Highly Overrated But Still Good

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Blistering performances.

"Two Bits" was a noticeable change for Al Pacino, casting him as a man getting his grandson (Jerry Barone) to rectify an age-old matter in 1933 Philadelphia in exchange for a chance to go to the movies. Watching the movie, one gets a sense of the poverty characteristic of the Great Depression, but also how people understood that they had to try and go on no matter what. I realize that some people may consider it bad taste - if not unethical - to use the Great Depression for the setting of a nearly magical story, but I wish to assert that the movie did a very impressive job portraying the setting without getting sappy; then again, how could an Al Pacino movie be sappy? I recommend it. Also starring Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

This movie reminded me of some foreign films I own, low-key films which feature nice storytelling. There are no good guys vs. bad guys, no action, no blood, no sex: just a story of a day back in the Depression era in South Philadelphia.The story centers around a young boy "Gennero" (Jerry Barone) trying to raise "two bits" (25 cents) to see a movie. It features his dying grandfather, played nicely by Al Pacino. Along the way the 12-year-old encounters interesting people and events. Pacino dishes out the usual grandfatherly advice and well meaning-but-on-Biblical theology ("God puts a brick on your house in heaven every time you do a good deed and he takes one away when you are bad.") Some have criticized Pacino for taking this role. I guess they want him to be a cop in every film. Well, he's a great actor and shows his diversified talents well in here. Whatever.....this film is loaded with charm and a nice story that's like a good book: hard to put down once you start. At 84 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome, either. Even though there is little profanity, I would not recommend this as family fare because the film touches on a disturbing doctor and his wife.Overall, I really enjoyed this movie and glad to see it's out on DVD now, too.

Most of the Depression stories focus on Jewish families and usually in New York. This one focuses on Italian families in S. Philadelphia. There is a lot of intelligence and insight, but the embarrassingly sentimental spin loses the inherent irony. And that music is probably the most cloyingly mawkish I have ever heard. I would pair this with "Christ in Concrete" to get an emotional balance.

I love a nice drama as much as anyone, and have always been a sucker for a memoir of a boy reminiscing about that special time spent with Grandpa, long, long ago.My guess is that the title Two Bits was chosen for this meaningless piece of drivel because `Plug Nickel' and `A Complete Waste of all our Time' were both already taken.James Foley reasserts his position as number one ‘handholder to the stars'(drama)-the type of guy who is credited as director (with all the associated headaches) even though the project is controlled creatively, entirely, and usually disastrously by a single minded, self-promoting ‘star'(in this case Al Pacino). The directorial talent and skills that seemed so promising in ‘At Close Range' and even ‘After Dark My Sweet' are far in the past now, for Mr. Foley, sadly.If Mr Pacino saw this as possibly his own personal ‘Death of a Salesman', it's unfortunate that the salesman was no where to be found.I would talk more about the story if I had the slightest idea what was so important about it to bring it to film-an immigrant boy, his widowed mom, and a crotchety old Grandpa…the standard setup for today's derivative and ineffective sitcom.Pass. Pass. Pass