Big City Blues

This film describes the experiences of a couple of hit men (one of them Burt Reynolds), a prostitute, and two drag queens over the interval of a few hours on one night in Miami. The convergent storylines eventually bring all the people together at one place and time. The movie was mildly entertaining, but the big problem was that everything happens at night and many scenes were literally under-exposed to the point that it was impossible to see what was happening. In a few scenes you can actually see where they tried to "stretch" the developing process to save the images. Somebody didn't know how to operate a movie camera. Amazing that this film was even released!

If you liked watching Mel Gibson in Million Dollar Hotel then you might enjoy watching Burt Reynolds in yet another film so bad it could never be distributed. I can only attest to the DVD version so maybe the VHS version is better quality wise but the movies night and dark scenes have been so poorly done that everythings seems red. I first thought my DVD players was messed up. It wasn't. If you insist on watching it I recommend you adjust the color on your TV until it is black and white. If you don't you will never be able to get through the film. If you do it will simply remind you of a poor film students attempt to revist the style of Pulp Fiction.

This movie is about two hit men, a prostitute and a couple of gay men. They all pass each other over one eventful night and finally meet in a shoot-out at an apartment. I really liked the off beat humor of this movie. You get the feel of it straight away from the opening spoof of a French film and there are some crazy scenes in it - including a frog ball. I thought the story and the acting were really good. The Latin flavored music too fitted well. I highly recommend this film .

The film follows three storylines and the Reynolds/Forsythe storyline is *very* derivative of Pulp Fiction (2 gangland thugs make the rounds for their boss and cross paths with wacky people). If you turned up for a Burt Reynolds film, you are likely in the wrong headspace. This is a quirky indie 90s flick done when Reynolds was trying to get a career comeback like Travolta's. He would hit with his other film that year, Boogie Nights. The other two threads are the gold in this film. Giancarlo Esposito and Arye Gross are transgender women out on a night on the town. Gross tells a series of parables to help Esposito decide if she wants to go through with a sex change. The humour and wacky of the film is in Gross' stories including a surprising scene featuring pvc frog costumes. The heart of the film is Georgina Cates, a call girl with a heart of gold. I feel like her's is the key story and the others are to draw you in first. Cates is seeking her doppleganger, the person who is exactly like her but made better choices. Along the way, we get some very memorable scenes with her clients. I found this on Tubi for free and it was a bargain at twice the price.

Big City Blues was a failed experiment of a film that would later be repeated successfully in films like Boogie Nights and Crash. It's the story of five characters, two hit men, two drag queens and a prostitute who meet up in a deserted Miami mansion one fateful night.

The drag queens Giancarlo Esposito and Arye Gross are the most interesting of the quintet. Especially Esposito who is in a journey of transitioning, but not quite sure if she wants to complete the change. The names in the cast are the hit men, Burt Reynolds and William Forsythe who do their best, but are defeated by a lousy script and poor direction. I can see Reynolds was cast here as he was in Boogie Nights, but in that film there was a cohesion as all the participants were involved in the pornography industry and were all interesting characters.

Georgina Cates is the prostitute and she's along for the ride, also defeated by poor direction. Her character as a hooker who aspires for something more could have been a lot better.

Crash is a film along the same lines and it was a Best Picture Oscar winner. Would this have turned out as well.