IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

manuel-pestalozzi I did not know what to expect of Gotham, and I really was pleasantly surprised. The title is misleading, the location is realistic and unmistakably New York, as it is in the present. And the protagonists represent „normal" people, they are really more than mere comic book characters.The movie elegantly walks the dividing line between comedy and the film noir/horror/mystery genre. The story works from start to finish. It is really good and entertaining, I suspect it is a transcription of something European from the 19th century or even a classic folk tale, the basic question being „how do I pass the nasty ghost that's pursuing me on to another guy"? The cast is very good. Tommy Lee Jones plays a private eye who is at once very masculine and insecure and vulnerable. In other words, the classic Marlowe type. Jones pulls that off wonderfully, he definitely is a great and versatile actor. I enjoyed his multi layered, „deep" performance enormously. Virginia Madsen is perfect as the elegant, sexy and extremely nasty ghost (great wardrobe!). Completing the triangle is the woman's former husband, played by an actor hitherto unknown to me called Colin Bruce whose performance is excellent and memorable. In fact, Jones and Bruce are an excellent team here, they really made me think of some of the finest original films of the noir genre.Even visually, Gotham offers far more than the average fare. Somehow it reminded me of the work of director Robert Wise. The New York locations are put to good use. The overall atmosphere is consistently somber and brooding. I found it quite appealing. There is an unforgettable scene on the top of a not very high skyscraper somewhere in Manhattan with a good panorama over some older buildings of the area. The makers of the movie made the daring decision to film dream sequences the same way as the rest, so the viewers are never quite sure if what is going on is part of the main protagonist's imagination or real. Some may find that confusing as the method is rather uncommon in today's movie making. I found it gratifying as it gives me the feeling I am being taken seriously as a viewer.They had some nice „directorial ideas" here which are well filmed: Jones gets a glass of eggnog (or some such) thrown in his face. Distraught as he is, he does not wipe the milky liquid off and it frosts immediately. Looks great! The ghost at one time drowns in muddy water in full regalia. Etc, etc.Gotham displays everything it takes for intelligent entertainment. I can highly recommend this movie.

matenmoe Gotham usually gets confused with that city-with-a-comic-book-superhero in it. This is a horrible thing for such a terrific movie. It has nothing to do with that comic book! If you love film noir, and can actually FIND this movie(also known as "The Dead Can't Lie")-probably only on a VHS, then you'll be sorry if you DON'T get it!I love this film because there are so many new things to find each time I watch it. It is a show about a Private Eye who is down on his luck until a man offers him an assignment no one else will take. His job is to find this man's ex-wife, who is continuously stalking him, and try to get her to cease and desist. The problem? She has been dead for 10 years! NO- this isn't some cheesy ghost story,and this is no comedy! It really sucks you in, and leaves you wanting to watch it again. I found Gotham to be an eerie yet believable film which still haunts me every time!!

bnpierce I first saw Gotham in 1989 and then in 2001 and it stood up well: Gotham is on the one hand an ironic tribute to hard-boiled detective movies, but it chooses to keep its irony under the surface rather than over-the-top, telling a susupenseful and carefully unfolded story with real twists and turns even as it tosses the occasional wink taht we've seen the set-pieces before. There is real suspense as we watch Tommy Lee Jones get in way over his head--he takes it well enough when he discovers, early on, that he is indeed dealing with a malicious ghost--but from there on he is forced to watch with his own investigators detatchemht as he fall in love with this ghost, going down hill physically and every other way step by step--at the end, he is faced with a battle for his soul as serious as Sam Spades faces at the end of "Maltese Falcon"--and, even at the end, the wry humor returns to wrap it all nicely up. By the way--keep yuour eye out for spooky oddities at ther corner of your vision--they are there!

msmiata How do you stop your dead wife from harassing you? Hire a good detective who can tell her to stop. Tommy Lees Jones portrays a down on his luck gumshoe is approached by a man who is being followed by his dead wife. Jones figures if the man is crazy enough to offer his money, he's just crazy enough to help him. Is she dead? Check the refrigerator, take a cruise but stay out of the church. This made-for-tv film keeps you going, wondering just who is seeing things. Don't close your eyes for too long or you just might miss something. If you like a good mystery, this one is a sleeper-keeper. You might have to look on the back shelf of the video store to find it but however it's worth the search. A great movie for a rainy weekend afternoon.