Albino Alligator

As everyone already knows, Kevin Spacey is an extremely good actor who never does a bad job acting. The man is also a great singer (check out the soundtrack to "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"), so it's not a surprise that he turns out to be multitalented; he's obviously a great director as well. This is the first movie he has ever made and it is such an engrossing and interesting movie. The acting is also superb, Matt Dillon doing such a great job was a surprise to me. The story itself is also interesting, and I liked the fact that this movie was in many ways theatrical. It doesn't work in every movie, but with this premise it worked out fine. Let's hope Spacey directs many more movies!

Kevin Spacey's first try at the director's chair is a nice one to say the least, but he could have done much much more with the actors. There are just to many great and known actors in this movie and sadly not enough screen time for every one of them. But this movie has other things to offer; besides the good photography, the nice music and a strong cast it draws its energy from the script that has some great moment(albino aligator), but somehow fails to deliver in the end. "Albino Aligator" will appeal to those who like a dark crime movie but is just to plain to be something more. 6/10

In the past I have enjoyed a number of movies involving hostage taking, from "Dog Day Afternoon" to "The Negotiator". So I was pretty sure I would enjoy "Albino Alligator". While the movie is not without merit, overall I felt let down. I will say the movie is well made for a low budget, there is some good acting, and some humor in the movie is funny. But there are a number of problems. For one thing, none of the characters - hostage takers, the chief ATF agent, nor the hostages - are made to be colorful or compelling enough. And I found the central story to be surprisingly dull. There is little tension, the movie moves VERY slowly, and the movie resorts to using clichés found in other hostage movies instead of trying to put a new spin on things. While this isn't an awful movie, it is pretty flat, and you'd be better off instead rewatching those movies I mentioned in the first sentence of this review.

There are movies that are made because the studios know they'll make money. There are the movies that are made because someone believed they would and they held out long enough to get them made. Then there are the "actor's movies," the ones any actor worth his/her salt would love to make themselves. This is Kevin Spacey's "actor's movie." That's not a bad term in the least. The majority of the movie is set inside a New Orleans bar, but the scenery doesn't get tiresome. This is due to the fantastic performances of the cast. I love it when I can watch a movie and forget that the person I'm watching is otherwise known as Gary Sinise, Faye Dunaway, or Viggo Mortenson.

The film is also a classic tale of inhumanity, on how far people need to or will go to save their own skin, on choices. It sounds cliché, but the movie doesn't come across that way in the least. Overall, I recommend the film for a lazy Saturday afternoon, like it was for me.

Kevin Spacey is, of course, one of the best actors we have, and he shows talent in his first time out as director in this crime story. Specifically, he does a good job creating a tense atmosphere in such a claustrophobic environment as a bar. And although there's a lot of camera movement, it's not overdone. Also, he's good with his actors, especially Dillon, Dunaway, and Sinise.

But the movie suggests Spacey should learn about reading scripts next time. The movie harks back to films like PETRIFIED FOREST, but is little more than a clone of them, and writer Christian Forte often falls back on obscenities to substitute for character development and plot. And some of the scenes strain credulity, like the ending.