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DVD People I Know
Al Pacino shambles about in pure weary Late Pacino form in People I Know, a 1970s-style paranoid number with a political tinge to it. Pacino plays an old-school publicist, once a friend to Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, who's now down to his last big client, a vaguely dangerous movie star (nice turn by Ryan O'Neal). As Pacino tries to keep his client's indiscretions out of the papers, he's dragged into an intriguing drugs-murder-politics conspiracy. There are juicy possibilities in Jon Robin Baitz's script, and with a topnotch director and a little more oomph they might have blossomed. As it is, despite a couple of nifty gotchas, the movie never quite gets into full stride. Tea Leoni shines as an addicted actress with a flinty vocabulary, but Kim Basinger is less lucky with her plot-device role. Pacino looks as though he's about to draw his last breath in every shot, which is precisely how he should look. --Robert Horton
my goodness - being a fan of both Al Pacino and Kim Basinger, this was so sad - why did they even bother - at least follow up on a plot you tried to create - what a shame!
Its all in your mind ...
There are so many Al Pacino movies that we've all grown up with over the years, that I think the only way I can contribute something constructive to the conversation about this DVD, is to say that I think the key may be found in possibly dividing Al Pacino's films into categories ... early, middle and late ... like we do with some of the great composers.
Dan Algrant's direction of "PEOPLE I KNOW" was pretty satisfying to me. Its dark for the most part ... murky and mysterious, which is exactly what I'm looking for in a film that I'm going to watch late at night. You get the odd time-check in the lower left-hand part of the screen ... which seems to make the film all that much more realistic if you actually are watching it in approximately that same time-frame, as I was before writing this review.
I'd seen a review somewhere that compared Al Pacino's performance in this movie to the one in "INSOMNIA". To be honest about it, the review in question said that this particular performance was similar to that one (INSOMNIA) ... going on to say that (basically) "INSOMNIA" was terrible also. As for me, I loved "INSOMNIA", and when I heard comparisons between the two performances, I knew I would like this film; ... and I was not disappointed.
If we break Mr. Pacino's films up into the aforementioned categories, I think we can certainly say that this is really one of the best from his final period. I'm not expecting anyone to agree with this idea of mine, but insofar as my opinion on the film, I feel pretty confidant on recommending it to you on these grounds.
Tim Hitchner.
Lukewarm; Perhaps the Worst Kind
Obviously, a good movie is enjoyable. A bad movie, on the other hand, can also be enjoyed in several ways; laugh at it without mercy, curse at it for the price you paid, do chores while it's playing in the DVD player (or make out, if you're in a dark theatre with a date), or my favorite, fall asleep.
For me, "People I know" fell into neither category; it was neither good nor bad. It was absolutely excruciating!!
1. Paccino will always be Paccino. When his acting doesn't quite get you in the guts (like all good Paccino roles should), you inevitably blame the screenplay and the script first. If I were to imagine a sickly old Jewish New York insider who's on his last breath being held up by pills, Eli would be the guy. The fact that throughout the entire movie, I couldn't stop thinking to myself, "When the hell is this guy going to wash himself, especially that greasy-looking head of his?!?!?" The only bad thing I could say without hesitation is Paccino's lousy Georgian accent. It stunk!
2. Ryan O'Neal, Tea Leoni, Richard Schiff, Mark Webber, and Robert Klein all gave excellent performances. I especially like Kim Basinger's effort. She did a great job playing a helpless woman who was fully aware of the odds of her life becoming better off. (Come to think of it, her role in "LA Confidential" was very similar, a woman who wanted a better life, but knew well what the odds were of a better life for herself.)
3. The plot sucked. Think of the worst episode of the "West Wing"; this was ten times worse.
The only reason I would recommend this movie is, if you are a fan of either Paccino, O'Neal, or Basinger and need to see ALL of his/her movies.
