Suman Roberson
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
Matho
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Dana
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Darrin
Astounded at the rave reviews for this confusing crime yarn. There was no semblance of a storyline. Vague character study and plot. The filmmakers created a generic storyline around a shipment of merchandise. While this film managed to keep my interest toward the middle, I still have no idea what the direct storyline was about. A middle-aged hoodlum with an office? LOL!
njp2011
Not so much a review as an observation. Cooper's position seems to be as much a function of his outmoded sense of honor as any other reason. His boss speaks to the corporate nature of the "higher ups" who want results while Coop seems to have a sense of obligation to the small fry who look up to him. He "carries" thieves whose goods are clogging his warehouses when he should be taking their goods and selling them off opening space for those clamoring to get in. He refuses to force a two-bit fighter who is all but washed up to take a dive and throw his career because of a friendship with his manager. His beat down of his bosses enforcer is in defense of the "little guys" who hang on in his territory by their fingernails. Their love and respect is shown in the birthday party. This notion of Coop being driven by an out of place sense of honor is what gives the denouement its sense of inevitability. He cant change. He knows it and he knows where it will lead - certainly most clearly after his "dream."
Steve Skafte
"The Nickel Ride" is all about mood. There's a nearly-constant feeling a dread in the air. From the first scene, you get the terrifying sensation that something bad is going to happen, and that anything to the contrary is a fleeting illusion. Cooper (played by Jason Miller) is supposedly a guy who everyone likes, but it soon becomes clear that no one respects him. Maybe it's because he stopped fighting a long time ago, back when his apathy buried his anger. There's a sense of hope in him, though, but that just makes him a target. He's in a line of work that perceives anything but the iron fist as a sign of weakness - and it's these desperate days that the opening scene drops us into. Out of a nearly-waking dream, like a mirror of Miller's first film "The Exorcist", he sees something coming that's more a thing of impeding doom than that of direct prophecy.It's a somewhat atypical film for director Robert Mulligan. He was more one for straightforward dramas, rarely tackling a subdued loner-driven narrative like this. This is also an early original script for Eric Roth, who is certainly treading much more uncomplicated ground than on his later stories. He's written something that can be carried completely by performances. "The Nickel Ride" doesn't reach very far, so it's not totally capable of the sort of staying power that keeps other 1970s classics in our minds. But the powerful uneasy feeling and the performance of Jason Miller makes it something special. This is a curious, angry, scared little alleycat of a film.
David Isaac Tam
This is a rare example of the mob-procedural subgenre, and should be issued as a DVD. Castro Theatre in SF screened a print -- which I surmise was somewhat faded and over-purpled/sepiaed -- 18 March 2008 with Friends of Eddie Coyle (which I thought the better of the two). Audience of over 200 applauded warmly, especially Jason Miller's very fine acting. I did not have the trouble some following the plot that commenters reported, or with knowing what was paranoia (once it played out), what was actually happening. Also, Los Angeles sprawl-downtown was instantly recognizable. I also appreciated Linda Haynes' work as cootchie-dancer.
