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    I am one of the first people to admit the very taboo thing in Hollywood.  Sorry, I don't like Kubrick movies for the most part.  I can appreciate them for their artistic creativeness, but I don't like the majority of the stories and even though I appreciate the attempt at artistic presentation, that doesn't mean that I like it.  There, I said it...I don't like Kubrick.  Ohhhh....scary thought.  I'll probably be burned at the stake.

    With that out of the way, it's obvious that I wasn't too jazzed about the idea of seeing this film.  I had already heard several reviews and opinions, so I had a good idea of what to expect.  I was prepared for it.  So now I'll warn you:

    This film should've been called the really long, depressing, ode to a woman's body.  The first 5 seconds of the film sets the tone of the movie: A nice big ass shot of Nicole Kidman.  There might be a record number of breast shots of women in this film.  There are quite a lot of unnecessary full nudity shots.   But of course, Kubrick being male, it's no shocker that there is only a miniscule amount of male ass shots and certainly nothing more than that.

    This movie drags just a tad, but I must admit that for a movie that approaches 3 hours it wasn't too slow.  I really was suprised because a lot of the dialogue is delivered so slowly.  But it really doesn't lag a bunch.

    If you wanted to see this movie to see Tom Cruise naked or to see he and his wife, Nicole Kidman, having sex....think again.  We do see some bizarre black and white footage of Nicole having sex with some random guy but that's it.  For the most part it's a bunch of strangers having an orgy and A BUNCH of nude women just hanging around everywhere.

    None of this really annoys me though.  What I was disappointed in was the truely Kubrick style story.  He touches in so many areas that it's hard to keep focus.  So many aspects of the story just are confusing and unnecessary and they aren't touched again.  Like, what was up with the slutty daughter of the costume guy that he tries to pawn off?  And where does he get off calling her a slut when he's pimping her?!?  This is a part of the story that is just randomly thrown in there I think just so Kubrick can paint an even darker picture of society.  Then there's the hooker who just disappears...oooookay.  There is just too many parts to this story that are left hanging.  The movie would've been much more effective, I think, had there been less details and more focus on the two main aspects of the story; Nicole and Tom's relationship and the orgy party.

    The other reason I don't really care for this movie is the dark element.  I like lighter films. Not only is this movie based on a dark plot but every good aspect of society is painted in a terrible manner....husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, doctor / patient, friends, and more.  Sex is a game or a vice in this movie, it has nothing to do with love.  This movie paints a bleak, unrealistic look of society.

    Ok, this is what I liked about the film.  The acting was mediocre.  Nothing too special.  What I appreciate about this film is the one thing I appreciate about Stanley Kubrick.  He has a very unique style and he gives every movie a specific feel.  This movie has different elements that make it very interesting aesthetically.  There seems to be different film stock, one is so grainy that it reminds me of Kodachrome.  Also, the apeture of the camera was impressive.   So much light floods into many of the scenes that I wonder what Kubrick was trying to do.  There's also a lot of hand held camera work....very interesting.

    As interesting as those are, they also have draw backs.  One thing I appreciate about film, and that I hold dear, is its ability to pull the audience in and make them forget that its a movie and release them from reality for a short period of time.  Some of these elements become distracting at times, pulling the audience back into reality and they forget about the story on screen and start paying attention to the aesthetics more than anything.  I.E. the hand held camera work while Nicole Kidman laughs...the lighting while Kidman dances at the party...and for those of you really paying attention the boom operator had a few boo boos.  You can hear the camera running in a few scenes.  Whoops.

    So why didn't I give this movie a lower score?  Well, even though it's not my type of film, I thought that the story was interesting.  The acting was decent.  The movie surprisingly didn't drag along and of course, for its artistic accomplishments.  It's ok, but DO NOT bring to kiddies to see it.