Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
DVD Description
The lure of power has snared two brothers (Tim Roth and Edward Furlong) into a deadly web of danger, deceit and passion too strong to resist. Torn between the sinister yet seductive world of crime and the bonds of family loyalty, the brothers must risk their lives to make a stand in the brutal struggle for survival in the mean streets of New York. An all star cast explodes in this action drama in the tradition of Goodfellas.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This 1994 film is set in Brighton Beach, the area of Brooklyn where Russians have settled. It's a rough and gritty neighborhood and we meet a family with multiple problems. The oldest son, Tim Roth, is a hit man for the mob who's been out of touch with his family for several years but has to come back to the neighborhood to carry out a murder. His teenage brother adores him and follows him to all the wrong places. The mother, played by Vanessa Redgrave, is dying of a brain tumor. The father, played by Maximillian Schell, works hard all day at a newspaper stand, cheats on his wife and is brutal to his sons. There is violence and murder throughout and the audience knows it will just get worse.
Usually, I complain because films like this are not realistic. However, I felt just the opposite about this film. It is almost too realistic, cruel and depressing. And there is no bit of lightness to offset the somber mood. I also felt some real emotion. To me this was serious stuff.
Performances were uniformly excellent, especially that of Maximillian Schell. He came across a real person with upsets and conflicts and bad choices. Tim Roth, who is actually a British actor, managed to get the New York street accent just right. The rest of the cast seemed completely authentic. I especially liked the family's large run-down apartment and the scenes shot near the beach during the winter. And the murders made me shudder because they were so very real.
The drama held my attention and let me feel the dilemma of this troubled family. It ends sadly, as I expected it would. And it is completely depressing. However, I liked it and therefore recommend it.
Usually, I complain because films like this are not realistic. However, I felt just the opposite about this film. It is almost too realistic, cruel and depressing. And there is no bit of lightness to offset the somber mood. I also felt some real emotion. To me this was serious stuff.
Performances were uniformly excellent, especially that of Maximillian Schell. He came across a real person with upsets and conflicts and bad choices. Tim Roth, who is actually a British actor, managed to get the New York street accent just right. The rest of the cast seemed completely authentic. I especially liked the family's large run-down apartment and the scenes shot near the beach during the winter. And the murders made me shudder because they were so very real.
The drama held my attention and let me feel the dilemma of this troubled family. It ends sadly, as I expected it would. And it is completely depressing. However, I liked it and therefore recommend it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
"Little Odessa," (1994), written and directed by James Gray, is a remarkably powerful and effective, award-winning American crime drama set among the Russian community in present-day Brooklyn, New York. At its heart, it's a tale of a dysfunctional family that has lost its way in its new American life. And it's been given a top-drawer cast, all of whom fully inhabit their roles. Arkady Shapira, played by Maximilian Schell, (The Odessa File [DVD]), is the unhappy father of this brood. In Russia, Shapira was a respected man; in Brooklyn he runs a newsstand. Irina, his wife, played by the superb Vanessa Redgrave, Mary Queen Of Scots [DVD] [1971], is suffering from a brain tumor. Tim Roth,Reservoir Dogs, in one of his best performances, is their disaffected son Joshua; he's become a professional hit man, and long exiled himself from family and neighborhood. Edward Furlong, Animal Factory [DVD] [2003], plays his confused younger brother Reuben. Moira Kelly, Cutting Edge The [DVD], turns in a fine performance as Alla Shustervich, former girlfriend of Roth's character.
Life and death business brings Roth's character Joshua back to Brooklyn's Brighton Beach neighborhood; it resembles the Russian Odessa, as so much of its population is now Russian-born, and both localities lie on the sea. The area is bleak in winter, and Joshua knows he should not return. But return he does, yearning to restore relations with his family, over his father's objections. It soon proves to have not been a good idea.
Those of us who lived in Brooklyn as the Russians came crowding in in the hundreds of thousands never quite knew what to make of them, nor, I suppose, do we yet. But this is surely the Brooklyn we know, with its massive, solid, prewar buildings -- huge boilers in the basements -- in which entire families have been born, lived, and died. And Gray's intense script has given his characters here dialog and usage that any Brooklynite would recognize. Furthermore, these actors, most especially including the British Roth, have sure got the local accent.
The movie is as bleak in outlook and outcome as its wintry, dirty-snowy setting, and, in its specificity and verisimilitude, it earns its status as a solid gangster picture.
Life and death business brings Roth's character Joshua back to Brooklyn's Brighton Beach neighborhood; it resembles the Russian Odessa, as so much of its population is now Russian-born, and both localities lie on the sea. The area is bleak in winter, and Joshua knows he should not return. But return he does, yearning to restore relations with his family, over his father's objections. It soon proves to have not been a good idea.
Those of us who lived in Brooklyn as the Russians came crowding in in the hundreds of thousands never quite knew what to make of them, nor, I suppose, do we yet. But this is surely the Brooklyn we know, with its massive, solid, prewar buildings -- huge boilers in the basements -- in which entire families have been born, lived, and died. And Gray's intense script has given his characters here dialog and usage that any Brooklynite would recognize. Furthermore, these actors, most especially including the British Roth, have sure got the local accent.
The movie is as bleak in outlook and outcome as its wintry, dirty-snowy setting, and, in its specificity and verisimilitude, it earns its status as a solid gangster picture.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This movie was directed by James Gray, who was only 24 when he made this movie and six years later he makes an even better movie called The Yards. This one starts out with Tim Roth playing a hit-man who can't or won't go back to Brooklyn because of his dad, who wants nothing to do with him and some Russian gangsters. Roth is ordered to go and he wants to keep a low profile but it doesn't work that way. His mother is dying and his father wants nothing to do him and his little brother, played by Edward Furlong, wants to be like him. The movie isn't exactly clear about who Roth has to kill but you slowly find out. It is a pretty good movie but The Yards is a much better film.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
