Reviews

This movie is bad. I had a bad premonition from the opening scenes with Jean Reno driving around with lots of attention to cliché opera and an obnoxious little kid...the Yuppie PC red lights started to blink.

I was not wrong...corny shot after corny shot--this movie is flat out bad almost so bad as to be funny....the only thing that makes it kind of bearable is it is filmed so close up it provides some interest in the camera angles. That's it.

The story? Gangster trying to retire is gunned down but he lives and goes after the other gangsters who now deal in drugs---apparently he feels that is immoral.

AVOID

A great look at Helsinki you'll never see in any travel brochure. I went into this movie blind--and found it fun in removing me from the here and now. The tone is noirish and deadpan---the actors perfect for the roles. All of it was sort of believable in a humorous way which is key to this movie.

The movie was made in 1986 almost 30 years ago so it involves some time travel as well.

I recommend it is the sort of thing I like although I would not probably rush to watch it again...

7---RECOMMEND

To a naive viewer--knew nothing of Visconti--am familiar with Mastroianni and Schnell...this movie is remarkable mostly for keeping your interest up for an hour and a half with so little story and no live scenery. It is entirely shot on a smallish set that looks like a nightmare modern dystopia.

Yes the story is believable if you wind it back 100 years or more to Dostoyevsky and the set looks like a bombed out St. Petersburg crossed with a Naples slum. The Story? Unrequitted love--Schnell is a poor girl of 18 or so whose grandmother pins her to her skirt to keep track of her. A new boarder rents a room from them and pays her attention. She falls in love and after he leaves and promises to come back in 1 year she waits at a bridge every night for his return. Meanwhile Mastroianni befriends her and falls in love with her... I won't tell the ending although you know something is going to happen unexpected it is the only thing that keeps you watching.

I didn't really find anything egregious in this movie although I watch old movies for the live street scenes and the nostalgic time travel that permits...this had ZERO. The funky 50s wild sex toned dancing seems to have been a staple of the time have seen it in numerous European movies a big yawn. Every detail in this type of movie is significant the swinging door--Schnell may be open to Mastroianni's advances ad infinitum...The only thing out of place were the Coke and Esso ads...

7.7 is too much praise not needed for this.... I give it a 6 for the opera/play like scenery. Could anyone stand to watch it twice once the surprise ending that keeps you watching is known? Not me.

RECOMMEND ?

This is a take on the tired Agatha Christie plot: Someone is murdered at a "weekend" gathering in a huge house and it turns out he was "murdered" by more than one person.

This movie is a non ending collage of group scenes with more than 2 people talking at once--this alone is exhausting and irritating. Plot development is distracted to say the least.

The interior set seemed claustrophobic to me too many people too small of spaces.

Mostly the thing is boring. A murder happens after about an hour of endless group scenes..the kitchen the dining table blah blah blah.....

Altman was 77 when he made this turkey. He should have followed Maggie Smith's line in the movie "People should know when to retire."

It is also a feel good Anglo American Jewish PC ensemble piece....

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME!

This opaque thriller was a made for TV movie in 1996. It opens with a sex scene between a happily married couple of 10 years or so. I should have stopped watching it right then as was my instinct. Yes, it gets worse...every yuppie icon of the 80s and 90s is expressed at 500 proof.

The tasteful area rugs the people too young to own the kind of house they do...everyone has gone to Harvard. The feminist angle is in lights with a wife that wants to go back to work after taking a refresher class in art---- at Harvard of course; she wants to open an art gallery. Bore Gaggg Ugghhh ...

The yuppie era started with Love Story and hopefully 1996 was about it's crescendo. I am waiting for it's decline and fall. I have OD'd on PC upper middle class wannabe overkill.

OK, the movie. The main character is told by a hired killer that his wife paid him to kill him (he won't kill him if he pays him double). But then the wife herself ends up dead. There is a truly obnoxious "Japanese" character who is a red herring... The ending is just plain stupid. This thing is opaque and trys to be much more than it is. It is not suspenseful you feel like you were left in the dark to make to make the story line work.

AVOID THIS THING especially if you are allergic to yuppidom.

Debra Winger plays the nosy who dunnit sleuth who tracks down Theresa Russell (the black widow) a young woman whose older rich husbands mysteriously die leaving her richer and richer.

