SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

slightlymad22 How did Robert De Niro go from a performance like Max Cady in "Cape Fear" to Harry Fabian in "Night And The City"?? One of his best to one of his worst.Plot In A Paragraph: Harry Fabian is a fast-talking lawyer. He sues and settles, looking to make it big as he carries on an affair with the wife of the owner of his local hang out. While losing a case to a local mobster who fronts as a sports promoter, Fabian senses his future as a boxing promoter. For protection from the mobster, he recruits the boss's older brother as his "judge of talent" he books a hall, he orders posters. Soon he's in debt waiting for the big night to rake in the cash. His sweetheart wants to leave her husband, so she needs Fabian's help to get a liquor license to set up her own bar. All the while the mobster is still making trouble.Jessica Lange and Jack Warden are the best actors on display here, even if you never understand Lange's characters loyalty to Fabian even after he ruined her dream. As for De Niro he seems to be trying far too hard, maybe it was poor directing?? And his acting in the Alley at the end is woeful. The only reason I'm glad I watched this to the end was the fact that I got to hear Freddie Mercury sing 'The Great Pretender' over the closing credits which was a nice surprise.

namashi_1 A remake of the 1950 film noir of the same name, 'Night and the City' is an interesting story, which begins well, but, has a lackluster culmination.'Night and the City' is about a cheating and incompetent lawyer played by De Niro, who suddenly gets obsessed on becoming a boxing promoter. The concept is weird, but at the same time, it's interesting. This remake begins well, the first 40-45 minutes, especially, are very interesting. All goes down well, except the final 20 minutes. The culmination doesn't work a bit. It's completely bland.Irwin Winkler's direction is satisfactory. The Screenplay has it's bumps here and there. Tak Fujimoto's Cinematography is average. Editing isn't anything. Music by James Newton Howard works well.In the acting department, De Niro is efficient, but goes over-the-top at some portions. Jessica Lange is the real show stealer. She's fantastic throughout. Alan King hams to the hilt. Others lend able support.As my summary says, it's strictly a one-time-watch. Not much to rave or rant about!

Michael_Elliott Night and the City (1992) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Remake of the 1950 Richard Widmark noir has Robert DeNiro playing Harry Fabian, a real loser who works as an attorney chasing ambulances and various other lowlifes. He finally grows tired of being one of the small guys so he tries raising enough money to start a boxing match but soon he's butting heads with mobsters. If you're looking for a direct remake then you can pretty much forget about it as this Richard Price scripted film is more comedy than anything else. Well, I can't say it's a comedy because I'm not quite certain what it is. Apparently Martin Scorsese was going to direct this but ended up backing out only six years later the picture got started up again by Winkler, who by this time decided to direct the thing himself. Big problem. Winkler's direction is all over the place and it really hurts the film as there's never any real indication that the man behind the camera knows what he's trying to do. Sometimes the overall mood is comical but at other times it turns rather dark (only to be watered down). I'm really not sure what they were going for but you certainly shouldn't expect any of the darkness of the original movie. This baby is pretty much it's own thing and even though the direction is bad there's still enough going on here to make it worth viewing. It seems DeNiro is either love or hate here but I found his performance to be rather refreshing and I found him to be very entertaining in the role. Again, he isn't as dark or as menacing of Widmark as he plays the character more happy-go-lucky and there's constantly a smile on his face as he goes from one bad situation to the next. I found these happy approach to be rather fun to see as we don't often get to see DeNiro in this type of role. It's not a complete masterpiece but if you're a fan I think you'll enjoy seeing it. Jessica Lange plays his love interest and manages to turn in a fine performance even though the screenplay doesn't offer her too much. I thought her and DeNiro, their third film together, did a nice job and I wish their scenes had been written a little better. We do get a nice supporting cast including Jack Warden as a former boxer with a bad heart who is constantly cussing or wanting to fight. He adds a lot of charm to the film each time he's in a scene. Eli Wallach has a brief role and it's always nice to see him. Cliff Gorman nearly steals the film as Lange's husband who doesn't know everything that's going on. We even get a cameo by Regis Philbin who plays himself in a scene that will remind many of the one in THE KING OF COMEDY when DeNiro busts in on Jerry Lewis. Needless to say, it's the performances that make this film worth viewing and we also get a pretty good music score as well as some nice covers of some classic tunes. If a remake should try and be completely different from the original then this movie does just that. This isn't a classic like the original film but there are enough interesting things to make it worth viewing but I'm sure most will agree when it's over that the thing should have been much, much better.

Pandabear419 I just finished watching Robert DeNiro in "Night in the City." DeNiro's classic role as "loser" wannabe "winner" Harry Fabien is perfect especially when teamed up with the beautiful and talented Jessica Lange. Every time it comes to cable I watch it, and probably always will. DeNiro's potrayal of a lawyer who always ends up last and is determined to make a name for himself is flawless. I read another comment about this movie and was prompted to write this in defence of a movie which I adore. I am so very happy to see that Robert DeNiro has "six" movies coming out in the year 2004.