Micransix Crappy film

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Python Hyena A View From the Top (2003): Dir: Bruno Barreto / Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Candice Bergen, Mark Ruffalo, Mike Myers: Worthwhile comic drama about the climb to success. It stars Gwyneth Paltrow who dreams of becoming a first class international flight attendant. She ends up having to choose between her current relationship or moving up. By the conclusion her success does not overrule her heart. Detailed background with Paltrow's childhood then she deals with betrayal as awful truths indicate that her test scores were higher. Directed by Bruno Barreto who made the superior romantic comedy Bossa Nova. He successfully gives insight into the pursuit of a career as a flight attendant and the hard work to succeed in such an occupation. Paltrow delivers an excellent performance as a woman set on her goals but the outcome choice isn't surprising. Christina Applegate plays her best friend who steals and ultimately sacrifices her friendship and reputation. Candice Bergen is standard as an author whose book inspires Paltrow. Mark Ruffalo is also flat as Paltrow's boyfriend who is basically there to provide her with a dilemma. Mike Myers steals moments as an instructor and adds comic elements that elevate the film a notch. Although more dramatic than funny with its share of narrative problems, it does showcase hard work being rewarded. Score: 6 ½ / 10

tieman64 "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." - Mark TwainGwyneth Paltrow and Christina Applegate are called upon to wear tight clothes in Bruno Barreto's "View From the Top". When they're not wearing tight clothes, they're wearing skimpy clothes. Sometimes they wear tight skimpy clothes. Competing with Paltrow and Applegate is actor Mark Ruffalo, who occasionally wears tight clothes, but mostly wears normal clothes."View from the Top" co-stars Mike Myers, who plays an abnormal character tasked with wearing fairly normal clothes. The film's plot, in which a small-towner harbours dreams of becoming a flight attendant, involves the presence of many other clothed characters. No character in the film is particularly interesting, nor are the clothes they wear, but it can be said, with some confidence, that they do indeed wear clothes.6/10 – A film with clothes.

James Hitchcock There a time when a "Best Actress" Oscar was a sign that you had arrived, that you were now officially recognised as a serious actress who henceforward would star in serious films. I cannot, for example, imagine such previous recipients of the honour as Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor or Meryl Streep appearing in something like "View from the Top". Gwyneth Paltrow clearly takes a different view of her career progression. According to her interpretation, the duties of an Oscar winner include (apart from giving a confused, rambling and lachrymose acceptance speech) starring in a sexy dolly-bird role in some lightweight bubblegum picture, presumably in order to show the world that you still have a sense of humour and do not take yourself too seriously. (See also Halle Berry, who celebrated her Oscar win by becoming a Bond girl). The film is sometimes described as a romantic comedy, but unlike most rom-coms it concentrates far more on the girl than on the boy. Donna Jensen is a young woman from a small town who sets out to fulfill her dream of becoming an air hostess. Her first job is with a small, ultra-low-cost airline operating on a wing and a prayer, but she later applies for a job with the upmarket Royalty Airlines and is accepted on their training programme. She seems at first to be making good progress, but after receiving a disappointingly low score in her final exam fails to achieve the assignment she had been hoping for to an international route. Instead, she is assigned to domestic routes out of Cleveland, Ohio for Royalty Express, the firm's budget subsidiary. In the airline world, it would appear, some jobs are regarded as more prestigious than others- First Class is better than Standard Class, international routes are better than domestic ones and no-frills budget flights are the lowest of the low. A sub-plot concerns Donna's rivalry with her bitchy, dishonest colleague Christine Montgomery. Eventually Christine is sacked from the airline for stealing and Donna discovers the reason for her low score in the test- Christine cheated by switching Donna's paper with her own. Donna is allowed to take the test again and scores top marks, following which she is assigned to the most prestigious route of all- First Class, International, Paris. It is interesting to note that even though a sizable proportion of the American population have recently taken to jeering at France as a nation of "cheese-eating surrender monkeys", Hollywood still persists with its traditional cultural cringe towards all things French. This is one of a number of recent films- others include "Revolutionary Road" and "The Devil Wears Prada"- in which the French capital is depicted as the epitome of culture, far more stylish and sophisticated than any US city. Despite her apparent success in achieving her dream, however, Donna is still not happy. Her switch to international routes has meant the break-up of her relationship with her boyfriend, Ted, who lives in Cleveland, and she realises that he means more to her than her job. She therefore abandons her job and returns to Cleveland, where they succeed in rekindling their romance. As in "The Devil Wears Prada", the moral is that success in one's love life is more important than success in one's career. Paltrow herself described the film as a "terrible movie", suggesting that she only took the role for the money. (Apparently she is unable to survive on the miserable pittance she receives for more intellectual fare like "Sylvia"). Indeed, she also used a more earthy Anglo-Saxon term about it, although decency- and IMDb's automatic profanity detector- forbid a direct quotation. Actually, I have to disagree with her. I have seen plenty of really terrible films, and this is not one of them. There is little that is positively dreadful about it- the acting is of a reasonable standard and the storyline is fairly diverting. There are one or two amusing moments, like the laughs at the expense of the dreadful Sierra Airlines and Mike Myers' turn as the manic cross-eyed training instructor. Unfortunately, there is also not much about the film that is positively good- certainly, for example, nothing like Meryl Streep's brilliant performance in "The Devil Wears Prada", which saved that film from becoming no more than a glossier version of "View from the Top". The film is enjoyable enough while it lasts, but doesn't remain in the mind for very long afterwards. In the film's own terms it is not quite Sierra Airways, but definitely Royalty Express rather than First Class International. 5/10

Chrysanthepop It starts on a promising note as one might have expected a 'Legally Blonde' type comedy even though Gwyneth Paltrow does not exactly pull off the dumb blonde act as well as Reese Witherspoon. There's a lot of hilarious comedy as the characters of the hotties: Kelly Preston, Christina Applegate and Paltrow meet and befriend one another. However, things slow down and get boring once the film shifts to the Ruffalo-Paltrow romance track. Among the cast only Christina Applegate stands out as the bitchy jealous friend-turned rival (even though she's played similar roles in 'Married with Children' and 'Friends') while Paltrow does an alright job. Ruffalo plays the typical love-interest and he has done better in 'Just Like Heaven'. Somewhere in the latter half of the film there's a hilarious cat-fight between Applegate and Paltrow which was fun to watch and in the end we get a glimpse of some bloopers (many of which are uninteresting). 'View From The Top' is forgettable. Having seen the trailer, I expected something hilarious but alas!