Shortcut to Happiness (2003)

This is one of those old movies you feel what the hell I'm bored any way, but it is surprisingly good. The editing may be distracting at times but I was captivated by the depth of the story. This movie for me delivers the message across beautifully in a very affective manner. I was really impressed with the acting and how it came alive on screen. One does desire the things of this world but at what cost that message will always be universal no matter what. I also feel this film was not done justice by it's critics rather than only focusing on the visual people often forget the narrative and judge the movie poorly. All in all I enjoyed this film I was captivated from start to finish. I think it deserves to be in my top 100 films of all time.

DIRECTION: 1/10 -/- SCREENPLAY: 3/10 -/- VISUALS: 5/10 -/- STORY: 5/10The movie itself reminds me of 'Bedazzled' more than Faust. It's the same base story with a very bad selection of actors. The ACTORS are great normally, but this is clearly not their role. Miss Love Hewitt and Mr. Hopkins were all right, but they definitely won't name this movie as their favorite. I could also tell who THE DIRECTOR was before checking it (Alec Baldwin of course). He is too busy looking handsome and that kind of ruins his screenplay. I usually like his acting but this was dreadful. He made his own character go out with hot young chicks, the Devil's contract was a kiss and a lovemaking, I mean come on, at least don't be this pathetic as an old man. :(The STORY itself is a bit weird but not so bad, the side stories however are much worse, we only meet the secondary characters once or twice, we don't really know what kind of people they are, we usually only see Mr. Baldwin struggling, crying, smiling, yelling, confused... so the characters were really not detailed.I would love to read the book or watch a remake with a REAL DIRECTOR and with a better actor for the main character. Was a real disappointment for me, I have lost all my remaining respect for Mr. Baldwin.

The first time I saw Alec Baldwin and Antony Hopkins together was in "The Edge", a magnificent movie about basic things like survival, our true nature and our goal in life. "Shortcut to happiness" is very close to it as a message. This is a story about our true path in life, about genuine things we must do and how different is world now. Different from our true role in life, set by mother Nature, how we have substituted what is wright for something we suspect is rather wrong. Philosophical subject that provokes all of us to think what we have to do with our carrier and our personal life. The play of Alec Baldwin and Sir Antony Hopkins is with no doubt perfect and appealing in every aspect. So is the screenplay, the only concern I have is about the staging, it could be more solid and so I expected. This is not a big issue though and overall the movie is just excellent!

I went for this movie believing it had good ratings. Firstly, it is ridiculous that they're releasing a movie originally made in 2001, seven years later in 2008 here in India. Everything in the movie looks dated. Even for 2001 the movie looks like its been made on a shoe string budget. There is a scene where a taxi hits a man to elaborate how low budget you can get. Anthony Hopkins doesn't seem to know what he is doing in the film. He ends up giving a long monologue towards the end. If the film had bright sparks during that scene, I missed it as I was sleeping on my seat. Nothing about Jennifer Love Hewitt resembles a Devil. She wears ill-fitting trite clothes and scowls at random kids. As for Alec Baldwin a scene where he goes to meet Webster for the first time is not to be missed. What a waste of money! As Anthony Hopkins rightly put it, "Go back home and write better!"