6/10. Quite an interesting little movie. Personally, the idea of computer actors taking over human actors seems unrealistic. Well, at least not for a good 10-20 years.
Sometimes, I felt that this movie was a little tense. You expected Simone, at the computer console, to lunge out at you, and surprise you by speaking without being told to. Just the aspect of it actually happening is weird.
Al Pacino was interesting. I don't know if I recognized him at first. Just like the computer model, he seemed to scare me. I don't know why. Evan Rachel Wood was pretty cute in this movie. Though I've never seen any of her other works. I don't know where I've seen her before.... She reminds me of the teens of today, and how the teens know how to do everything on the computer. Adults can't figure it out, but with a click of a mouse, you got it all back.
I was amazed at the great lengths of how Simone looked real. Then again, it was just an actor placed on a green screen. It looked pretty authentic though. I just really don't want this technology to take over human acting. It just wouldn't be right.
All in all, this was an ok movie. Watch it if you like computer stuff, but otherwise, you might wanna stay away
Rater #2
6/10. One of my favorite movies is The Truman Show. It messes with reality;
I actually thought that I could be in "The Sam Show". In the movie
Simone, which is directed by the writer of TTS Andrew Niccol, it
deals with the same type of problem with reality-is it real or is it
not?
Al Pacino plays Viktor Taransky, a faded Hollywood Director. When his
star actress Nicola (Winona Ryder) leaves the set because her trailer
is too short, he looks for a new person to star in his movie "Sunrise
Sunset". Ryder shouldn't have accepted this part; a famed actress
like her could have gone to bigger things. (Incidentally, her acting
when auditioning later in the movie is better than the whole acting
she did in Mr. Deeds!)
A man gives Viktor a computer program called "Simulation One", where
you can create digital actors with a click of a mouse. He tries and
creates a great new actress called Simone (from Simulation One, get
it?), and convinces the studio to give her a try, including his ex-
wife Elaine (Catherine Keener). Keener had a certain dry wit to her,
a little sarcastic point in her that added to the movie.
Simone (who is played by Canadian model Rachel Roberts) becomes an
instant hit. But, everyone wants to meet her and talk to her. So
Viktor tries harder to make her appear "live" at concerts, etc. I
liked the fantasy that Viktor created an instant hit, and no matter
what she did, she was loved.
However, it wasn't as funny as I had hoped. It had a couple laugh-out-
loud moments, but not as many as I wanted. Unlike The Truman Show, it
didn't create the mystery of the Show. Another thing that bothered me
was his daughter Lainey. Sometimes she seemed to be mid-teens,
sometimes pre-teen.
Pacino reminded me of Woody Allen-getting the girls who are half as
old as him. I did like, however, that the ending is not wrapped up in
a nice little bow and is express shipped to everyone's hearts. I
enjoy the endings that don't tell everything. The special effects of
Simone on the computer were pretty neat-but why would that computer
use 5 1/2 inch floppy disks?
I felt like the movie dragged on for a little too long; it could have
been ended sooner. But I did like it except for the couple points I
mentioned, and I would recommend it to anyone.
