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Monster's Ball Customer Reviews (82 - 84 of 85 Reviews)

Pride And Prejudice
I had avoided seing director Marc Forster Monster's Ball until recently. My reasoning had to do with the fact that I am not a big fan of star Billy Bob Thornton, and no matter the buzz about Berry and the film, I just had to gear myself I guess. In the end, I am glad I finally saw this very good film.

Death row prison gaurd Hank Grotowski (Thornton) starts having a romantic affair with the wife (Berry) of an inmate under his charge. Actor Peter Boyle plays Buck Grotowski, while Heath Ledger plays Sonny Grotowski, family related to Hank. The film is pretty much a relationship drama. It focuses on fathers and their sons, a woman who wants a better life and better love, and different levels of respect from folks. While I still don't think Thornton is all that great, on the whole, the cast of "Ball" is good. The direction is crisp and at times things can get intense. The movie will not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those inclined, it's worth a look.

Monster's Ball on DVD comes in two "flavors": A director's cut version or a standard version with extras. I own the latter and think the extras are pretty solid. There are two audio commentary tracks Each one has Forster and (a) director of photography Roberto Schaefer (b) Thornton/Berry Each track offers unique insights to the film. The deleted scenes are probably part of the director's cut version DVD, were in my opinion wisely cut from the movie. Lastly, the 2 featurettes on the film's music, and the filming were ok, but I would have preferred a more in depth featurette, edited together as one whole.

Monster's Ball, is good, but may not be for everyone.

Nothing more than SOFT PORN
I can't imagine why Halle Berry won an Oscar for this one, other than the fact that she got naked. I think it was repulsive. I found the sex scenes to be very vulgar. I had heard that it was a good movie - by all the reviews that I had seen, so I rented the movie and my wife and I proceeded to put in our popcorn, and settle in for a little bit of "Friday Night" movie watching. I was embarrassed to let my wife watch this with me - and was in the "dog house" for weeks to come, after watching this flick. Who in the WORLD are these "critics" that said this was a GREAT FLICK?

I am confused. Young women stripping down and exploiting themselves for CASH - while calling it "acting". Isn't that what PORN is for?

Halle - Have some class girl.

Very overrated, not that sexy, kinda dull
A very, very overrated movie. In retrospect, I think Halle Berry --a beautiful and talented actress -- should have gotten an Oscar, but not for this role. She is utterly miscast as a down-and-out waitress whose husband is executed and whose grotesquely fat little boy is run over by a car. Sorry folks, but there is no way, no how, in no universe that a woman who looks like Halle would ever be in this situation. This is the "trap" many gorgeous starlettes find themselves in....they want to play serious parts, but their looks make a serious part as a poor waitress or lowlife impossible to believe. (Think of Michelle Pfieffer in "Frankie and Johnnie".) With her gorgeous face (even sans makeup), stunning body, delicate Caucasian-looking facial features and perfectly straight hair, she does not look like the average African American woman, let alone one living in wretched poverty in the Deep South. She looks like what she is -- a beautiful movie star! This alone makes this psuedo-naturalistic movie a kind of bad joke.

Billy Bob Thornton is fine as the bigoted prison guard who falls in love with a black woman and undergoes a big personal transformation, but the role isn't much of a stretch for him. He's very low key in the part, which is OK but not special. Peter Boyle is kinda reprising his "Everbody Loves Raymond" role, only in a particularly malevolent way. I do have to say I feel a lot of doubts about the film's message that the surly old man is best off bundled away in a crummy nursing home, than living with his son...this certainly doesn't send a pro-family, pro-social responsibility message for a film that is supposed to be so upright.

The only big surprise here to me was Heath Ledger. I thought of him mostly as a one-note, teen heartthrob with good looks but little talent. He was surprisingly good here, sensitive and even touching. A lot of energy goes out of the film after his suicide. I think the film might have worked better if it had been his character, Sonny, who had bonded with a local African American woman, rather than his father's. Sonny is the one presented as being more open and less predjudiced than the two older men.

Lastly, the "big sex scene". Way overrated. You will be disappointed. It's a bit more graphic than the usual under-the-sheets, wearing underwear sex scenes you get in some movies, but it's ABSOLUTELY NOT PORN, despite some comments on this site. If anything, it's rather grim and depressing. The characters just seem sad and energyless, and so is the sex -- graphic but joyless, not sensual and no one really seems to be having a good time.

Kinda like the audience.

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