The Pursuit of Happyness

Movie: The Pursuit of Happyness
Score: 84/100

I hyped up "The Pursuit of Happyness" to be an excellent movie. Somewhere in the 90's. From the commericials I saw, I was moved entirely. I was almost certain of this movie's Best Picture Oscar. However, a good amount of the heart-warming parts of the movie were in the commericials. Nothing against the movie here, I just don't like to see the same scene I saw from the trailer.

Nonetheless, the movie was still great. Will Smith's acting was once again, superb. His son, Jaden [Christopher Syre] Smith, performed well for an eight year old. I felt that Thandie Newton, who played Smith's wife in the movie, overacted just a tad. However, her role is a very hard role to play, that of a woman torn between her love for her son, husband and her intuition of bankruptcy soon to befall the family.

The plot was obviously predictable. It's hard to imagine that Chris Gardner is still a homeless man caring for his son. Fortunately, the acting and dialogue made up for the film's predictability.

Dialogue was well written, with the right pauses at the right time, and the right words to complement each other.

Overall, the movie gave me a feeling of sadness toward the rising action and finally a feeling of joy at the conclusion. Although it did not move me to tears, nor even tears in my eyes, I still had goosebumps at the last scene.

Rating system explained:
0-9 : Utterly despicable. Rare. But "Gigli", and "From Justin to Kelly" ...
10-19: Still pretty bad. Think "You Got Served".
20-29: A very poor movie, however it may give satisfaction to those familiar with the subject.
30-39: A bad movie, you probably shouldn't watch this. Most people wouldn't like it. Buy or rent on DVD if you have the guts.
40-49: Not an overall horrendous movie, but I wouldn't watch this in theatres. Buy or rent on DVD instead.
50-59: An average movie. You make the call, is this movie something I'm interested in? If you watch it, you probably won't hate it, but now that tickets are $9.00 for students and $10.00 for adults, think of the pros and cons.
60-69: An overall good movie, with a good reason why it's been made. Most high-budget movies are in this category so that they can appeal to a wide variety of tastes. Most people would at least think it's good.
70-79: A very good movie, with (usually) good acting and (usually) good script-writing and directing. Definitely watch it, it's worth your money.
80-89: A great movie and you will almost definitely be satisfied when you leave. This movie leaves you thinking about it for the next couple of days.
90-99: Rare. This is a truly excellent movie and will remain one for years to come. An instant classic with me, you will almost definitely love it.