Chicago Blues

With a deliberately sparse-pulpy title, THE BIG TOWN is set during the 1950's... 1957 to be exact... and Dillon really looks the part, a kind of throwback B&W-suited actor even in this neo noir's neon green and pink tinged color scheme, playing a young lucky dice player who miraculously hits the right numbers each and every time, giving the movie a sort of unintentional TWILIGHT ZONE science-fiction vibe, or something delving into fantasy...

And for a vehicle so otherwise grounded and somewhat cliche, predictable and even mainstream, that's alright since Matt's urgency (and the film's suspense) doesn't rely on winning but surviving the pool of gambling hoodlum sharks who, from Tommy Lee Jones as an underground backroom dealer to a mysterious backstory Tom Skerritt, are out to (or seem out to) stop the endless and bizarre winning streak...

The best scenes are during the first half when, starting with having been discovered and weened by local gambling mechanic Don Francks, everything is breezy and easy since all the characters are developed as much as can be (including an expository introducing-the-city David Marshall Green) - not always through dialogue but their sly manipulation to the sport of gambling, and thinking on their toes...

Yet THE BIG TOWN is mostly known for being the third and final film Dillon starred alongside his RUMBLE FISH ingenue Diane Lane, which began most famously with THE OUTSIDERS, the only one they're not romantically involved... although her character finds his scoundrel rebel wild and attractive ("I might fall in love with him")...

Much more grown up in looks and attitude, and seeming far more both an aesthetic and genre-period connection to Francis Ford Coppola's uninspired THE COTTON CLUB than the S. E. Hinton adaptations, Lane provides a sexy, borderline sinister Femme Fatale as Jones's stripper trophy girl...

Without the usual 11th hour gunfire, her danger exists on who she's cheating on while Matt could be throwing away the perfect girl in Suzy Amis -- proving twenty-nine years after the demise of the Crime Genre that Film Noir good girls always have to weather hell before getting what they deserve, and getting who deserves them...

A slow middle's made up for during the finale where Dillon must succeed with slightly more odds added on -- very similar to the more lightweight early-60's-set-comedy, THE FLAMINGO KID, in which he had to win everything with the skill of the game -- cards there, and craps here...

In either game, be it skill or chance... which is chance here pretending to merit skill... Matt Dillon, a minimalist actor to begin with, has the kind of poker face expressions that helps the suspense build without a lot of action...

He's an actor that's been in a some good, great and downright terrible films, but he's usually good no matter. Even when he seems a bit slow to the punch and lethargic, like happens on occasion here, or too streetwise and stubborn to stretch beyond particular tough guy roles, he's got range within limitations...

In BIG TOWN, it's a steady gaze across a long green table. And hell, maybe he'd have worked in COLOR OF MONEY if that other Outsider backed out.

"The Big Town" tells of a small town man (Dillon) with a knack for shooting craps who goes to Chicago to seek his fortune. The film has an excellent cast and all of the story elements required to make a good film. However, tv director Bolt doesn't manage to accomplish that goal as the film is sorely lacking in style, artistry, cohesion, and vision. Instead we see talented performers mechanically going from set to set resulting in an ordinary film product which is flawed, full of incongruities, and not equal to the sum of its parts. An okay watch for Dillon fans now on cable.

The Big Town is an underrated movie. It boasts of a fantastic cast, and an interesting storyline, yet there are few who remember this movie. I suppose the screenplay and direction could have been better, yet this movie deserves more appreciation than it actually got. Matt Dillon puts in a good performance as the young shooter from a small town, trying to make it big with the 'throw of the dice'. But the man who steals the show is Tommy Lee Jones with an excellent performance as the old timer( a shooter himself) who doesn't think too kindly of the 'new kid on the block(Dillon). Diane Lane, better known for Murder at 1600, plays his wife, and Tom Skeritt and Suzy Amis are good in supporting roles. Amis, in particular, makes excellent use of her limited screen time. This movie is definitely recommended. Truly outstanding work by the entire cast.

I was attracted to this movie when I looked at cast list, but after I watched it I must admit that I felt a bit disappointed. The main problem of this movie is that actors aren't capable of holding this movie on their back. Why? Because of bad script. Although Dillon, Lane and Jones try very hard to take this movie on another level, there is no innovative storytelling and the direction is too ordinary. So for Matt Dillon fans this is watchable movie, just like for admirers of beautiful Diane Lane. Legendary Tommy Lee Jones is always great but this is not movie for him; far below his level. So if you get hooked up by this great cast watch it but don't expect anything big or extraordinary. The only thing that you'll remember about this flick is Diane Lane scenes; rest of it is very forgettable.

This is Matt Dillon's best performance by far. This shows why everyone thinks he has such talent. But like most of his other work, this movie is dark and realistic about human nature -- in a word, truthful. All the characters have at least two levels -- the superficial level, and a deeper level which is usually darker and more warped, yet never exaggerated. This film also features a masterful performance by Tommy Lee Jones, an excellent job by Suzy Amis, and Diane Lane's most sensational, most lurid, and deepest performance ever in her depiction of a scheming strip tease queen, the ultimate femme fatale, yet a tortured little girl underneath.

The script is very good, very insightful, very restrained in its depiction of a lurid underworld of raw emotion. It dramatizes a world of sin and depravity, yet the story is at core a morality play in which decency and morality not only survive but thrive in spite of extreme temptations.

A good movie on every level.