Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

Great Film overall

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I wanted to watch as I did watch "the Gong Show" with Chuck Barris in the end of the 1970s. Thus the fine directing of George Clooney and good appearances of Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts and Sam Rockwell (who steals the show) as well as Mr. Clooney itself, I kinda was left confused whether this story of a double life between producer/host and secret agent is believable. In my case, it is rather a tale in which even the CIA denies any involvement. Which makes me confused in a sense if I believe him or not about this twisted story...You be the judge. My verdict: watch it for curiosity, especially if you want to know a little bit of the man behind the "Dating Game", the "Newlyweds Game" and of course "The Gong Show"... Fridge not included...

True story or not? That doesn't really matter when you boil it down. It is an endlessly fascinating and entertaining movie. Who knew George Clooney was such a gifted director? This movie is full of amazing performances from acclaimed actors and also some great cameos from their famous Hollywood friends.

Chuck Barris, the host of the infamous Gong Show, wrote a book long ago in which he claims that he moonlighted as a CIA assassin overseas. Yeah, I call shenanigans. Knowing who Chuck is through glimpses of Gong Show reruns, and his apparent addiction to women, he seems like a full-blown sociopath. But man, what a story he tells. Hell, I'd make a movie out of it too if given the chance. Charlie Kaufman is the scribe to this interesting film, and we see a bright portion of his mad genius in quite a few sections of the film. The final scenes of the film really highlight his fantastic surrealism. Yet, the potential of his script gets squashed by it's director, George Clooney. The Hollywood golden-boy's first foray into directing a film, and he makes sure to gussy it up with as many celebrities as he can squeeze in, and an EXTREMELY overexposed image quality. This movie is desperate to be Kaufman, but is forced through the Clooney machine. So what we get, is a great idea, watered down. But out of the many problems the film has, the brightest spot of the whole thing, other than it's great script, is Sam Rockwell as Chuck Barris. He gives a nearly flawless portrayal of him. It's scary how uncanny he is to him.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)Like the better known George Clooney directed film, Good Night, and Good Luck, this one is about the early days of television. But the similarity ends there. Filmed in color, with a second story about the CIA, and sometimes inventive filming moving from one space to another freely, or showing fantasies that get confused with the truth. Confessions almost feels like a crazy dream. And a good one, an interesting tour of a man's off-kilter mind finding escapes in brilliant flashes of success. And the writing is by the great Charlie Kaufman, which is reason enough to get involved.The period is great (1960s and 70s), laced with the Cold War and peripheral drug use, and lots of bright colors. "The Dating Game" gets started on hippy-esquire t.v. sets and then suddenly we see a gruesome assassination, making for a wild ride. And there is a star-studded cast, with Julia Roberts prominent and Brad Pitt and Matt Damon definitely not prominent (but their two seconds making maybe the best single moment in the movie). The intrigue compounds when our leading man, a very non-fictional Chuck Barris, becomes a target himself.The lead, Sam Rockwell, has the problem for me of not creating a sympathetic character, so when things go wrong, and even when things go right, he seems like a jerk, and I couldn't quite get absorbed in it. Instead, everything just "happens." But such things! Could they be true? The movie is based on Barris's autobiography of the same name, and yet the CIA denies Barris had anything to do with them. Good stuff for a surreal, bouncy movie, anyway. No strait jacket required.