Go (Special Edition)
List Price:
Our Price: $3.98
You Save: $6.01 (60%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.93 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Desmond Askew, Katie Holmes, Nathan Bexton, Sarah Polley, Suzanne KrullBrand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Published)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-08-24
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Go (Special Edition)
Movie Review: "Xiang Kai-Shek. Famous Chinese ruler. Starts with 'X.'"
Summary: 5 Stars
"Go" is most assuredly an oddity. I remember a review for "Go" back in '99 that states something like, "'Go' is a much better film than it has any right to be." My feelings exactly.
The mark of a good director is being able to construct a good film translated from good script material. However, Doug ("Swingers") Liman's sophomore effort ably demonstrates that with style, intuition, and -- above all -- energy, he can craft a magnificent film from shoddy script material. In Hollywood lingo, this is damn near impossible to accomplish. So, thanks to Liman for smashing that preconception.
EVERYONE that reviews this mentions "Pulp Fiction" for obvious reasons, so I'll be no different. Yeah, it owes a lot to it. But PF owes big debts to other films, as well. Don't look at this as derivatives of derivatives, although some films definitely are. Try to view "Go" as something more cunning and sneaky than one might first think. First of all, attempting to find depth, soul, and social philosophy inside a movie entitled "Go" seems like a moot point to begin with. So roll with me here. That title itself should suggest that it's less likely to offer humane insight and is more concerned with feeling, sensations, adrenaline -- all of which wrap around the present moment: RIGHT NOW. This here is "Go"'s priority. And it's executed to exhilirating effect.
The stories go:
RONNA - needs extra shifts at her grocery store in order to make rent money this month. She takes amateur drug-dealer Simon's shift after a 14-hour stint, so he can go to Vegas with his buddies. But Zack and Adam (Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf), two soap opera actors, come calling on Simon but hook up Ecstacy through Ronna (Sara Polley) instead, Ronna dealing in hopes of closing that rent gap. She needs to get pills from Todd Gaines (Timothy Olyphant), but she leaves her friend and coworker Claire (cutie-pie Katie Holmes) with Todd as collateral while she goes off to deal with Adam and Zack. Ronna's "sale" goes dead-wrong, the stash gets flushed, so she opts for selling naive ravers allergy medicine and chewable aspirin to make up the difference, stalling Todd long enough not to find out. But he does. Complications ensue.
SIMON - begs Ronna to cover his shift at the "SONS" grocery store, and she accepts. He wakes up in a trunk, on the road to Vegas, and later acquires the location of a rowdy strip club from Todd over the phone (this phone conversation is the chief link between the first two stories). Simon (Desmond Askew) and pal Marcus (Taye Diggs) leave their gutter-butt friends in the room while they scope out this "Crazy Horse". A lap dance and a gunshot later, and the four guys have two pissed-off bouncers on their heels. Complications ensue.
ADAM & ZACK - are in trouble. Legal trouble, apparently a charge of possession. They decide to play ball and assist undercover Officer Burke (a disconcertingly funny William Fichtner) in busting Simon to clear their record, but Simon's in Vegas. They arrange a deal at the store later with Ronna, and setup the sting house, Burke being the principle dealmaker. At the deal, Ronna senses she's been had after a remark about orange juice, and Zack clues her to book out of there. The stash gets flushed, Ronna bullies her way out of there with a beer they offered her (she's only 17), and the "sale" ends. But Zack and Adam are NOT out of the woods yet. Though they've done what they were instructed, Burke has ulterior motives for the two and invites them over for an early Christmas dinner. Do they really have a choice? Complications (yes, that's right) ensue.
As long and arbitrary as those descriptions are, that is not even a half of what happens in the movie. All the surprises and shocks I left out, but there are many. The timeline jumping and reworking irks QT fans, but that trick's been employed since at least the '50s, so gripe elsewhere. "Go" illustrates how Generation Y (man, I hate these vague labels) is not about planning for the future, but trying to survive this very second. Liman's immediate and flashy camerawork (accompanied by "Traffic" Oscar-winner Stephen Mirrione's gifted editing) accurately captures those sheer moments of frenzy. Rent, sex, drugs, street justice -- all these are the impetuses to shoot the characters through this rollicking 24 hours across Los Angeles and Las Vegas just days before Christmas, and Doug Liman can handle these two Dystopias better than anyone out there, see "Swingers".
But "Go" is no "Swingers". It's darker and edgier, much racier -- a thrilling danger zone in which the viewer doesn't expect a stop in the action, and there isn't one. Though I saw "Go" twice in theaters 5 years ago, I could never pinpoint exactly what was the Main Attraction for me. 5 years later and wiser, maybe I figured it out. There is such earnestness and attitude, especially from the near-flawless ensemble of actors, in Liman's guidance that I conceive of him directing the film as if he were sitting three seats down in that dark auditorium watching the story unfold for the first time, right along with us.