I watched this movie when it first came out and I couldn't believe I was watching the same thing I don't remember it being so bad! This movie did not age well.

The beginning is really the worst part once you get to Seattle it stops being so clichéd juvenile & cheesy corny and slow. The Dallas part was particularly horrible with the fake Southern accents and three inch bright red finger nails. It has the feel of a B or made for TV thing yet clearly was shot on location etc...

It would have been so much better if Russell had gotten away with it....but this is Hollywood corn at its height--none of that.

Richly well filmed must have cost a lot. Needs a lot more subtlety.

The movie was fairly popular at the time and made over 25 million dollars.

There are a lot worst things out there.

This is based a true event 3 inmates did escape from Alcatraz and their bodies were never found.

Wonderful cinematography by Siegel and of course Eastwood himself make this fun to watch.

As far as believable that is another story. The person who wrote this has never spent significant time in jail or prison. Aside from the wonderful $500 haircuts of Eastwood and the other actors what prison allows you to wear nice shoes and have paint material in your cells let alone matches?

What it looked like was a bunch of middle aged middle class actors in jail. They were too soft looking. Not the real deal. When I was in jail we were given a plastic 2 inch fork/spoon that bent nothing sharp or hard was allowed.

The reality would have been younger men also I imagine.

Well it is entertaining and has only average PC stuff of the era nothing intolerable--still why is that so necessary? Left wing Hollywood. At least in Eastwood's spaghetti westerns there is none of that.

Can a miniature table fan produce enough torque to drill through metal? Where did they get the pipe to snap the bars in the ventilator shaft? And why did the bars snap so easily. You have to suspend a lot of disbelief to enjoy this movie.

Siegel is a genius at action sequences. This would have gotten a 7 but I love Eastwood and Siegel so it got an 8.

I notice the bad reviews focus on the terrible criminals in real jails and the nice guards etc.....those type reviewers have never been incarcerated either.

Highly RECOMMEND

A British B or quota movie. Some of these are not too bad but this one rates a Z rather than a B.

The acting was atrocious it was wordy there were holes every where in the plot. Production values couldn't have been cheaper except for the burning house at the end which was kind of neat.

A man with amnesia is spirited out of hospital with fake casts to take the place of an alcoholic playboy so 3 women can inherit a share of their teetotaler father's 2 million dollars.

I can't think of any thing good about this thing... but as another reviewer stated it wasn't bad enough to be funny it was just boring dull and irritating. Combine bad acting and talkiness and you've got a real lemon.

DO NOT RECOMMEND

Everyone knows this film and everyone loves it.

I tried to observe some flaws if there are any in it. The actress playing the daughter looked too old for the role. Stanwyck was 37 when this was made and Mc Murray was 36.

I agree with the reviewer who stated Mc Murray's later roles in TV sit coms and so forth tainted his image. It's true it was hard to take him seriously.

A new Cadillac driving around the rail road tracks might attract some notice especially in 1939 (the year this is supposed to take place).

Also you have to suspend disbelief that Mc Murray would be so smitten by Stanwyck he would attempt anything like this. She is not especially at 37 (or any age!) the most attractive woman in the world. The blond wig? I guess was supposed to make her look ?? maybe cheap or tainted. She can carry any role though plouging through it like a bulldozer.

But these are so minor. I loved the movie watch it and read the other reviews.

RECOMMEND HIGHLY

Sophia Coppola 31 (daughter of Francis Coppola--famous Hollywood director) wrote and directed this pseudo-intellectual boring movie.

Scarlett Johansson's (21) panty shots got old fast and Bill Murray at 52 looks 102.

The Japanese are different but this movie takes that bizarreness (to us) and stretches it in all directions and robs them of any other human traits. I agree with the reviewer that this would have made a parody or comedy along the lines of the Mikado. I think it was meant to be a deep sexy feelgood movie with elements of comedy--it achieves none of this. Ms. Coppola better get of the coke and look at this with sober eyes.

This movie drags and is boring. Yes it won an Oscar well surprise surprise Oscar rewards go mostly to PC stuff with some sort of twist that hasn't been done before (dogs in Mumbai etc..) but it is also a old boys town--Coppola's daughter etc... To be honest an Oscar is a negative rating to me.

