Michael-Rispoli Movie Reviews

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VHS movie reviews for "Michael-Rispoli" sorted by average review score:
Burnzy's Last Call
Released in VHS Tape by (01 February, 2000)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Director: Michael De Avila
Average review score:

Say Hey to Mayday!
Fans of the TV series "Cheers" will enjoy this simply and entertaining tale of a New York City watering hole and it's host of patrons. The movie stars the slick-haired and tight-lipped barkeep, Sal, and a 75-year old World War Two vet, Burnzy, as they play host to a cosmopolitan crowd one New York summer night. Delightfully entertaining, this Indie-film offers plenty of laughs and insight and will have you dreading the last call.

Burnzy's Last Call
Released in VHS Tape by Vanguard Cinema (26 November, 2002)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Director: Michael De Avila
Average review score:

Say Hey to Mayday!
Fans of the TV series "Cheers" will enjoy this simply and entertaining tale of a New York City watering hole and it's host of patrons. The movie stars the slick-haired and tight-lipped barkeep, Sal, and a 75-year old World War Two vet, Burnzy, as they play host to a cosmopolitan crowd one New York summer night. Delightfully entertaining, this Indie-film offers plenty of laughs and insight and will have you dreading the last call.

Household Saints
Released in VHS Tape by Columbia/Tristar Studios (18 April, 2000)
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Director: Nancy Savoca
Starring: Tracey Ullman and Vincent D'Onofrio
Average review score:

It's not for the Pope....it's for God.
This is one of my favorite top 10 movies. My favorite character is the superstitious Santangelo Gramma who once picked clam shells out of the garbage and made a delicious soup. Household Saints reminds me of friends and relatives that were all around me growing up.

wow
This movie is amazing. it's about hope, superstition and the desire to find ones own true happiness. You do not have to be religious or have a basic understanding of theology (like a previous reviewer stated). it explains things to you as you need to know them. it has a perfect cast, story line and is wonderfully directed. this is one of those movies that you hope everyone sees at lesat once...hopfeully more.

Household Saints
This movie has a haunting quality that stays with you and in quiet moments you see scenes in your mind's eye and it makes you wish to go back and watch it again. Each time you watch it there are deeper & deeper levels. It really is quite an amazing film. Being brought up Catholic probably has something to do with it....especially if you were born in the l950's or before. People born after "Vatican II" took place probably can't relate to, nor appreciate, some of the symbolism. GOOD, SOLID FILM. WORTH OWNING. WORTH WATCHING MORE THAN ONCE.

Two Family House
Released in VHS Tape by Lions Gate Home Ente (22 July, 2003)
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Director: Raymond De Felitta
Raymond De Felitta's Sundance 2000 Audience Winner is a sweet little romantic drama set in the insular Italian and Irish neighborhoods of 1956 Staten Island. Narrated with the conversational ease of a bar story, it stars Michael Rispoli as Buddy, blue-collar Italian American with big dreams, a golden voice, and a history of failed business schemes. His latest scheme involves turning a two-story firetrap into a bar with an upstairs apartment, but first he has to evict the squatters he inherited with the house: an abandoned young Irish mother (Kelly Macdonald) and her half-black child. Guilty over his hardhearted decision, he sets them up in an apartment and essentially adopts them. An unlikely friendship begins in clashes and verbal fireworks and turns into a gentle romance while Buddy confronts his own prejudice and smothering cultural values.

De Felitta is uncharacteristically generous to both his clannish working-class chorus and Buddy's wife Estelle (Kathrine Narducci, from The Sopranos), who undermines her spouse's efforts and ridicules his ambition out of sheer conformism. Rispoli, by contrast, is accepting and warm as a guy hungry for his piece of the American dream, and Macdonald's scrappy single mom is full of Irish dander that melts into a romantic sparkle and loving support. Two Family House is inspired by the true story of writer-director De Felitta's uncle, and there's an engaging modesty and loving understanding in this portrait of one man's rebellion against the stifling values and judgmental intolerance of his community. --Sean Axmaker

Average review score:

2 Family House.
A married Italian man falls in love with an Irish woman whose husband left because she gave birth to a black baby! All of this occurs in 1950's Staten Island.

