Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Christopher Culver Released in 1989, MYSTERY TRAIN was Jim Jarmusch's third film. The film consists of three independent but interlocking vignettes which take place in a Memphis hotel run by Screamin' Jay Hawkins with the help of bellboy Cinque Lee.In the first scene, young Japanese tourists Mitsuko (Youki Kudoh) and Jun (Matsatoshi Nagase) pass through Memphis to see the monuments of 1950s rock 'n' roll. Their relationship isn't going so well, evoking tragedy. The second vignette introduces us to a recently widowed Italian woman (Nicoletta Braschi) who has to spend a night in town before she can depart with her husband's coffin. Finally, the third vignette follows the post-layoff bender of a couple of newly unemployed locals (Joe Strummer, Rick Aviles) and a local barber (Steve Buscemi). In spite of armed robbery and murder, this is actually the most straight-up funny portion of the film. It's a typical Buscemi part of a nice guy caught up in scandalous events beyond his control, and Joe Strummer has a gift for comedic acting. Between these three plot lines, we are treated to great deadpan interludes between Hawkins and the bellboy.Some filmmakers evoke the natural beauty of their country. Who doesn't want to visit the windswept coasts of Bergman's Sweden or the feverish urban nights of the Italian auteurs? Jarmusch's first three films, on the other hand, portray the United States as a blight of weeds, empty streets, graffiti and failing infrastructure. American by birth, I left the US years ago and this film only makes me grateful I did. But even if the landscape is hideous, with its fairly harmonious relationship of characters of different races, MYSTERY TRAIN does depict a beautiful society that I hope is out there somewhere.I wouldn't rank MYSTERY TRAIN as highly as certain other Jarmusch films. The three stories here are clearly independently conceived, and though they are reconciled into a single plot, the film as a whole doesn't seem so epic. The middle vignette is rather lightweight, although Tom Noonan's bit as a scam artist is creepy and memorable. Still, the film is entertaining and fairly well put-together, and the visuals provide a new strong aspect that one doesn't find in the two earlier efforts. MYSTERY TRAIN was Jarmusch's first film in colour and he chose a lovely cool palette that jars with Screamin' Jay Hawkins' electric red suit.

gavin6942 Three stories are connected by a Memphis hotel and the spirit of Elvis Presley.I love how this film takes for granted the universality of Elvis -- he is not only synonymous with Memphis, but is well known to both Americans and foreigners (Italians and Japanese, in this film).Indeed, director Jarmusch points out that with our crumbling American culture (his words, not mine) all that our culture ever offered was musicians and movie stars. American culture is not opera, painting or theater (though we may have these things) -- it is Elvis and Hollywood.Throw in Steve Buscemi to an already great film, and you have gold. There is no film he cannot make better (even rather lackluster ones like "Floundering").

Sandcooler This movie is often presented as a Memphis-based anthology where all the stories come together in the end, but that's only half true. The character stay in their own segments without meeting each other (with one fairly redundant exception), the only thing that connects them all is that they stay in the same hotel and all end up hearing the same gunshot. And I beg you: don't keep watching to see where the gunshot comes from, it's not worth it. Are there other reasons to keep watching? There are. The last segment is arguably the best, mainly because at least it does have some sort of plot and features the likes of Joe Strummer (yeah, the one from The Clash) and Steve Buscemi. There are some funny lines in there, and Vondie Curtis-Hall (who would go on to direct "Gridlock'd") is pretty awesome in it as well. Most people actually disagree with this though and like the first segment far more, but I couldn't get into it all. It features two Japanese tourists...being Japanese tourists for 40 minutes. Writer/Director Jim Jarmusch does give them some interesting traits and it's a cute couple, but 40 minutes of this? It's not like this is all setting up something, they have nothing to do with the rest of the segments. I'll take Joe Strummer robbing a liquor store any time. The second segment is probably the least interesting to discuss, because most people aren't particularly fond of it and neither am I. It's not filler, but it's not very entertaining either. "Mystery Train" didn't thrill me nearly as much as I thought it would, but I guess the last segment does make it worthwhile.

zetes After falling in love with Jarmusch's most recent film, Broken Flowers, I thought perhaps the door would be open and I would learn to love the rest of his films. Unfortunately, watching Mystery Train, I feel the same distance that I have felt watching most of his other films. Don't get me wrong, there are some wonderful things about Mystery Train, and, overall, I liked it more than I did Stranger Than Paradise and Down by Law. But I always felt like I should be liking it a lot more, and I just never felt much more than a nice affection for the movie. The film contains three segments about people in Memphis, Tennessee. I especially liked the first one, which has two Japanese tourists there to visit Sun Records and Graceland. The second segment I liked less, which involves an Italian widow and a motormouth American she runs into. The third I liked slightly better than the second, and slightly less than the first. It involves three guys (one of them being Steve Buscemi), one of whom has a loaded gun and is drunk (who is not Steve Buscemi). All three stories meet up at a flophouse run by Screamin' Jay Hawkins (famous for recording the song "You Put a Spell on Me") and a goofy little bellboy played by Spike Lee's brother, Cinqué. I really liked those two. The whole film is mysterious and charming, with a bit of magic in the air, but somehow, for me at least, it didn't result in too much.