Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

GazerRise Fantastic!

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Matthew Stechel Movie NEEDS to be on DVD stat.This movie is wonderful...wonderful and severely underrated.Its beautifully filmed, beautifully acted, beautifully edited, beautifully photographed, beautifully scored via Mark Isham. This film is the best example i can ever give anyone when talking about film as art.I cannot believe how underrated it is--not only as a forgotten film from the early 90's but just how forgotten it is as a film starring Joe Pesci. Just today i was in a Staples and i found a DVD set that contained both The Super and With Honors--and while both of those are just dandy if you like Pesci--i just can't for the life of me understand how both of those are widely available and this jewel is somehow lost. C'Mon Universal--I know you're not the best at getting your back catalog to DVD but this should be a no brainer--its from the 90's for god's sakes. How is something like Splitting Heirs or Pure Luck available from your backlog and this isn't?!?!?!? If you need a synopsis--Pesci is a very omnipresent shutter bug--he prowls the night taking with his camera and his police scanner frequently crashing crime scenes just to be the first one to get a photograph of the leftover carnage. He lives through his camera if you will. He's forever dreaming of getting a coffee table book published of his crime scene photos--and one day he gets a phone call from night club owner (and very high on the social ladder) Barbra Hershey who wants Pesci to investigate the shady circumstances of her dead husband, etc, etc. The plot is pure noir of course---i hate to say given how much i love it, but the plot is actually kind of irrelevant---the whole point of this gorgeous movie is just to bask in the wonderful atmosphere the movie provides. I mean the plot is fine--Pesci soon finds himself over his head in corruption, and feuding gangsters, and etc--and there are a lot of wonderful moments throughout that come from Pesci's character reacting to the latest obstacles that the film's plot is throwing in his path--(LOVE that one quick scene of him squirming on the floor while the gangster interrogating him is calling him a cockroach and Pesci lifts his fingers to simulate a cockroach....there are just too many quick visual scenes like that throughout.) but again the whole beauty of the movie is just the wonderful wonderful atmosphere.This is a film where truly everything comes together just perfectly to form a glorious movie experience. (i know that sounds dumb to say--but its truly one of the best films i can recommend to anyone interested in just observing how a film can function as both a movie and as art.) It helps of course if you're a fan of black and white photography and classic film noir--but you don't really have to be to just sit back and enjoy this one either. (The end shootout in particular is so beautifully shot---and so stylistically original--I can't for the life of me think of one other film that has even tried to rip it off over the years.) Howard Franklin (who directed this as well as my own personal favorite film Bill Murray's Quick Change) sadly never got to make another serious film along the lines of this one--and that i think is a real shame because judging just from this one film--he could've been one of the best today instead of just a one off director. (I'm sure it didn't help that this prob cost Universal a pretty penny to make and only eked out about 3 mil in total--and i remember being in 5th grade when this came out--this had a pretty substantial campaign behind it because i clearly remember seeing the ads for it when it came out, so right there i know universal must've been expecting something to happen from this) I can't implore all of you hard enough to check this one out--even if it means watching it on a plain olé' VHS tape (altho i believe there are torrents of it available to download) Good Lord if there's one movie--if there's ONE film that i wish would see the light of DVD right now it would be this one.This Thing Never Shuts Off. You Can't Shut It Off.Throw In The Hat. People Love To See The Dead Guy's Hat.God I Love This Movie!

pbreslin The Public Eye is loosely based on the life and work of Arthur Fellig.Fellig's nickname, ("Weegee"), was a phonetic rendering of Ouija, due to his frequent arrival at scenes only minutes after crimes, fires or other emergencies were reported to authorities.He is best known as a candid news photographer whose stark black-and-white shots documented street life in New York City. Weegee's photos of crime scenes, car-wreck victims in pools of their own blood, overcrowded urban beaches and various grotesques are still shocking.In 1938, Fellig was the only New York newspaper reporter with a permit to have a portable police-band shortwave radio. He maintained a complete darkroom in his trunk of his car, to expedite getting his free-lance product to the newspapers.The Public Eye shows much of this with added, (untrue), drama. I recommend this movie for anyone who enjoys a good crime yarn and people with an interest in the life and times of Arthur "Weegee" Fellig.Much of the factual information in this review was gleaned from Wikipedia.

lastliberal I am so used to seeing Joe Pesci as a mobster (Goodfellas, Casino, Once Upon a Time in America) that I never imagined him in any other role. Well, he certainly surprised me in this noir film as a photographer who took great pride in his work and never let his feeling get in the way - until this one time, and it almost cost him his life.Pesci was outstanding as the lonely photographer who imagined he could have a relationship with the gorgeous Barbara Hershey (The Portrait of a Lady, A World Apart, The Last Temptation of Christ). He trusted and had his heart ripped out. Isn't that usually the case! This is not a great film (written & directed by Howard Franklin), but it was entertaining to see another side of Pesci. Great work also by Stanley Tucci.

bkoganbing The Public Eye was an attempt to elevate Joe Pesci to star status from respected character actor in the wake of his acclaimed Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Goodfellas. Though Pesci did give a great performance in the film, the public was not prepared to buy him as leading man status.The film is really Pesci's show in that there are no really developed characters outside of his in the film. However Robert Zemeckis really did a bang up job in creating the mood and atmosphere of the early 1940s with America just going into World War II.With the USA engaged in the 'war on terror' and no demands being made for civilian sacrifice, it is probably somewhat vague for people who are not our most senior citizens to realize what was being attempted. And curiously enough though the racket that is being investigated is gasoline rationing.Joe Pesci is an independent photo journalist who with police scanner always on is first on the scene for every event in town. He gets asked by this glamorous socialite, Barbara Hershey, who normally wouldn't go near someone like him to check out an acquaintance. The acquaintance is found dead by Pesci and that leads him into a racket involving collusion between gangsters and government employees of the Office of Price Administration to control gasoline with stolen ration cards.Back in that war food and other commodities like gasoline were rationed to the civilian public and the price strictly controlled. This was serious business indeed for those times.Pesci also fancies himself an artist, not just a paparazzi, he sees himself as a Matthew Brady or an Ansel Adams, a recorder of his times and his city. That vain but artistic streak leads him to take some real chances.The Public Eye is a good throwback film to the forties. I can see had this been made post World War II a grown up Mickey Rooney playing Pesci's role.