Lorraine-Bracco Movie Reviews

A side-splitting comedy about four mental patients: Michael Keaton as a habitual liar who has violent tendencies, Christopher Lloyd as an obsessive-compulsive who thinks he runs the hospital, Peter Boyle as a former advertising executive with a messiah complex who likes to take his clothes off, and Stephen Furst as catatonic couch potato. Against the wishes of the hospital administration, their compassionate doctor takes the four patients to New York City to watch a major league baseball game. When the van reaches the city, the doctor has to exit the van - with patients still inside - only to witness a murder committed by two corrupt cops. The doctor is attacked by the cops, leaving him hospitalized and unable to help his patients. The patients then find themselves framed for the murder. Now the patients have to not only act "sane" to prove their innocence, they also have to save the life of their doctor who is still a target of the two cops.

What makes this movie work is the relationship of the patients. It is so much fun watching Keaton, Lloyd, and Boyle bicker all the time about the littlest things. Boyle has a really funny scene in which he leaves the van while Lloyd tries to block him. Boyle then muscles his way past Lloyd, tells him that He shall have no false gods before Him, and finally he tells Lloyd to get out his way before calling him a seven-letter word. There might only be so much you can do with a catatonic character, but Furst is quite memorable. Even though the doctor must have the patience of a saint when dealing with them, he probably has a harder time suppressing a laugh. Quite simply, this is a movie that gets better every time you watch it.

This is the sort of movie you can see a hundred times without getting bored. Four 'lunatics' try to track down their psychiatrist after he has been mugged. Hampered by their own mental problems and a society which is less than understanding they manage to find him and protect him from two corrupt policemen. A good script is further enhanced by excellent team-work from the actors includig Michael Keaton, Christopher Loyd, Stephen Furst and Peter Boyle. At theend of the movie you truly begin to wonder who is really crazy: the four nutcases, or the society around them.

Just got through watching it, and I'm still cracking up at those incredibly funny situations and classic one liners.The plot is about 4 "psychos"; Billy, a pathological liar with a violent streak, finds himself on loose in New York City with his fellow group therapy patients: Henry, a neat freak; Jack a former advertising executive who thinks he's Christ; and Albert a catatonic couch potato. Faced with the task of rescuing their missing doctor from a pair of crooked cops (who mess him up real bad), the group finds themselves sharing a series of hilarious misadventures in this farce hilarious comedy that is sure to have you on the floor. It's hysterical! One of the funniest movies I've ever seen!

A side-splitting comedy about four mental patients: Michael Keaton as a habitual liar who has violent tendencies, Christopher Lloyd as an obsessive-compulsive who thinks he runs the hospital, Peter Boyle as a former advertising executive with a messiah complex who likes to take his clothes off, and Stephen Furst as catatonic couch potato. Against the wishes of the hospital administration, their compassionate doctor takes the four patients to New York City to watch a major league baseball game. When the van reaches the city, the doctor has to exit the van - with patients still inside - only to witness a murder committed by two corrupt cops. The doctor is attacked by the cops, leaving him hospitalized and unable to help his patients. The patients then find themselves framed for the murder. Now the patients have to not only act "sane" to prove their innocence, they also have to save the life of their doctor who is still a target of the two cops.

What makes this movie work is the relationship of the patients. It is so much fun watching Keaton, Lloyd, and Boyle bicker all the time about the littlest things. Boyle has a really funny scene in which he leaves the van while Lloyd tries to block him. Boyle then muscles his way past Lloyd, tells him that He shall have no false gods before Him, and finally he tells Lloyd to get out his way before calling him a seven-letter word. There might only be so much you can do with a catatonic character, but Furst is quite memorable. Even though the doctor must have the patience of a saint when dealing with them, he probably has a harder time suppressing a laugh. Quite simply, this is a movie that gets better every time you watch it.

This is the sort of movie you can see a hundred times without getting bored. Four 'lunatics' try to track down their psychiatrist after he has been mugged. Hampered by their own mental problems and a society which is less than understanding they manage to find him and protect him from two corrupt policemen. A good script is further enhanced by excellent team-work from the actors includig Michael Keaton, Christopher Loyd, Stephen Furst and Peter Boyle. At theend of the movie you truly begin to wonder who is really crazy: the four nutcases, or the society around them.

