City Hall
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.19 You Save: $7.79 (78%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of City Hall
Movie Review: City Hall
Summary: 4 Stars
Roughly based on real events in the 1980s when Ed Koch was mayor. A solid film and a step up from another John Cusack political drama, the decent but yuppie-themed "True Colors." Cusack's character is the deputy mayor of NYC, aka the ambitious mayor's,(Al Pacino) right hand man. A shooting in Brooklyn leaves three people dead which culminates into a Willie Horton type legal & media crisis for the mayor's office. Cusack teams up with Bridget Fonda, a lawyer for the detectives endowment fund to perform due diligence only to find their digging ends up too close to home. Danny Aiello does a good job as a complicated yet sympathetic Brooklyn councilman; Martin Landau as a bent new york supreme court judge and former law partner of the mayor; Richard Schiff as a probation supervisor; and David Paymer as a top city hall advisor. Snappy intelligent dialogue, Pacino is rarely better.
"The only thing new in this world is the history you don't know." ~ Harry Truman
Movie Review: Politics and Injustice
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is the quintessential example of how politics and public opinion rules the day. Each of the actors in this criminal injustice movie are compelling. Cusack's plight is what endears him to the viewer--restive in nature, the Louisiana boy attempts to save Pacino's administration and future but, is unable to resurrect him in the end. While Pacino is resolute in his hopes, dreams and desires, his role as the Greek mayor of New York City is plagued with a plethora of problems that he can no longer control. His prior associations for good or bad is what is his final Waterloo. This film is resplendent in its depiction of police and political depravity. This is a must see film for political science and criminal justice students.
Most respectfully,
Dr. Charles Thomas Kelly, Jr.
Assistant Professor of the
Administration of Justice
Louisiana State University-Alexandria
Movie Review: City Hall should not work
Summary: 4 Stars
A complicated story line. John Cusack is new to me: a performance that only falters in the last stages of the film. John Cobb (Austin, TX) has said in his review, "I am not a big Pacino fan, feeling he only plays one character well, and that one I'm way past tired". I see what he means.
The set characters and set pieces - down to the set music - grow increasingly hollow to the point that you wonder if Pacino was intending to sound hollow.
This film should not work yet by the end you have been drawn into it. You have seen something not great but unusual and magnetic. You watch the credits feeling sombre. You hope that on one will talk to you for a while.
Movie Review: Good but Skimpy
Summary: 4 Stars
Audio: Very Good, Dolby 2.0 SurroundVideo: Very Good
Extras: Languages, Wide and Full Screen, Subtitles, Web, Scene Index (not full motion)
Brash Deputy Mayor rubs gagngland noses in it while proclaiming "You gotta' be willing to be lucky." The score and sound effects never really challenge your speakers, but everything sounds clean and clear. The video is very good, although there are not a lot of dark scenes. The dark scenes tend to be the most affected by poor transfer quality. Matted widescreen. French. Extras? Nope, but the movie is pretty good, so for the price, this is a good DVD.
Movie Review: A film that sticks out in my mind
Summary: 4 Stars
This film is ver underated. I realise that people have complained about its apparent lack of real direction in terms of a plot development but it is a realistic look into the heart of a corrupt judiciary. Corruption in real life does not always involve a white house assistant / boy scout who uncovers a scandal that directly implicates the president as a murderer. Is film shows us the two faces of the story and aside from that the actors are superb. Watch out for Al Pacino's speech at the funeral.