Pay It Forward | 
| Director: Mimi Leder Actors: Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment, Helen Hunt, Jay Mohr, James Caviezel Studio: Warner Home Video Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98 Buy Used: $0.99 You Save: $13.99 (93%)
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Rating: 312 reviews Sales Rank: 463
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Widescreen, Ntsc Language: English (Original Language) Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Region: 1 Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 123 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.5 x 0.5
MPN: D18877D ISBN: 0790756803 UPC: 085391887720 EAN: 9780790756806 ASIN: B00005B4BI
Theatrical Release Date: October 20, 2000 Release Date: May 15, 2001 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description How much impact can one heartfelt idea have? a junior-high student's class project idea ignites a chain reaction of goodness and consequences. The boy's idea: when someone does you a favor, don't pay it back, pay it forward.
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 cliche 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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 307 more reviews...
Pay It To Go Away... July 1, 2009 Flap Jackson (State Road, NC) Pay it Forward is a mixed movie, and I would only recommend seeing it once. Why? While 'Pay It Forward' is a great social concept, the movie takes a very cynical approach to the world, thus creating depressing scene, after depressing scene, interspliced with optimism. Haley Joel Osment was an expert at these type of roles, where he basically was the shining light in all these dark depressing movies in 1999, 2000, and 2001, and he alone makes you care about the movie. Kevin Spacey also puts up a fine performance, but again, his character seems to be wrapped up in all this depression. Helen Hunt's character on the other hand seems to be the cause of most of this depression. What makes this movie so depressing? Maybe it's all the child abuse, molestation, drunk people, drug addicts, gangsta bullies, and the ultimate depressing moment at the end of the movie where spoiler alert, the kid dies. Ultimately, 'Pay It Forward' is probably the most optimistic/depressing film I've ever seen, and it just deflates you. I like the concept, but the movie is depressingly executed. Real Score: 2.5
The good and the bad June 26, 2009 Rosslyn Harris (TX) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is such a wonderful story and could even be a true to life story. But I was SO DISAPPOINTED that it will not be one that I can retain for my personal collection, nor let my friends and family experience, because of the extremely foul language and the explicit sexual scene. I thought of how easily this film could have been "cleaned up" and the message and story line would not have been diminished in the least. If you have children watching I most assuredly would not recommend it, but as an adult the noted contents of the movie ruins it for me as well.
Pay It Forward...enjoyable movie! May 24, 2009 PATRICK J.POWERS (Duncombe,IA) I thought this was an enjoyable movie about how we can improve the lives of people we don't even know. Kevin Spacey,Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osmont did a super job in this movie. Look for James Caviezel in this movie as Jerry prior to his role in the Passion of the Christ.Even Jon Bon Jovi is a part of the contest. This movies may not be for everyone with scenes of alcohol and violence but I thought it was a movie with a positive message. I enjoyed it!
Play it forward many times May 1, 2009 Thomas Watson (Novato, CA, U.S.) If you view this movie, you will want to go back and play it forward many times as time goes by, it is that good.
Pay It Forward April 29, 2009 Judith R. Pyle (Goshen, Ohio) Thisis one of the most heart felt movies I've ever seen. What the boy was trying to to change the world. It's just to bad he looses his life trying to help someone
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