Absolutely Fantastic

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Andrew Niccol's S1mone is social satire at its cheeriest, a pleasant, endearing dissection of Hollywood mania and celebrity obsession that only hints at the level of menace one might achieve with the concept. It's less of a cautionary tale and more of a comedic fable, and better for it too. In a glamorous yet used up Hollywood, mega producer Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino with some serious pep in his step) needs to give his enterprise a makeover. His go-to star (Winona Ryder) is a preening diva who drives him up the wall, and there seems to be a glaring absence of creative juice in his side of the court. Something cutting edge, something brand new and organic, something no one else has. But what? Simone, that's what. After finding clandestine software left behind by a deceased Geppeto-esque computer genius (Elias Koteas, excellent), he downloads what lies within, and all manner of mayhem breaks loose. The program was designed to create the perfect virtual reality woman, flawless and capable in every way, including that of the cinematic thespian. Viktor sees this as gold and treats it as such, carefully introducing Simone (played by silky voiced model Rachel Roberts) to an unsuspecting film industry who are taken by storm and smitten. Simone can tirelessly churn out five Oscar worthy performances in a month, never creates on set drama, whips up scandals or demands pay raises. She's the answer to everyone's problem, except for the one issue surrounding her very presence on the screen: she isn't actually real. This creates a wildly hysterical dilemma for Pacino, a fiery Catherine Keener as a fellow executive, and everyone out there who's had the wool pulled over their starry eyes. It's the kind of tale we'd expect from Barry Levinson or the like, a raucously funny, warmhearted, pithily clever send up of the madness that thrives in the movie industry every day. There's all manner of cameos and supporting turns including Evan Rachel Wood, Jay Mohr, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jason Schwartzman, Rebecca Romjin and the late Daniel Von Bargen as a detective who cheekily grills Pacino when things get real and the masses want answers. This is fairy tale land in terms of plausibility, but it's so darn pleasant and entertaining that it just comes off in a relatable, believable manner. Pacino is having fun too, a frenzied goofball who tries his damnedest to safeguard his secret while harried on all sides by colleagues and fans alike. Roberts is sensual and symmetrical as the computer vixen, carefully walking a tightrope between robotic vocation and emoting, essentially playing an actress pretending to be an actress who isn't even human, no easy task. It's a breezy package that's never too dark or sobering, yet still manages to show the twisted side of a famously strange industry. Great stuff.

Everyday we watch more stories about how technology involve our life in a way that we do not care about anything else, this paranoiac topic gets the interest of many viewers, and more and more writers exploit this matters, the movie also shows the obsession that not only people but also paparazzi has on the life of an artist.I watched this movie and I love it, my tendency on science fiction usually gives the movies three star at least, I usually choose the movies I am going to see for its cast and director, so when I watched it, I didn't know what could I expect. But even thought I have a glade surprise.This movie has Al Pacino as one its main stars, he is one of the best actors on screen and I admire how he catches people attention with his monologue that defines him, and I think the unknown actress Rachel Roberts was perfect to create the illusion of her inexistence, furthermore Winona Ryder an actress that rarely get it right however accomplish well this task. The futurist Andrew Niccols has done another well made movie, this time he succeeds on bring us humor with mocking on Hollywood moralism.Simone is a simple movie that entertains with satire on paranoiac technology evolution and showbiz obsession. Definitely worth to watch

