Glengarry Glen Ross
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Movie Reviews of Glengarry Glen Ross
Movie Review: Decision: Have you made your decision for buying this DVD?
Summary: 5 Stars
The title of this review will make sense when you see the movie. Now, onto the show. In this particular year at the Academy Awards, both Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon were nominated; Pacino for best supporting actor, and Lemmon for best actor. But Pacino was also nominated in the best actor category for "Scent of a Woman", which is not only a far inferior film, but a far inferior performance to the once that he gives in this film. So, what they should have done was give Lemmon the best actor nod and given the other little statue to Pacino for this film instead of the other one. But that will go down in the books as another classic Oscar blunder (like giving the top 5 awards to "Silence of the Lambs" and not even nominating "Glory" for a best picture oscar in 1989). Ok, off my soapbox and into the movie. For those of us who have had the joy to explore the many works of David Mamet as a playwright, this movie is a wet dream. Not only do the actors understand the particular cadence of Mamet's dialogue, they also understand the language itself. For many actors, Mamet is a language all its own, and if done badly, can result in horror. But in James Foley's superb direction, the bringing of Mamet's words from the stage to the screen seems effortless. The film still has all of the sweaty paranoia and claustrophobia of the stage play and with an added bonus: Alec Baldwin, in possibly the greatest short supporting role of all time, as Blake, the man who has been sent to the office "on a mission of mercy!" His monologue is unforgettable. It sets the tone for the entire film. It is shocking, hilarious, direct, abusive, ascerbic, acidic, spiteful, rageful, pompous and hateful. Many of these actors put in the best performances of their careers, like Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, and Ed Harris. Pacino is fantastic; the ultimate salesman as Ricky Roma, a suave smooth-talking, silver-tongued, sharp-dressed wheeler-dealer who could sell a stranger in a bar thousands of dollars of land after having only a few drinks with him. Kevin Spacey is pitch-perfect as the wimpy "company man" Williamson; a man whose whole life seems to be based around the success of others. I have to take a moment to thank the movie gods for assembling a cast of this magnitude, giving them the perfect roles to dive into head-first and staying true to the rhythms of Mamet's dialogue which is always more important than what the story is about anyways. Jack, I'll miss you. You will always be The Machine.Movie Review: you have GOT to HAVE the LEADS!
Summary: 5 Stars
Please allow me to be one of the first thousand people to say, "it's about time"! This film was sorely missing in action for so long I nearly gave up on it! And I for one am glad they gave it a full-screen 1.33:1 treatment in addition to the letterboxed widescreen 2.35:1. I mean, it's not like we are trying to squeeze 6 horses and a chariot into the frame in Glengarry Glen Ross, this film is an intense character study, and the closeups are so very necessary. Many snobby dvd websites make remarks all the time like "who watches fullscreen versions anyway?" but a movie like this demands fullscreen--- in fact, if you compare the fullscreen and letterbox-widescreen of this movie, you will notice that the letterboxed version actually omits some top and bottom information, it is masked apparently just to satisfy the always-vocal widescreen TV owners! Look at the Alec Baldwin scene and notice that his tie is not showing in closeups on the widescreen disc. But look at the same frame on the dreaded "fullscreen" disc and you see the knot of his tie in all its corporate glory. Fullscreen looks right. I am one of the quiet millions who have normal sized televisions (in the 19" to 32" range) and I prefer the fullscreen versions to the widescreen every time---FILL THAT SCREEN! This Glengarry Glen Ross dvd looks great, the sound is very clean and clear, and if you can't understand a snippet of sales-dialogue, just a touch of the subtitle button fixes the situation. The soundtrack to this film is exceptionally cool jazz, and sounds so much better than we were forced to endure on VHS for 10 long years. The dvd menus also give you a bit more of this music to sample. Two nice interview snippets from TV show Kevin Spacey doing the "Go To Lunch" scene with a nervous acting student, and Jack Lemmon talks about aging and getting the good roles. There is a nice tribute to Jack Lemmon as well featuring his son, director James Foley, and actor Peter Gallagher mainly, and two sales-oriented seminars. I would have liked to see the trailer for this film, but maybe there wasn't one... after all, this wasn't an FX-laden summer blockbuster, it was a Pulitzer Prize-winning play made into a film, and the movie stands on its own simply based on merit: Taking into acount the acting, the script, the direction, and the music, there really is not a bad frame in the entire film! This movie is a masterpiece. Get yourself this dvd, put that coffee down, and enjoy!
Movie Review: predators in twilight
Summary: 5 Stars
It's a David Mamet movie: enough said.