You'll recognize many of the cast members from the Sopranos, but this is no mafia story.

Michael Rispoli is excellent in his search for happiness amid a variety of social issues faced. Marital, familial, ethnic and racial relations are all explored, and the result is a warm, funny and entertaining movie.

Finally
I never write reviews, but this movie would be proudly my exception. It's just definitely one of the most human pictures and the kind of performances I've rarely seen since East of Eden. "It's an irrefutable fact that there's at least one moment of total selflessness in a man's life." -Two Family House

Two Family House an outstanding place to visit
A great movie with many outstanding performances by relatively, really relatively, unknowns. Heartwarming, humorous, nostalgic, totally elevating and causing much reflection on how humans treat one another today, in the past and with hope for the future. Very hard to forget this movie, its characters and its lessons. Hope not to.

Two Family House
Released in VHS Tape by Umvd (29 May, 2001)
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Director: Raymond De Felitta
Raymond De Felitta's Sundance 2000 Audience Winner is a sweet little romantic drama set in the insular Italian and Irish neighborhoods of 1956 Staten Island. Narrated with the conversational ease of a bar story, it stars Michael Rispoli as Buddy, blue-collar Italian American with big dreams, a golden voice, and a history of failed business schemes. His latest scheme involves turning a two-story firetrap into a bar with an upstairs apartment, but first he has to evict the squatters he inherited with the house: an abandoned young Irish mother (Kelly Macdonald) and her half-black child. Guilty over his hardhearted decision, he sets them up in an apartment and essentially adopts them. An unlikely friendship begins in clashes and verbal fireworks and turns into a gentle romance while Buddy confronts his own prejudice and smothering cultural values.

De Felitta is uncharacteristically generous to both his clannish working-class chorus and Buddy's wife Estelle (Kathrine Narducci, from The Sopranos), who undermines her spouse's efforts and ridicules his ambition out of sheer conformism. Rispoli, by contrast, is accepting and warm as a guy hungry for his piece of the American dream, and Macdonald's scrappy single mom is full of Irish dander that melts into a romantic sparkle and loving support. Two Family House is inspired by the true story of writer-director De Felitta's uncle, and there's an engaging modesty and loving understanding in this portrait of one man's rebellion against the stifling values and judgmental intolerance of his community. --Sean Axmaker

Average review score:

2 Family House.
A married Italian man falls in love with an Irish woman whose husband left because she gave birth to a black baby! All of this occurs in 1950's Staten Island.

You'll recognize many of the cast members from the Sopranos, but this is no mafia story.

Michael Rispoli is excellent in his search for happiness amid a variety of social issues faced. Marital, familial, ethnic and racial relations are all explored, and the result is a warm, funny and entertaining movie.

Finally
I never write reviews, but this movie would be proudly my exception. It's just definitely one of the most human pictures and the kind of performances I've rarely seen since East of Eden. "It's an irrefutable fact that there's at least one moment of total selflessness in a man's life." -Two Family House

Two Family House an outstanding place to visit
A great movie with many outstanding performances by relatively, really relatively, unknowns. Heartwarming, humorous, nostalgic, totally elevating and causing much reflection on how humans treat one another today, in the past and with hope for the future. Very hard to forget this movie, its characters and its lessons. Hope not to.

Two Family House
Released in VHS Tape by Universal Studios (22 January, 2002)
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Director: Raymond De Felitta
Raymond De Felitta's Sundance 2000 Audience Winner is a sweet little romantic drama set in the insular Italian and Irish neighborhoods of 1956 Staten Island. Narrated with the conversational ease of a bar story, it stars Michael Rispoli as Buddy, blue-collar Italian American with big dreams, a golden voice, and a history of failed business schemes. His latest scheme involves turning a two-story firetrap into a bar with an upstairs apartment, but first he has to evict the squatters he inherited with the house: an abandoned young Irish mother (Kelly Macdonald) and her half-black child. Guilty over his hardhearted decision, he sets them up in an apartment and essentially adopts them. An unlikely friendship begins in clashes and verbal fireworks and turns into a gentle romance while Buddy confronts his own prejudice and smothering cultural values.

