The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) Online

Here's a brief guide to help you determine if you should see "The Million Dollar Hotel"

If you...

a) Enjoy Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay collaborations b) Thirst insatiably for explosions, car chases and sex scenes featuring silicone-enhanced blondes c) Are considering this film only because you're a Mel Gibson fan...

THEN DON'T RENT "THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL"! YOU WILL LIKELY HATE IT!

Otherwise, you might want to give this one a shot. MDH is far, far off the beaten Hollywood path. It's a quiet, understated film that finds beauty and grace in very unlikely places. Bono and Wim Wenders have put together a love story so unconventional that it nearly defies description... it is certainly NOT a "tragi-comic, romantic whodunnit", despite the IMDb plot summary. It's a tale of quiet desperation and pervasive sadness that dares to violate pretty much every unwritten rule in the movie business... further off the wall than "Being John Malkovich" but infinitely more subtle and ultimately smarter.

On the surface it's a tale narrated by an idiot (a dead one at that) which signifies very little. Set in a run-down hotel in which mentally-ill derelicts and freaks are squatting, the film primarily follows Tom-Tom (Jeremy Daviess), a deceptively simple fool who is madly in love with a schizophrenic girl (Milla Jovovich)--who is a heartachingly beautiful hybrid of the Virgin Mary and the Whore of Babylon. The plot is fairly intriguing-- Hardass cop Mel Gibson is investigating the mysterious death of a tycoon's prodigal junkie son. The crazies at the hotel devise an elaborate con job to profit from this tragedy... provided they can bluff a snooty art critic and keep the cops distracted.

Some humorous moments ensue. But the plot is almost irrelevant here. The film works because of the engaging oddball characters (especially Peter Stormare as an obsessive Beatles fan and Jimmy Smits as a bizarre Native American "artist"), because of the brilliantly surreal, postapocalyptic cinematography, and because the sheer naked unhappiness of the film crawls inside of you and doesn't go away for several days. Bono's script, like the best of his music, is deeply cynical about society, but retains a faith in the salvation of individuals. It is neither a comedy, a drama, or a romance... it really just plays out like a bittersweet existential ballad. The only romantic scene features an idiot and a schizoid whore who never actually have sex... but it's one of the most touching love scenes ever captured on film. If that sounds like your cup of tea, check out "The Million Dollar Hotel". I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Million Dollar Hotel is a beautiful movie, and one of Wenders' best recent efforts, considerably better than The End of Violence or Lisbon Story, but with a smaller worldview than Until the End of the World or Wings of Desire. The State of Things is also one of my favorite Wenders.

I can understand how many people might not like this movie. It's a young person's story about suicide and first love at the very moment when you know it's the best moment in your life as it ever will be, before you get jaded and caught up with the familiar chase after sex, money and power, when your sensations become dulled and your body not as agile because now you're older. It is concerned with poetically defective mentalities and has a drug-like sensibility to it, so you may not get it if you're a normal social conformist with a happy childhood. But then, I had this kind of youth, too, living in drug-addled international student hostel dives around Greenwich Village in the Eighties, purposefully unemployed because it seemed more open to possibility and potentiality than the unphilosophic nine to five. Suicide can really be a statement of momentary happiness rather than the mundane postmortem understanding of a troubled youth, the movie seems to say.

Jeremy Davies gives a fantastic, inspired performance, reminding me a bit of Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, but much more nuanced as to require second viewings, or Johnny Depp in Benny and Joon. Admittedly, the story is not completely credible, because while the Million Dollar Hotel seems real enough (think Chelsea Hotel if it were in downtown LA), how all these misfitting characters can survive financially and end up living together in this amazing place cannot be scrupulously pondered. At the same time, it's good that Bono helped write the story, because Wenders' plots tend to be otherwise somewhat inchoate. So in the end, it's an atmospheric fantasy. (Why do so many movies of the late Nineties-early Thousands have people jumping off of roofs? : Open Your Eyes) Nor is all the acting uniform, although Davies especially, Jovavich and notably Stormare stand out. Although Gibson is focused big on the center of the video box, it's really not his movie, as he's just along for the chance to ride with Wenders. The dialogue mixed in with the Beatles lyrics is quite clever. The camera effects for those moments where Tom-Tom and Eloise seem to move in slow motion for several parts of a second are neat, as if the two of them are not completely in the same dimension of our reality and are in danger of somehow being shaken loose from this world. I can't believe this movie was never widely released, as I just found it on the shelf in the video store, don't know how I ever missed it, and I agree that it is destined to be a Wenders cult favorite.

