Even Gary Oldman can't save this cliched and overlong attempt to show the Irish Mob. The film is just too cliched to be taken seriously with heavy drinking, violence, religion and even a redhead girlfriend. The Departed has set the bar higher for the Irish Mob, who throughout US history have perhaps been second only to the Mafia so therefore deserve to be portrayed better than just a bunch of drunks. Lets hope the Emerald City continues the upward curve set by The Departed
Brilliant Sean Penn and Ed Harris performances, though Gary Oldman is the one who screams the most. Interesting story, dissapointing climactic showdown.
All the Gary Oldman fans will like this movie. Outstanding performance by Gary Oldman and Sean Penn but IMO the screenplay could have been so much better. Though worth watching if you like crime thrillers.
A raw, gritty, and brutal look at the Irish mob. Superb filmmaking. Strong, powerful, and solid performances...this is an excellent gangster film.
"Terry Noonan returns home to New York's Hells Kitchen after a ten year absence. He soon hooks up with childhood pal Jackie who is involved in the Irish mob run by his brother Frankie. Terry also rekindles an old flame with Jackie's sister Kathleen. Soon, however, Terry is torn between his loyalty to his friends and his loyalties to others."
Although each performance is almost flawless, Gary Oldman's stands out the most. What a maniac he is. A maniacal madman that's a ticking time bomb just waiting to erupt. His character is someone you definitely wouldn't want to bump into while walking down the street. Ed Harris plays his character good as well. He's truly convincing and certainly knows how to make the audience learn to hate his fu**ing guts. Sean Penn is another one who makes a solid performance. Everyone here is just great. We even got John Turturro and John C. Reilly making an appearance.
A powerhouse of a film. It's also very violent, but nothing you wouldn't be able to stomach. State of Grace is hands down one of my favorite gangster movies, right up there with Goodfellas and Casino. A must see for everyone!
yeah, this is one to watch for gary oldmans performance but that's pretty much all! the rest is slow, dull, boring and uninteresting. no wonder it came in 2nd place to goodfellas. it is nowhere near as good
Good gangster movie, all the charachters are strongly bonded with each other wether by blood,friedship,love or loyalty...the main finds himself struggling with the dilemma of betraying or not this bonds.Very gripping and intense.
An impressive dark gangster movie, The Ending is amazing & I also liked Terry's lines about Idea & reality, 3.5 stars because it's somehow overlooked, pity
A gangster movie classic. A stylish, gripping, taunt and exhilerating movie. A powerful, tough, insightful, suspenseful and awsome experiance. Superb career defining performances by it's astonishing cast. Truly dedicated, moving and passionate performances. Sean Penn is riveting. Gary Oldman is electrifying. Ed Harris is brilliant. The chemistry is remarkable. A crime film of family, friendship, loyalty and betrayel. A real knockout. A masterpiece. A tour-de-force of breathtaking felocity. A drilling, explosive, nail-biting and unforgettable edge of your seat thriller. Well told and skillfully crafted.
Extremely overlooked film. A dark and clever gangster film with a terrific cast. A career best performance for Gary Oldman, probably second to Norman Stansfield in Leon, he gives a chilling performance as an Irish gangster. Not only does he play a psychopath-who-keeps-body-parts-in-his-freezer fantastically well but he also makes him likeable. Also in my opinion he made Sean Penn seem boring in this film.
It's tense, gritty and action-packed but unfortunately not without it's cliches, it also tends to lag with the scenes with Penn and Robin Wright.
Highly recommended, Gary Oldman's knockout performance is reason enough to see it.
Very little seen irish gangster film. Too bad it was released at the same time as Goodfellas. Great performances all around. An wonderful overlooked gem.
An impressive cast including Sean Penn, Gary Oldman and Ed Harris, all of whom played great roles. A very enjoyable story, witht he most realistic shooting scenes I think I've ever watched. This film is definitely worthy of another watch, just to pick up on pieces missed first time around.
This is a definite recommendation to anyone who enjoys Organised crime/gangster style films.
Well with this flim Sean Penn proves once again that he has the chops and he's not going anywhere. This movie made me totally dislike ed harris, he is such a greasy guy in this film.
