Reviews

On a personal note...this movie was filmed, in part, near my family's home in the movie. Anyway, I was home visiting when they filmed for over a month on my street. It was interesting to watch the care (bordering on fanaticism) that the producers took in endlessly rehearsing minor scenes and then finally filming them. Which leads me to my point.

So much time, money, and effort spent to produce such a really good film but with a lot of violence. Lord knows, it's not that everybody needs to be Pollyanna...we all are aware how truly wretched life can be...but why spend time watching somebody get tortured with a welding torch? Although the characters were really good, did they have to act out pointless violence? There just has to be some better way of spending our time.

In spite of all this, I still liked the film. We are base animals...as the film incessantly likes to remind us in this and his other films...Thank you! We get the idea! However, why not take all that talent and time and produce something the uplifts the human spirit rather than denigrates it? "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" Glorify gangsters, not me! But I couldn't help watching this movie and in spite of all the criticism I have espoused in this review, I have to admit that I like mafia movies so I couldn't help but like this one.

What a waste of time and money. The most mixed up, confusing story that led absolutely nowhere. It's had to understand what the producers were thinking when they made this film. I mean, they had to have read the script before investing millions into this project, wouldn't ya think? I read somewhere that there was so much money put into developing this film that they almost had to finish it or lose millions. Well, in my opinion, it was good money after bad. Or maybe bad money after bad.

On top of everything else, the story was too long. The best word I can use to describe this film is confusing. The actors couldn't possibly have done a good job when they didn't even have a good script to begin with. Richard Kelly who, as good as a job as he did with "Donnie Darko" did just the opposite on this film. This film was about as much fun as a root canal. So, if you're thinking of watching this one, instead, just call your dentist. You'll have a better time.

I saw this film at the Venice Film Festival and have waited a long time to comment on it as I wanted to see it again when I was released. However, it still has not come out and I don't know if it ever will.

Alec Baldwin is a writer, down on his luck and nowhere to go but down even further.

As with many viewers I suspect, I was attracted to this film by the cast and the fact that it has received so much press, good and bad. The plot is based on the old casino idea of a writer whose career in next to nil and is getting ready to self destruct – and unless you get into it, it'll feel rather forced and silly at times.

However the film helped me to overcome this by being very low key and downbeat – very much like Baldwin himself. The film is not a great thing but one that is easy to get into. The film uses Las Vegas really well but it is a classic story that is fun to believe in. It is much better than the fun, breezy and slick fantasies that we are sold in other films. The mix of romance, comedy and violence works very well – at points it was very touching, at others quite funny.

It isn't perfect of course and the writing is where the problems lie; the story did rely on the audience buying into it and at times the dialogue comes very close to corn (but just misses). The only time I felt really let down was the ending, which, although fitting with the spirit of the film, missed a great chance to be fun, exciting and original all at the same time.

Still, a good film and definitely worth the watching.

This was a very clever story. While I thought this movie had some rough edges, I could see that this could turn out to be a real gem. The picture itself wasn't the best quality as it didn't seem to fit on the screen, and some of the acting left a little to be desired, but overall I could see myself watching it if it came on television. I know that this didn't cost a lot of money so I kept thinking about how good this could be if they really did have the money to get great actors and writers to write great episodes.

My favorite character was "Sal" who was in my opinion was a standout. The other characters were good but not exceptional. My second favorite was the woman who played, "Toni". I would love to see her again in another episode. This is my first comment so I don't know the technical terms to describe what I liked about it but basically, it was just a fun story to watch and I hope this gets picked up. I know it will be a success. Best of luck to the cast and crew for making a cute little film which could turn out to be a great little series.