I bought this film "pre-viewed" on DVD because of Mel Gibson's face on the front cover and the promise of bonus features on the back. After watching it, I wondered if it was released on the heels of 9-11, as nothing else could quite explain why I had never even heard a one-liner about this fresh film with it's very believable, and wonderfully eccentric characters. The cast is first rate; Mel Gibson in his most complex role to date; Jimmy Smits, an absolute natural; Gloria Stewart (Titanic), Amanda Plummer, (The Fisher King; Freejack) Peter Stormare, (Chocolat; Armageddon) Julian Sands (Boxing Helena) and even Bud Cort (Harold and Maude; Pollock) support the two leads, Jeremy Davies, (Saving Pvt. Ryan) and Milla Jovovich. (The Messenger; Zoolander)

The DVD is a treat with U2's haunting song "The ground beneath her feet" the perfect accompaniment to the opening menu, as it sets the tone for the film beautifully. (Ok, I'm conveniently ignoring the opening song, "The First Time," as well as the actual opening shot, but after that ordinary opening, the movie gets deep and interesting quickly.)

When we first meet "Tom Tom," he is preparing to jump off the roof of the "Million Dollar Hotel." As he runs across the roof and launches himself through the air, our emotions are still not with him, for we only know three things about him, 1.) he looks peculiar, 2.) He is throwing himself off the roof of a hotel in some big city and 3.) he has not connected with us on a human level... As he sails spread-eagled through the air, we hear his voice proclaim: "Wow, after I jumped, it occurred to me... life is perfect." From that narrative voice and beyond, this film sucks you into the lives of the "Beggar's Butler," a retarded man and splendid mimic played to perfection by Davies, and the girl of his modest dreams, Eloise, played by Milla Jovovich. Tom Tom's best friend, Izzy Goldkiss (Tim Roth) died from a fall from the same roof and special agent Skinner (Gibson) is brought in by media mogul and Izzy dad, Stanley Goldkiss to find or frame a killer. The residents band together to stand up to Skinner and perhaps make a few dollars for themselves in the process. The film is well acted and unpredictable and by the time we watch Tom launch himself over the edge at the film's conclusion, we have come to care - to really care - about this human being and the motley crew of characters who people his world, and that brings a genuine welling of emotion and a spilling of tears. Not many films today can claim as much.

The Million Dollar Hotel is not for passive watching where you are led by the hand through the familiar landscape and characters of a mystery movie. Nor are you given musical cues to know how to feel in a particular instance. You have to work off your senses and intellect to perceive it, and to be patient if it takes you in a direction opposite to your wildest guesses.

It can even get irritating - as you are about to blame the movie for having no spine - or in truth, for lacking, entirely, conventional twists and turns. It throws you off as you are figuring out whether to perceive it as a film of crime or suicide, romance or a freak house, comedy, mockery or living poetry. Like life, this film has it all.

Yet in a sense, the movie is transparent in foreshadowing its three major themes and their resolution - coming from its very heartbeat, the lyrics co-written and performed mostly by Bono. In the opening scene, a young man Tom Tom hurls himself from the roof of a dreary flophouse - "The Million Dollar Hotel" in downtown Los Angeles - committing suicide with a strange joyfulness. The mystery of his exuberance in this moment becomes the driving question of the film as we then review the last two weeks of his life. But in the moment itself, Bono's song which accompanies Tom Tom's rush to the brink contains three revealing verses:

`I have a lover... She shows me colors where there's none to see Gives me hope when I can't believe...'

`I have a brother... I spend my whole time running He spends his running after me... But for the first time I feel love.'

`My father is a rich man... He said: I have many mansions And there are many rooms to see. But I left by the back door And I threw away the key.'

Love, brotherhood and father-son relationships so outlined in the song are treated here entirely unconventionally. And the breakdown of formal conventions simply occurs with a `surprising' shift in accents, or values - when love is more important than mystery solving, and a cop treats his suspect as his brother...