Just got through watching it, and I'm still cracking up at those incredibly funny situations and classic one liners.The plot is about 4 "psychos"; Billy, a pathological liar with a violent streak, finds himself on loose in New York City with his fellow group therapy patients: Henry, a neat freak; Jack a former advertising executive who thinks he's Christ; and Albert a catatonic couch potato. Faced with the task of rescuing their missing doctor from a pair of crooked cops (who mess him up real bad), the group finds themselves sharing a series of hilarious misadventures in this farce hilarious comedy that is sure to have you on the floor. It's hysterical! One of the funniest movies I've ever seen!

so this movie could very well be the best 80's movie ever - its amazing!!! i've been watching it for years - great one liners - "Hannah, Hannah, wheres my costume" ; "I don't remember anything from high school, except this, and you" - not to mention that peter dobsons butt is perfect!! great music (pick up the soundtrack - its worth it) and dancing. great rendition of madonna's "like a virgin" - so funny. you've gotta watch it or your really missing out on one excellent flick.

I LOVE this movie. I am a sucker for cheesy stories and this is one of them. While some of the acting could be improved, I loved the romance story as well as the struggle to put on one final SING. The music is great and so is the dancing, although, it is a little obvious that Peter Dobson and Lorraine Bracco do not do all their own dancing. I strongly reccommend this movie. It is one of my personal favorites.

SING has been a real thing in Brooklyn, New York for many, many years. When they were making this movie, they came to Midwood HS to film some footage of us working on our SING. This was in 1987. When the film came out they even screened it especially for SING leadership. The movie (while fun) doesn't do the real thing justice. The hours of hard work, friendship, and love that go into putting SING together are incredible.

I have read many reviews on Radio Flyer, most concerned with the ambiguity of the ending. I saw the movie for the first time a few weeks ago. After watching it, I decided that it had, in fact, been a good movie. It was able to depict many aspects of child abuse, emotionally and physcially, along with the unstableness of the family. However, this alone does not even scratch the surface of the movie's depth. Like I said, after watching the movie, I had decided that it was good. However, if Mike's brother Bobby had flown off and never returned, then where did the turtle in the end come from? The same turtle that they boys had found when they were little, and the same turtle that Bobby took with him on his flight. After this perplexing detail was brought to my attention, I realized that Mike (tom hanks) at the beginning of the movie had said "History is all in the mind of the teller; truth is in the teller". The story recounted by Mike being told to his children was his version of what actually happened to him, and him alone, as a child. After considering this, other facts seemed to make sense. Why had only Bobby been abused? Why hadn't Bobby's flyer ever seem to fail? and for that matter, why hadn't Bobby ever come back? Because Bobby had never existed. In an attempt to escape his own childhood dilemas and tragedies, Mike created an outlet to disguard all his pain. The new idea of this ending made the movie so much better than I had originally perceived it. I'd definitely recommend it, even if it's just to get your own view on the ending :).

I had seen this movie a couple time when I was younger. It always made me sad. But I saw it on Tv recently and decided to watch it, and I did. But I didn't closely watch it. Because I came on Amazon.com and read some reviews that opened my eyes to the movie in a new way. And with knowing this detail the end makes a lot more sense.

Th story is about Mickey and Bobby. Two brothers who live their mother, their stepfather, and a dog. And later a pet turle as well. But Bobby is being abused by the stepfather so together Bobby and Mickey work to make an escape for him, via a Radio Flyer wagon that they make into a flyer.

Now I'm not going to tell you what will help you understand the movie better on many different levels, as many other reviews talk about it.

But I would like to talk about the childrens performances. Both Elijah Wood and Joseph Marzello are absolutely amazing. Its worth seeing the movie just for their performances alone. If you're a fan of Elijah Wood and have'nt seen this, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR.! And if you have seen it, watch it again, and bear in mind that "History is in the mind of the teller, truth is the teller."

So you be the judge of what the movie and the ending are. :D

This deals freely with domestic abuse so if you like to pretend its not there, well.... I wont even go there. But for everyone else *enjoy*.! :D

This is a wonderful movie -- beautiful story, incredible acting, very true emotions. I highly recommend it, to people who aren't only looking for "escape" from movies.