Ok, I'll say a couple more things as if you didn't already know them. But if you don't know about this movie -- just see it is the point. GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS is an adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by the brilliant playwright-screenwriter David Mamet. Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey are all in it. They worked for low pay just to be in this movie. There were many other famous names that expressed interest. It's a story of real estate salesman that are desperate as hell to meet their quotas or else get fired. Mamet created a role for Baldwin just for the film version in which he plays a "motivator" brought in by the corporate office. Alec Baldwin is now almost synonymous with characters of this type. As the exectutive motivator he delivers one of the most famous monlologues in film history: "Coffee's for closers". You just gotta experience it for yourself. The story takes place over a couple days and you watch the salesman struggle to save their careers. All the acting is great. Jack Lemmon is considered by many to give the performance of a lifetime. The dialogue is golden. The acting is superb. The director James Foley did a good job helping bring the play to the screen. Clearly the story offers a critique American business in the go-go 80s, but beyond that it's just masterful story telling.(Last I heard Mamet has converted from self described "brain dead liberal" to "conservatism" apparently largely through reading Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell. He announced this in a fascinating and arguably absurd essay entitled, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'" that portrays "liberalism" as idealistic nonsense out of touch with human nature and reality. Well perhaps his version of liberalism, but this ain't the place to get into that.) Movies written by David Mamet are always worth checking out and always interesting. Actors get all the attention but you can understand why Mamet got a little bit from the general public even though he merely wrote that dialogue and created characters that highlight actors' careers. That's all I have to say. See the movie if you haven't. The DVD has some great bonus material.
Movie Review: Welcome to the Jungle
Summary: 5 Stars
David Mamet's Pulitzer-winning play has been transferred to the screen in a deliberately, "rainy night noir", 1950es style, ala "12 Angry Men": almost all the action takes place either in the office or in a bar across the street.
The story is simple and almost secondary: a group of real estate salesmen in a seedy office get told in no uncertain terms to shape up, sales-wise, or ship out. Desperation, crime, and infighting ensue.
What makes this film a masterpiece is: language and acting.
Mamet's flood of talk, filled with blistering profanity, odd rhythms, and harsh humor, is a dream for an actor, and the cast in GGH is one of the best ever.
When Alec Baldwin, sent from the corporate office to "motivate" the weary troops, starts his 15-minute monologue to them, you are just blown off your seat. His hate-filled, arrogant, belittling verbal whipping is simply one of the most amazing scenes in film. (Baldwin to Ed Harris's Moss: 'You see this watch? This watch costs more than your car.') You get the idea.
Spacey as the cold office manager, Pacino as slick top-seller Roma, Harris as the angry lout, and Arkin as the befuddled ner-do-well all turn in magnificent work that intermeshes beautifully. However, in a career of some amazing films, Jack Lemmon, as has-been top dog Shelley 'The Machine' Levine who is now broke, delivers what I think is the performance of his life.
Lemmon's mannerisms fit Shelley to a tee: an older, desperate man at the mercy of something he can't sell, and with a daughter in the hospital, he is at the end of his rope. His scenes are at times almost unbearable to watch: his pleading with a cold, cynical Williamson (Spacey), his being put out in the rain by a prospect who doesn't want to buy. You are seeing a man going down, and Lemmon hits every nuance just right.
So then, a fairly stage-bound story about human failure and what we do to each other. It should, by that description, be dull and depressing.It is in fact mesmerizing from the first scene, and it is a film you will never forget.
Get the 10th Anniversary set, to get the widescreen version. Technical quality of the transfer is superb.
Movie Review: Fantastic film but where d'ya get this extras from?A morgue?
Summary: 5 Stars
The sheer joy of Glengarry Glen Ross is watching seven great actors clearly relishing the oppurtunity to work in a truly exceptional film.It's an absolutely compelling and absorbing drama blessed with superb performances.Al Pacino gives his best performance since Tony Montana as slick Ricky Roma,Ed Harris is a dynamic font of rage as Dave Moss,Alec Baldwin is memorably loathsome as Blake but it's the late,great Jack Lemmon who walks away with the film with his superb performance as the weary but energetic Shelley Levene.Glengarry Glen Ross is an incredible movie that everyone of age to see it should see.But while the film is worth five stars,the DVD is only worth two.Despite the large list of extras,it's actually a big disappointment.The commentary by Jamie Foley is full of long pauses,he doesn't have much to say and is frankly boring.The Jack Lemmon tribute just consists of a bunch of unnoteworthy people telling their boring stories about Jack.A montage of clips from his career would have been a better tribute for the late,great Jack.The clip of him on Inside The Actor's Studio is great though.The "Always Be Closing" documentary is completely bewildering.There's nothing worse than having people bore you with stories that don't go anywhere.That's what this documentary is like.It barely focuses on the film at all,instead it mainly consists of utterly obscure real life salesmen talking about their profession.Alan Arkin is the only guy from the film interviewed on it!The "J Roy" documentary is equally mysterious.It's an ancient,black and white short film about another obscure real life salesman.These two featurettes are boring and a big disappointment.They actually have very little relevence to the film so why were they included?It's not all bad though,Alec Baldwin's scene specific mini commentary is excellent.The others are good too.The Charlie Rose interview with Jack Lemmon is very good and there's a very funny clip of Kevin Spacey on Inside The Actor's studio.Overall though,it's a letdown and the extras have a woeful lack of Pacino.But when the film's good,f**k the extras!