De Felitta is uncharacteristically generous to both his clannish working-class chorus and Buddy's wife Estelle (Kathrine Narducci, from The Sopranos), who undermines her spouse's efforts and ridicules his ambition out of sheer conformism. Rispoli, by contrast, is accepting and warm as a guy hungry for his piece of the American dream, and Macdonald's scrappy single mom is full of Irish dander that melts into a romantic sparkle and loving support. Two Family House is inspired by the true story of writer-director De Felitta's uncle, and there's an engaging modesty and loving understanding in this portrait of one man's rebellion against the stifling values and judgmental intolerance of his community. --Sean Axmaker

Average review score:

2 Family House.
A married Italian man falls in love with an Irish woman whose husband left because she gave birth to a black baby! All of this occurs in 1950's Staten Island.

You'll recognize many of the cast members from the Sopranos, but this is no mafia story.

Michael Rispoli is excellent in his search for happiness amid a variety of social issues faced. Marital, familial, ethnic and racial relations are all explored, and the result is a warm, funny and entertaining movie.

Finally
I never write reviews, but this movie would be proudly my exception. It's just definitely one of the most human pictures and the kind of performances I've rarely seen since East of Eden. "It's an irrefutable fact that there's at least one moment of total selflessness in a man's life." -Two Family House

Two Family House an outstanding place to visit
A great movie with many outstanding performances by relatively, really relatively, unknowns. Heartwarming, humorous, nostalgic, totally elevating and causing much reflection on how humans treat one another today, in the past and with hope for the future. Very hard to forget this movie, its characters and its lessons. Hope not to.

While You Were Sleeping
Released in VHS Tape by Disney Studios (02 April, 2002)
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, and Peter Gallagher
If you don't mind a heavy dose of schmaltz and sentiment, this romantic comedy has a gentle way of seducing you with its charms. While You Were Sleeping was the first starring role for Sandra Bullock after her blockbuster success in Speed. In a role that nicely emphasizes her easygoing appeal, Bullock is the reason the movie works at all. She plays Lucy Eleanor Moderatz, a Chicago Transit tollbooth clerk who's hopelessly smitten with a daily commuter, Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher). She saves the object of her affection from certain death after he's mugged and falls onto the train tracks. While Peter is in a coma, she lets his family believe that she is his fiancée, and surprisingly finds herself drawn to his brother (Bill Pullman), for whom the attraction is definitely mutual. How Lucy gets out of this amorous predicament is what makes this pleasant movie less predictable than its familiar ingredients would initially indicate. It's feel-good fluff, with characters and performances that keep you smiling through the drippy plot mechanics. --Jeff Shannon
Average review score:

1 star because Sandy's in it
This movie is a pile of crap. Sandra Bullock either you love her or hate her. I love her and even I have trouble sitting through this. Crappy romantic comedy (is there any other kind of romantic comedy?) This isnt even funny. Just crap. Im sorry.

Wish someone would give me the world :)
Lucy (Sandra Bullock) is a single, romantic employee for Chicago's subway system. One hopeless day she falls madly in love with a mystery man (Peter Gallagher). There's only one problem - he doesn't even know she exists.

Then one day, she just happens to save his life and is suddenly thrown into a new life with his family, who just happen to believe she and Peter ("the Coma Guy") are engaged. And while he is in a coma, she slowly comes to love his family. They in turn love her back, especially Peter's brother, Jack (Bill Pullman).

I truly dislike romance movies; they're sappy, teary-eyed films of little redeaming value. But I LOVE this one! The humor is great, whether it be the awful dinner conversation about nothing (like my family no doubt), the well-timed jokes of the grandma, or the crazy scenes with the Super's son trying on women's shoes. Perhaps because of the constant laughs, or a latent romantic streak I try to suppress, I must admit I always drop my *manly* facade and shed a few tears when Jack hands Lucy Florence.