This is a great film that no one seems to know about. I watched it again last night after having bought it recently. I forgot how tragic it is and how intense. It's a very interesting look at humanity. Sean Penn and Gary Oldman are superb.
I will say this for the film. It is A POWERHOUSE of Acting. I'm not a fan of Sean Penn. That being said this is my favorite Sean Penn film. Gary Oldman is my favorite actor and he delivered one HELL of a performance. Ed Harris, Robin Wright Penn, and John C. Reiley blow the movie away as well. The plot however felt like it was being heald together by string cheese. If it wasn't for Ed Harris Playing the type of ccharacter he did this movie would have been unbelievable for me. It was also too long. Though I was enjoying the performance I was looking at my watch alot near the end. The ending was worth the wait though. It was filmed in the same gritty style all 80's Drama/action flicks were filmed and admitedly I enjoy that style. Overall it's a movie you watch once and that's good enough.
One of the most under-rated movies. Hardly anyone knows that this even exists. It is one of my top 10 movies of all time. Sean Penn is amazing in it, and Gary Oldman delivers a remarkable performance as usual. It is about the Irish mob in New York. Ed Harris, Sean Penn, John C. Reilly, John Turturro, and Robin Wright Penn are also in it. (This was before she was married to Sean Penn, so her name was just Robin Wright.) Really powerful speech by Sean Penn that gives the movie it's title.
One of the most underrated gangster films ever made. Sean Penn, Ed Harris, and especially Gary Oldman do some of their very best work in this very unappreciated minor masterpiece.
I actually picked this up the same day I grabbed Dark Blue, both having never heard of the films, but being part of a promotion of ultra-cheap MGM movies with an overall action theme. I mean, I look at the cover and there are the images and names of...what? Sean Penn? Gary Oldman? Ed Harris? How could I NOT pick this up?
NOTE ONE: DO NOT READ FILM SYNPOSES OF THIS MOVIE. IF YOU SEE THE DVD--DON'T READ THE BACK COVER. MAJOR SPOILERS ARE PRESENT.
I, however, will do my best to avoid them. Essentially, this is a film about the Irish mob in New York City, specifically Hell's Kitchen. We open on Terry Noonan (Sean Penn) standing next to the river, when a guy (John Turturro) comes up and hands him a bag with guns in it. We then cut to Terry in a car with Demarco (James Russo) apparently meeting someone there. It turns out to be a drug deal, and none other than Turturro reappears with a partner and betrays Terry, forcing him to shoot both of them. After a long fade to black, we come back to see Terry wandering downtown and into a bar, seeing across it a man with stringy brown hair hanging around his face--Jackie Flannery (Gary Oldman) telling a story to a group of other men. Terry sits down and is finally recognized by his friend Jackie who asks him where he went after he killed those two men (as we saw earlier). He was hiding out in various places around the country, but now we're seeing him re-united with his childhood friend. Jackie reveals himself as the wild and energetic loose cannon of Hell's Kitchen's Irish criminal contingent (in an unsurprisingly excellent peformance) as he wildly shows off his favourite gun on the bar's roof, and then shows Terry the new 'gag' they use to prevent the loss of favourite firearms when they're used in a crime.
Sitting down in a now-closed bar, Terry and Jackie are soon met by Kathleen Flannery (Robin Wright, later Robin Wright Penn as she married Sean) who was an old flame of Terry's, and, as you might have guessed by the name, is Jackie's sister. She is still angry with Terry for leaving, and uncomfortable in this setting as she and Jackie snap at each other momentarily over Jackie's lifestyle, as well as that of their brother Frankie, who Jackie says now runs things. They go to see Frankie (Ed Harris) in New Jersey, and we begin to learn that in fact Frankie does not run things, because he is led by Italian mobster Borelli (Joe Viterelli). Terry seems unsure about restarting this way of life, especially in light of Kathleen's distaste for it, but begins to take on jobs assigned by Frankie, including shaking down a bartender--leading to a fight between Frankie's men, started by Stevie (John C. Reilly) and a shakedown of a man named Finn (Burgess Meredith). OK, honestly, those two points are not important--but, c'mon, it's Burgess Meredith and John C. Reilly, gimme a break, I had to work them in. Borelli is interesting as a mobster; he speaks of being "insulted" and "offended" by simple things, in a way we know is done to exercise his power over others, and I think of hearing similar things from people like Vito Corleone, or even Michael Corleone and thinking they were pretty "cool" (in the way that fictional godfather figures are) yet I wanted to punch Borelli whenever he did it, as it just seemed ridiculous, arrogant and asinine, as opposed to being a demand for "deserved" respect.
