Iain Cocks I came across this movie some time ago and after reading some positive reviews here decided to give it a go. Now my Mum always told me if you have nothing nice to say then just say nothing, but I really can't hold back this time, it was such an awful film.Let's start with the actors, specifically with Chris Isaak, how he managed to even pass the audition is beyond me. His acting is literally laughable (he was actually nominated for a golden raspberry for worst new star) and his co-star Bridget Fonda isn't much better either. Talk about wooden acting... they might as well just be holding the script and talking into the camera, in fact that would be an improvement. Next up is Keanu Reeves, who was obviously cast purely for his star power, playing the Indian Prince Siddharta who was to become the Buddha. There's plenty of hammy acting on display but at least he made an effort. The other actors were actually not bad, but it wan't enough to save this wreck.Next up, the cinematography. It's not terrible, but it's certainly not as 'beautiful' as some reviewers wrote. Some of the sets were pretty well done, there were some nice enough locations and the bits of CGI (creepy talking baby, creepy giant snake and super-fake apocalypse storm thing) while very dated now, were probably OK for the time, but it's really nothing special, just Hollywood standard.Now we come to the story, or stories, as there are two parallel story lines mixed together. The first is about some Tibetan Monks trying to find the reincarnation of their old master and woven into this is the story of Siddharta and his journey to enlightenment. The problem is that the first story has very little going on plot-wise, while the second story had to be way over-simplified for it to fit into under half a film. It just doesn't really work. Plus of course this film is pretty much a propaganda piece for Tibetan Buddhism and isn't shy about it either. Something tells me this film never had a debut in Mainland China...To top it all off there are all the WTF moments that constantly came up. Like why do the opening scenes where the monks meet the parents come off like a creepy horror movie, complete with tense music? Why does the Father have absolutely no problem when his son runs off and gets lost in the back-streets of Bhutan? He's just chilling in a café! Why did they randomly insert stock time-lapse footage of clouds as the view when the boy looks out the plane window? At first I thought it was supposed to be a dream, but nope, just the view apparently. There are just so many things that take you out of the film completely, it's ridiculous.To sum it up, this is a big-budget balls-up. Unless you're in the mood for a terrible film to laugh at, do yourself a favour and give this one a wide berth.

vincentlynch-moonoi After reading some of the comments in the message board section, I felt that florin_andrei's comment from 2002 was best -- "Right, no tits, no explosions, no Ah-nold to break jaws and limbs, and to top it all, it expects you to think! That's outrageous! Worst movie ever!" That's the problem with many of the comments and some of the reviews of this film here on IMDb. Some of our viewers went to see a Keanu Reeves movie because he was "hot". And I guess he was in his own way. But when you think about it, this was not a KR movie. It was an ensemble film. KR wasn't on-screen even half of the time.People do like to hit on Keanu Reeves. And, while I doubt many would say he was ever the world's finest actor, with $3,599,064,053 worldwide aggregate box office (rank #31), he must have been doing something right. I look at some of the criticisms here and just laugh. For example, the accent was wrong. Even though I'm Buddhist and traveled fairly extensively in parts of Asia, I've never actually met a person from Nepal, so I have no idea whether his accent was appropriate or not, particularly since there would be NO APPROPRIATE ACCENT that we could fathom from 2,500 years ago. Let's see, how many people from Siddhartha's village spoke English 2,500 years ago????? Reeves did nicely here, and I quite admire how he emaciated himself to be able to portray the fasting Buddha.If one wants to criticize some acting here, I suggest targeting in on Chris Isaak, who turns in a stunningly bad performance. I don't know how he has done in acting since, but this was pitiful. Stiff. Unnatural. He didn't even move realistically.Another of the criticisms of this film is that, in terms of Buddhism, it is not very realistic. Really? Is that why 3 actual Tibetan incarnate lamas have significant roles in the film? Some people say that American boy is not realistic. I don't know about that. As a teacher/school administrator, I've met plenty of precocious children, and this performance seems rather realistic. After all, he isn't meant to be the average all-American boy; he's supposed to be different.Ying Ruocheng is superb as the main lama in the film. And Sogyal Rinpoche's performance was charming, and about as realistic as you can get since he is actually a leading Tibetan lama in real life.The performance of the other two children in the film are interesting, particularly the girl with self-importance and self-promotional skills...that surprised me a bit...I wonder if that would be realistic for someone like that to be a reincarnated lama.Special mention should be made of the photography. It is interesting how the cinematographer gave the film a different warmth depending on whether they were in Seattle, or Tibet, or back in Buddha's time. Quite lovely, really. And the sets and special effects helped tell the basic bio of young Buddha's life.Financially, this was a disaster at the box office. Which is what I would expect since it was clearly a niche film with an all too big budget. Casting Keanu Reeves may have been an attempt to cash in on a rising star's box office mojo, and clearly some of our "reviewers" went to the film to see KR, rather than because of the subject of the film.For me, a lot about this film comes down to how I feel as a Buddhist about non-Buddhist Americans (and others) watching this film. Does it present Buddhism as it really is? Yes and no. I'm a mix of a Theravadan (as in Thai) Buddhist and a philosophical Buddhist, and the film doesn't portray those schools at all (beyond the fable-istic telling of the life of Siddhartha/Buddha; it is a depiction of Vajrayāna Buddhism. My impression is that it depicts Vajrayana Buddhism fairly well, but that gives the impression that Buddhism is based on animism (e.g., the appearance of the seer), and to be honest, there is a lot of animism in Buddhism in the way it is approached in the Old World.Normally, based on only the cinematic aspects of this film, I would give it a "7". However, I'm going to bump it up to a "8" because it has one quality that separates it from typical popular cinema -- it is something different and unique. And not many directors or actors are willing to tackle something that is really different and a potential failure at the box office.

Zeng Tan Little Buddha is in fact a fairly accurate story telling of the belief of reincarnation and the origins of the Buddha. This film is perfect for those who want a place to start learning Buddhism. The clever use of the reincarnation story in an American society rather than a Buddhist one shows how radical reincarnation actually seems to the Western demographic. The notion of reincarnation is further elaborated by the concept of "split rebirths," where one body embodies the mind, other embodies the body, and the last embodies speech. The origin story of the Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha, is told through a storybook towards characters that had close to no knowledge on Buddhism. This method allows audiences, who themselves have might have no knowledge of Buddhism, obtain an understanding of the concepts stated in the film. The characters do a great job of asking questions that audiences might want to know, the concept of reincarnation for example.This film allowed me to gain a better understanding of the concept of reincarnation and the many different forms that it can take (singular or multiple). I highly recommend that people watch this if you want to begin learning Buddhism; it's a good resource of beginning learners.

isjohan79 This movie is beautiful to watch but, really beautiful! the scenery and photograph its just a piece of art, but the story is very very weak, the movie knocks down too much about the reincarnation theme, and don't leave any space about the real teachings of Buddha, although the Keanu acting was not bad , Buddha is shown as a stupid teenager, we never feel captured or impressed by the Buddha in this movie, in fact the movie does not show what happens with the Buddha after find the illumination.The script is a disgrace it is only saved by the gorgeous artwork. i would not recommend anyone who is in a spiritual search, this is only recommended to western people who wants to reinforce his beliefs that Buddha is nothing special.