Seinfeld

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Pay It Forward

starring: Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment, Helen Hunt, Jay Mohr, James Caviezel
directed by: Mimi Leder

: Pay It Forward
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9780790756806
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0790756803
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: May 15, 2001
Running Time: 123 minutes
Sales Rank: 1764
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: October 20, 2000



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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
How much impact can one heartfelt idea have? a junior-high students class project idea ignites a chain reaction of goodness and consequences. The boys idea: when someone does you a favor dont pay it back pay it forward. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/11/2008 Starring: Kevin Spacey Haley Joel Osment Run time: 123 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Mimi Leder

Amazon.com:
Pay It Forward is a multi-level marketing scheme of the heart. Beginning as a seventh-grade class assignment to put into action an idea that could change the world, young Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) comes up with a plan to do good deeds for three people who then by way of payment each must do good turns for three other people. These nine people also must pay it forward and so on, ad infinitum. If successful, the resulting network of do-gooders ought to comprise the entire world. Trevor's attempts to get the ball rolling include befriending a junkie (James Caviezel) and trying to set up his recovering-alcoholic mother (Helen Hunt) with his burn-victim teacher (Kevin Spacey), who posed the assignment.

While this could have turned into unmitigated schmaltz, the acting elevates this film to mitigated schmaltz. By turns powerful and measured, the performances of Spacey, Hunt, and Osment can't make up for the many missteps in a screenplay that sanitizes the look of the lower-middle class and expects us to believe that homeless alcoholics and junkies speak in the elevated manner of grad students. (Can that really be Angie Dickinson as Hunt's dispossessed mother? Yes, it is!) The germ of the story is a good one, though, and one may wonder how it would have been handled by the likes of Frank Capra, who could balance sentiment with humor. But clearly Capra would never have let the ending of his version to take the nosedive into cliché and pathos that director Mimi Leder has allowed in this film. More than a few viewers will also recognize that Leder has blatantly borrowed her final image from Field of Dreams, where its intended effect was more keenly and honestly felt. --Jim Gay



Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Pay It Forward Delivers
This is a somewhat offbeat film that is both dark and uplifting. The message is universal and is suitable ... Read More


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Great movie, cheap prices and fast shipping.
Shipped on time, Amazon is so good at keeping you informed and on top of order tracking, etc. and I love the ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - A teaching moment for youth......
Although the theme is rather utopian in theory, if everyone did care enough to try it, it could make a difference, ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Great movie
I don't know how I missed this one for so many years. Great movie. I love Kevin Spacey so I expected to like this ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Favorite Movie
This is an amazing movie. The theme is that we are all connected in ways that we often don't even imagine. Recommend ... Read More

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Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.