I want my $16 back. I was very disappointed in this. I really wanted it to be good, but it was'nt. The story was choppy, the acting was weak, and the characters were very shallow. Jimmy Caan could'nt even save this one. Why did you let me down Chris McQuarrie? I loved the Usual Suspects! The picture and sound were the high points. The extras are ok, but the cast and crew interviews, and storyboard/script of the deleted scene were hard to negotiate. I know this is a downer of a review, but it's honest.

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'face down, dead on the ground, find me before another is found'....Cannibal Corpse

I thought it was okay. I think the director's commentary was a wee bit more entertaining that the movie itself though.

I have never understood have people can act so calmly in shootouts (me, I'd just keep my head down until all the bullets have been fired).

I would have loved to have seen the "trailer" that introduces Longbaugh and Parker.

And exactly what purpose did that opening scene serve (the cussing out by the big mouth girl of the 2 protagonist)? If you listen to the commentary, it makes for a funny anecdote and such, but in the context of the movie itself, it was out there on an island. Of course, it does grab your attention, but was that all? Was it to show what kind of men they were? Or how "life-like" it was trying to be while being non-Hollywood/non-Politically Correct?

(Strictly a rental IMHO).

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PatCave ;HT Pix ;Pat's DVDs

definitely Patman!

I was also quite disappointed with this movie. As Patman stated, what was the purpose of the opening scene? The movie went nowhere - it had all the right actors and Chris McQuarrie + Caan and I still felt that it was a mediocre movie at best.

I rented this through Netflix and pretty happy that this was just a rental!

C-

The only thing that stands out from the opening scene was......spoiler below..
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after they got beat up, the were laying in the street much like they were laying in the end of the film.

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'face down, dead on the ground, find me before another is found'....Cannibal Corpse

Ya know, Jabba, I didn't realize that, but you're right. Still doesn't justify or explain that beginning scene though. That foul-mouthed girl really got on my nerves and her whole rant seemed forced and overly prepared. Bab heads my butt.

Did the ending remind anyone else of The Wild Bunch? The whole thing was like a modern day spaghetti western. Pretty forgettable.

good point

mb they led one life b4 crime, were bad at it, ended up on the ground, tried crime, were bad at it, ended up on the ground

I loved this movie. Saw it twice at the theaters and now I own it. I thought it was well written and directed. The gun battles and chase sequences were fairly unique and I was surprised that Ryan Phillippe was actually "good". I liked the two hitmen, Taye Diggs and Nicky Katt and how serious they were with their jobs. The humour in the film was very subtle but had me chuckling. I thought it was one of the better films of 2000.

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Chris Knight: So, if there's anything I can do for you, or, more to the point, to you, you just let me know.
Susan: Can you hammer a six-inch spike through a board with your penis?
Chris Knight: Not right now.
Susan: A girl's gotta have her standards.

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Holy Testicle Tuesday!

...here's someone else's POV:

http://www.christiananswers.net/spot...yofthegun.html

...and yet another:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...08/DD55801.DTL

. . .


[This message has been edited by Hendrik (edited January 04, 2001).]

Anyone else notice that James Caan looked like his neck was killing him for the entire movie?

I liked it when i saw it at the theater and i like it even more now. The gunfights sound great on the home theater.

I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!! I think it was great! I didnt think it was gonna be this good but i was very surprised with it. I think it was so far Ryan Phillep's best role so far, ive never liked him before this movie. It was a good flick, greatly done.

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I am The GAME: because i am THAT DAMN GOOD!!!

YOTG was painful to watch. Even the gun fights were boring, unrealistic and poorly directed. They seemed like they were firing their guns mainly to get rid of their ammunition. And what demographic were they going for? It was like they cast the movie for a teenage audience, but the story was more along the lines of a 70s Spaghetti Western or crime film.

lol gun fights boring, unrealistic and poorly directed? have you watched those peckinpah westerns? this was a great throwback to 'em. i'm sorry but i'm tired of glossy gun fights, the gritty, realistic (other than the amount of clips they carried, but at least they reloaded), and refreshingly unstylisticly shot gunfights were a breath of fresh air. and add to that that the director individually recorded each gunshot seperately, the fights sound amazing as well.

I haven't got the DVD yet, but I enjoyed it at the movies. You can't expect it to be another "Usual Suspects" because that will probably be his crown jewel. As far as the opening scene, I think it was meant to be stand alone as an intro to the characters. I liked the scene. It was kind of like all the Bond openings that have nothing to do with the plot, yet are enjoyable.

