!? Moreover, I didn't like the performance of (Affleck) which was – asalways – too icy and shallow. But no wonder because he got such a lamecharisma and flat apathetic face which by the way gave his role itsshape but not its depth. Not to forget his weak way of diction; forinstance the scene when he was threatening "Jackson" by bankruptcy in aphone call. And what a bad luck (Affleck) had when he got the chance to act infront of a formidable talent as well as charisma like (Samuel L.Jackson). Undoubtedly (Jackson) delivered a performance which couldpresent his human momentum's essence plainly. Therefore the movieunfortunately has that irony of a master and a rocky rookie as 2 leads.It's a paradox that really enrages me like hell when they put the nameof (Affleck) before (Jackson) on the credit !(Changing Lanes) has the best. Great plot, hot drama, good meaning, alltightly made as a thriller. The only 2 mistakes though is having(Affleck), and having (Affleck) in front of (Jackson) !

Sephi 2012-05-16 22:44:03

What was this?

I mean i can't say i liked it but i watched it to the end. I think thismovie has no primary action. It is about that file and all the action takescontrol around it. But at the end it is so wierd cause a lot of confusingwords are told and i don't get the meaning of the movie.By me i say only watch this movie if you have really nothing else todo.

BadLuckCharm 2012-05-16 17:03:48

Waste of Time (Spoiler? read with caution!)

I recently saw this movie and I don't claim to be a movie buff. But I hadhigh hopes for this movie and was let down big time. There was hardly anycharacter development; just enough to give you an idea of what was going onbut not enough to sympathize or understand why they reacted the way theydid. Also, the movie took too long to end. The ways they insisted ongettingback at each other became old and predictable. The ending was too BradyBunch for my taste. I suppose when you see it you'll understand what Imean.Also, it seemed like every other word out of their mouths was some morallesson that we should all take home with us. I don't go to the movies togetlectured, I go to get entertained. Like I said, I was really disappointedwith this movie. Samuel L Jackson and Ben Affleck have done betterperformances as well. They didn't seem like they were into it. It was astory idea that had potential but eventually got flushed down thedrain.

Chris Grebowiec 2012-05-10 07:19:03

Brilliant

This movie honestly, intelligently, and carefully deals with tough issues(i.e. class and race) in a way that we almost never get to see in film. Ihave not been so moved by a film so compelling since "Set It Off". Thoughtprovoking and powerful; this is why I go to the movies. By far, this isbetter than anything that came out in 2001. If this is the beginning oftheyear, I cannot wait to see what is in store for the end.

brendonm 2012-05-09 11:10:17

Great morality tale - not for those with ADD

Agree with many others that this film was woefully marketed. On the otherhand, it's actually a good thing because reading through half these reviewson imdb.com it becomes glaringly obvious that Joe and Jane Sixpack AmericanMoviegoer no longer want to think at the theater -- they need everythingspoonfed to them in nice tasty bites. And keep it coming quick and fast! No "slow" scenes please (some people wouldn't know the meaning of "drama" ifit bit them on the butt; "drama" is conflict folks, and there was plenty ofconflict in this story, not only between the two leads, but other charactersas well). Having said all that, when I read Variety's review comparing CHANGING LANESto Paddy Chayefsky's best work, I knew I had to see it. And while it's notequite THAT good (NETWORK rocks!), there's too much great stuff in here topass up. This is a story about choices and how those choices reflect how wechoose to live our lives. I liked that the movie got that theme acrosswithout being overtly sentimental or preachy. The only negative for me wasthat the ending rang hollow, and Affleck's character arc was not totallyconvincing -- there's no way someone could have that change of heart in justone day, esp. in a day where he was almost killed (I'm not giving awayanything that wasn't shown in the trailer here).Go see it.

FunnyMann 2012-05-04 13:18:55

Unexpected, but in a good way

*****WARNING: contains tiny potential spoilers*****Reading other people's comments, it's obvious that the marketing folks atParamount did "Changing Lanes" no favors by advertising it as anaction/revenge fantasy movie, because it's not that at all. No bigshowdowns, no gunfire, no fight scenes -- OK, one, but it's incidental tothe main story. But while the movie lacks action, it speaks better of thehuman condition than I initially thought it could or would.You know the basic premise: two guys have a fender bender whose consequencesdent their lives worse than their cars. A game of F-U one-upmanship ensues.Life-altering changes hang in the balance. Off we go.It seems a lot of people don't like the movie's pace or ending. The pacething, as I mentioned, I attribute to mismarketing. The ending...well, whatothers found too contrived or neat, I found compelling. There's a differencebetween saying things will work out fine and suggesting that, with a littleeffort, they might. To me, "Changing Lanes" is ultimately a story about learning from -- andtaking responsibility for-- your mistakes. While a literal lane changecauses the initial accidental, it's the figurative lane change in how theylive that redeems these men. The movie revolves around an accident, but thetitle is no accident at all.

2012-05-04 07:15:35

Too Overwhelming for Me.

