The Air I Breathe (2008)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Better Late Then Never

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. How is this rated 7 by living breathing humans. This fact alone makes me seriously question the validity of creating the human race. How can this movie be rated a 7? Are people that silly that they could glean some sort of cinematic enjoyment from this? There is literally no plot whatsoever. There is no likable characters. I don't care if this is @based on some Chinese proverb@, that doesn't make it deep. Where is the Chinese proverb for crappy movie? He who does not have a brain shall enjoy brainless movie? I admit it started off half-decent , but after 10 minutes and when the guy robs the bank that has got to be the most stupid and uncalled for scene in movie that is actually trying to take itself seriously.

Not sure how the Chinese proverb on which the film is based goes exactly but it's something along the lines of: Love, Pleasure, Sorrow & Happiness are the four basic emotions that we experience in life and one cannot exist without the other nor can one be so powerful that it sustains its feeling forever. Something to that effect and with that basis we are introduced the first of the four characters who will embody these four emotions throughout the course of the film. Happiness (Forest Whitaker) is an average Joe with an uneventful life working a dead-end job and dreaming of a better life when he crosses paths with Pleasure (Brendan Fraser) a mysterious and moody gentleman who comes into Happiness' office to place bets on the stock market and has never lost a bet. One night, Happiness dreams of a butterfly that flies into his room in the middle of the night and perches on his bedpost and the next morning while in his office's restroom her overhears a conversation between his co-workers who have inside information about a winning horse from an upcoming race, he hears the name of the horse is "butterfly" and sees this as a sign and takes his entire savings to bet on the horse but unfortunately loses and becomes indebted to a notorious mob boss named Fingers (played by Andy Garcia). Meanwhile, Fingers (who also happens to be Pleasure's boss) has just received a big payment from one of his debtors in the form of an up and coming pop star named Trista (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) who also embodies the emotion Sorrow. The debtor was Trista's former manager who has handed over his top client as partial payment for his gambling debts (unbeknowst to Trista) and when Trista comes to know about this, she is furious but forced to go along with this new arrangement. While getting acquainted with her new handlers, she crosses paths with Pleasure who is smitten with her and sparks fly between them. Meanwhile, somewhere across town, a poisonous snake has just bitten a woman with a rare blood type who also happens to be the unrequited love of Love's (Kevin Bacon) life and he races against the clock to try and save her, while in the emergency room he catches a glimpse of Sorrow AKA Trista giving an interview to an entertainment channel in which when asked what's so special about her, she reveals that she has a very rare blood type which happens to be the same as Love's dying love. The rest of the movie sees Love tracking down Sorrow and while it's tedious at times to keep track of what is going on, the story is beautifully told and beautifully acted by its apt cast and it all comes together in the end.

What is this I don't even ... I think it's pretty general, and nothing is wrong with the idea at all - vanity filmmaking is as legitimate as vanity publishing or printing out large posters of your girlfriend and hanging them on the walls in your house, but THAT ... what is that?Not only there is no plot whatsoever if you can call the random jumbling of events that; the whole setup makes as much sense as a drug-induced trip of lonely unpopular teenager whose mother's appetite for birth tourism landed him in a country where people couldn't pronounce his name right.A clairvoyant mobster apparently out of some manga series; a singer in an abusive relationship (hahaha a million times) with a gangster, then a stuttering bank employee and finally a doctor in a stone cold yakuza disposition - this may be material for a therapy session, and it certainly has no place on the big screen.I congratulate all involved on the effort and I feel sorry for the actors who got shanghai'd into this; at least the pay was right I hope.

I really loved this movie. I started to watch it with no expectations at all and it really surprised me. I think it's a very well written script and the performances are outstanding. All of the actors are great. It reminded me of other movies such as Crush and Babel; a set of separated stories that seem to be completely different from each other, but end up having more in common than we might think. The ending is totally unexpected, full of deep emotions. It leaves you thinking about situations which may seem to be random, but are actually not. It makes you wonder about destiny and an already written future for everyone. It could be a little bit slow at the very beginning but give it a chance. It's worth it.