Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

dc-61 Want a great recipe for failure? Take a crappy, leftist political plot, add in some weak & completely undeveloped characters and then throw in the worst sequences a movie has ever known. Let stew for a week (the amount of time probably spent making this trash).The result is 'Steal This Movie,' a cinematic experience that takes bad movies to dangerous and exotically low places never before conceived.This movie utterly blew chunks at my face for its entire run time. Words cannot convey how painful it was to watch. This is not one of those bad movies that you and your friends can sit around and make fun of. This is not 'Plan 9 From Outer Space.' This is a long, boring and sad waste of time. 'Steal This Movie' is the biggest waste of energy and talent I have ever seen. It depresses me when I realize that people *actually* took time out of their lives to act in this tripe, if you can call it "acting." But then again, when you have poor direction, poor writing, poor EVERYTHING - "acting" is the last thing to criticize.This movie is like a huge, disgusting turd that you yearn to quickly flush out of existence, fearful that a friend or loved one might somehow see it. I really wish I could somehow destroy every copy of this film so it will not pollute the minds of aspiring filmmakers. Thank you, Robert Greenwald, for giving me newfound respect for every other movie I have ever seen. You have shown me what is truly awful and why I should appreciate all those movies that are merely crappy and/or boring.

TrustNo121000 I loved this movie. I thought it was a good account of part of Abbie Hoffman's life, and was historically accurate.I would recommend that everyone see it. Abbie Hoffman is an important figure in history, and I'm glad that this movie is there to inform people of this.The acting is done well also, even though I had a bit of trouble separating Vincent D'Onofrio's Law & Order: CI role with this one. (I sometimes have a lot of trouble with that when there are actors the I watch all the time on regular television shows) I think this is a great film that really makes you think about things, and makes you want to learn more about Abbie Hoffman.

george.schmidt STEAL THIS MOVIE (2000) **1/2 Vincent D'Onofrio, Janeane Garofalo, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kevin Pollak, Donal Logue, Kevin Corrigan, Alan Van Sprang, Troy Garity, Ingrid Veninger, Stephen Marshall, Joyce Gordon, Bernard Kay. The life and times of 1960s radical Yippie political rabble rouser Abbie Hoffman (D'Onofrio, although physically miscast, gives a decent turn) is depicted in this melange in his turbulent life with his wife Anita (Garofalo seemingly too low-keyed) which intersperses real-life newsreel archival footage with at times jarring restaged moments that don't juxtopose neatly. Based on the couples' book 'To America With Love: Letters From the Underground' and Marty Jezer's biography, 'Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel', the results are sketchy and one doesn't get a full realization of the secondary characters except for the infamous Chicago 7 trial in 1968 at The Democratic Convention. One wonders what Oliver Stone would have done with such meaty subject matter. (Dir: Robert Greenwald)

reel_emotion ***Spoilers***The director aimed to make a biopic that wasn't TV-movie like, but, in the end, it became boring and leaving the viewer wanting to know more about Abbie and Anita Hoffman.Using a documentary like style, a reporter tries to find out why Abbie Hoffman is still in hiding. Why try to recreate a documentary when a real one would've been more interesting?The technique of showing old film clips, etc. just didn't work, and, when the famous protests stopped and when Abbie went into hiding, the scenes with him, Johanna, Anita, and America went deep into Lifetime movie territory.Personally, I did not know much about Abbie Hoffman and had not read much about him. I DID know that Nixon and Hoover kept files on '60s protesters and radicals--no real revelation there. But this movie leans so far too the left, I kept wondering if that capitalism and old mores were really that bad. Abbie seemed like such a jerk at times--cheating on Anita and doing drugs. His bad behavior didn't help his cause, which seemed to be the main problem of the '60s: we have a good message of love, peace, and freedom, but let's get stoned first!This movie did leave me wanting to know more. I wanted to know more about Abbie's mental illness and suicide. I also wanted to know more about the other people of the movement like Jerry Rubin and Bobbie Seale and their conflicts with Hoffman.Steal This Movie is not a total waste, though. You have good performances by Garofalo, D'Onofrio, Logue, and Corrigan. Some history lessons are in it. It was just another movie that had great potential, but lost it somehow. Sadly, it was often tiresome to watch at times. It's not a good thing to be checking the clock, waiting for the movie to be over.