What makes it different from others?
The greatest movie ever made..!
terrible... so disappointed.
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
View MoreIf you liked "Sex And The City", "She's The One", "The Real Blonde" and "Your Friends And Neighbours", you will like it. Good thing is, they are not all Gucci, Dior or Dolce-Gabbana, nor they are trailer-trash immigrants, rather they are a bunch of confused New Yorkers from different social levels who simply tell their stories to the camera. This is a more or less general picture of Americans, they get fat, get bald, cheat around, get busted, and in the end seem to be some sentimental hypocrite patriots. They break up, they make up. They desperately try to figure out the fine line between lust and logic. They identify themselves with dogs and bitches. You would come to pity them. One of the characters tends to think that getting laid is a huge issue for him where the actual huge issue with him was his knowledge in Geography. He needs to get back to school rather than getting back to his ex-wife. If one rarely travels overseas and think that moving across country is a big life-time deal, their mind will also end up like this, and rest of the world outside USA wouldn't even exist for them. Stanley Tucci, Dennis Farina and Brittany Murphy's performance are quite good, though Brittany Murphy's hair always annoys me. Edward Burns and Heather Graham were not bad. Realistic plot has been combined with a special scene-plan in this movie. Looks like a "hopping-shots" technique that suits the theme and mood of the movie. 7 out of 10.
View MoreBy the way, the other review here is very good, especially as an overview of the structure of the film, however, there seems to be a typo--It's BEN who was married to gorgeous Maria, and was kicked out after cheating on her, not Tommy.The film seemed a little slow in the beginning to me. I found the character of Tommy sweet, but not particularly compelling, so I was kind of getting impatient with the pace. However, as the rest of the characters were introduced, I soon became engrossed in the stories, and I LOVED the way all the story lines became more and more entangled with each other.My favorite character, easily, was Ben, played by the ever- interesting David Krumholtz (now on CBS's Numb3rs!) and his scenes with Brittany Murphy were surprisingly touching and funny.Stanley Tucci was a riot, though, as the most selfish little shmuck ever.All in all, I really liked it and would recommend it
View MoreHeather Graham, in one of her better performances, and Dennis Farina as comedic relief, provide much of this film's minor merits. Otherwise, it's a pretty cynical exercise, and the device of having the characters talk to an unseen interviewer is made doubly annoying by the fact that the characters' observations are banal and uninteresting (the device was used to great effect in a French movie A Pornographic Affair). I found all the male characters to be thoroughly unsympathetic, ranging from pathetic (the doorman), totally lacking in introspection (Burns), and venal (Tucci). While I'm sure Burns would say the point was to show how screwed-up men can be, I don't think it does anybody any favours to repeatedly depict men stalking and showing up unannounced to exes and flames' apartments/houses. Reinforces that this is somewhat understandable and normal behaviour. And, aside from the one couple (perhaps), these characters' dwellings are preposterous given their station in life, unless we're to believe they all have large trust funds.
View MoreSimilar, yet different, from his other films ("The Brother's McMullen" and `She's the One'), writer/director/producer/actor Edward Burns, with his typical minuscule budget, broaches on Woody Allen territory this time as he explores the ooohs, aaahs and owwwws (mostly the owwwws) of the marriage and dating game. The sights and sounds of New York is in the air as the movie zeroes in on six disparate Manhattanites, all of whom trying their damnest to find the no-real answer to happiness. No belly-laughs here, but a lot of knowing smiles.This brash, perceptive, ultimately winning cyclical comedy first introduces us to good-looking, nice-guy Tommy (Ed Burns) who has just split up with his girlfriend and has been thrown out of her apartment. Tommy takes a sudden interest in evasive school teacher Maria (Rosario Dawson), whom he meets in a video store. Maria is divorced from small, tough-talking schlmiel Ben (David Krumholtz), a doorman and rock musician wannabe who cheated on her. Ben, still pining for Maria, finds a welcome distraction in edgy student/waitress Ashley (Brittany Murphy), who is having an affair with a much older and married dentist, Griffin (Stanley Tucci), whose suspecting wife Annie (Heather Graham), a real estate agent, has her eye on one of her customers, Tommy (back to Ed Burns again), who is (remember?) looking for a new pad since his girlfriend kicked him out. So much for the Kevin Bacon six degrees of separations and divorces angle.To punch up the thought processes of our six relationship-minded specimens, Burns has given his film a documentary/reality TV feel. Each of our protagonists express their own individual and personal philosophies on the meaning of love and sex with a `man on the street' interviewer. These telling bits are conveniently spliced here and there into each of their ongoing stories, which are not only a biting commentary on the social scene, but often humorously contradict their actions and intent. Burns, a native New Yorker, gives us a passionate, authentic, down-to-earth vision of his 'hood. No picaresque postcard images are to be found here. No tourist-like views of Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, etc. And just as dressed-down and down-to-earth is his solid ensemble cast. The stories are evenly laid out with no one performance getting short shrift. Burns, Dawson, Tucci, Murphy, Klumholtz, and Graham all have meaty roles here and each of their stories are well-presented and attention-grabbing. The philandering Tucci character, the least sympathetic of the bunch, still manages to drum up some pity, if not sympathy, for his subsequent actions. What's more, the outside circle, the peripheral friends/instigators/colleagues, etc., add immeasurably to the humor and atmosphere of the piece, particularly Aida Turturro as a worldly wise teacher/friend of Dawson's, Dennis Farina as Burns' overt male chauvinist boss, Michael Leydon Campbell in dual roles as a rocker and male half of a bickering married couple, and Callie Thorne as the bickering wife.No one treats New York better than Woody Allen. With "Sidewalks of New York" Edward Burns pays tribute to this fair city, and he pays homage to Mr. Allen -- 1992's "Husbands and Wives" in particular. Notice Burns' analytical approach to his characters, the hand-held camera work and jump-cut style of editing (which is actually smoother and less jolting than in Allen's above-mentioned film), the pneumatic jazz score, the reflexive, conversational-like bantering between his characters, the episodic storylines, and, most importantly, the obvious devotion he has for NY. It all but spells out W-O-O-D-Y. But, in this case, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. He's learned well from the master.
View More