In the world of this movie, the love of a slightly odd boy towards a prostitute, awkward at first, ends up transcending death. And so does the brotherhood binding the colorful resident freaks of the Million Dollar Hotel; though verging on parody, it's rooted in that same longing of the heart, `a Sleeping Beauty` which `dreams to be awakened.` And we forget the commentary on the bizarre events and characters are made by a dead `brother' telling us of the best two weeks in his life.

As the movie rolls back in time, we learn of a similar fate, falling from the hotel roof, of Tom Tom's best friend - who had come `from money and power' yet rejected them to live `with bums and Indians.' The son of a Jewish multibillionaire media king whose `people decide truth in 60 countries every morning,' the Father who has many mansions, the God of Television, of the reality game which so charms the hotel residents and Tom Tom... until Tom Tom begins to have a life which is `much better than television.'

And while you are still trying hard to follow the intrigue, all of a sudden your heart is being cut open... but then is mended together. Broken to be healed. To find a new meaning in death that brings the living together, and love that brings one to death, yet brings out even more love. The death after which `things finally hit you,' when you see it all that clearly that `life is perfect... full of magic, beauty and opportunity' but which we `only really feel when it's gone.' It's not the same as television. `For the first time/I feel...'

One character talking, the other doing the action at a different place seem to convey the shared experience of living. One distinct voice, of a poet retelling us the story in his songs, is Bono's. He appears in a flash as a silent cameo mixed with the crowd of the Million Dollar Hotel residents. A powerful voice of Tom Tom's innermost self, the voice of his soul, Bono's singing exceeds anything I've ever heard before, reaching straight into your heart. `I come back above/Where there is only love...' his voice is fading, as if calling from above, sensitizing you to the very tips of your fingers. All the while the uplifting images from under the sky of downtown Los Angeles take you up to another dimension.

Mel Gibson, whose `Icon Productions' co-produced the movie, waived his star fee. His contribution to the film as an unconventional cop, somewhat resonating with his directorial debut, `The Man Without a Face', has a unique flavor you should discover on your own. The brilliant casting, starting with Jeremy Davis' finely tuned performance as the blessed fool Tom Tom, is topped by Wim Wenders' ever masterful charting of unknown territories in filmmaking. The artful cinematography and editing are yet another reason for film adepts and students to see this one.

Nevertheless, The Million Dollar Hotel played in U.S. theaters for only a week. I recommend this movie to anyone who believes film is not just for escapist entertainment but for awaking our senses and stirring our minds. As with a good book, you can embark on a journey through The Million Dollar Hotel-DVD over and over again, as if reading it each time for the first time.

I read only negative critics about this movie and I don't confirm that. I found it very interesting. I was even often laughing where everybody in the cinema around me were silent!! I have to admit that I had big questions after watching it but this is usual for the most movies of Wim Wenders. Anyway he is the director from whom I watched the biggest number of movies. Some crazy people (in a way or another) live in the Million Dollar Hotel where everything took place. At the end I was asking myself whether they were crazy at all. I even felt that inhabitants of this hotel are an allegory on the whole crazy world! Or maybe they were sane and the others were insane!! There was certainly a critic about many aspects of the life in USA. It is for instance certainly not a coincidence that a personality in this happens to be a big Jewish media boss who manipulates the FBI and the Media in the way he wants!! Why was the FBI agent a half cripple? The were many other questions. One thing is sure, and that is that I was not bored at all. The photography was great as expected from W. Wenders. The music is also very nice and U2 (or Bono) put a lot of their (his) talent inside it. I surely should not forget the actors. They acted all very good and in a persuasive manner. Anyhow I expect that many people wouldn't like. It doesn't have the typical kind of stories that are generally common and beloved by the most of the public but it is right variety for me.

I avoided this film, because of the bad criticism it got in the newspapers. But then I decided to see it at a low price cinema. And I thought, it wasn't all that bad as the critics said. I admit that one has to be in the right mood for this film, and I might alter my judgment, if I saw it a second time. But this time, I enjoyed the way it showed me how colorful life can be, even if it is a difficult and not generally admired one. Each well played character has a different story to tell, and one has to think a little about them. In the end, I took a lot of positive thoughts home. But you have to let yourself go, otherwise you will be disappointed.