Given the formidable challenge of adapting Philip Roth's acclaimed novel to the screen, it's a wonder that The Human Stain retains so much of what makes Roth's novel a masterpiece. As adapted by Nicholas Meyer, Robert Benton's film is inevitably a different animal altogether, and it's wide open to charges of miscasting and thematic diffusion. But at its core, this delicate drama succeeds in exposing the sins that stain all of humanity, forcing men like former welterweight boxer and esteemed professor Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins) to forsake family and career to conceal his African American heritage. Light-skinned and passing as a Jewish professor of classics in a tony East Coast college, 71-year-old Silk sinks into scandal when an innocent remark is misinterpreted as a racist... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Anthony Hopkins - Nicole Kidman - Ed Harris - Gary Sinise Director(s): Robert Benton DVD Release Date: Released the 20 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Rarely has The Merchant of Venice, one of Shakespeare's most complex plays, looked as ravishingly sumptuous as in this adaptation, directed by Michael Radford (Il Postino). In a decadent version of renaissance Venice, a young nobleman named Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love) seeks to woo the lovely Portia (newcomer Lynn Collins), but lacks the money to travel to her estate. He seeks support from his friend, the merchant Antonio (Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune); Antonio's fortune is tied up in sea ventures, so the merchant offers to borrow money from a Jewish moneylender, Shylock (Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon). But Shylock holds a grudge against Antonio, who has routinely treated the Jew with contempt, and demands that if the debt is not... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Al Pacino - Jeremy Irons - Joseph Fiennes - Lynn Collins Director(s): Michael Radford DVD Release Date: Released the 10 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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As a more conventional follow-up to his innovative thriller Memento, Christopher Nolan's Insomnia offers ample proof that his skills are genuine. A superbly crafted remake of the 1997 Norwegian thriller, this moody police procedural is transplanted to a remote Alaskan town, where a veteran Los Angeles detective (Al Pacino) arrives to investigate the murder of a teenaged girl. Professional tragedy collides with psychological turmoil as the detective suffers from sleeplessness under the region's perpetual daylight, and a local rookie cop (Hilary Swank) begins to suspect that truths are being hidden as the disturbing case unfolds. While the Alaskan setting intensifies the atmospheric mystery, Pacino's bleary-eyed disorientation adds a rich layer to his character's erratic... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Al Pacino - Robin Williams - Hilary Swank Director(s): Christopher Nolan DVD Release Date: Released the 15 October 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Jeff Bridges demonstrates once again that he is one of the finest actors in film. Ted Cole (Bridges, Seabiscuit, The Big Lebowski), a successful writer/illustrator of children's books, invites a young student named Eddie (Jon Foster) to be his assistant for a summer. Eddie doesn't realize he's being drawn into the middle of a dissolving marriage until Ted's wife Marion (Kim Basinger, L. A. Confidential) invites him into an affair--which Ted both condones and resents. Slowly, Eddie comes to understand the secrets that are tearing the marriage apart. Bridges never shows off; everything he does seems simple, natural, almost unavoidable, but it's also utterly watchable. Whether you like the movie will depend on whether you like John Irving (The Door in the Floor is... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jeff Bridges - Kim Basinger - Jon Foster Director(s): Tod Williams DVD Release Date: Released the 14 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Director Sydney Pollack delivers megawatt star power, high gloss, and political passion to The Interpreter, his first thriller since The Firm. With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn delivering smooth, understated performances, the film more closely recalls Pollack's 1975 Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway paranoid thriller Three Days of the Condor, trading conspiratorial politicians for potential assassination in the United Nations General Assembly (this being the first film ever granted permission to use actual U.N. locations). Kidman plays a U.N. interpreter who inadvertently overhears hints of a plot to kill the reviled, tyrannical leader of her (fictional) African homeland; Penn is the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her, or to determine her role (if any) in the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Nicole Kidman - Sean Penn - Catherine Keener Director(s): Sydney Pollack DVD Release Date: Released the 04 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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