Great film for the family, or to watch as a couple. You must see this one!

The SWEETEST movie!
While You Were Sleeping is one of my favorite movies of all time. I must have watched the DVD at least 20 times. My husband is getting a little tired of it, but there are nights when I tell him, "It's either this or 'Babe'!" From the opening scene, there is something sweetly philosophical about this movie, and Sandra Bullock has never been more appealing as a funny, klutzy girl who never makes it out of Chicago. (Of course, Sandra Bullock playing a woman who is frumpy is stretching credibility a bit.) And if any woman can keep from melting when Bill Pullman focuses that sweet, intense gaze, I've yet to meet her.

The vulnerability of the main characters gets you pulling for them right from the start, and the secondary characters do a wonderful job of convincing you that they are real with their own histories.

Peter Boyle is hysterical as the decent, but frustrated, father of Bill Pullman. And Peter Gallegher does a star turn as a handsome, spoiled "putz," as one of the characters calls him. Glynis Johns is laugh-out-loud funny as the sweetly confused grandmother.

All in all, this is a movie that is well worth watching over and over again, especially when you need a little reminder that love is waiting out there for us all.

While You Were Sleeping
Released in VHS Tape by Hollywood Pictures (31 December, 1996)
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, and Peter Gallagher
If you don't mind a heavy dose of schmaltz and sentiment, this romantic comedy has a gentle way of seducing you with its charms. While You Were Sleeping was the first starring role for Sandra Bullock after her blockbuster success in Speed. In a role that nicely emphasizes her easygoing appeal, Bullock is the reason the movie works at all. She plays Lucy Eleanor Moderatz, a Chicago Transit tollbooth clerk who's hopelessly smitten with a daily commuter, Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher). She saves the object of her affection from certain death after he's mugged and falls onto the train tracks. While Peter is in a coma, she lets his family believe that she is his fiancée, and surprisingly finds herself drawn to his brother (Bill Pullman), for whom the attraction is definitely mutual. How Lucy gets out of this amorous predicament is what makes this pleasant movie less predictable than its familiar ingredients would initially indicate. It's feel-good fluff, with characters and performances that keep you smiling through the drippy plot mechanics. --Jeff Shannon
Average review score:

1 star because Sandy's in it
This movie is a pile of crap. Sandra Bullock either you love her or hate her. I love her and even I have trouble sitting through this. Crappy romantic comedy (is there any other kind of romantic comedy?) This isnt even funny. Just crap. Im sorry.

Wish someone would give me the world :)
Lucy (Sandra Bullock) is a single, romantic employee for Chicago's subway system. One hopeless day she falls madly in love with a mystery man (Peter Gallagher). There's only one problem - he doesn't even know she exists.

Then one day, she just happens to save his life and is suddenly thrown into a new life with his family, who just happen to believe she and Peter ("the Coma Guy") are engaged. And while he is in a coma, she slowly comes to love his family. They in turn love her back, especially Peter's brother, Jack (Bill Pullman).

I truly dislike romance movies; they're sappy, teary-eyed films of little redeaming value. But I LOVE this one! The humor is great, whether it be the awful dinner conversation about nothing (like my family no doubt), the well-timed jokes of the grandma, or the crazy scenes with the Super's son trying on women's shoes. Perhaps because of the constant laughs, or a latent romantic streak I try to suppress, I must admit I always drop my *manly* facade and shed a few tears when Jack hands Lucy Florence.

Great film for the family, or to watch as a couple. You must see this one!

The SWEETEST movie!
While You Were Sleeping is one of my favorite movies of all time. I must have watched the DVD at least 20 times. My husband is getting a little tired of it, but there are nights when I tell him, "It's either this or 'Babe'!" From the opening scene, there is something sweetly philosophical about this movie, and Sandra Bullock has never been more appealing as a funny, klutzy girl who never makes it out of Chicago. (Of course, Sandra Bullock playing a woman who is frumpy is stretching credibility a bit.) And if any woman can keep from melting when Bill Pullman focuses that sweet, intense gaze, I've yet to meet her.