I've been impressed and moved as I haven't been for years. One of the best Wenders' films. Famous for road movies Wenders bewitches with flow movement and sound. The sound struck me most this time. All voices are very characteristic and exquisitely orchestrated. Besides they are imperceptibly interwoven into U2 music. Speaking of U2, their music is I believe of the same nature as Wim Wenders cinematography art - smooth flow and yet very disturbing and full of latent force. So this combination is not accidental.

Certainly this is kind of film once you like it you look forward to watch it again and again. There is drug quality in it. Knowing a plot (not essential) won't decrease the joy of being taken to the world of live feelings. Feelings flitting like a butterfly of the main character. That domed love state of the film is colored by the good humor too, which is a good sign for a real artist.

It's a screwball tragedy, a term made up by someone else to describe this film. There are no others of this type. It's a love story without "They lived happily ever after"; it's a mystery (the essence of real) in a subtly surreal world. Not only is the story unique, but so are most of the characters, which seems to be a problem for some viewers. I don't want to paint this movie as too weird, but its differences are some of the best things about it.

Cinematography is classic, sharp, lots of deep focus. Exteriors, interiors, non-traditional lighting, a dawn scene shot before the magic hour, it all looks great. I can't recall a scene with foreground in focus while background is out, or vice versa.

U2 contributed a tune or two to the soundtrack, as they have for all Wim Wenders films since the 80s. The rest of the soundtrack is jazzy. It supports the film beautifully, and is available on CD.

If you've liked any of Wim Wenders films, I think you'll love this one.

This is the kind of story that made Agatha Christie famous. An FBI detective is sent to solve a murder case in the close environment of a hotel. Routine? Not at all, as everybody in this hotel happens to be some kind of a mental case, with a broken life story and a character due for the supporting act Oscar. Even Mel Gibson's FBI character named Skinner (irony towards X-Files?) keeps a skeleton in his life's closet. Good acting and cinematography keeps the viewer interest alive. Yes, there are logic flaws that fellow reviewers must have bashed to death until now, but this is not what this film is about. Seeing this film reminds more the pre-revolution Russian writers stories a hundred years ago - what is the million dollars hotel but a Night Asylum at the beginning of the 21st century.

A long and expected end spoils something from the overall impression, but this is however a movie above the average crowd

It is a love story, social commentary, crime drama and personal narrative all wrapped up in one film. It all works but the personal narrative which almost works.

The movie begins with the narrator jumping off the building. It sets the bar high for making sure the film provides enough motivation to support that act. It sets a high bar for the viewer to care when he leaps. It fails on both counts. The leap bookends the rest of the action. Bookends are functional but not necessary to keep books together. This leap is not necessary to keep the film together. It functions to allow you entry into and exit out of the story. In this it is very effective making its lack of motivation forgivable.

This is about life on the edges. Most characters are on the edges of society, high and low. Most characters are at the edges of sanity. Some approach the edge, from both directions. It takes the Network envisioned world showing how that world impacts people at the edges. One character's desire to keep an event from getting to TV in an unfavorable light drives Detective Skinner's involvement. The involvement of TV is courted by another group of characters to enhance their economic status. All the time TV is pushing to get a taste of the scandal in order to profit itself.

The love story is inescapably intertwined with the crime story. Detective Skinner plays cupid to discover the truth. What begins as an uncomfortable failure to reject by Eloise turns into a warm and caring relationship. The pain it causes Tom's love interest provides the only compelling reason, aside from general principle, for caring about the narrator leaping.

Social commentary is on several levels. On top are "we need better health care" and "marginalization of the mentally ill". Underneath is the issue of power. The media mogul, the detective, Eloise, and the collective residents all make use of power to influence outcomes. Political influence, personal attraction, the lure of a better life, physical and verbal abuse are all in play. A small irony is that the `powerful' media mogul is probably less effective in exercising power than the `marginal' residents of the hotel.

The crime story works well. That a crime was committed is up for grabs as much as who did it. A dark joke is that someone from the LAPD is assigned to the FBI agent to make sure he follows procedures. The LAPD liaison is totally ineffective and the only truly powerless character in the entire movie.

This movie is a visual treat. Editing is unusual and effective. It is smooth when that works and it is jumpy and ragged when that works. From the opening shot to the end each scene is an eyeful.

