New York, New York (Special Edition)
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.19 You Save: $13.79 (92%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.99 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of New York, New York (Special Edition)
Movie Review: reviewing new york new york
Summary: 4 Stars
I have seen parts of this dvd and an anxious to watch it from the beginning to end.Movie Review: Very good, but makes me impatient.
Summary: 3 Stars
This film is certainly well done. Robert DeNiro gives a good performance, but not nearly as great as Liza Minnelli. Often when Minnelli plays, she gives an aura of competence on the screen that forces the viewer to think, "Nobody else could have done this," and as it were, truly nobody could. The sheer power of her performance alone is more than enough reason to watch this movie.
DeNiro plays as Jimmy, a tenacious and compulsive saxophone player that insists on getting what he wants, and what he wans is "1) Music, 2) Money, and 3) Women. But sometimes you find the right woman first, and then the numbers switch around." He meets Francine (Minnelli), a singer who counterparts his perservering behavior enough to get him what he wants but hold her own. The two then go off to make their name in the music business any way they can, meaning eventually the music and their relationship start to tug them in different ways, and with conflict we have drama. Two hours and forty minutes of it, in fact.
The character of Jimmy is such that I couldn't help but ask, "Are the viewers supposed to want him to succeed because he's the hero, or are they supposed to want him to succeed because he's going to keep trying anyways and we just want him to stop?" He tends to insist a bit too much, and watching his character is only worth the time when DeNiro's playing off of Minnelli. The audience sympathizes with Francine because they can't possibly imagine dealing with Jimmy, but since they can't imagine dealing with Jimmy, they also have to wonder what the heck she's doing with him. The two characters are constantly at edge, even when it seems they are going to reconcile.
Such a method of exposition is at least interesting to watch, but it's largely stretched out and filled with more big-band music than one can possibly hope to sit through comfortably. The first two hours of the movie kept a good pace, but somewhere after the two hour mark the movie does a sort of Singin' in the Rain-ish musical-in-a-musical that's packed with so many layers of stories that it becomes confusing and, most importantly, completely useless. All of it has Minnelli, and Minnelli continues to sing afterwards. By the end of a good half-an-hour of her reaching crescendo after crescendo, one's ears are in need of a rest... and it's not like the movie has ended yet.
It's a shame, in fact, that overall the movie feels displeasing to me, considering how strong the acting and directing are. Here is a movie that's deserving of praise but very difficult to watch. See it if you can, take from it what you can get, but don't expect to feel like watching it ever again.
--PolarisDiB
Movie Review: Scorsese's Serenade of his Beloved New York City!
Summary: 3 Stars
This film probably would have been better received and honored if it had been edited down a bit. It's over 2 hours and 43 minutes long. While I love the musical numbers, the weaknesses lie in the script development of the main characters. Liza Minnelli played Francine Evans, a USO singer, and Robert DeNiro played Jimmy Doyle who is both a con-man and a musician. He plays the saxophone. They have tumultous relationship that they only pull off and the ending needs to better explained.
I watched it without the commentary by the film director, Martin Scorsese.
I didn't even check the deleted scenes because the film is already so long and slow moving that I just wanted to see it once and donate it. It's an okay movie with the period costumes, art direction, and big band sound. The problem was the lack of storylines behind Francine and Jimmy. They never seem to develop and there is little interaction with other characters except on the stage.
There is no doubt that Liza can belt New York, New York and I am puzzled as to why it lost the Oscar and was never nominated for original song. It became the song for New York City. Of course, the film was also overshadowed by blockbusters. Still, this is a satisfactory film from Martin Scorsese which is truly his love affair with his native city.
Movie Review: Parts much more interesting than sum
Summary: 3 Stars
Liza Minnelli does some great take-offs on Peggy Lee and her mother, Larry Kert gets a rare chance to show real Broadway talent and Robert DeNiro brilliantly improvs a jerk no one could care about. Trouble with this film is twofold: together in their scenes DeNiro treats Minnelli like she was a male boxer he was in the ring with and she doesn't have acting improv chops, so mostly she just withdraws (the one scene she fights back they both ended up in the hospital). Minnelli also looks terrible in the period wigs and costumes (and overweight in the second half), only looking comfortable at the very end. Second, Scorsese tries so hard to create a 50s artificial atmosphere that Minnelli's scenes in front of an audience, where she would be electric in a real concert, the faked reactions take the energy out of the performances. It's his botch. In a strange way, it's a vanity film but for the director. Most embarrassing, he emphatically proves he's no Vincent Minnelli. Good thing about the DVD, you can skip to the good bits and lose the poor chemistry. Like a lot of Hollywood product, a huge waste.Movie Review: LIZA at HER MAGIC BEST
Summary: 3 Stars
...but unfortunately it is a bit difficult to warm up this film to due to Robert DeNiro`s unlikeable character.
The interplay between Bobby and Liza are THE BEST. Unfortunately it echoes Mama`s A STAR IS BORN 1954 storylinewise. The "HAPPY ENDING" number is a blueprint of Judy`s "BORN IN A TRUNK"-number. The titlesong is good, but sadly it is clear that Liza mimes the number(as are the routine), but she doesn`t open her mouth wide enough for the last note.....
See it for the musical numbers if you are NOT in the mood of 3 hours of a male "hero" only a wolfmother would love hehehe