It took me awhile to get this film, as I watched it after John Dahl's great "The Last Seduction" - but I do think it's a very good neo noir thriller. Great cast : J. T. Walsh(who appeared also in "The Last Seduction"), Dennis Hopper, Lara Flynn Boyle(who seems to have disappeared from the acting scene) and Nicholas Cage. It does have that whole 1990s indie film tone to it. Such a shame that John Dahl is only directing TV these days. Ah, just found out that there's now a Blu Ray for the UK. Released about a year ago.
This is one of my favorite movies, perhaps because I'm from Montana and that's where director John Dahl is from. This movie reminded me more of Blood Simple than anything. Also, Dennis Hopper is one of my favorite actors.
one of my fav all time movies but I love Repo Man too so what do I know. Yeah i was going to ask what is Tarantino about it. Not much. More Lynch. I did hear True Romance and Natural Born Killers were the same long movie originally, would love to see an investigation on that and if its true.
Dennis Hopper and NIcoulous Cage seem to be playing slightly muted versions of their David Lynch characterss so iti is like watching Sailor vs Frank Booth. And we see Laura Flynn Boyle grow into being the femme fatal she pretended to be in the second season of Twin Peaks.
This movie doesn't get mentioned as often as it should nowadays. It's actually really well made in terms of cinematography, editing, writing etc. Wish we had more modern Film Noirs (or I suppose Neo-Noirs) like it nowadays. Seemed to have quite a few of them crop up in the 90s.
It's interesting you mention Bogart in reference to Nicolas Cage. When he was filming Dog Eat Dog with Paul Schrader he felt compelled to follow a particular performance instinct by playing what would be the last scenes of the film and his character's story arc in the tradition of an archetypal Bogart character and voice/demeanour. There doesn't immediately seem to be any rhyme or reason to it but Schrader was in an 'anything goes' maverick mood and those final Bogart inflected scenes work really well.
@@cineXplorers Personally I thought it was very good, yeah. Some critics were fair minded about it, some less so (Kermode did NOT like it and, as much as I admire and respect his opinions I was only too glad to disagree with his take). But yes, I thought Schrader brought a lot of his signature philosophical complexity to the Edward Bunker material, a story about characters that are in some ways beyond redemption. The dialogue and interactions are chock full of existential regret with the 3 main characters all feeling and realising that, as career criminals, there's possibly nothing left for them to pursue in life other than the final perfect heist they can retire on. I found there were moments that felt very familiar to the crime genre but Schrader tweaked them in ways that were both self aware and humorous. Like there's a moment when the crew, led by Cage's character, are giving themselves an invigorating pep talk about the heist they're about to embark on, they're yelling and boosting their confidence and essentially going 'yeah, after this we'll be rich! YEAH!' and high fiving... And instead of the scene ending there as you might expect, the camera holds on them for a few seconds and captures the moment where the doubt and despondency refills their minds and there's an awkward silence where they all look fairly unconvinced by the previous moment's elation. Offbeat moments like that I thought are enjoyably typical of Schrader but rather atypical of the genre type. Also the cinematography is fresh, vivid, hallucinogenic, a lot of garish neon colours, and wild, it reminded me of films like Requiem For A Dream or Kill Bill maybe. The first few minutes though... Pretty brutal. But I thought this was, though familiar stuff, really good and often very funny. I strongly recommend it 😊👍
We speak about this at 1:31. Neither of us had seen it for a long time and had forgotten how little it had in common with Tarantino style films. However, it's a great film and we wanted to talk about it so included it anyway. ~ S
No, you’re correct, it doesn’t and we realised that once we watched it but it is so good and it was a bit late in the day to choose anything else so went ahead and did it anyway and we do reference that in the video ~ J.
Filmed in my hometown of Willcox Arizona. Where I was born and raised. Small town of 3300 people. Cattle and cowboy country. Founded in 1880
It took me awhile to get this film, as I watched it after John Dahl's great "The Last Seduction" - but I do think it's a very good neo noir thriller. Great cast : J. T. Walsh(who appeared also in "The Last Seduction"), Dennis Hopper, Lara Flynn Boyle(who seems to have disappeared from the acting scene) and Nicholas Cage. It does have that whole 1990s indie film tone to it. Such a shame that John Dahl is only directing TV these days.