Subject: Million Dollar Hotel (2000)

A lovely, lyrical, magical film about many ideas, not the least of which is the strength of the weak. The plot revolves around several "loonies" in a hotel for those with no where else to go. Billed as a murder mystery, I suppose it is that, too. Barely. I had no interest in who the killer was. Just wanted these people's lives to unfold before me forever. Mel Gibson does a very interesting and funny parody of his cop persona; the actor who plays Tom Tom is terrific as a presumably dim-witted gopher to the various inhabitants (he calls himself "the beggar's butler"),Milla Jovovich is a leading lady of sorts, a constant smoker and reader who describes herself as fictional; and, Jimmy Smits as Geronimo, a Latino Indian-chief wannabe, an artist in hiding and up-front scam artist. I'm not a film reviewer, and I have always been partial to Wenders' films. That being said, I'm going downstairs now to watch the film again. P.S. Bono! Who knew?

This movie is hilarious. Pay no attention to the DVD cover which makes it sound like some sort of thriller action spy mystery. That couldn't be further from the truth (and it's probably why there are so many disappointed critics).

No, in true Wenders style, this is a very deep, philosophically charged work of art. But what sets it apart from Wenders' other masterpieces (Wings of Desire, Paris Texas, etc) is the humour. All the characters in this movie are certifiably insane. Mel Gibson plays an uptight FBI agent who literally looks like he has a pole up his posterior in every shot. Despite his punctilious nature and impeccable shoes, he is clearly the most insane of the lot, and we watch with joy as he slowly devolves into a total nutcase like the rest. Jeremy Davies is brilliant as the "retard"--more or less a kind of Shakespearian fool who knows the secret to everything but is too busy being an idiot to tell anyone. Milla is another looneybird in a role she was made for. And then we have a host of minor characters who are so funny they steal the show.

My review probably makes it sound like a madcap Mel Brooks extravaganza but not quite. The key is "deadpan". The whole film is so straight-faced deadpan that 90% of the audience won't get the jokes. When I saw it, I was the only person choking with laughter while everyone else thought I had lost my mind and/or swallowed a hairball. That's the kind of movie this is.

If you enjoy the humour of Jim Jarmusch ("Coffee and Cigarettes", "Night on Earth") or Vincent Gallo ("Buffalo 66", "Arizona Dream") or even the biting satires of Paul Verhoeven ("Robocop", "Starship Troopers"), I think you'll love this movie. There's so much wit and commentary, but it's so subtle you need to pay close attention.

The other stuff: beautiful cinematography, great acting, wonderful story, etc. Of course that's in there, as with all Wenders films. But as far as I know, this is the first time Wenders has tipped into full deadpan comedy. I think it was a smashing success. But what do I know? As the film implies, there's a fine line between 'art' and 'tar' (you'll understand if you watch it).

Spoilers herein.

This is some very risky stuff. For once, we have a camera perspective and directoral stance that mirrors the story. We've had collections of wierdos and madmen before, but you can't get more engaged than this, by having part of your own frontal lobes compromised..

Very fine collaborative acting in the theater tradition, including Milla! (Will she get better?) Except for Mel, who deliberately acts like an actor here. I thought I would never forgive Mel for the travesty of `The Patriot.' But he gets some ground back here in my book, taking (partly) as big a risk as the rest of the crew. This and `Payback' show that he isn't going to rot willingly. But as I understand he disavowed the film after release, he loses many points.

This director knows a thing or two about about syncopating the framerate. Some of his visual blues riffs of speeding and slowing made my heart stop, beginning with the first scenes of meeting Eloise. So much of the framing and lighting was evocative of Tom Tom's last brief appreciation of life. Just watching it makes me glad to be here.

This would have worked for me with just the directing/photography and the acting. I'm a little puzzled about the script, and I admit it is because I assume Bono is a nitwit, to judge from his lyrics. It IS pushing the cleverness envelope, especially the John Lennon bit. That part didn't integrate with anything else -- it pointed only outside the film to Bono. But all the other stuff about Skinner's third arm and the tar covering masterpieces and the varied references to freaks are aptly self-parody. Clearly the director felt that way. (`Its all so much TeeVee.')

I wasn't prepared for Davies. I'd only seen him in `Ryan,' `Twister,' and `Up at the Villa.' and though he was servicable, the taint of those films stuck a little I guess. He is very good here, with his attention shifts very much in the same rhythm of the director's punctuations. I wonder what vocabulary they used to coordinate that?

See this if you love the cinema part of cinema.

