Hell's Kitchen

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.

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.

Even famous actors today had to start somewhere. It's not to say that this is their best work or the work that pushed them into the spotlight but not many people come out on top the very first time anyway. For the most part, including myself, this movie caught my interest because within its cast was a very young Angelina Jolie and Johnny Whitworth. I didn't care much of what the story was about; that is until I finally reached the rolling of the end credits. Quite honestly, I don't understand why people can't find the value in this movie. It is certainly not rock solid entertainment, but it hits harder than most low budget dramas.

The story may not be about the most common of situations but it is relateable to an extent. A group of friends made a bad decision by trying to pull a robbery and end up causing friendly fire and another friend goes missing. This leaves with one of the friends, Johnny Miles (Mekhi Phifer) being jailed, and the other two, Gloria (Angelina Jolie) and Patty (Johnny Whitworth) to deal with family issues. But it's when five years later that come around, that old wounds will open but will also be cleansed for the final time.

The majority of performances are well done. Whitworth, Phifer, Jolie and even Rosanna Arquette, who plays Jolie's mother, all give real-human performances for the kind of drama these characters have to go through. The only character I didn't find that human was Lou Reilly (William Forsythe). He held the same facial expression through the entire film. Not one smile. And what's with his hair? But I digress. I also liked how Tony Cinciripini wrote how each subplot would tie the loose ends by the end of the film. It was nice to see the end result of the film because it combined everything into one. That's not to say every subplot was well written though.

When it came to family/friend issues, yes I felt there was a real story being told. But when it came to Miles wanting to box, there wasn't much explained about why he wanted to do boxing and how he met Lou Reilly. Plus, when Miles asked Reilly to be his agent, Reilly refused but by the next scene, he was being trained to box. I don't get it, where's the transition? Why did he change his mind? What made him change his mind? Why, why, why? There was also no recompense for the actions of various characters. There would be scenes of criminal acts or threats and yet no one would get in trouble for it. I find that hard to believe.

As for music, the composer Joseph Arthur did not provide a theatrical film score, which is understandable for the budget that was provided. But I was actually not so displeased with the turnout. Throughout the film, acoustic songs will be played. There is also a song that is played every now and then, so that could be considered a theme. What I liked about it is that it gave a human characteristic to the story. This made it feel a little more down to earth, so perhaps an orchestral score would have made seem less realistic. Either way, it's a fairly decent film.

The performances carry the right emotion and the music assists in making the drama feel that much more real. Unfortunately, the writing has its weak points and doesn't allow for any explanation.

I saw this film for the first time today and I was often in tears throughout. It was very slow at the beginning and I was contemplating turning it off. I'm glad I didn't, Once the initial scene had been the set, the cast began to shine. Mekhi Phifer is particularly convincing (it was also refreshing to see a black man not being portrayed as a gangster)as a man who makes a mistake but wants to get on with his life. Angelina Jolie is very "real" despite her having to take a more subtle and more in the background approach to her character. The soundtrack is very beautiful and appropriate to every stage of the film and its development.

Its well worth watching, just stick with it through the slow parts in the beginning and you'll enjoy it.

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.