Now, with a cast like this...yeah, the performances are absolutely wonderful. Harris pulls only the second street-tough role I can recall (the other being his part in A History of Violence) when I normally think of him in terms such as Jackson Pollock, or as John Glenn. Oldman is manic and believable as an uncontrolled younger brother to an organized crime leader, overly passionate and overly trusting, unwashed and a bit of a thug. Penn is perfect in his tortured confusion between his loyalty to his old friends and the clear distaste he has for their work, possibly because of where it led him before, or possibly because he wants to avoid having to leave after just getting back. Wright actually has an amazingly fantastic scene at one point where she confronts Terry with her anxiety over her brothers' chosen occupations, exploding at him with believable emotion and intensity as the stress of their lives and her attempts to distance herself from it reach a head.
The final shootout (I hope it's not a surprise that a crime movie has a shootout) was beautiful in its way, and Zack Snyder could take a lesson from director Phil Joanou on how to use constant slow motion to REAL emotional effect. It's possibly the best I've seen, and not in a John Woo "Wow!" sort of way, but in an incredibly tense, balletic sort of way, with some pretty impressive squibs and gore involved (nothing of the 'recognizable body parts that create a disturbing image' sort of gore, mind you). Apparently a lot of people thought it ruined the movie, but I maintain they are insane.
Final note, which probably could have easily been the first note, or even every note, the soundtrack. Now, in the bars, we hear lots of music, often Irish (as these are certainly the kind of folk who are proud of their heritage) with U2's "Trip Through Your Wires" (an underrated song, even if it is from their most highly rated album), Van Morrison's "Moondance," and the non-irish "Sweet Child O Mine" by Guns 'N' Roses. We hear the Stones' "Street Fighting Man" in Jackie's car, and Lyle Lovett's (!) "I Loved You Yesterday" in an Italian bar (?!). But, more importantly, as I started watching, there were simply fuzzy, grainy home-movie style shots with only the score behind them, and an absolutely haunting score it was. I was sure I'd have to go back and find out who did it, when what else appeared on the screen but "Music Composed, Orchestrated and Conducted by Ennio Morricone." "I should have known!" I said to myself immediately, and instantly loved Morricone just a little bit more. This is possibly my favourite theme he has ever done, with a low woodwind melody sort of oscillating over drawn out, low strings. It is absolutely heart-breaking, and he, as always, is able to draw this theme out into many uses throughout the film, and to turn in some excellently tense, dramatic moments as appropriate too. This theme though, good lord, see the movie for that alone.
One of my personal favorites with Sean Penn about the irish mob (Westies) in NY. The plot is fast and furious as these characters short fuses and suspicions take a hold of their emotions leaving no room for honor and loyalty!! An excellent and memorable performance by Gary Oldman as a volatile younger brother of mob boss Ed Harris. Although the critics killed this film and highly criticized the ending, I find it to be a a solid crime drama that can be among the ranks of "Goodfellas" and "Scarface"!!
One thing is for sure. Gary Oldman is a brilliant actor, and the wiilder and crazier the charachters he plays, the more he shines. This movie is no exception. It's Sean Penn who plays the main character, but this is Gary Oldman's movie. He rules!!.
Oldman and Penn are at their best in this little known, but great mob film. Think "Goodfellas" meets "The Pope of Greenwich Village", but with more balls. Serve this film with Irish boiled bacon and cabbage with a side of boiled potatoes. Beverages should include several bottles of Harp lager, and one bracing shot of Bushmills Irish whiskey for when Oldman's character gets whacked.
Very well written, but sadly typical of many of the other gangster flicks in the genre. Well, Gary Oldman was in it, and to be honest, once he was done, I was kinda not so interested how it all ended. My favorite psycho bit actor was taken away, and the rest.. meh, sean penn.. heh. okay. Thanks to INXSfan for pointing out this film. Was worth a watch at least!
MCT:September 14, 2008
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