The acting was so realistic you could almost smell the hotel. To quote "Tom Tom,"The heart is a sleeping beauty and love the only kiss it can't resist. Even if its eyes lay open wide, there is a heart that sleeps inside. And it's to there you must be hastening. For all hearts dream, they dream only of awakening".

Here it is, and of course it took a Laureate such as Wim Wenders to do it. Here we have in a twisted, nowadays way pretty much (if not all,) of the DIVINE COMEDY, with Gianni Schicchi, Francesca, and ..., and,... and Virgil (never look back, special agent...) and a very temptatious yet evasive Beatrice. And then there is poor Tom Tom, combining too many characters from the glorious book to save his own skin. There are many pits and falls and rises and ... humor and freshness in this film !!!

This is a grand movie, and if anyone dared to doubt the genius of Wim Wenders, well .. look at this 'accessable' film again.

I thought I was inside a PK Dick story here. The peelback of the reality onion was superb. Bono and Wenders scored here with a charming moebius plot. Dying to watch this over and over again. Characters had interesting stories develop over the whole movie, not just the beginning and end. Some people might be crazy, or as I think, each of these characters are kings and queens in their own realities. Too many people have reviewed this movie in a linear fashion. It just isn't that simple of a story or an artistic presentation. Scenes throughout touch base with reality and then twist away, airy, and come back with charm and certainly more questions than answers. Just the way I like. No one should be allowed to touch a PK Dick story except these gentlemen, in my opinion. They've crafted an original here.

Why Mel Gibson trashed this film in the press, I don't know. Perhaps it's because he isn't the star, and he has few chances to grandstand. In any case, MDH has gotten an unfair tag as a boring film, an "odd little film", something not worth seeing. After finally getting to see the film after anticipating its release for over a year (since it never came to my town), I can finally say that this film was worth the wait.

Davies and Jovovich give good performances, and even Gibson is sympathetic despite early shades of "the bad guy". Jimmy Smits proves that his range extends beyond the type of roles he's usually given. Bud Cort appears in a small role, one of his more high-profile performances in recent years.

The excellent soundtrack (available in the US for months) includes music by U2, frequent collaborators Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and some vocals by Jovovich. Wenders has become almost as well known for his excellent attention to the way music and film can work together as he is for his filmmaking talent.

My only complaints: it's sometimes hard to hear what characters are saying (one scene involves Davies and Jovovich speaking with their hands on each other's mouths, making important dialogue difficult to understand), and it would have been nice to give more of a back story on these two characters.

This film is mystery, romance, comedy, and sci-fi rolled into one, with splashes of surrealism. First-time screenwriter Bono and co-writer Nicholas Klein have created a script filled with subtleties, surely resulting in the kind of movie that will improve with repeated viewings. 8/10

I recently rented the DVD of The Million Dollar Hotel and was very impacted. The Hotel occupants were initially disturbing but then I began to realize that the characters themselves had a better grasp on reality than most people I know. I soon became engrossed and found myself wanting to see the world as Tom saw it. In all of his innocence and naivety, in all his childlike ways, he became the oasis in the "desert of mad" at the hotel. The positioning of Detective Skinner (Mel Gibson) directly opposite of Tom Tom was brilliant. I enjoyed watching the detective try to get inside the mind of Tom Tom. It seemed at first a task he counted easy but by the end of the film realized that he had no business intruding into that territory. Cold, calculating and relentless, the detective met his match, I believe, in the blind faith and passion of this fragile, chameleon-like, young hopeful romantic. I loved how Tom Tom saw nothing but treasure inside of Eloise, even to the point of seeing her as almost angelic. I honestly believe he saw wings on her although it was never mentioned in the movie. I think Jeremy Davies was made to play this part. He is a true actor's actor. I wonder Jeremy, will other parts that come your way be as satisfying to you? I hope that others tales to be told will be able to match your abilities. You have a gift. You made Tom Tom shine. Thank You.

Now here is an odd movie. It is boring from beginning to end, and its biggest star wears a neck brace throughout. Under normal circumstances I would praise Mel Gibson for taking on a small role in a film, but given the film, I have to wipe everything away from memory. But I fear I will never be able to.

I should have thought twice when my video store clerk told me this was the most refunded film of the year.

