State of Grace
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Movie Reviews of State of Grace
Movie Review: A Gritty, Underrated Film. A Gary Oldman masterpiece!
Summary: 3 Stars
This film is definitely worth seeing, and has grown on me with repeated viewings. It is well directed and well cast, and it manages at times to be unpredicatable even though it has a somewhat formulaic, standard-issue plot. Sean Penn is good (as always) and manages to portray his character's angst and moral dilemma well, Ed Harris is intense, frightening and good, Robin Wright is very good (as always).....but, Gary Oldman is simply brilliant. He delivers a volatile, powerful, and credible performance. His signature intensity is definitely present and well suited for this role, and he also infuses the role with subtle nuance and complexity and poignancy. Oldman breathes incredible life into his character, which allows this movie to (almost) transcend its gangster foundation. As Oldman is capable of doing, he really disappears into this role, blending into the fabric of the character, allowing me to forget (temporarily) that I'm watching an actor portraying a role. This film is worth watching stricly for the acting....especially Oldman's brilliant turn.Movie Review: Gary Oldman as Jackie Flannery!
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm not going to give a synopsis of the movie, but I will talk about how classic Gary Oldman is in this movie as the character of Jackie Flannery, the firecracker, semi-insane younger brother of the head of the Irish Mob in Hell's Kitchen New York. He just has so much personality that you HAVE to love him! (Not to mention, ladies, he is nice to look at). If you have seen Gary in "The Professional", I could almost say that Jackie Flannery and Norman Stansfield could be cousins or related in some way (even though they are different types of crazy).
Sean Penn is the main main character in this and he is always good in everything he's in. But as far as mob movies go, it's not the best. See it for Gary Oldman's performance!
Movie Review: Since Phil Joanou...
Summary: 3 Stars
...was a 'protege' of Steven Spielberg, he should have been taught that slow-motion is something to be used when it's useful, and not (ab)used to make up for his shortcomings (and making the movie unnecessarily longer). Mr. Joanou should be very grateful to the stars, since he owes to them not to get a "0", since his own work (?) will get me seeing nothing more from him (unless he learns something about his trade, which I doubt he can do). And I think too that Mr. Spielberg should know better than to sponsor any jerk who should have kept making TV crap (sorry for the redundancy), for which I deem this Joanou is very well suited.Movie Review: Kind of a Joke
Summary: 2 Stars
Predictable and unbeleivable, to say the least. Ed Harris is not convincing as a mafia boss, and this makes the relationships between his cohorts, particularly Oldman, less than convincing as well.
Oldman's like a pot ready to boil, and while ridiculously unbelevable in his relationship to the boss (Ed Harris), his relationship with Sean Penn's character works and impresses even, at times. Like a seething volcano, Oldman is totally out of control. It's this intensity, I think, that makes it hard to beleive that he'd be taking orders from Harris. And when he does, well, there's your problem. Another good example of how unbeleivable this story plays out is Oldman's total cluelessness in relation to certain unfortunate events at the end of the movie. These are mob guys?
The movie, while dragging somewhat mid-way, picks up momentum again for a while near the end, but kind of peters out again after that in a final cloud of melodramatic cliche scenes and acting with the help of John Turturro, the girlfriend, and Sean Penn himself. Maybe this movie suffered from too many big name actors.
Don't buy this movie. It becomes Grade A cheddar by the end. For a much better old Sean Penn movie (with Christopher Walken), check out "At Close Range".
Movie Review: Strictly Mediocre gangster saga. Passable Mood Piece.
Summary: 2 Stars
Unfortunately, this film is no lost classic. It comes off as completely routine, adding absolutely nothing to an already (by 1990) saturated genre niche (the New York gangster 'slice of life'). Indeed, 'State of Grace's only viable claim to fame is that it is mainstream film which added a third ethnic type to its contemporary Italian and Jewish mob 'vogue' templates set by 'The Godfather' films, especially Part 3 (also 1990), 'Goodfella's' (uhh 1990) and 'Once Upon a Time in America'(1984). Phil Jaonou, the director who's previous credits included a rather mediocre U2 concert, was up against a deep-set tapestry of myth created by Coppola, Leone and Scorcese: it was inevitable that this film was going to flounder, and it did. Good mood piece, though. Excellent performances by the central figures (especially Gary Oldman at a time before his rent-a-villain slump set a bourgeoning career into doldrum territory). Any film with an Ennio Morricone score can't be that bad, right? One niggle: when are American filmmakers going to stop exploiting and start debunking that obviously romanticised New York epicentred 'Good ole Oirish, Beggorah!!' myth. Could 'State of Grace' with hindsight be retitled 'Gangs of New York: One Century Later'?