Though not repeatedly heard, writer/director Andrew Niccol is really talented in incorporating societal topics into his movies in shocking ways. Basically, his works worked because the concepts he played with are well implemented and fertilized by him.From Gattaca to Truman Show, to S1m0ne, sci-fi is not something only Lucas and Spierberg can handle, although these guys are always interested in telling you their visions for the future are not cheap. The concepts behind S1m0ne can be considered impossible to realize in the real world because anyone with any computer knowledge would know to digitally fabricate a role and incorporate her into the real production footages would take 100 computer engineers and days of work to render each frame...... And, in the movie Simone only needed Al Pacino's solo job to do the motion-detection, dubbing and everything, using one PC. Of course this is a joke, but again anyone paying too much attention to that missed the point of the movie, that medias produce idols, idols made money and made the line between reality and illusion blur. In this crazy logic yet again accepted by most of us in the public, we can't laugh all the comedic characters portrayed without looking at ourselves. And frankly speaking, Niccol always knew how to end a movie in a satisfying way. S1m0ne is not an exception, that just when everyone thought the story will go in the logically-favored direction, it turned to be better.You need a good director to master someone like Al Pacino, and that means certainly not averagely-good, but really good. Before S1m0ne, I always thought Pacino only fits either outrageous roles or traumatic roles or both. But S1m0ne proved he can also be as funny as Jim Carrie. Given all the chaotic and idiotic situations in the movie, Pacino pretty much held true to his outrageous and traumatic nature but pulled off one of the best roles in his career. Robert Deniro, Dustin Hoffman both had similar roles in a similar genre(Wag the Dog and What Just Happened) and none of their performances can match Pacino's. Besides, S1m0ne really made What Just Happened looked like amateurish work.Al last, as the movie's rating kept dropping for years, the ideas in it actually are approaching us. I am looking forward to director Niccol's next project. Keep it up Mr Niccol!

Fed up with the demands of stars, up and coming director Viktor Taransky is intrigued when computer scientist Hank Alano offers him the product of his derided research – a fully realistic computer generated actress, who Viktor christens Simone, short for Simulation One. He inserts her into the final cut of his film in place of the actress he threw off set and releases his film for testing before fear of what he has done overcomes him. Much to his surprise Simone is not spotted as a fake but rather hailed as the best new actress in Hollywood. He hides the truth from everyone but, as the hype machine gets into action, Simone becomes harder to control, far less conceal.S1m0ne was dismissed by many when it was released but to some it was worthy of mention alongside Truman Show. The comparison is generous in terms of quality and loose in regards material – both are social satires on the media in one form or another. S1m0ne focus on the world of film-making in a plot that, done right, could have been a really sharp and clever satire that also delivers some laughs. Here and there, this film is visible among what we can call "everything else" and we do get smart moments now and again but sadly the "everything else" is a problem. This sweeping grouping of material includes specifics as well as the general arch of the plotting. For example, the film sets itself off on a hiding to nothing by having Viktor being the only one in the know – the same jokes, the same commentary could have worked if the "studio" had been behind it all and we would have not had the absurdity of the plot that sees Viktor managing to keep his secret (particularly when that involves putting a dummy in a car and driving it from the passenger seat!).This situation does create other problems, all of which weaken the central potential of the idea. It doesn't help that some of the shots and scenes by Niccol puts the film in a rather "silly" light as if the film is a farce. Now, there is nothing wrong with the whole thing being a farce of sorts but it is an issue when it only happens occasionally because it all feels out of place. The cast try hard to make it work but the same uneven tone infects their dialogue and performances. At the time Pacino was criticised for his choice of project, but to me it was a brave move that he was not supported in. He somehow manages to make a lot of it work, but ultimately he cannot do it along and the end result is a character and narrative that don't convince, leaving him a bit exposed. Roberts is another problem – partly through her and partly the narrative. The plot has her becoming a massive global star across several forms of media within months of one performance – this puts a lot of pressure of Roberts to show us something that justifies this success, which she cannot do at any point. Again this problem is down to Niccol more than her, because he could have done a similar story within "the industry" and not blowing it up to the global level as he did. Supporting turns from Ryder, Mohr, Koteas, Vince and others all add solid enough bits and also their presence suggests they also thought the film would be better than it was.Sadly S1m0ne is all too basic a film which has a good starting point as an idea and an overall aim that could have been better than it was but unfortunately plenty of poor ideas in the delivery limit how good it is. The end result then is an uneven film that doesn't do much of value even as some parts of it are sharp and clever, other parts are plain daffy.