There's been a lot of debate on this and other boards about the ending of the movie. I say -- let everyone decide for him/herself. Ambiguity is a beautiful thing in art if done well, and I think the writers/director of the movie wanted the end to be ambiguous. There is no "right" answer; there's only what you think in your own mind after watching. I have my own opinion, which is actually different from what most people seem to think, but that's exactly what makes this movie great, not just good.

Don't take my middle of the road three star rating as a sign of apathy. This movie is one you will either love or hate, and in my case I very much enjoyed certain things and very strongly disliked others.

Obivously the big draw in this movie is Leonardo DiCaprio. I have to say, he does an outstanding job with this role. In the true story of drugged-out high schooler Jim Carroll, he thrives on the type of script Academy Awards are made out of: tons of opportunities for him to be high, low, enraged, in sorrow. There are a lot of opportunities to use his physicality in the role, and he seizes every one. In particular I think of his drug withdrawal sequence and he and his friends' mourning the death of a close friend by getting drunk and playing basketball in the rain.

The plot has a sixteen year old Jim Carroll playing high school basketball. Three of his teammates are his best friends, and when not on the basketball court, they tend to find all kinds of "innocent" trouble around New York (knocking over food vendor carts, for instance). Another outlet of energy for Jim alone is his diary where he records sensations he feels in his young life.

His search for sensation and his friends' desire to find trouble coalesces in experiments with drugs like cocaine and herione. As Jim notes in the monologue of the movie, there is no such thing as a part-time addict. They fall further and further into the downward spiral in an effort to evade pressures from school teachers, coaches, and parents.

Some of the scenes in this movie are very gripping and visceral. However, the links between these scenes tend to be bogged down in poor directing. I realize this movie was a lower budgeted one, but there really is no excuse for having a movie made in 1995 that looks like it was made in 1985. While the performance by DiCaprio is extraordinary, the directing is lackluster. Poor camera angles, helpless lighting, bit part actors who look and sound amateur; those should all be blamed on the director.

However, this movie is worthwhile if you are one who has a particular interest in either Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg (he stars as a main character and one of Jim Carroll's best friends), or the subject matter. I have to say I thought "Trainspotting" handled the subject of drug use extremely well, but this movie is right up there in the ability to depict the sensations felt by those addicted.

The name Jim Carroll may not be familiar to mainstream, radio-friendly listeners, but to those who know about rock poetry and Punk Carroll is one of the genre's greatest word-players along with Patti Smith and has recorded two especially noteworthy works, "Catholic Boy" and "The People Who Died," which sound like wonderfully gritty hybrids of beat poetry and Punk rock. "The Basketball Diaries" is based on Carroll's novel of the same name which is a testament of his days living in the streets of New York during which he became addicted to heroin, saw friends either die or spiral down into self-destruction and eventually found his talent for words as an exit out of the hell he was trapped in. As a movie, the story comes alive with a powerful impact. Director Scott Kalvert does not make the movie into an obvious anti-drug message, instead the story of Carroll's teen years is simply just...told. There is almost a documentary-like realism in how scenes are put together, nothing feels false but instead chillingly real. Anyone who has lived in an environment like this or attended high school in the more gritty, violent sections of a city can instantly relate to the people and events. The actors bring these characters to live with great believability, Leonardo DiCaprio broke through with this role, but even his recent work in films like "Titanic" and "Gangs Of New York" seems more tame compared to his brilliant, effective performance here. The scenes where Carroll is addicted to heroin and lives in the junkie underworld are performed by DiCaprio with a vivid realism that is disturbing. One reviewer here complained about the movie missing a plot, plot is not something central here, the story is central and it is the story of a very talented young man gripped by addiction in a world where vices and the darker side of life can easily suck you in. And of course, there is some great music here by Soundgarden, The Doors, The Cult and a great highlight which is Carroll performing "Catholic Boy" with Pearl Jam. In the history of rock music there are many popular stories of addiction from Iggy Pop to Scott Weiland, Carroll's is brought to life in a movie that breathes and doesn't need to throw the message in your face, the message is right there in the story itself.