"The Million Dollar Hotel" is about a hotel--pretty obvious. One day, a man jumps off the top, and cop Mel Gibson is sent into the creepy hotel to investigate. The hotel is inhabitated by a group of pure oddballs; they make the Mansons look like the Beavers. One is a strange man who wanders about thinking he is the fifth member of The Beatles, while a strange woman prowls the streets at night. And the narrator is the worst; he mumbles through the narrative and you can't even tell what the heck he's saying more than half the time. He'll start off and slowly his voice becomes so low-pitched and mumbling, you feel like just putting on the subtitles.

When Gibson starts to investigate, we realize that he is just as odd as the people in the hotel. Which leaves one to wonder what the filmmakers were thinking. Truly, the characters are so disconnected and odd, they are not even original (which I suppose was the filmmakers' goal). They are a bunch of annoying, mumbling druggies that inhabit a creepy hotel. Given the right director and actors this film could have been pulled off, but the director, who uses a bunch of annoying camera techniques, seems to try and make everything dark and broody--nothing wrong with that, but it gets over-the-top after a while, and you actually start to get dizzy. Why? Well, first you have to strain to hear the narrative, then you have to focus not to get dizzy from the narrator jumping around like a monkey on screen. (He admits to Mel Gibson he is dumb. Dumb is an understatement.) THEN you have to strain to see the surroundings, and the camera techniques make you sick the entire time.

The film's idea came from U2 man Bono, and I can imagine how mad he is right now. This film is pure, unadulterated trash from beginning to end, posing as cinematic art. It steals from "Blade Runner" and any other dark film you can think of. There are no redeeming values whatsoever, and I, the man who will sit through any movie and never say that 90 minutes of my life were stolen, actually started to feel like 90 minutes of my life were being stolen. That's a first.

Usually I can watch any film with Mel Gibson, mainly because I think he has a strong yet subtle screen presence, but this film actually made me sick. But I suppose there's some irony, because Mel Gibson himself said at a press conference, "I thought it was a boring as a dog's [bottom]."

If you like trash, dirt, grime, annoying characters, ripped-off camera techniques, ridiculous scripts and horrible voice-over narratives in your films, then I highly recommend "The Million Dollar Hotel." But if you are like the majority of moviegoers who...hmm...actually appreciate GOOD movies, then I recommend you go pick up something else.

Not even the Gibson fans should see this one. As Peter Travers from Rolling Stone said in his review, "I suppose I should tell you that Mel Gibson's character had a third arm. It's not important. It's just one of those movies."

1/5 stars -

John Ulmer

The Million Dollar Hotel sees Wim Wenders make another brilliant film about American life. Sure, this movie is not like his classics, such as Paris, Texas or even Wings Of Desire, but I know this movie is a great one.

I know a lot of critics and audiences DON'T like this film, but as one person said "You have to be of a certain personality to like this film."

This maybe true. But when you watch the end when we find out that Izzy actually jumped, not pushed, a normal person should feel a ray of emotions at experiencing this end and everything before it.

10/10

"Thanks for listening, viewers"

Dr. Pineapple

It's always difficult to know what to expect with Wenders: it's either great or really bad. And the interesting part of it is, it's the very same kind of features and the way he chooses to tell a story that will keep you interested or bore you. Although not exactly a boring film, the Million Dollar Hotel gets caught in its maker's defects. The problem starts with the story. Written by rock-star Bono, the story is something like a rock ballad trying to be a movie. Worse, it tries to be a sort of "alternative moral" tale. This tender love-story between two marginals in a hotel full of sympathetic lunatics is so full of rock cliches, it ends up being a huge cliche in itself.

You watch it, you want to like the plot but oh, again that thing about the weirdos being better people because they are so much more poetic and "innocent" than normal people. You want to like the characters but oh, again we're supposed to fall for a delicate, innocent child-saint-whore woman. You want to like the performance of the actors but after a while, can't help thinking "people, let's get on with it, shall we?". You even want to make the effort of agreeing with that lovely universal message in the end : life can be so beautiful, pity we realise it too late but oh, haven't you read that somewhere already? Chinese cookie, was it??...

The Million Dollar Hotel tries so hard to be deep, it ends up being shallow. It tries so hard to be rich in thoughts, it ends up being cheap and pompous. It tries so hard to criticise "mainstream values" and self-righteousness, it ends up being mainstream and self-righteous. And you try so hard to like it... you really do... that you end up thinking : oooh pleeaaaase!

