This movie doesn't begin well, quickly goes downhill and the less said about the ending the better. Terrible.This is possibly Pacino's worst film. The production values are off, the script is amateurish and the delivery could have been phoned in. It's as though everyone working on this was about to go on vacation and had to get this stinker in the can before they left. There's an overwhelming sense the whole crew had lost interest before they even started shooting.Pacino is not a comedian nor a comic actor. He can do comic relief in a serious movie really well such as in Scent of a Woman. But he is so poorly cast in this movie that there is never even a grain of mild amusement created by what is supposed to be his humorous banter. Instead, depressing and violence inducing tedium is the result.Avoid this movie at all costs. You'll find more entertainment cleaning the gunk out of your dishwasher sump drain.

I saw S1m0ne a few years ago, purely out of plot intrigue, and when I saw a copy of it at a thrift store, I picked it up.It's a good film, and a very unique one at that. The concept of the director being destroyed by this one magnificent star coupled with the public's insatiable appetite and gullibility makes for a very interesting plot. When S1m0ne is doing her concert, a line is stated "It's easier to deceive 100,000 people than just one." This is really the cornerstone of the whole film. The fact that she was on Time magazine for "Person of the Year" and had her own perfume out after squeaking out one meager film seemed ridiculous and completely horrible, but think about it. How much do we really know about celebrities? We see a couple of their films, we buy their friggin' underwear, we listen to their mass- produced auto-tuned albums, and yet we talk about them on a casual basis, like they were a part of our lives. We see them in the check-out line at the grocery store, we see them when we walk in the door to our homes and turn on the TV, and thus, we feel comfortable commenting and unleashing our opinions about the way they live their lives.The point of the film, and what makes it actually brilliant, is that the director is saying, yes, it may be ridiculous for her to receive the honours she did and be nominated twice for best actress in the same year (which would never happen), but would we really care if it did? No, we would probably just go along with it and continue our adoration like the mouthy paparazzi we all are. The level on which we think we know celebrities is predicated on nothing but the superficial, and S1m0ne stated this in a brilliant way.

I had heard a little about this film, possibly that it was a box office flop or just not very popular, I was interested to see if that was the case, from Andrew Niccol (writer of The Truman Show and The Terminal, director of Gattaca). Basically Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) is the film producer who has recently started work on his new big film he wants to be a success, but his project is in danger when the big star Nicola Anders (Winona Ryder) drops out. Just when Taransky thinks he can't continue the film he meets Hank Aleno (Elias Koteas), not long before he dies, and he inherits a new computer program from him that enables him to create a new way to finish the film. This program allows him to create a completely realistic digitally constructed actress, the program is called "Simulation One", so he simply deletes the letters to create "Simone" (Rachel Roberts). The film is completed, and the co-stars of the film accept that he has selected this new actress that they will not see in rehearsals or filming, and to his surprise they see the completion and lap it up. The finished film is released in cinemas, and synthetic Simone is the big talking point, becoming an overnight and worldwide sensation, and naturally Taransky gains his notoriety too. With the success gained from this digitally created woman, Tarasnky does everything he can to keep up the pretence that Simone is a real person, such as fake telephone calls, voice change chats with colleagues, prerecorded and digitalised interviews, magazine covers and much more. As well as creating more films starring Simone, he also wants her to break into other markets, including a sellout concert where she sings, and still no-one is aware that she is a fake computer creation. It is after Simone wins the Oscar in a tie, both being for her, and he forgot to have her mention his name, that Taransky knows that it is Simone everyone wants, not him. While his huge lie is going on there are some nosey people trying to get close to Simone, unsuccessfully, investigating places "she" has visited, and luckily they do not suspect anything about her not existing. Tarasnky desperately tries to convince Elaine Christian (Catherine Keener) of the truth, but naturally she does not believe him, so he takes drastic action and decides to "kill" Simone, erasing the memory from the computer and throwing all the technology into the ocean. After the big funeral for the non-existent actress, Taransky is arrested for her "murder", in which he again tries to convince them of the truth, but in the end "Simone" is alive, after the little girl recovered her, and she will go on to have a baby and run for office. Also starring Pruitt Taylor Vince as Max Sayer, Jay Mohr as Hal Sinclair, Jason Schwartzman as Milton, Stanley Anderson as Frank Brand, Evan Rachel Wood as Lainey Christian Taransky, Daniel Von Bargen as Chief Detective and Rebecca Romijn as Faith. Pacino gives a good performance as the producer doing everything possible to keep everyone believing his fake female on screen personality is real, the supporting cast, including of course Roberts, do their best as well. I think personally the critics overlooked this film, it is actually really clever, it is giving us an insight into how Hollywood can be fake, how CGI is becoming bigger and better as time goes by, and it is both amusing and fascinating to see how a huge lie can go a long way like this one, I can see the tiniest snags to agree with the rating, but it is a pretty enjoyable satirical comedy drama. Okay!