Viewed: 1/08Rate: 61/08: Changing Lanes is bit of a rocky roller-coaster ride for me, sometimes good and sometimes bad. I went from `7' to `5', then to `8'; then the rating nosedived to `4' before finally settling on `6'. It's not that I didn't like the movie much but rather overwhelmed with too much happenstances that occurred during the film. In a certain way, the events that unfolded in Changing Lanes seemed to be over-the-top for me. The acting is not that bad at all, and I was at the verge of saying, "My dear Ben...you cannot act." before stopping myself, thinking that he was all right yet sleazy and so Ben Affleck-ish. Samuel L. Jackson holds his water. I think Changing Lanes is more of a story-driven film than by performances. Several moments during Changing Lanes seemed to be illogical to me. One particular scene where Gavin Banek pulls the fire alarm, resulting in activation of sprinklers, and goes to the boss' office to pull out a paper from a file cabinet. You know, at that point, the sprinklers are going off, the water is pouring around, and what are the odds that the water will not affect the document that Gavin was reading? Another scene where Gavin's car sees its tire go unhooked seems to be too good to be true. Normally when a car is left ditched, that car shouldn't have remained there for a long period of time. So, when Banek's car crashed, he gets out and walks past by the car. That's another fascinating coincidence. If Roger Michell had focused on two or three twists, Changing Lanes would have been more acceptable, but he decided to push the envelope too far. The ending wasn't all that satisfying for me, and I also got disgusted when Banek came to the school, where the black sons of the father attend, and made up lies about the father. That moment was unsettling and disappointing. Having William Hurt in a cameo appearance was a nice touch. Toni Collette, the lady from Shaft, looks like she is suffering from bone marrow cancer. All for its worth, Changing Lanes came off as a good, although provocative, film but could have been a lot better.

Jack Garner 2012-05-01 08:02:48

A fresh, thought-provoking and challenging film.

2012-04-30 10:24:24

Fabulous Tale of Morality...

Oh man, what a punch in the gut. It speaks about rich vs. poor, black vs. white, and to a lesser extent, good versus evil. Ultimately I think it was well worth it to see a lawyer grow a concious. (not that I think it would ever happen.) And you totally feel for Samuel L. Jackson. Just trying to do right, get with his wife, be a good father and Bam! But I'm not too worried, after all he's a jedi. This was by far the best acting by Ben Affleck I've seen in a while.One of the things I loved about 'Lanes' was once you thought you've found the lowest common denominator, forget it, someone will go even lower. These guy go beyond killing they move in on each others families. And I love his boss trying to rationalize what he does as "more good" It was almost the only laugh in an otherwise serious movie.The two leads punch and claw their way through a terrible day and the movie ends with a surprising if not satisfying conclusion. I don't want to give too much away, but its at Blockbuster right now, Go rent it its well worth rental price.

Jamie Severson 2012-04-25 00:40:53

Excellent movie..great actors, great story.

This is a great movie that I think everyone should see. The movie takestwoseemingly random people who meet by chance and throws a day at them thatthey'll never forget!The scene in the church was fairly humorous I thought. Affleck is a greatactor and is not just a "pretty-boy" like some people think.The bar scene and the phone scene after it are also verygood.

Marc-201 2012-04-24 17:59:46

just missed....

This movie looked very promising. two normal guys getting into troublewitheach other and are getting sucked into the conflict deeper and deeper.Technicaly it is a good movie. It has a good story line and has been shotina terrific way. Ben and Samuel make a good performance. There are twoflawshowever. first the movies fails to make you sympathize with either Ben orSamuel, with the result that you don't experience the movie as if you werethere and it was happening to somebody you liked. And second the movie isBORING!!!!!! Only fews things really happen the rest of the time is "just"talking. not that a movie needds a lot of action but if one focusses onesomething else this has to entertain the audience with catching dialogue.This is definately not the case in changing lanes.So in short, a movie with a lot of potential but is killed in itsboringness

George Attwood 2012-04-24 05:55:46

Second Rate

CHANGING LANES **1/2 Director Roger Michell and scripter Chap Taylortake an uneven approach in delivering the premise of this second ratefilm. Ben Affleck is late for an appointment in court and in theprocess of driving there, he collides with motorist Samuel L. Jackson.He leaves an important document at the scene of the crash, and has totrack down Jackson to see if he had picked it up. Due to the lack ofdepth Michell and Taylor integrate into the film's suspense, intrigue,humanity, and drama, they needn't have bothered making this a fulllength feature since most of the picture is rather empty. Viewers whoadore any Affleck or Jackson vehicle will be pleased, but don't expectmuch entertainment out of it.

Robert Roten 2012-04-23 18:54:30

It is slickly made, with excellent production values, quality acting and an intelligent script.

Luis Martinez 2012-04-21 17:53:53

Pese a sus pequeños huecos, Changing Lanes es una grata, gratísima sorpresa

huggy_bear 2012-04-21 02:25:41

Twist and Turns

You ever heard the old saying, "What comes around goes around"? Boy, doesthat hold true in this one. Although at times the actions become a littlepredictable, the action stayed with the film until the end. I wouldn'tsaythis is a must see, but if there's nothing left at Blockbuster, rent it.