Miami Blues | | Cast : | Alec Baldwin, Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh | | Director : | George Armitage | | Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | April 20, 1990 | | DVD Released Date : | December 03, 2002 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | March 11, 2005 | | Summary | Recipe for vinegar pie | Content
 | You know when the opening piece of music on the soundtrack is Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" that you're on to something special, and it never fails to deliver. Up there with True Romance and Something Wild as a superb mix of thriller/comedy. And don't you just want to try some of Susan's vinegar pie...? |
| Rating | | | Date | January 10, 2005 | | Summary | Great underrated film from a great underrated book. | Content
| This is one of those buried treasures of filmdom (like Prime Cut) that gets swept aside because it's a "genre" movie. But everything about is first-rate, beginning with the performances of the 3 main leads: Baldwin, Leigh, Ward. None has ever been better, each carves a unique unforgettable performance. The direction by Armitage (whose Grosse Pointe Blank is another great treasure) is outstanding. This movie MOVES, it zips & flips & turns on a dime, it's got the momentum that only really great movies have. The writing is terrific, I read the book before seeing the film & I recommend the book to anyone, it's great, Willeford was another great unsung.This movie has loads of little details that reveal themselves in viewing after viewing & then stay with you...forever! How about the fact that Baldwin's character appropriates the billfold & consequently the identity of a fellow airline passenger & goes around for much of the movie as Herman Gottlieb, Herman Gottlieb??!! Remember him? The famed opera impresario? No? Aw forget it... |
| Rating | | | Date | November 23, 2004 | | Summary | Great Film. Great Film. | Content
| I hereby give this movie the retroactive Davecademy award for best picture, actor, and supporting actor and actress. I love this movie. It is entertaining, funny, and it refreshingly tells a story truer than most Hollywood drivel. Alec Baldwin is even cooler than 007 as an anti-James Bond. He's so cool I find myself unconciously mimicing "Herman Golliebs'" mannerisms to this day. As I have matured I notice even more depth to this movie than my first viewing from back in the day. Miami Blues is humorous, well-written, nicely shot, and tells interesting human stories. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 04, 2004 | | Summary | I wish there were some Hoke Moseley sequels! | Content
| This film, along with David Lynch's 'Wild At Heart' , should be credited, or faulted, with sparking the shift in American independent cinema, and art films in general, from sex to violence. All the elements that made 'Reservoir Dogs', and its legions of imitators, so successful a few years later, can be found here. Alec Baldwin gives one of his best performances in this little-seen, underrated film based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford. Baldwin plays a dumb, small-time con man recently released from prison who takes off to Miami to work new territory. Once there, he meets a dim-witted hooker, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and proceeds to use her as he continues to pull off small time heists and petty thefts to get ahead. Part of Baldwin's brilliance is that he gets to put his woefully underutilized comedic talents to work here (anybody who's seen his genius at work on the three times he's hosted 'Saturday Night Live' will know what I'm talking about.) The film is a brilliant blend of black humour, violent slapstick and just palin ol' oddball weirdness. I think it got filmed in the late 80s and didn't find a distributor till about 1990. The Miami setting is used perfectly, as a tacky backdrop to Baldwin's minor scams. Everything about this film is a bit off, and it all blends together brilliantly. Fred Ward plays Hoke Moseley, an aging cop who is put on Baldwin's trail after Baldwin breaks an annoying Hare Krishna's finger at the airport, who then dies from shock. From there its a series of strange scenarios set into motion, enhanced by the bizarre Florida settings (restaurants with synchronized swimmers, pastel-coloured hotel rooms, pawn shops with shotgun-toting bodygaurds) screwy characters and Alec Baldwin's collection of ridiculous looking stolen clothes (ugly cable knit sweaters, shiny running shorts and pink plaid golf pants). I can't begin to describe the many strange circumstances that culminate into scenes because so many of them are memorable...Baldwin pointing an Uzi at a toy store clerk who then asks for a price check, Baldwin holding up drug dealers with said toy gun and then finding out later in his hotel room that he's just stolen a million BRAZILIAN dollars. From there he launches into a hilarious Scarface impression. There's one fabulous part where he tries to stop a convenience store hold up with a jar of spaghetti sauce, only to get run over and have his eyebrow ripped off. Or when Fred Ward comes over for dinner, only to be stalked by Baldwin later, who steals his badge, gun and false teeth. Baldwin then goes on a crazy stealing spree, catching drug dealers and taking off with their booty, or shooting a robber at a bar before yelling 'Stop or I'll shoot!'. Another great scene is watching Baldwin get his fingers chopped off during a botched pawn shop robbery, and then witnessing him scoop up his severed digits along with the loot. You have to see this movie several times to appreciate it. It's absolutely hilarious. I've been quoting lines from the film for years, especially Baldwin's cruelly blunt lines. (One favourite: after getting his eyebrow sowed on by a widowed neighbour, he tells her ''I'll bet your husband was glad to die.'') The whole movie has the feel of a really bad Miami Vice rip-off, but it works to its advantage, painting Miami as this hopelessly gaudy town, rivalled only by Las Vegas in raw bad taste. I like how it shows the flipside of the glitzy, seedy glamour of Michael Mann's famous TV show. This is a more interesting look at Florida's grimy underbelly, filled with small time hoods, racketeers and crooked vice cops. George Armitage does a great job bringing Willeford's quirky characters and decidedly unconventional plot developments to life on screen. Both Baldwin and Ward are brilliant and Leigh does a good job too. There's so many great parts to this film I think I'd rather leave it to all of you to catch it sometime. The book is just as good and features three more stories in the series of Hoke Moseley detective tales.
