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RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

NateWatchesCoolMovies Romance And Cigarettes is the strangest musical you've never heard of. Strange as in awkward, because most of the songs are just too overdone and absurd to work, but I'll concede that that very quality makes them unforgettable, if for not quite the same reasons the filmmakers intended. Going for a sort of pseudo Jersey Boys look, they set their cluster of stories in working class New York City, focusing on a number of hot blooded Italian American scamps and the mischief they get up to, all set to a raucous medley of musical numbers, some pleasant and others pretty darn tone deaf. James Gandolfini plays Nick Murder, a rowdy blue collar construction worker who finds himself between a rock and a hard place when his long suffering wife Kitty (an even rowdier Susan Sarandon) finds out about his secret mistress Tula (kinky Kate Winslet). This seems to be the last straw for Kitty as far as their marriage goes, and it all erupts into a series of volcanic confrontations and spats as only New Yorkers can spectacularly stage. In Kitty's corner are her three handful daughter's (Aida Turturro, Mary Louise Parker and adorable Mandy Moore) and her helpful Cousin Bo (Christopher Walken). Nick turns to a co worker Angelo (Steve Buscemi), is scolded by his stern mother (Elaine Stritch) and receives advice from an ex military tough guy (Bobby Cannavle). The film sides with both parties for one long and often chaotic look at marriage, infidelity and extremely short tempers, peppered with songs that, like I said before, are hit and miss. Walken has the best bit (doesn't he always?) when he gets to a rip roaring riff on Tom Jones's 'Delilah' that jazzes up the film quite a bit. Not destined to go down in history as one of the best musicals ever made, but worth it for the spoofy fun had by the impressive cast.

SilkyWilky I hate musicals, and fell into watching this without realising it was one of them, but this turned out to be one of the best films I've seen. I was thoroughly entertained in many ways.It's gritty and real whilst indulging the fantasy that allows us to get by. The music adds colour to what is already happening, it's seamless. The Engelbert Humperdinck song near the beginning is possibly one of the best ever performed songs in a movie, it's so funny! The characters are engaging and full, bordering on grotesque. Even with their exaggerated sides, there's part of them thats simple and warm, and could be the neighbour up the street or a member of your own family.It's not a complex story but it is rich, hitting many of life's notes with degree of understatement spiced with well projected emotions.The artistic camera work stands out in many scenes, a joy for the eye. All in all a real down to earth arty film that will appeal to people from all walks of life. For me it doesn't get much better than this.

st-shot This Coen plated counterfeit American go at Pennies from Heaven is a failure in every way save for the earthy performance of Kate Winslets saucy temptress and little else. It is sloppy hero worship at its most inept by director John Tuturro.Nick Murder (James Gandolfini) strays on wife Kitty Kane (Susan Sarandon) with the aforementioned hot hussy Tula (Kate). Kitty finds out and kisses him off sending Nick into a funk with plenty of musical accompaniment and choreography grafted from commercials announcing the fall TV season.Tuturro's shameless homaging of Fellini, West Side Story, John Waters the Conformist as well as his benefactors does more harm than charm with it's jumble of uninspired compositions lacking cohesion bringing the film to a standstill most of the time with wasteful non-sequitors (Anyone else get the Ray Middleton reference?) . The muted tones of the drab middle class neighborhood offers up some original abstracts but Tuturro's red fetish and insistence on taking it to the streets in dance or fisticuffs takes up the majority of the film draining it of the little energy it shows in flashes.Sarandon is lifeless as Kitty in a lumpishly written role while Gandolfini spends most of the time confused mugging sheepishly. Steve Buscemi reprises some stale Fargo with Chris Walken and Elaine Strich each an abominable waste of time. It's like the entire cast arrived at a has been convention all at once with the foxy Miss Winslet as the entertainment. It is a fine mess indeed.

Jim Grover I saw this film on TV and was immediately taken by it. The premise of a decent but flawed man (James Gandolfini), drawn by his mid-life crisis hormones away from his wife (Ms Sarandon) into the irresistible red-hot and rude clutches of a sex-shop sales assistant (Ms Winslet) from whence he heads inevitably to a tragic end, is nothing short of Greek. The cast is magnificent without exception and John Turturro'a direction highly confident. I suspected that this was a (lost) work by that greatest genius of television writing, Dennis Potter, that had (contrary to all previous attempts) been successfully adapted for the big screen. The surprise was that this was nothing to do with Potter and that Mr Turturro had penned the piece himself, proving me very wrong but in no way disappointed at the end result.