VERY VERY disappointed with this one...took it straight to e-bay....a truly god awful film!! THe plot is something out of "General Hospital" or "days od our lives" with some guns thrown in...this film seems like more of a rip off compared to the very original usual suspects....the gunplay could not make up to the fact that their are no likeable characters for the audience to attatch themselves too...just a bad ride

I thought it was pretty good, except for a few scenes with James Caan that seemed like a gross South Park joke. I'm talking about his man-breasts and how he had big hard nipples in his first 2 scenes. Couldn't they have waited for him to warm up before filming? I felt pretty embarassed for him, he looked pretty dumpy. Thought he was good in the movie though- once he warmed up.

I shut off this idiotic dvd after 30 minutes!!!!!!!!!

I was thumbing through the new Film Comment and was shocked to see that this movie made the "10 best of 2000" list of several somewhat well-regarded critics.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Matt Parks:
I was thumbing through the new Film Comment and was shocked to see that this movie made the "10 best of 2000" list of several somewhat well-regarded critics.<HR>

I think this film will get better reviews in about 10 years, when McQuarrie has built up a body of work it can compared against. I liked it better than I thought I would since I'm so Taratinoized out. It is a film that probably plays better on the third or fourth viewing. The plot was a little convoluted AND it definetly would have helped if Artisan would have had subtitles available.

I actually thought all the performances, except for Ryan Pillippe, were very good & in addition to James Caan, it was also very, very nice to see Scott Wilson & Geoffrey Lewis in the film.

I think many are disappointed b/c it was a modern day
(Peckinpahish/Spaghetti) Western/Morality Play and the Trailer/TV adds made it look like more of an action film.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Tony Block:
I think many are disappointed b/c it was a modern day
(Peckinpahish/Spaghetti) Western/Morality Play and the Trailer/TV adds made it look like more of an action film.

<HR>

Tony,

Not sure what you mean by "modern day Western." Perhaps their is some homage going on, but the connection to Peckinpah is a pretty weak one at best. It does take a sort of pseudo-Western turn when they go down to Mexico, insofar as it forces itself into a Mexican standoff climax, but all of this struck me as very artificial.

My biggest problem with this film is that it never decided what it wanted to be. I starts of as the story of too losers (who get beat up by a crowd). It then can't decide whether it wants them to be competent criminals or not. It's a straight caper movie for a while, then it goes to Mexico and becomes a gunfight picture. Underlying all of this is the blatantly incongruent soap opera of the "pregnancy." On the whole, the screenplay was a little too self-consciously clever for me.

And, for me, all of the story inadequacies were aggravated by McQuarrie's direction, which struck me as fairly amateurish everywhere except in the scenes that were mostly dialogue. McQuarrie clearly has a lot of talent, but I wonder if his abilities aren't better served by trying to do a few films that are a little less Hollywood, like Singer and McQuarrie's "Public Access."

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Matt Parks:
Tony,

Not sure what you mean by "modern day Western." <HR>

If you replaced the cars with horsies. that sort of thing. More seriously, you take all the themes previously mentioned in this thread, and have had Benecio & Ryan as two bad, bad despicable hombres in Cowboy duds, Scott Wilson as some evil rich land baron who got rich stealin' all the squatter's land, and James Caan as sort of a Jack palance type hired killer ala Shane or the hired killer Joseph Lewis' Terror in a Texas town & voila you got yourself a Western. plus they filmed it in John Ford's Utah.

I don't think the whole notion of a "modern day" Western was well executed, though. All the elements you mentioned are superficial (plot, location). They really didn't use Penkinpah or Ford or Eastwood, or any of the other great Westerns iconography as anything more than a prop or a plotting tentpole. It all feels mechanical to me.

I kind of liked this movie. Not sure why. I think there are a lot of subtleties that I really appreciated. Sure the film has its problems. I don't disagree with most of the criticisms, but it still worked for me anyway, and I hate Westerns. I do see this as a modern day Western in many ways. The only Western I was ever able to sit all the way through was The Searchers and that is only because I had to watch it in a film class in college.

Anyway, I think this movie will age better with time and repeated viewings. I am not saying it is a masterpiece, but I thought it was fun, and that rarely is enough for me to like a film. I may be biased because I really like Benicio Del Toro.

Those of you who own the dvd, make sure to check out the commentary. I listen to all the commentaires on all of the discs I own and this was definitely one of THE BEST commentaries I have ever heard.