I love this movie
-
rockycairns — 19 years ago(February 17, 2007 07:25 AM)
i dont think it was poorly directed Michael Caton-Jones is a very good director he gave De Niro one of his best performances in 1993 as abusive stepfather Dwight in This Boy's Life and he did Rob Roy both of them films were very well directed as was this film
-
yanglan — 18 years ago(July 07, 2007 09:46 AM)
I think the movie is ok. What really stands out is the acting. I rent the DVD first then ended up buying it. I like James Franco. I think this is one of his best performances. Worth keeping the DVD. De Niro is good of course.
-
JohnnyBoy1020 — 18 years ago(July 19, 2007 08:06 PM)
For those of you criticizing the director, sure there wasn't a whole lot of technical flair and fancy camera tricks, but that would have detracted from the main draw: the acting. This is the best character study I have seen in a long time. Easily DeNiro's best performance in the past decade. Franco, Forsythe and Duzku have never been better. McDormand was excellent too, her best role since Fargo. The only thing I didn't really dig was the ending. With such a greater character study it would have been nice if there was a little bit more closure. So many loose ends were left untied.
Another great drug movie that came out around the same time is The Salton Sea. I think that movie is more suitable for the people who were put off by the subtlety and low-keyness of this movie. But both are great and I couldn't reccomend them more. I saw both these movies for the first time on network TV, but hopefully I will be able to add them to my DVD collection soon so I can enjoy them uncensored and without commercial breaks.
"I take my coffee like my women: strong, black and proud." -
WarpedRecord — 17 years ago(February 24, 2009 10:55 AM)
You summed up this film perfectly. I put off watching this for years, but now that I've gotten around to it, I wondered why. De Niro was remarkable here, as was McDormand. Of course, that's not saying much because they always give superb performances. But they complement each other really well here and add to the feeling of realism.
I fully agree that the director did a very good job. The scene where De Niro walks into the wake for his partner was handled subtly enough that we could really feel the tension. If this were directed by a Tarantino or a Rodriguez, this film would have been totally over the top. Instead, it's an excellent character study, not an action picture.
"Salton Sea" is excellent as well a thoughtful movie about the drug trade. -
jeanniemotherof3 — 14 years ago(May 16, 2011 04:16 PM)
Watch him in Heat, Casino, Taxi Driver, I even liked him in The score, and Stone. He's amazing in Awakenings, I hear he is really good in The Fan. Of course Goodfellas, He is really incredible no matter what. My favorite is Heat when he "BECOMES" his character Neil MCcualley, there is no acting involved, and the movie is known as a Michael Mann masterpiece, check it out if you can, let me know what you think.
-
bernhard293 — 14 years ago(May 17, 2011 01:57 AM)
Heat is a great movie! Yesterday I watched "Casino" and somehow I didnt like the movie, there is background music in most scenes which I find a bit annoying and many scenes are commented by the main characters, so there is always some chatting and explaining. I liked his pastel colored suits though very much
-
benway41 — 17 years ago(April 03, 2009 01:23 PM)
I think what makes this film work is the acting. De Niro and Franco are both excellent, Eliza Dushku is surprisingly good, and William Forsythe is a creepy bad guy. I thought they wasted Frances McDormand, though.
I believe what hurt this film is Michael Caton-Jones's direction. I don't think it's bad direction, as someone here stated, I just thought it was rather uninspired. Caton-Jones is kind of a boring director, in my view.
"Dick Laurent is dead."