This film is more interesting than most but far from great. The best thing in it is Gibson and his character, who is a freak (like the residents) but who has managed to function in the outside world. I'm not sure that I understand the meaning of the character's now "corrected" deformity (an amputated third arm) but I think that there is meaning in the odd effect made by his visible steel brace, which shows as a sort of suit of armor beneath his suit of clothe. In that rim of visible armor, just barely showing, Gibson's character becomes, literally, an odd meshing of two characters. In part he is the modern equivalent of a literal knight in shinning armor who is on a quest and comes upon a very troubling situation. He tries to save the victims, especially the fetching damsel in distress but he is more than a knight in the shinning armor that rings his head in every scene, he is also the Tin Man from Oz, searching for his lost heart. In this melding of steel and tin there is a hero and a wonderful performance by a consistently under-appreciated actor who can be frantic or still but always interesting with a wonderful face and those expressive eyes that, in this part, seem to be seeing more than what the camera shows us.

"The million dollar hotel" is Unique, strange, and poetically, not on that way which the "theatrical trailer" shows (a thriller about finding somebody's killer!) But a quite requiem on a simple and naive love. "The million dollar hotel" draws a thin line between a film-genre and poetic cinema, and moving with elegance on it. The film uses the elements of classic cinema, putting two individual character (Tom-Tom and Eloise) in a fiction (can be called a thriller), and representing a new image of a European avant-guard in Los Angeles. The Frames with a lot of beautiful crane moves which flies us into the room of two lovers, (+marvelous colors and compositions) has the main role in the poetry of the film.

Tom-Tom, the main character, talks not much, but when he talks, he talks on poems and with a sense of poetry. "The Million dollar hotel" is a poem in praise of love. On one side we have Eloise (namesake with Beethoven's lover) walks on wet pavements of Los Angeles bare foot, always reading books, and on the other side there is Tom-Tom who doesn't even know how to read a book, or how to pick up a good one between all of those. For him, everything is new, the sun after a night full of love on the face of beautiful Eloise to dates on his room's wall… and is poetry something except than a new way of seeing?

After reading so many bad reviews and comments on The Million Dollar Hotel movie, I decided to write one. Unlike most of them who have seen the movie, I must say that I perceive The Million Dollar Hotel as a good stylish film. I personally think that movies should sometimes be listened to instead of just watched in order to get the best of it. This one is just magical. I believe that the characters themselves had a better grasp on reality than most people I know. The soundtrack is absolutely beautiful and the cast is amazing. By that I mean especially Mila Jovovich and Jeremy Davies. He gives a fantastic and inspired performance. He is a true actor's actor. Jeremy is also brilliant and impressive as a narrator and gives the film a special drill. Besides all that, the script is so capturing that some parts of it like " a man's home is a man's castle" will stay in my mind forever. Maybe the movie is not for everyday's audiences, but I would recommend it to anyone who believes film is not just for escapist entertainment but for awaking our senses and stirring our minds, because there's no doubt that this movie is a thinker.

The Million Dollar Hotel is quite literally, one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen that features a two time oscar winner such as Mel Gibson. Gibson plays a beyond straight arrow of an FBI agent named Skinner, sent to investigate the mysterious suicide of a millionaire's son (an unbilled Tim Roth) in a seedy hotel that is host to a group of the poor mentally ill. Tom Tom (Jeremy Davies, eschewing Private Upham completely from "Saving Private Ryan), is a half wit delivery boy for the hotel with odd hair who's got a thing for a screw up (Milla Jovovich). Skinner performs a drastic investigation on the hotel who's inhabitants include the Fifth Beatle (a convincing Peter Stormare playing a good guy), an Indian (LA Law's Jimmy Smits!), an old lady (Gloria Stuart, far from her Titanic role), Harold, oops! I mean Bud Cort as a recurring alcoholic, a weirdo (Amanda Plummer, in another fine character role), and others. Definitely an eccentric film that is far from Hollywood. Gibson is quite, to describe it lightly, strange as an FBI agent not to be trifled with. His face alone is that of something that's out of a Stephen King novel. Jeremy Davies seems as if he's had way too many No Doz pills to fulfill the lead role, one that requires him to barely speak. Filled with small roles from recognizable character actors, this is a film that's for an acquired taste, because this is very out there for a movie.