If you're looking for a cross-section into the world of drugs, forget "Trainspotting". It's entertaining, but specifically designed and intended for a Pulp Fictionesque underground cult following. "Basketball Diaries" is not only a true story, but much more honest, direct, and realistic.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jim Carroll, real life poet and ex-junkie. Carroll and his friends start off averagely enough as a group of lower class punks out looking for cheap thrills. And though their after school lifestyle is less than admirable, they do take their basketball seriously and are stars of their high school team. Carroll also takes his writing seriously, and some of the poetry in the movie is pretty impressive, I must say.

Carroll and Co. are not exactly characters you sympathize with. Before they even descend into hardcore drug use, they're already robbing rival basketball teams and committing other assorted acts of selfishness. Their hospitalized friend Bobby was such a creep in his pre-cancer days that I honestly didn't feel anything at all when he finally died. His friends' post-funeral drunken eulogies of him being caught by a priest in the school bathroom during the sticky finale of oral sex made me wonder if the purpose of this revelation was to move me to applaud the jerk's death.

However, the purpose of this film was less about character integrity as it was about life's downward spiral brought on by drug use. And it was in this capacity that the film did an outstanding job, better than any other I've seen. DiCaprio's cold turkey and relapse scenes were excellent, and MUCH more accurate than the ones in "Trainspotting", which just showed some kid sweating and screaming at a few comically stupid hallucinations.

As someone who's seen this happen, I can attest to the reality of the desperation, crime, poverty, hopeless addiction, and the complete self-destruction that comes with cocaine and heroin that this movie displays. "Traffic" fell slightly short of showing how much drugs had affected Michael Douglass' family, but had no choice due to the multi-perspective design of the movie. "Blow" simply glorified drugs and lionized a scumbag drug dealer. "Basketball Diaries" is a true story that is probably similar to the stories of many others. Learn as much as you can from this movie.

With Robert de Niro starring as Jimmy ''the Gent'' Conway, this film has a perfect cast, it is also brutally funny with ... conversation, this film is not for the light hearted.
It is not as boring as ''The Godfather'' films and I'd have to give it maximun marks, its great!

This sprawling epic of one man's true life journey in one of the most notorious NYC crime families spanning nearly 4 decades portrays as many laugh-out-loud moments as it does makes-you-flinch violence and brutality.

The movie features great acting, interesting characters and a great story. The soundtrack, set and warddrobe effectively mark each passing decade - from the do wop 50s & 60s to the "Layla" 70s to Sid Vicious' "My Way" at the conclusion.

Pesci, DeNiro and Liotta are all fantastic as the 3 main characters, as are Loarraine Brocco as Liotta's wife and Paul Sorvino as the strong, silent Mob boss.

The film maintains its uniqueness and never seems to fall back into 'Godfather' territory. The conclusion's slow descent into drugs, paranoia and betrayal (reminiscent of "Sid n Nancy") is a car wreck that you can't turn away from.

Minimal extras do not detract from the greatness of this film on DVD.
Also recommended:all 3 films mentioned above; the 1st 2 'Godfather' movies and of course, "Goodfellas", the book.

This movie pars with Mean Streets as the best gangster movie of all time. GoodFellas is more detailed while Mean Streets is more simplistic. The movie is basically the life of Henry Hill, a gangster who was in the mafia from 1955 to 1980. The movie shows you how gang life changed over the course of 2 and a half hours. At first, no one got killed unless it was absolutly necessary. Then, killings became a habit. Robert DeNiro is perfect as a nervous wreck of a man, and Joe Pesci is always crazy, but in this movie, he perfects the Italian stereotype. Ray Liotta is also exceptionally good, and the movie flows very nicely. THe music is AWESOME. Check out the part where DeNiro's in a bar smoking and Cream comes on. Best movie music ever. Anyway, this movie is really good, has really good violence, and has no epic feel despite the length. Highly reccomended.

With Robert de Niro starring as Jimmy ''the Gent'' Conway, this film has a perfect cast, it is also brutally funny with ... conversation, this film is not for the light hearted.
It is not as boring as ''The Godfather'' films and I'd have to give it maximun marks, its great!

This sprawling epic of one man's true life journey in one of the most notorious NYC crime families spanning nearly 4 decades portrays as many laugh-out-loud moments as it does makes-you-flinch violence and brutality.

