Customer Reviews

Frogs for Snakes [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm not going to give any of the plot away-it's already too much to tell the viewer it's black comedy-but this film is one of the rare finds that's interesting, arty without being pretentious, very well acted and directed and shot, and quite well written. It has a ton of kitsch, a color that is well lit and very Edward Hopperish in its look and feel. Barbara Hersey is great, but there's not a clinker in the film, and many of players, even some quite small parts, are fantastic. This is film, it ain't a movie.

Very self indulgent ACTING. Not much there for the audience, unless you are watching for the ACTING. Pretty much total trash otherwise.

This movie is about a group of off-off Broadway actor wanna bes who moonlight as illegal money collectors. One of their crew wants to leave and start a new life with her young son. Unfortunately, her ex-husband is the theatre impresario/loan shark who pulls the strings of everyone's ambitions.

A very unusual vision of the gangster comedy theme. It takes the generalized neuroses and psychoses of actors (ego, ambition, narcissism, paranoia, etc) and runs the gamut from somewhat healthy to psychotic. People alternate from friends, lovers, and assasins at the turn of an audition announcement and will begin monologues from plays and movies with little to no warning (this will be fun for theatre/movie buffs). The plot, unlike some movies, actually requires attention and a large cast (most of whom are one to two sceners) delivers excellent performances all around.

FYI: has some scenes of graphic violence.

Amos Poe takes the framework of neo-noir and wraps around it a wacky satire of actors so desperate for parts they'll kill for 'em. To top it off, the "impresario" who puts on the plays is a big guy, played by Robbie Coltrane--an English actor with an impeccable tough Noo Yawk accent--who's also a mob boss. What Poe's really done here is to give us the New York City that really exists--the one full of attitude, show business, desperation, "me first", and day-to-day toughing it out.

The reason this all works is because Poe makes it obvious that this is, after all, a movie--that is, another piece of show business that's being used to show how the business itself is so cut-throat it makes killers of those scrambling within it for placement. There IS some humor here, the laugh-out loud kind, and there is the overall premise which is cleverly done, albeit in a somewhat cartoonish way. But the intensity of most of the dialogue more than makes up for whatever cartoonish elements may exist.

The cast here is a good one--and all of them (aside from the "impresario") are actors. Barbara Hershey is the least cartoonish of the characters, the mob boss' ex. John Leguizamo is her lover. Lisa Marie is another divorcee, also with a young kid. Debi Mazar, who gives the most unfortunately cliched monologue in the film, is the most desperate of the actors. Clarence Williams III--who cannot give a bad performance if he tries--HAS to play Teach, in American Buffalo, the mob boss' next show. And Harry Hamlin is the lowlife who is sure HE will play Teach. Also on hand are Mike Starr, Justin Theroux and Ron Perlman who do their New York characters proud--as does the rest of the cast--with real panache.

Poe is also poking fun here at David Mamet; all his characters have the same monosyllabic names that Mamet favors in his play American Buffalo which is the actors' focal point. So here we have Klench, Zip, Flav, Simone, Myrna (I lied; the women have two-syllable names), and Crush.

This is not a great film, but an amusing one, especially, maybe, for actors struggling to make it big in the Big Apple.

if you didn't like it, you have no idea what goes on in the new york acting world. you'll do better with Third watch!

This is a brilliant movie. While I am not usually a fan of violence there is so much of it in this film that it quickly became apparent that it was the brutal absurdity of such that the filmmaker was highlighting.
Also, having worked in theatre, it was hysterical to see to what lengths actors would go to get a part. Not to mention them taking the ultimate day job as "loan collectors and hit men" to pay the bills until their big break comes through.
I found it enchanting and surreal to have soliloquies peppered throughout the movie, flowing into the script without introduction, making it not immediately recognizable as being from another work and not the movie itself.
It is also a commentary as to the reptilian theatre owners who view actors as dispensable amphibians. Artists are eaten once again.
The acting and directing was extraordinary.

My initial review submitted here a few weeks a go has mysteriously disappeared. This time I will make certain not to mention that one leading lady was much to old to be playing her assigned "kooky" role of an ingenue just beginning her career. The plot was contrived with such a forced sense of "aren't we cute?" that I was actually angered! Murders of aspiring actors and perpetrated by their competitors for the roles. Just not funny. The cinematography and art direction are great, as is the performance by Mike Starr, a perpetually underrated pro. (see him in Mad Dog and Glory!) Skip this clumsy attempt at physical farce. Did they really think it was going okay when they saw the dailies, I wondered? n with

This film is so awful, it is beyond description. The thought that good money was actually spent to make this makes my sould bleed. I can sit through "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "Robot Monster" and be entertained, this film does nothing. It does not entertain, it does not make you think, it does not have a message, it's just there. And I wish it wasn't.

Some things go very well together, Peanut butter and chocolate, Thanksgiving and football, earrings and nipples, etc. What does NOT go well together is a story of off-Broadway actresses and collectors (mob style). This film is beyond retarded.

There is a guy named Al, a big fat ugly man, he runs a theater, and he plans on producing "American Buffalo". He also has his actresses do hits for him on people who owe him money. The actors also kill each other for roles in the play. You may think I'm being too hard on this movie, and that it actually sounds pretty good. Well then let me ask you then, if this movie was made in 1999, why am I the first reviewer here on Amazon and it is now 2007??

Evidently in New York you can kill people in the street with no consequenses. You can shoot people anywhere. You can also hang people on meat hooks and beat them to death. Right there on the street.

The most aggravating thing about this movie is that in between senseless scenes, we have more senseless scenes of the actresses practicing their monoluges. Sitting through this movie was a chore at first, then it became torture to finish it. I would rather eat a bucket of someone elses dirty toenail clippings than sit through this again. It is that bad people. Heed my warning.

As a devoted cinemaste who has seen literally 1000's of films over the years, I am usually more forgiving and pragmatic about less-than-perfect cinema than the casual viewer. HOWEVER,my reaction to "Frogs For Snakes" goes beyond such trite expressions of repulsion like "I HATED this movie!" No, I didn't JUST "hate" this film. I WANT THOSE 100 MINUTES OF MY LIFE BACK! I also want a written apology from the writers,directors and producers for subjecting me to the type of torture that I am sure violates one or more rules of the Geneva Convention. Oh how they suckered me in! A "quirky" premise (actors who are literally killing each other for coveted parts in a play)... "Indie Street Cred Casting" (Barbara Hershey, Ian Hart, Robbie Coltrane, Debie Mazar).Even some "High Camp Value Career Resurrection Casting" (Harry Hamlin, Clarence Williams III). Oh yes, they saw ME approaching a MILE AWAY! This misguided slopfest should have been re-titled "Return Of The Stepford Wives 2" as the cast sleepwalks through it all with a dazed, high school thespian reading off the cue cards demeanor. A total waste of acting talent and film stock. Even on a slow night, you'll be much better served watching that "Saved By The Bell" marathon on channel 253.