What an absurdity that people rated this dull pointless thing a 7.8 Unbelievable.

The critics? Mostly a bunch of idiots always.

DO NOT RECOMMEND

British mystery "quota" movie equivalent to Hollywood B's. This one was more equivalent to a Z. The production values are so cheap but it is the script that is a stupid wooden formula thing with so many obvious flaws in it.

The story is about museum artwork being stolen by replacing real paintings with fakes. This sounds interesting but trust me this rendition seemed like it was written by a 10 year old. It is nothing but a compilation of clichés and formulas.

If the Tate museum had such lax security...people crawling through windows in the boiler room--million dollar paintings with no alarms--ALL of their artwork would have been stolen.

DO NOT RECOMMEND

This was a decent rendition of the novel--an exciting interesting page turner. Maybe even it was better than the novel as it only took 2 hours instead of 10 or so to get through.

My only problem with basically a well done movie was there are too many non French looking small part actors. That makes sense since they all spoke English. Also the street scenes have pedestrians oggling at the cameras in the distance. The close up one's often look self conscious.

I guess the movie was made in a period not that long after a time when orientals were portrayed by Caucasians with eye make up. So why not Americans speaking English playing French maids etc...

And it is a trade off if the movie were produced today it would likely have all kinds of annoying PC stuff in it.

This movie certainly keeps you engaged.

Cars: I like looking at the old cars some one mentioned some of them were out of the correct time frame. I noticed that and also wondered why a very rich woman living in a giant châteaux would drive a Renault Floride (an inexpensive little convertible).

RECOMMEND

Well made film wacky funny somewhat surreal mystery of the death of a Marilyn Monroe reincarnation doomed to suffer a similar fate.

I love these crazy kind of movies this one was a pleasant surprise from Netflix streaming.

It is basically a comedy and had to be written by an American or an americanphile Frenchman. All the little details like Jiminey Cricket.

You just have to watch this thing.

You will enjoy this I think.

RECOMMEND

Girl's fiancé is set up as a jewel thief by the real thief. This is a very short very low budget silly little attempt at some mystery or film noir---it doesn't quite cut it.

It was a passable way to spend an hour if your time is short.

I agree with another reviewer they could have improved the story a lot. The prison escape was so silly, man it must be easy to dupe British police.

I thought the nanny did it---so the plot was somewhat successful in twisting things around.

Recommend if you only have an hour---I mean it is better than most of the garbage out there---still I have my standards... a 5 at best.

I was looking forward to this movie--having heard words like outrageous forbidden topic glorifies Nazis etc...

Funny I never heard the word funny and this movie is supposed to be some sort of moronic comedy.

Anyone hoping for adventure science fiction stuff can forget it....this movie also immediately pushes you into PC high alert. Comedy? There was nothing remotely funny about any of it.

The press build up for this movie was the typical moronic crock of sh#@#!

I am glad for IMDb I was going to watch more but you don't have to with netflix streaming.

DO NOT RECOMMEND

A love triangle played out in early 50s Saigon (prior to independence). A British reporter gets to know a younger American of seemingly innocent intent--the American wants the British reporter's mistress for a wife.

There were at least 2 versions of this book made into films this one (1958) and a later one with Michaeal Caine.

This movie has a plot twist not in the book that makes it in a way a bit more interesting but not nearly as realistic. Most viewers would probably disagree. I thought at first I had forgotten the story from the book.

Greene's best novels are about as good as they get....a lot of the lines in the movie are lifted from the book--which makes for a very good quality script.

Recommend...need to see the Caine version....to compare. Have my doubts about it being better as it was made in the modern PC era.

Impossible to believe formula fluff garbage with aging stars. Marlena Dietrich at 56 has to decide between two suitors a broke Italian aristocrat (like herself) or an unsophisticated American millionaire. Vittoria De Sica (56) turns down an 18 year old millionaires daughter to be with Dietrich. Give me a break.

Then there is the feel good old sophisticated Europe versus the brash hick nouveau riche United States element.

The color and filming is well done in this complete fairy tale.

Watch only if you are fans of these aging stars.