|
| Rating | | | Date | July 29, 2004 | | Summary | A personal favorite | Content
| I have always said you take your chances when you rent an Alec Baldwin film. You just never know what you're going to see with this actor since most of his work is decidedly sub par. If you spent any time agonizing over "The Getaway," "She's Having a Baby," or "The Juror" you know exactly what I mean. Moreover, because Alec attained success after starting his career some two decades ago, we now must suffer interminably the presence of his untalented brothers Stephen, William, and Daniel. I could go on and on about the Baldwin brothers. Alec's political views, for example, achieve epic levels of obnoxious ignorance. He's in the running-along with Janeane Garofalo, Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, and Martin Sheen-for the limousine liberal award of the decade. Yes sir, Alec Baldwin presents a host of problems for the discerning filmgoer. But, and this is a big but, you will find a few gems in the man's filmography if you can bend your mind around Alec's innumerable problems. Who can forget his memorable, scene stealing appearance in "Glengarry Glen Ross"? And he stole the show from folks like Jack Lemmon, no easy feat. This film, "Miami Blues," ranks as one of Alec Baldwin's best roles; it's a wonderfully entertaining film that should receive more attention than it has presently received.
Based on a Charles Willeford novel, "Miami Blues" introduces us to Frederick J. Frenger, Jr. (Baldwin, of course), an incorrigible miscreant recently released from a lengthy stint in the stir. Right from the start we learn Frenger's not about to play it straight. In the lobby of the airport, our man inadvertently kills a Hare Krishna. Definitely not a good thing, let alone a smart thing, to do. The incident forces Frenger to flee from the scene before Sergeant Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward) and Sergeant Bill Henderson (Charles Napier) arrive to begin the tedious task of starting an investigation. In the meantime, Frenger holes up in a fancy hotel where he proceeds to launch a series of small capers aimed at providing him with a false identity and spending money. He'll steal suitcases, rob and beat people, do anything if he thinks he can get something out of it. Frenger even robs a bunch of drug dealers with a water gun in a brazen daylight operation that would be idiotic if he didn't pull it off so coolly. It soon becomes apparent that something just isn't right with our heroic Frederick Frenger; he is, in fact, a sociopathic personality with an astonishing capacity to lie, cheat, and steal.
Frenger meets the girl of his dreams when he acquires the services of Pepper, aka Susan Waggoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a not so bright harridan, for an evening of rest and relaxation. The two form a weird, love/hate bond that leads to a most unusual relationship. Waggoner expects her new man to play the marriage game-she has no idea who he really is, of course-but Frenger has other plans. When Hoke Moseley manages to track Baldwin's character down, Freddie sneaks into the cop's hovel and steals his badge and gun. The rest of the movie sees the criminal playing cop while he engages in a series of increasingly dangerous crimes. He shoots a robber in the leg at a restaurant, catches a mugger only to steal the woman's purse for himself, and attempts to foil a robbery at the local convenience store. In the interim, he verbally abuses Susan and toys with the determined Hoke. Frenger pulls off so many jobs that nearly every cop in the city is looking for him, most of all Hoke Moseley. The denouement of "Miami Blues" details the gruesome fall of Frederick Frenger, Jr. as an attempted robbery at a pawnshop goes horribly awry.
The performances in "Miami Blues" elevate the film above your standard cops and robbers picture. Baldwin is wonderful as the unhinged Frenger. He jaunts around town sporting a severe crew cut, several tattoos, and a look in his eye that made me want to run the other way. Submerging himself totally in the character of a dangerous personality, Baldwin's fluctuations between pithy, grinning liar and ultra violent sociopath are sudden and shocking. Jennifer Jason Leigh, a personal favorite of mine, turns in a solid performance as the dense Susan Waggoner. She's such a mental midget, in fact, that she doesn't recognize her boyfriend's true personality despite the abundance of evidence in front of her face until well into the film. The real award here goes to the always reliable Fred Ward as the alcoholic, cynical cop Hoke Moseley. Ward has never been as much fun to watch as he is in "Miami Blues." A recurring subplot of the film involves Moseley's dentures, which Frenger steals when he roughs up the sergeant. The best scene in the film involves the cop dining with the hapless Susan and Fred in their little house, a scene that is rightfully a masterpiece of magnificent acting.
If there are any faults with "Miami Blues," it is in deciding exactly what genre the film falls in. Is this a black comedy? A cops and robbers film? A romance picture? Well, it is all of them rolled up into one. A further surprise involves the 'PG-13' rating for the film. I can't imagine how the MPAA let this one slide through without a 'R' with all the bloody violence, nudity, and adult situations unfolding every other minute. Regrettably, the DVD version of the film contains no extras. What a shame; I would have liked to listen to a commentary track with Baldwin, Leigh, and Ward. I highly recommend "Miami Blues" to those viewers who like to watch something a little different.
|
|
Picture 01 (20)