Ah, just found out that there's now a Blu Ray for the UK. Released about a year ago.
This is one of my favorite movies, perhaps because I'm from Montana and that's where director John Dahl is from. This movie reminded me more of Blood Simple than anything. Also, Dennis Hopper is one of my favorite actors.
one of my fav all time movies but I love Repo Man too so what do I know. Yeah i was going to ask what is Tarantino about it. Not much. More Lynch. I did hear True Romance and Natural Born Killers were the same long movie originally, would love to see an investigation on that and if its true.
Nicholas Cage = instawatch. Awesome 😁
Dennis Hopper and NIcoulous Cage seem to be playing slightly muted versions of their David Lynch characterss so iti is like watching Sailor vs Frank Booth. And we see Laura Flynn Boyle grow into being the femme fatal she pretended to be in the second season of Twin Peaks.
Dennis Hopper was in True Romance (the best scene, too!)
This movie doesn't get mentioned as often as it should nowadays. It's actually really well made in terms of cinematography, editing, writing etc. Wish we had more modern Film Noirs (or I suppose Neo-Noirs) like it nowadays. Seemed to have quite a few of them crop up in the 90s.
It's interesting you mention Bogart in reference to Nicolas Cage. When he was filming Dog Eat Dog with Paul Schrader he felt compelled to follow a particular performance instinct by playing what would be the last scenes of the film and his character's story arc in the tradition of an archetypal Bogart character and voice/demeanour. There doesn't immediately seem to be any rhyme or reason to it but Schrader was in an 'anything goes' maverick mood and those final Bogart inflected scenes work really well.
That’s quite interesting, thanks for that. I’ve never seen Dog Eat Dog, is it any good? The critic and public reviews for it aren’t great ~ J.
@@cineXplorers Personally I thought it was very good, yeah. Some critics were fair minded about it, some less so (Kermode did NOT like it and, as much as I admire and respect his opinions I was only too glad to disagree with his take).
But yes, I thought Schrader brought a lot of his signature philosophical complexity to the Edward Bunker material, a story about characters that are in some ways beyond redemption. The dialogue and interactions are chock full of existential regret with the 3 main characters all feeling and realising that, as career criminals, there's possibly nothing left for them to pursue in life other than the final perfect heist they can retire on. I found there were moments that felt very familiar to the crime genre but Schrader tweaked them in ways that were both self aware and humorous. Like there's a moment when the crew, led by Cage's character, are giving themselves an invigorating pep talk about the heist they're about to embark on, they're yelling and boosting their confidence and essentially going 'yeah, after this we'll be rich! YEAH!' and high fiving... And instead of the scene ending there as you might expect, the camera holds on them for a few seconds and captures the moment where the doubt and despondency refills their minds and there's an awkward silence where they all look fairly unconvinced by the previous moment's elation. Offbeat moments like that I thought are enjoyably typical of Schrader but rather atypical of the genre type.
Also the cinematography is fresh, vivid, hallucinogenic, a lot of garish neon colours, and wild, it reminded me of films like Requiem For A Dream or Kill Bill maybe.
The first few minutes though... Pretty brutal. But I thought this was, though familiar stuff, really good and often very funny. I strongly recommend it 😊👍
I suppose I'm the only person here who prefers Red Rock West over anything Tarantino, Lynch, or the Coen brothers ever directed.
No you're not and I'm sure there's plenty more beside us.
I don't see how Red Rock West has anything in common with Tarantino. He didn't invent neo noir
We speak about this at 1:31. Neither of us had seen it for a long time and had forgotten how little it had in common with Tarantino style films. However, it's a great film and we wanted to talk about it so included it anyway. ~ S
Nicholas Cage also starred in another classic “face off” (came out a few years after this)
Great pick and great review guys. Have you seen Birdy with Cage and Mathew Modine? It's aching to be reviewed too! Cheers!
It’s basically “u turn”.
But better.
I thought it was a remake of an old western from the 50s
This definitely doesn't owe anything to Tarantino.
No, you’re correct, it doesn’t and we realised that once we watched it but it is so good and it was a bit late in the day to choose anything else so went ahead and did it anyway and we do reference that in the video ~ J.
Filmed in my hometown of Willcox Arizona. Where I was born and raised. Small town of 3300 people. Cattle and cowboy country. Founded in 1880