DO NOT RECOMMEND

Moralizing 50s gritty crime movie. I like the pure noir versions better.

Anthony Quinn is a big time gangster he protects and adores his family. His sister gets knocked up by a good looking hood who is on death row. Quinn gets him off on condition he marry his sister and walk the straight and narrow; but Nikki (the hood) doesn't do the straight life well and starts to stray and abuse his wife.

Quinn gets rid of him by framing him for murder and gets him the death sentence. But enter a newsreporter who has a thing for the sister and the police get a crack that allow them to go after Quinn.

It is OK, I don't like the socially relevant stuff (Quinn's college were the rough streets of Brooklyn) it was the beginning of the PC stuff we are deluged with today.

I gave it a 4 for that reason other wise it would have gotten a 6.

Basically a dud. An unhappy wife married to an older alcoholic husband convinces an American army officer to help her kill her husband and make it look like an accident.

Several flaws: the army officer should have been a lot younger it would have been much better if he had been in his twenties same age as wife rather instead of early 40s and stodgy looking to boot.

The set is atrocious especially the inside of the house with bamboo and nautical rope themes ugghhhh....especially as you are expecting an English manor house from the driveway up to it.

One curious flaw... the MPs have PMs written on their caps--is this the British system? But they were Americans at an American base.

Avoid this thing. There is no suspense to speak of and it has incredibly cheap production values...the accident was in no way suspenseful. Nothing about it was suspenseful.

DO NOT RECOMMEND

A school teacher (Genn) is implicated in the disappearance of one of his female students (Johns). This student who has a crush on the teacher is humiliated when the teacher's wife (Tierney) accuses her of the truth.

The girl flees the house teacher follows and girl disappears. We are left in suspense as to what actually happened to her as we see the small town net close in around the teacher.

More of a filmed play than a movie this film is intelligently directed and well acted and holds your suspense very well up to the denouement.

As other reviewers have stated the only casting flaw is the girl (Johns) who is too old for the role.

Nice suspenseful well acted watch.

RECOMMEND

This film held my interest and since I am 55 appealed to my nostalgia also. I guessed the minute I saw all the diamonds were gone how Hobbs (Michael Caine) did it. And at that point I had to suspend disbelief that 1) the detectives working on it would not have thought of the sewers or 2) the sewers them selves would have been guarded in some way (catch basins etc...).

In South Africa the miners were searched daily on leaving work including what a proctologist normally does. The sewers would have been protected if the company spent the money to put "foot thick reinforced steel" around all the walls.

I also found weak the argument that Hobbs wife would cause such passion in a 60+ year old man 15 years after his wife's death. Then there is the dangling question about the 100 million and would that not have been watched somehow. Also I presume the large diamond that Caine sucked up out of the toilet came up out of the sewer...nothing else makes sense.

Well considering what crap (pun intended)that comes out of Hollywood these days this movie surely deserves a 5. I was fearful that Michael Caine's motive would be that his dead wife was a black South African but fortunately this piece of PC stuff was not injected. It is injected in one of John Le Carre's or Graham Greene's books...(Sorry thankfully forgot the name of it).

If you are 55 like myself you will enjoy the movie.

This movie is bad! At times you feel like it is trying to be funny that is really the only way you can relate to it.

Sean Connery as a flabby middle aged man with a pony tail and side burns acting S&M in an orange thong is something you mostly try not to look at.

The scenery and craziness has kind of that 70s feel of Clockwork Orange and Monty Python but this movie has no coherent story.

After about 10 minutes into this film I pushed the fast forward and half read the captions as they flashed by. Save yourself the trouble.

DO NOT RECOMMEND

I watch this kind of movie for fun and suspend my disbelief.

Rising Sun is not bad at all. It could have been much worse without Connery. I am not a big fan of oriental "wisdom" sound bites e.g. "Leave the cage door open the bird may return". Spoken by an unintelligent actor you don't like they become a lightening rod for all your ire. Fortunately Connery is not such an actor.

The senior Japanese executives look like they have irritable bowel syndrome if they smiled their faces would crack. It is exaggerated and silly but for the most part the action keeps your interest. Although, at the end I got confused as to who killed the girl. I am still not sure.

It is worth renting to pass a couple hours.