The vulnerability of the main characters gets you pulling for them right from the start, and the secondary characters do a wonderful job of convincing you that they are real with their own histories.

Peter Boyle is hysterical as the decent, but frustrated, father of Bill Pullman. And Peter Gallegher does a star turn as a handsome, spoiled "putz," as one of the characters calls him. Glynis Johns is laugh-out-loud funny as the sweetly confused grandmother.

All in all, this is a movie that is well worth watching over and over again, especially when you need a little reminder that love is waiting out there for us all.

Rounders
Released in VHS Tape by Miramax Home Entertainment (02 April, 2002)
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Director: John Dahl
Starring: Matt Damon and Edward Norton
A little drunk on its own arcane exotica as a gambling movie, Rounders is a film that takes us inside a world of high-stakes card players but falls short on such essentials as character development, relationships, that sort of thing. Still, it is a real curiosity, written by a couple of guys (David Levien and Brian Koppelman) who appear to know something about the dark underbelly of card hustling for fun and profit. Matt Damon stars as a reluctant law student who can't put aside his subterranean career of playing poker and blackjack for big money. After he loses his post-grad nest egg to a weird Russian kingpin (John Malkovich)--and also loses his disgusted girlfriend (Gretchen Mol) in the process--Damon's character turns to an unreliable old buddy (Edward Norton) for a dangerous game of sharking wherever there happens to be a game underway: frat boys, cops, bad dudes, you name it. Norton appears to be living out every young actor's fantasy of re-creating Robert De Niro's prototypical head case in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, and while his performance is burdened by obvious quotation marks, his estimable talent still shines through. Damon's charm and intelligence bring some oomph to the curiously flat proceedings, and while his hushed, soul-bearing scenes with Martin Landau (as a law professor who takes a shine to the kid) seem gratuitous, they're still nice to watch. Behind all this is director John Dahl (Red Rock West), who is not exactly at the top of his game here but who brings his distinctive toughness to the crime-noir tone. --Tom Keogh
Average review score:

Is there a BAD Norton performance? ROUNDERS
Edward Norton is such a talented actor! Matt Damon is stellar in this as well. The plot is interesting; chemistry between the actors is solid. Very nicely done film. My favorite scene is early in the film--the night Norton gets out of jail and he and Damon work a poker game over--but the rest of the film is interesting, taunt, and brash. Well worth watching again and again.

Rounders is a movie you can watch again and again.
Rounders is such a fun and exciting movie to watch. This is a very under-rated movie! I'm probably biased because I happen to enjoy poker very much, and this movie is definitely a poker player's movie. The story and plot are very interesting, but the stars really steal the show here. Matt Damon plays a smart poker player who struggles with the choice of living the "gamblers life" which is where his heart and skill reside, or trying to be a "normal" person with a normal job. Edward Norton plays his weasely friend who is always finding trouble and needs Matt Damon to bail him out. The real star of the show is the owner of a poker club played brilliantly by John Malkovich. He plays a principal role in the movie as the driving force behind a fight for the main characters life vis a vis the poker table. You will not regret watching this movie. The only downside is that some of the moves made by Matt Damon are somewhat foolishly believed to be super suave, and might actually be terrible in real life poker.

For lovers of gambling and gangster movies
Starring Matt Damon, as a poker player this movie is about his inner struggle with the game. He is studying to be a lawyer, but takes his entire fortune of $25,000 and loses it in a sleazy backroom game to a Russian Mafioso played by John Malkovich. His girlfriend, a fellow law student played by Gretchen Mol hates his gambling, and he promises to stop. However, an old pal of his, Edward Norton, nicknamed The Worm, gets released from prison and the two friends get together. Despite warnings from John Turturro, cast as a gambler who doesn't take chances, they start to play poker again. The Worm has no scruples and cheats constantly. Matt Damon, however, uses his wits to win. He says it is not the cards he plays, but the men. He studies his opponents by reading their unconscious gestures. Not surprisingly, The Worm keeps getting Matt Damon in more and more trouble. The debt keeps getting bigger, the stakes higher. Tension mounts. The story was good even though it was predictable. I'm one of those people who love the gangster/gambler genre and so I loved it.

