Hell's Kitchen

I, along with a large chunk of the male population of this world, believe that Angelina Jolie is one of the most beautiful creatures on this green Earth (or quite brown in some drought ridden places such as our backyard) and have since become a fan of her movies. One night in a family video renting, I walked up the aisles of the video store trying to find something that grabbed my attention. In the Thriller section, I found many copies of this movie, and I question the judgement of the staff, as this is quite clearly a drama, and a pretty good one. Fortunately, I did not rent it out that night, as my Father would have had kittens if he let me watch this (for the record, I personally think I should have waited until I was a bit older), so I waited until he wasn't the one paying for it, and I got it then.

Mekhi Phifer plays Jonny, a man who was involved in a robbery that went wrong, and as a result, an accomplice, Hayden is killed. Gloria (played -as usual- superbly by Angelina Jolie) was Hayden's sister, and confronts Jonny five years later after he gets out of jail, blaming him for the death of her brother. She asks her boyfriend, Patty, to kill Jonny, but for reasons that I shall not reveal, Patty knows that Jonny did not kill Hayden. Jonny settles back into Hell's Kitchen and trains to be a heavyweight champion.

Some of the scenes are a bit too long, some are a bit disturbing, some are a bit weird, and some of them have all these things mixed together.

But on the whole a good movie, but not one made for younger audiences. 8/10

p.s. I might not be a good judge of the pacing of this movie, because when I watched it, we had younger visitors, and they weren't allowed to watch it, so I had to keep stopping and starting it, which is a shocking way to watch a movie.

I am amazed that this film got such a low score. I personally thought it was a very convincing and moving mood piece and was well acted all round. Quite clearly an indie film and a character study but has a plot that moves along quite quickly and gives plenty of opportunity for reflection without ever moralising or passing judgement or overtly trying to make a social or political statement. No clear good guys and bad guys but rather interesting and individual characters caught up in a bad situation. Apart from anything else it had a great soundtrack/score and the original song by Rosanna Arquette was fantastic!

Perhaps the problem is that Angelina Jolie fans picked this one up for a perve?

This is certainly one of the best films I've seen lately. It's a good surprise, once it doesn't seem to be so good when you read about it. The plot is basic in the beginning, but it turns into a fascinating drama and a breath-taking thriller. Angelina Jolie is again very well in her role.

The songs we hear all through the movie are very good. They're also a good reason to make this such a good film. We have a bit of everything here: rap, rock, folk... This is really something you can't miss.

I have to talk about the direction too. I think it's brilliant and remarkable.

my rate 8/10

I found this movie to be solidly entertaining. I was fascinated by the character of Johnny Miller. This was a guy surrounded by ugliness who, with one misstep, could have been consumed by it. However, simply by being who he was and doing what he knew to be right he redeemed himself and those around him. A lot of people in the world would do well to follow his example, and I hope a lot of people will see this movie and enjoy it.

I for one am a huge Angelina Jolie fan, so when I picked up this movie at blockbuster I was hoping that it would turn out to be a really good film. I wasn't disappointed but the movie didn't blow me away. It does go in a lot of directions and it doesn't really officially resolve any of the problems. But I must say that Angelina Jolie and Mekhi Phifer gave great performances, despite the fact that the script was only okay. Despite the script I have to give the movie its credit, it was gritty, disturbing, even moving at times and it did keep me watching. I did feel like I was directly in Hell's Kitchen. This film shows the budding talents of two very good actors and I am glad that I had a chance to see it. So I would give the movie a 7 out of 10.