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Reviews
Scarface (1983)
Why is this movie so great?
I had heard a lot of good things about this movie, but I don't understand why some people think it is so great or how it made the Top 250 list on IMDb.
My husband suggested that I see this movie after seeing a stand-up comedian who referred to the movie, and I didn't get the jokes. Instead of actually watching the movie, my husband could have explained to me that every other word was f***, and I would have understood the jokes completely without having to endure this film.
The plot of the movie is extremely simplistic---man makes it to America, man does a lot of bad things, man gets justice in the end. Nothing interesting, no plot twists. The characters are written in a way that doesn't make me at all interested in what will happen to them, with dialog that doesn't ring true (but maybe it's just dated). The musical score is typical of music for the time (early 1980s, think "Flashdance"), and is now very dated, and in no way relates to what we're seeing in the movie. With no plot, no characters I'm interested in, and terrible music, I was completely bored after 10 minutes of watching this movie.
The excessive use of f*** in all its various forms (which starts to wear thin within minutes), and all the blood make this just another movie about gangs. I assume that if you are interested in pursuing a life of crime, then perhaps this film is in some ways interesting for you as a vision for your "American Dream." For those of us who achieve our goals through hard work, this movie only makes me grateful that I have my American dream and that I never have to watch this movie again.
Hangmen (1987)
worst movie I've seen in years
The DVD version we bought had Sandra Bullock on the cover, but we've discovered it was a picture of her from another movie. Unfortunately, she is in this movie very little. You can, however, see how far she has come.
The one other bright spot in the movie, besides her very small part, were a few of the location scenes, shot in NYC and New Jersey in the 1980s.
The sound is terrible. Sometimes the background noise is so loud that the dialog is difficult to hear. Sometimes the dialog has been redone without any background noises at all, which is disconcerting. For example, sometimes when they are in the car, the noises from the car are too loud, and then suddenly there is absolutely no extra noise at all. The director is fond of close-ups on faces, and then it's clear that the movie has been over-dubbed because the words don't match the lip movements. Through most of the movie, the voices sound like the people are speaking into a tin can.
Background music, when there is music, is distracting instead of adding to the movie.
The direction is laughable. Goofy camera angles and sound effects make the movie look like a joke, especially during times when there is supposed to be tension, like in the middle of gun battles. The writing is terrible. There are some subplots that make no sense, and most of the characters come off looking very stupid because there is no explanation at all to their motivations. The writer/director tries to explain some of the relationships between the men that were together in Vietnam, but none of it makes sense. These top assassins and former soldiers don't seem to be able to see other people's shadows or hear other people moving. The actors go from calm to panic and back to calm again without any warning. It's simply a combination of bad directing and bad writing.
The production values are so bad that at first, we thought we had stumbled on someone's student film that just happened to have Sandra Bullock in it. If you like laughing at really poorly done student films, then this movie is for you. Otherwise, avoid this movie.