Rounders
Released in VHS Tape by Miramax Home Entertainment (03 July, 2001)
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Director: John Dahl
Starring: Matt Damon and Edward Norton
A little drunk on its own arcane exotica as a gambling movie, Rounders is a film that takes us inside a world of high-stakes card players but falls short on such essentials as character development, relationships, that sort of thing. Still, it is a real curiosity, written by a couple of guys (David Levien and Brian Koppelman) who appear to know something about the dark underbelly of card hustling for fun and profit. Matt Damon stars as a reluctant law student who can't put aside his subterranean career of playing poker and blackjack for big money. After he loses his post-grad nest egg to a weird Russian kingpin (John Malkovich)--and also loses his disgusted girlfriend (Gretchen Mol) in the process--Damon's character turns to an unreliable old buddy (Edward Norton) for a dangerous game of sharking wherever there happens to be a game underway: frat boys, cops, bad dudes, you name it. Norton appears to be living out every young actor's fantasy of re-creating Robert De Niro's prototypical head case in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, and while his performance is burdened by obvious quotation marks, his estimable talent still shines through. Damon's charm and intelligence bring some oomph to the curiously flat proceedings, and while his hushed, soul-bearing scenes with Martin Landau (as a law professor who takes a shine to the kid) seem gratuitous, they're still nice to watch. Behind all this is director John Dahl (Red Rock West), who is not exactly at the top of his game here but who brings his distinctive toughness to the crime-noir tone. --Tom Keogh
Average review score:

Is there a BAD Norton performance? ROUNDERS
Edward Norton is such a talented actor! Matt Damon is stellar in this as well. The plot is interesting; chemistry between the actors is solid. Very nicely done film. My favorite scene is early in the film--the night Norton gets out of jail and he and Damon work a poker game over--but the rest of the film is interesting, taunt, and brash. Well worth watching again and again.

Rounders is a movie you can watch again and again.
Rounders is such a fun and exciting movie to watch. This is a very under-rated movie! I'm probably biased because I happen to enjoy poker very much, and this movie is definitely a poker player's movie. The story and plot are very interesting, but the stars really steal the show here. Matt Damon plays a smart poker player who struggles with the choice of living the "gamblers life" which is where his heart and skill reside, or trying to be a "normal" person with a normal job. Edward Norton plays his weasely friend who is always finding trouble and needs Matt Damon to bail him out. The real star of the show is the owner of a poker club played brilliantly by John Malkovich. He plays a principal role in the movie as the driving force behind a fight for the main characters life vis a vis the poker table. You will not regret watching this movie. The only downside is that some of the moves made by Matt Damon are somewhat foolishly believed to be super suave, and might actually be terrible in real life poker.

For lovers of gambling and gangster movies
Starring Matt Damon, as a poker player this movie is about his inner struggle with the game. He is studying to be a lawyer, but takes his entire fortune of $25,000 and loses it in a sleazy backroom game to a Russian Mafioso played by John Malkovich. His girlfriend, a fellow law student played by Gretchen Mol hates his gambling, and he promises to stop. However, an old pal of his, Edward Norton, nicknamed The Worm, gets released from prison and the two friends get together. Despite warnings from John Turturro, cast as a gambler who doesn't take chances, they start to play poker again. The Worm has no scruples and cheats constantly. Matt Damon, however, uses his wits to win. He says it is not the cards he plays, but the men. He studies his opponents by reading their unconscious gestures. Not surprisingly, The Worm keeps getting Matt Damon in more and more trouble. The debt keeps getting bigger, the stakes higher. Tension mounts. The story was good even though it was predictable. I'm one of those people who love the gangster/gambler genre and so I loved it.

Related Subjects: Michael-J.-Fox
More Pages: Michael-Rispoli Page 1 2 3 4