Develiker terrible... so disappointed.

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

spiff-12 Gangsters that don't take your gun before letting you see the boss? Despite all the shooting and gun pointing...even at the bell hop of a fancy hotel doesn't elicit a phone call to the cops. A six year old that lost his entire family might act a little different than a pint sized Puerto Rican gangster. He wasn't even likable until the last half an hour of the movie...then he was just weird. I don't blame the actor. It was like John Cassavetes didn't even know what he was going to do with the character and just sort of pooched it all the way around. The plot was pretty complicated. Gangsters kill stool pigeon and all his family to make an example. When one 6 year old kid escapes, the girlfriend of a gangster attempts to hide and protect him. Cab. Train. Shoot Gangsters. Hotel. Train. Cab. Shoot Gangsters. Cab. Cab. Train. Meet up with Gangster pal to give him the book of evidence. Escape shooting thugs. Meet up in Pittsburgh where kid gives protagonist the weirdest smile any human being has ever given any other human being. The end.This movie was a train wreck. I couldn't look away.

chaos-rampant This is the film Cassavetes did for Hollywood bossmen after the debacle of Opening Night. While it is far from his norm - it has music cues and a score, a gangster plot with a few shootouts - aren't we better off that he had the opportunity to go out with a camera that year and not sit around in dismay? Cherish it, he had only one more left.It is his most straightforward and probably written in a haste, crude in spots, about an ex-mafia moll and a little kid running from gangsters around New York. It wouldn't be out of place in a double bill with Don Siegel really, or not that much.It actually casts light on another side of Cassavetes, less talked about. One was of course the visionary swimmer into streams of soul, tossing and turning in search of a true face.. Another was the actor who took odd paying jobs, wearing a variety of faces to finance that vision when he got back, very much like Welles whom he admired. He had done all sorts, many that were crime stuff on and off TV. Adored Cagney.We have deliberate reference of all those gangster films of old here, gumshoes and broads stuff, Rowlands as female Bogart (she calls other women dames), in turns snarling at bad guys and coolly walking away, waving it all off as dream. But this isn't that cocksure type film; this is about dreams, hopes, frayed nerves.The little boy salvaged from a gangster plot is the center that keeps pulling her back, summoning more of her gangster past around her, including finally the lover she never made it with. You can see how in longer Cassavetes form we would have uncertain life as this woman floats around bars and odd rooms and contrasts with being pulled back to a role she left behind, pulled to get out of it. Chinese Bookie comes to mind. That would have been tremendous to see but we have something else. All of the cool stuff are anachronistic at this point, not really draped with a sense of cool, which is a fashion sense. Cassavetes wouldn't know cool from a bar of soap really, lovable dunce that he was, so it comes out on the other side of the familiar posturing in an unselfconscious way.It's all abit like Rowlands' clothing (foisted on her by Cassavetes). That red kimono would have been fabulous in Rita Hayworth times but looks a bit out of place now, odd. Ditto Rowlands' tough expressions, as if propped up with some effort. This is all far from where the likes of Tarantino and Besson, who grew up in movies, would take these things to iron them out. You can watch this and see how that would play out.There's a weariness without sentimentality here that seeps in through an open window somewhere in this room that you've found yourself in for the night. A sense of not having much more time for masks and that whole posturing where you have to be someone. This is tied in that sweet exchange about "beating the system" between her and boy. People usually don't, but maybe some do, who knows? Who really cares about a system?Underneath it all there's a marvelous sense of wandering that I find myself giving into always in movies; it seems we go everywhere in New York. Underneath the worn fabrics, this is one about the (existential) body that must wear them, about weight that doesn't manage to hold you down. The sublime point as ever with Cassavetes is not giving up.

LeonLouisRicci If you have not seen a Cassavetes Film this is the one to start with. Some consider it his best and most accessible. It is most likely both. It is certain he would agree that it is made for a wider audience, but...This is a Mob Movie that is quite different and yet mostly the same. The standout is the middle-aged Hooker cleverly embodied by the worn-out looking Gena Rowlands. It is apparent that despite the physical sagging there once was quite an attractive and smart and feisty Female. What clearly remains is the smart and feisty.The New York locations are rugged and regaling and the pacing is swiftly somber. This feels real and despite some awkward dialog, some of the interplay between the two leads is precisely people. A trademark of the Director. There are some very tense scenes between the breath catching rest-stops.Overall, if you are looking for squibs, trash talking, and flash, go elsewhere. This is meant to be unattractive and poetic with dabs of cinematic non-conformity and is heavily heartfelt. Some Jazzy Music helps as does the unpretentiousness of it all. An anti-mainstream Movie that is not really a sellout from this Maverick Director but more like a reluctant paycheck.

Robert-63 About 30 minutes into this film, I asked someone who had seen it before if it got any better. They replied, "No, it doesn't really get any better. And yet, it's somehow worth watching." They were quickly contradicted by another person who said, "No, it keeps on sucking. That kid is the worst child actor I've ever seen, and I mean including that kid who played Seven on 'Married with Children.'" I agree with the latter. This movie starts bad and truly only gets worse. In the first 30 minutes, you will see two glaring continuity errors, one spectacularly bad special effect, and a lifetime supply of bad writing and acting.I have not knowingly ever seen any of Cassavetes' directorial work, and I am in no rush to correct that. It will take a lot of convincing to make me consider giving him another chance to impress me.Grade: 1 out of 10. Abysmal. Horribly bad in a way that makes me think less of people who think it's good.