This is a movie I should be discrediting for its lack of substance (even though it's mainly about ingesting substances), but I'm not. "Go" is just too damn fun: guilty-pleasure filmmaking of the highest order. Sleek, funny, sexy, shot full of vitality, don't ever hesitate to "Go" for broke.
Summary of Go (Special Edition)
Eighteen-year-old Ronna, accompanied by reluctantpartner-in-crime and fellow supermarket checkout clerk Claire, is
desperately looking to score some rent money before she's evicted.
Simon, an impulsive Brit, is driving a stolen car with buddy Marcus
during a no-holds-barred night of partying on the Las Vegas strip.
Adam and Zack, a pair of TV stars, find themselves in the middle of a
real-life drug sting - and a very creepy Christmas dinner.
Welcome to the edgy comedy GO, in which the misadventures of a group
of young people collide in Los Angeles' raucous underground scene.
Set over a 24-hour period in L.A. and Las Vegas, this unconventionally
structured comedy is told from the decidedly off-center perspectives
of three parties involved in the outrageous events that surround a
botched drug deal: a duo of down-on-their-luck supermarket checkout
girls, a pair of soap opera actors and an impetuous British expatriate
- all of whom discover they are in way over their heads. In the midst
of this wild ride, we learn about everything from the possible
advantages of mutli-level marketing to the techniques of tantric
lovemaking to how to make a fast buck at a rave with a little
ingenuity and a box of cold medicine.
Director Doug Liman's follow-up to the winning Swingers is a rollicking adventure that, while lacking in any substantial plot, speeds along with nonstop adrenaline and style to burn. Taking a cue from Pulp Fiction, Liman plays tricks with time and overlapping plots, all of which play out in L.A. and Las Vegas in a 24-hour period sometime between Christmas and New Year's. Slacker grocery-store clerk Ronna (Sarah Polley) is trying to score rent money by selling hits of Ecstasy at a rave party, but winds up inadvertently double-crossing a ruthless dealer (sexy and scary Timothy Olyphant). She's also invading the dealing turf of her coworker Simon (Desmond Askew), a Brit on his first trip to Vegas, which turns nightmarish after a jaunt with pal Marcus (Taye Diggs) to a "gentleman's club" turns violent. And then there's the two soap-opera actors (Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf) who cross paths with Ronna more than once in their attempts to divest themselves of a drug-related charge by participating in a sting.
The way Liman and writer John August layer these stories owes a huge debt to Quentin Tarantino, but the comedy and action sequences rocket like a bat out of hell with energy, humor, and genuine surprise. In addition to some hilarious dialogue exchanges--including a classic scene between Ronna's stoned friend (Nathan Bexton) and a Zen cat--Liman works wonders with one the most winning ensembles in recent memory, a cast that includes both established actors and TV cuties. Mohr, Diggs, and especially Polley (doing a 180 from her turn in The Sweet Hereafter) are as excellent as you'd expect, but it's Wolf (of Party of Five) and Dawson's Creek's Katie Holmes (as Polley's best bud) who turn in revelatory work; Holmes especially seems poised to be a breakout star. An amazing cinematic ride--like a roller coaster, you'll want to go back again and again. --Mark Englehart
Similar DVD Movies
DogmaIngram; Release date: 2002-12-03; DVD
Best price: $8.19
Price in other shops:
Chasing Amy (The Criterion Collection)Buena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2000-06-13; Published: 2000-06-01; DVD
Best price: $2.98
Price in other shops:
TrainspottingLions Gate; Release date: 2011-09-13; DVD
Best price: $6.39
Price in other shops:
JawbreakerMCGOWAN,ROSE; Release date: 2003-01-01; DVD
Best price: $8.24
Price in other shops:
Fargo (Special Edition)Fargo; Release date: 2003-09-30; Published: 2003-09-01; DVD
Best price: $5.21
Price in other shops:
![Swingers [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Swingers-Blu-ray-B0055OTJOE-X.jpg)
Swingers [Blu-ray]Lions Gate; Release date: 2011-08-23; Blu-ray
Best price: $5.91
Price in other shops:
MagnoliaNEW Line Home Video; Release date: 2007-05-08; DVD
Best price: $3.65
Price in other shops:
Artist Not Provided - 200 Cigarettes/ Sidewalks Of New York 2pkLions Gate; Release date: 2008-03-18; DVD
Best price: $6.21
Price in other shops:
Pulp Fiction (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)Buena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2002-08-20; DVD
Best price: $8.19
Price in other shops:
Jackie Brown (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)Buena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2002-08-20; DVD
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops: