TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

museumofdave Like the films of Orson Welles, Federico Fellini or Woody Allen, there's almost always a reason to watch, even if the completed whole doesn't quite add up to the sum of it's parts. Kansas City fits that bill for me.Altman weaves his usual rich tapestry of lives affected by history in a city alive with jazz and political chicanery, and Kansas City is worth watching for the unexpectedly mesmerizing performance by Harry Belafonte as "Seldom Seen," mobster boss.The jazz on display is equally dazzling, but just when your mind is settling into some rich, heady music, the film cuts back to the deadly, mannered, whiny performance turned in by Jennifer Jason Leigh; when most film fans recall the disaster that became Godfather III, the director's indulgence of the lackluster performance turned in by Sofia Coppola comes to mind; Leigh's performance similarly affects the tone of Kansas City, and since she is the protagonist, the film's interest flags with her director-free indulgence in some kind of method acting that fails to evoke much but self-indulgence.In short, Kansas City is well worth a look for superb mise-en-scene,for the music and atmosphere, but is deeply frustrating for it's central performance.

ianlouisiana God knows English politics is corrupt,but America seems to have raised duplicity to another level.Wheeling,dealing,threatening,bribing,snouts deep in the trough....I would have to be held at gunpoint before I'd vote for anybody.In the poor black Wards of Kansas City in the mid 1930s it doesn't matter who you vote for,your life is not going to get any better,the successful politico is just going to get richer. With a plot and characters remarkably similar to early Runyon,Mr Altman parallels the development of KC jazz with its turbulent social history. For lovers of Bennie Moten/Count Basie type music the movie is at least an aural treat;for the average moviegoer,"Kansas City" is very much a curate's egg. Unless you are at least familiar with Hawk,Pres,Bird and Jean Harlow your enjoyment of the movie may well be limited to the amount of admiration you have for Mr Altman's more personal work. With all due respect to the acting talent involved,no one apart from the much - maligned Miss J.J. Leigh has much to work with.As "Blondie" she has the only role that actually develops during the course of the film. In an era when movies were enormously influential her conscious morphing into a Jean Harlow persona is touching rather than laughable. With "Kansas City",Mr Altman continued to plough his lonely furrow.That it was not a great commercial success is hardly surprising,but admirers of maverick works will get pleasure from it.Jazz loving moviegoers,themselves to some degree mavericks,scouring the schedules in a usually vain attempt to satisfy both their Joneses,should seize the moment.

buiger This is another one of those "intelligent art films" you need to read the review first before you can understand the movie. If it wasn't for the great music and in general wonderful atmosphere created by the director at the Hey-Hey club, this movie would have been a total flop. The storyline is simply ridiculous, it has no meaning, no reason to be. The secondary story even less, we fail to even understand why it is there. The acting is superficial, in some cases exaggerated to the point of being silly (Jason-Leigh). The only remotely positive acting performance (surprisingly) was Belafonte in a not-so-bad copy of Brando's Godfather. The dialog was simply stupid, the only decent characterization was that of Belafonte's seldom Seen which emanated some real emotions, everything else seemed to be on the level of a five-year old. Thank god for the music...!

Lovyello The movie was obviously a musical satire of the political and social conditions in Americain that era (and to some degree today. Even if Altman did experience it first hand, he it he obviously did research and wrote as well as directed a movie that was right on the money. I found everyone's performance to be excellent and if you could not understand some of Belafontes lines it didn't detract from his role, nor did the performances of the rest of the cast as the movie was meant to make you think............as well as be entertained. As for a story line..........unless you know nothing of the past........it was right in your face.