The movie features great acting, interesting characters and a great story. The soundtrack, set and warddrobe effectively mark each passing decade - from the do wop 50s & 60s to the "Layla" 70s to Sid Vicious' "My Way" at the conclusion.

Pesci, DeNiro and Liotta are all fantastic as the 3 main characters, as are Loarraine Brocco as Liotta's wife and Paul Sorvino as the strong, silent Mob boss.

The film maintains its uniqueness and never seems to fall back into 'Godfather' territory. The conclusion's slow descent into drugs, paranoia and betrayal (reminiscent of "Sid n Nancy") is a car wreck that you can't turn away from.

Minimal extras do not detract from the greatness of this film on DVD.
Also recommended:all 3 films mentioned above; the 1st 2 'Godfather' movies and of course, "Goodfellas", the book.

This movie pars with Mean Streets as the best gangster movie of all time. GoodFellas is more detailed while Mean Streets is more simplistic. The movie is basically the life of Henry Hill, a gangster who was in the mafia from 1955 to 1980. The movie shows you how gang life changed over the course of 2 and a half hours. At first, no one got killed unless it was absolutly necessary. Then, killings became a habit. Robert DeNiro is perfect as a nervous wreck of a man, and Joe Pesci is always crazy, but in this movie, he perfects the Italian stereotype. Ray Liotta is also exceptionally good, and the movie flows very nicely. THe music is AWESOME. Check out the part where DeNiro's in a bar smoking and Cream comes on. Best movie music ever. Anyway, this movie is really good, has really good violence, and has no epic feel despite the length. Highly reccomended.

With Robert de Niro starring as Jimmy ''the Gent'' Conway, this film has a perfect cast, it is also brutally funny with ... conversation, this film is not for the light hearted.
It is not as boring as ''The Godfather'' films and I'd have to give it maximun marks, its great!

This sprawling epic of one man's true life journey in one of the most notorious NYC crime families spanning nearly 4 decades portrays as many laugh-out-loud moments as it does makes-you-flinch violence and brutality.

The movie features great acting, interesting characters and a great story. The soundtrack, set and warddrobe effectively mark each passing decade - from the do wop 50s & 60s to the "Layla" 70s to Sid Vicious' "My Way" at the conclusion.

Pesci, DeNiro and Liotta are all fantastic as the 3 main characters, as are Loarraine Brocco as Liotta's wife and Paul Sorvino as the strong, silent Mob boss.

The film maintains its uniqueness and never seems to fall back into 'Godfather' territory. The conclusion's slow descent into drugs, paranoia and betrayal (reminiscent of "Sid n Nancy") is a car wreck that you can't turn away from.

Minimal extras do not detract from the greatness of this film on DVD.
Also recommended:all 3 films mentioned above; the 1st 2 'Godfather' movies and of course, "Goodfellas", the book.

This movie pars with Mean Streets as the best gangster movie of all time. GoodFellas is more detailed while Mean Streets is more simplistic. The movie is basically the life of Henry Hill, a gangster who was in the mafia from 1955 to 1980. The movie shows you how gang life changed over the course of 2 and a half hours. At first, no one got killed unless it was absolutly necessary. Then, killings became a habit. Robert DeNiro is perfect as a nervous wreck of a man, and Joe Pesci is always crazy, but in this movie, he perfects the Italian stereotype. Ray Liotta is also exceptionally good, and the movie flows very nicely. THe music is AWESOME. Check out the part where DeNiro's in a bar smoking and Cream comes on. Best movie music ever. Anyway, this movie is really good, has really good violence, and has no epic feel despite the length. Highly reccomended.

We all know how great this movie is...yada...yada...yada. Its one of scorsese's best, if not the best. But this DVD is awful, the picture is not up to par, it seems a little better than VCR levels, there are errors on the print, just not good. No commentary; outakes; deleted scenes..nada! and the kicker is that its a TWO-SIDED DVD! you have to flip it over to continue the movie! who ever heard of that? this came out in the DVD early days and was rushed to the market. A new SE with commentary is on its way out, so for those of you who can, i highly recommend waiting for the new version.

This film just knocked my socks off. No question about it. Just awesome. Again, I am troubled by so much violence, but that is the mob life, right? At least in this movie, violence plays a necessary part.

