SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

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

videorama-759-859391 I'm quite dumbfounded at the user rating. This is a great film, not perfect but great. It's one of those electrifying films from the eighties, I'm eternally grateful at having the privilege of having seeing up on the big screen, where as Rourke's character, Stanley White, says, the streets are gonna run red with blood, or words to that effect. If watching Rourke's performance here, and other films around that 1986-1990 time, looking back, you can see just what a remarkable actor this guy was, but not so now. This film was back in the day, when he had a much lighter and polite voice. He's top form here as an unstoppable ex Vietnam cop, determined to take a silky smooth talking kingpin (the excellent John Lone) down. At first we think Lone is one of the good guys, where soon he becomes Rourke's worst enemy. You want so much for Rourke to take this guy. On one side I loved Rourke's character, his mettle and determination, but on the other side, I found him detestable, his pushiness and arrogance, and being a thankless fu..er. Also he's a pig when it comes to treating women, which kind of stayed with him as he went onto to do that weird out sex flick, 9 and a half weeks. There are some shockingly violent moments, some in the starting of the flick, where life doesn't mean anything to these Asian badasses. Rourke's wife getting killed was an explosive and impactful moment, I'll never forget, and there was some others. You'll never guess how Lone buys it, that too has dramatic affect. Also the films is a little educational as in regards to the Triads. Arianne adds beauty as a relentless Asian reporter, not half bad in the role. When she confronts Rourke, after taking a raping, Rourke's reaction is comical. He's the one true anti-vermin, cop who's gonna make a difference, and it's admirable. This is compulsive viewing all the way, with some tough violent moments, but this is one of those films that comes along every so ofter that leaves a lasting impression, as does Rourke's performance, staying true to the end, his character one tenacious son of a bi.ch.

FlashCallahan Using unprecedented degrees of violence, young Joey Tai becomes the head of Chinese mafia in New York and undisputed leader of the Chinese community.Stanley White, the most decorated cop in New York, who hates Asian people since his service in Vietnam, is put in charge of Chinatown.Both men are prone to breaking long-established rules and both men are unlikely to make compromises with each other, which leads to unavoidable and bloody conflict....Despite the presence of Rourke, a cracking screenplay by Stone, and an underlying tension that rumbles throughout the film, it loses a lot of gravitas thanks to a very strange final scene, and stark use of racism throughout.Instead of the eve increasing danger to Rourke and his nearest and dearest, the films narrative focuses more on the next use of violence and how far they can depict on screen. At the time, te film may have been controversial, and a little bit original, but twenty six years later,one cannot help but finding the film a little too slow, and snickering at Rourkes hair.There are speeches aplenty and lots of shouting at seniors, but these are overshadowed by silly characters, unbelievable sets, and strange connotations to the fairer sex.But Rourke is good in the lead, and Stone delivers a good script.

tomarx7 When I watched this movie the first time, I did get offended by the stereotyping and the white man dominating the Asian theme of so much mainstream movies. But besides all that, now that I watch it a couple of decades later... I grew up in the Boston area too, like a previous reviewer, and spent a good amount of time in the 80's at the college parties and the nightclubs in the area, and so did my cousins. There was definitely a lot of this kind of stuff happening, in fact I sometimes look back at those days and wonder how we survived them. Only one of my cousins got jumped a couple of times by Asian gangs in the course of his college years. One time by Korean gangsters in a Korean club in N.Y.C. Another time at the Palace in August 1988, a local gang jumped him because he tried to intervene, when one of them threw a drink at my back on the dancefloor. Luckily a girl he had dated also happened to be connected to the group and she stopped the melee.Unfortunately the stereotyping was based on true archetypes, and there definitely was plenty of this stuff happening. The sad thing is now Boston's Chinatown is not nearly as busy as it used to be, because of the continuing expansion of the Asians into the surburban areas, there is now less and less reasons to have a Chinatown in a lot of places.This movie is basically a snapshot of a time that is thankfully gone and hopefully in the near future, we won't need Chinatowns at all anymore...

lsdlia Somehow Mickey Rourke's performance seems to make a big bow to Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire" - is it a coincidence that both main characters are Polish and have the same name Stanley? They have a lot in common, and yet they are extremely different. Where Rourke's Stanley is an outspoken idealist, Brando's Stanley is an aimless dreamer. Yet, both of them are in a way the stereotyped Hollywood Polish man who is much less educated than his desired woman, has a tendency to strong violence and, after all, is a lonely, grown-up child. Some scenes remind me a lot of all this, especially the bed scene in Tracy's apartment (and the rape scene in "Streetcar"), the exploding anger in general, and the antagonisms all over both movies, if only in the personal relations. Could anyone tell if Oliver Stone and Michael Cimino consciously included these references in their script? - I sure see a lot of parallels. And if not so, Rourke definitely outgrows even the great Brando.