I find it difficult to write about a movie that I love very much, but I'll try. I remember one accident in the Roman history, where one senator acclaimed a relationship he has with a big goddess, deceiving all of Rome with false woman riding his carriage with him. (Simone), which got nearly identical scene, is the best modern embodiment for it.Through one solid, enjoyable and smart sci-fi black comedy (near to farce) the movie presents a story about how we all became slaves for images, mostly unreal ones, love the illusion to an extent where we replaced it instead of our own reality, escaping from the ugly actuality to another phony one but comfortable, to relish it, then be addicted to it. It's, in the same time, a story about funny director's vendetta on his bosses to regain his dignity and achieve what he merits of appreciation by the ultimate scheme, or rather the triumph of little smart man over huge stupid world, and that's the beauty of it; to be good philosophical, satirical, even comical movie all in one. I can't help but mentioning its clever situations, so aims, which made the whole movie a long clever moment : the director launches Simone saying "I am the death of real", leading a new age where the unreality becomes the only available reality. Simone, the beloved star now, talks completely dull however all the viewers love her, believe her, and agree with her. Or Simone directs a meaningless film and all the audience applauds (making the ugly idol to worship it), observe how they ask about her after it and not about the lousy film (I've seen that many times before in my lifetime !). The director's inability when it came to killing her (which makes it the most comic "Frankenstein" ever where this time the people love the monster and reject its death !). All refuses to believe the director's confesses about Simone as we live a world of delicious fancy where counterfeiting is the ruling logic, hence the true thing would be not only scarce but refused (so when life is false…truth would be the imagination). The lead's surrender at the end to live as life imprisonment with unreal image otherwise he'd lose his success amongst idiots who adore chimera. And the hint in killing Simone's creator by eye cancer or rather how adhesion to the computer screen, or any screen, for too much time just destroys the viewer while there is another world out there, real world, that deserves to be lived. I loved extra satiric points : Simone's performance wins an Oscar as if all of Hollywood actresses is lower than holographic image ! Or why not Simone/the powerful delusion goes into the world of politics at the end, it's the same game but with nations' people instead of crazy viewers (some satire makes it impossible to not connect it with George. W. Bush's era when the movie was produced !).It's not where the joke is on you Hollywood, it's on you human ! And I bet that's the very reason why it didn't turn into a hit, and why anybody might hate it, because some can't laugh at themselves, especially when it dashes for instance Hollywood icons into pieces, denuding the holy truth that you cherish as giant lie.The script, the direction, and the acting made a perfect job. Thank god that it got (Al Pacino) as the lead; as it gives ultra-enjoyment in the second watching, and also because it's one of his finest movies lately in the commercial phase of him at the 2000s amongst sure lower ones such as : The Recruit, Ocean's Thirteen, 88 Minutes, Righteous Kill, etc. This is a wild satiric comedy. It's rare to watch a work about the effect of illusion and to be as perfect as this. The movie compressed its idea skillfully, being cynical to the max, mocking at the fast delusion so all the human stupidity. Actually the mocking was at our age as well, to assure one genius conception "Our ability to manufacture fraud now exceeds our ability to detect it". It reminds me with what Dario Fo said once in one of his plays : "sometimes illusion is more believable than reality". Few times in my life I felt entertained out of movie as a mental fine experience and a "movie" in the same time. In the last years the American cinema lacked this kind of "movies" extremely, but (Simone) did it superbly, representing the perfect deal for me as highly amusing and profoundly meaningful. It's really unbelievable. Or more correctly speaking : unbelievable yet real too.