Pesci was just an unbelievable force in this film--do you think if he HADN'T become an actor, he would have been a hit man??? :-) Another stand out performance is Michael Imperioli--who goes on to play Christopher Moltisanti in the Sopranos--is terrific as Spider, the waiter who gets shot in the foot by Pesci's character. I think this may well be Ray Liotta's finest hour as well as Lorraine Bracco's.

No matter what, this film will leave an impression on you.

With Robert de Niro starring as Jimmy ''the Gent'' Conway, this film has a perfect cast, it is also brutally funny with ... conversation, this film is not for the light hearted.
It is not as boring as ''The Godfather'' films and I'd have to give it maximun marks, its great!

I have never seen another movie in which the actors were more capable of baring their souls with nothing more than the expression in their eyes. Bracco, Rodgers and Berenger 'spoke' far more than was scripted, leading us through the changes in relationships between the characters and the depth of feeling accompanying those changes without words. In most scenes concerning the confusion, pain, desperation and love which ties Mike, Ellie and Clair together, the spoken word was practically superfluous.

Ridley Scott is a master at creating tangible atmosphere; I could feel the bite of the cold New York air and smell the aromas of the city; I could have wrapped the opulence of Clair's penthouse around me like a silk duvetyn. Mr. Scott is also a master of the understated. Consider the moment that Mike crossed the line of fidelity and kissed Clair for the first time.... There was more passion in that embrace, in that kiss, than I have seen in a dozen movies put together since, because I was left to make of it what I would. Less being more, each viewer is allowed to create their own vision of what took place behind those closed doors, and so to make this part of the movie their own.

I admire the way Mr. Scott used the Manhattan skyline to show the change in Mike's focus. First Mike waits for his train, back turned to Manhattan, absorbed in his daily paper. The next morning he glances up at the skyline wistfully, having seen up close how the other half lives, aware that he could never belong there. Finally he gazes longingly uptown to where Clair waits, unsure as to how he arrived at this impossible juncture in his life.

To add accolaids once again to the actors, director and to the screenplay, I must say that although I am not a proponent of adultery, I completely empathized with each character by the end of the film. (I truely thought that I would hate Mike). The characters were so well developed and their emotions were so clearly defined (in part due to that non-verbal communication) that I cared about each one of them, and for a moment wished that everyone could live 'happily ever after'. This is no fairy tale, though. Life is tough, but we all go on, as do Mike, Ellie and Clair.

One last note .... The only reason I gave this film 4 instead of 5 stars was that god-awful opera that played constantly throughout Clair's penthouse. Had I been Clair I would have jumped off of the building! (Yes, I realize I have just incurred the ire of all opera lovers - I'm sorry.) The saving grace was that we got to hear two renditions of that great classic "Someone To Watch Over Me". A song to soothe all souls.

Personally speaking, I like a nice fairly straightforward thriller-type movie, with a little suspense, and a little romance, so this was up my ally! The characters were amazingly well-developed I thought, given the genre, and their situation was really compelling. Mimi Rogers was wonderful in her role-- not at all the "shallow" socialite stereotype, but a real person with real worries and real needs... Go ahead and check this one out if you're looking for a way to pass an evening! But get the DVD if you can, I found the VHS to be pretty low quality.

This movie somehow got overlooked in theatres, but there's no need to miss it now.

Long story short: Rich socialite Mimi Rogers witnesses a mob hit and thus becomes a target. Tom Berenger is a blue-collar cop assigned to protect her. He is attracted to her, but is married (to Lorraine Bracco, playing the same character she always played before The Sopranos). Complicating matters is that she is attracted to him and the intense situation is constantly pushing them together.

What sets "Someone..." apart from other movies with similar plots is that Bracco's character is pretty sympathetic so it's not a cut-and-dried issue. Berenger is drawn to Rogers because she is a vulnerable woman who needs protection. Bracco's character is a strong, independent Brooklynite who can challenge him in the relationship, but can't provide the one thing he needs (a chance to be needed). High-concept stuff when you think about it.

All of this romance is sandwiched in between a pretty good thriller as Berenger attempts to protect Rogers from some very bad guys. The thriller-story is what the movie was sold on and it succeeds on that level.

The DVD offers some good extras, but nothing inventive.

Don't miss this one a second time.