SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Cortechba Overrated

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

moonspinner55 Jack Nicholson plays the host of a radio talk-show program in Philadelphia who is reunited with Bruce Dern, his ne'er-do-well older brother, also a hustler and promoter for black gangsters, after Dern's been jailed in Atlantic City. Meeting Nicholson at the train station is Dern's aging mistress Ellen Burstyn, who is traveling with her comely stepdaughter. A dramatic acting exercise for the three stars is a cautious, interesting effort--but not an exciting one. Producer-director Bob Rafelson, who also originated the story with credited screenwriter Jacob Brackman, aligns all his shots with an artistically jaundiced eye but intentionally shows no heart. He and Brackman are careful to give their principal characters a fully-rounded background (we perceive that each of them has been through a hellish lot), and yet this story of family and unreachable dreams is sluggish and morose, filmed in wintry washed-out color by cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs. Some viewers are intellectually stimulated by Brackman's literate dialogue, and yet the film has been drained almost entirely of humor, so that Nicholson's nebbish (a man we might possibly connect with) merely seems a submissive malcontent, careful with his words but robotic and aloof. ** from ****

MartinHafer You would probably expect a film starring Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern to be emotionally charged and rather exciting. Oddly, the film is the opposite. It's very, very slow and about as exciting as a documentary about cheese making--at least the first 75% of the film. Then, things heat up--but by then, most of the folks watching this film probably will have turned it off.The film begins with Nicholson playing David Staebler--a rather dull man who has a Public Radio sort of show in Philadelphia. Out of the blue, his brother, who he hasn't heard from in over a decade, contacts him and tells him to come Atlantic City for some 'big deal'. Once there, the older brother, Jason (Bruce Dern), tells him about some sort of casino that he's going to be running in Hawaii--but the details are very, very vague. Most of the time, however, instead of working on this deal, Jason just hangs out in a decrepit old hotel with two women--Sally (Ellen Burstyn) and Jessica (Julie Ann Robinson). As the film progresses, the deal seems more and more vague and Jason keeps making promises to David to get him to stay--all the while Sally's mood is incredibly unstable. What comes of all this, eventually, is a bit of a shocker--but not enough to make slogging through the first 75% of the film worth your time. It is interesting to see Nicholson play such a quiet and 'normal' person but other than that, there isn't much to recommend here.

scribling How can this movie have a 6.5 star rating? It's bloody awful! If it weren't for the talent of the cast it'd be completely unwatchable. I'm dumber for having watched it. Here it is in short: People acting as if they're stoned, dialog, dialog, dialog, something dumb happens, dialog, dialog, dialog, someone gets shot, movie over. I don't think it's the director's fault. I don't think anyone could have made this disaster screen worthy. The only reason I watched it in the first place was for research of Atlantic City's boardwalk. I can't write enough about this movie to make the review stick. Who decides a review has to be at least ten lines of text anyway? This is almost as dumb as this movie.

emuir-1 I am only giving this film a 6 as I found it rather dull, and having never played Monopoly the inference to the game went right over my head. Instead I found myself wondering what the film would have been like with Jack Nicholson playing the extroverted Jason, and Bruce Dern as David. As a primer for actors, which is what the movie seemed to be, more than an entertainment for an audience, it would have been interesting to see a back-to-back version with the roles reversed.Certainly, the film had the same downbeat theme as "The Last Detail" which I thoroughly enjoyed, and the setting of the off-season seaside town added to the bleak atmosphere. There is nothing more depressing than a sea coast resort in winter. I kept wishing that David would tell his brother to get lost and go back to Philly. The characters, a petty crook and two women of no fixed abode were pathetic losers and, with the exception of David, living in a fantasy of their own making. At least David asked some down to earth questions once in a while. The bullying user, Jason, really got on my nerves - his "everyone else is there to serve my needs" attitude made me cringe, especially the way he turned on people who did not share his "vision".