Customer Reviews

Miami Blues

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This movie managed to stay under almost everyone's radar screen, and this is truly a shame. This is a quirky, unorthodox, and unpredictable film with potent acting and a very intriguing story. It's a compelling and intelligent film that is very funny and yet quite sad. The movie came and went before Alec Baldwin emerged as a (sometimes) legitimate star. And he's really at his best, acting opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh, who delivers one of her trademark credible and powerful performances. Alec Baldwin portrays an ex-con who has just been released from a prison in Florida, and it doesn't take long before he's returning to his criminal ways. Early in the film Alec intentionally breaks the thumb of a Harry Krishna follower at the airport, who proceeds to die as a result of the trama. At this point, a detective (aptly and humorously portrayed by Fred Ward) begins investigating and pursuing Baldwin. Ward doesn't have enough evidence to arrest Baldwin, but he is pretty certain he's got the right man. An interesting and funny cat-and-mouse game follows. Baldwin makes his living by stealing from other criminals, mostly by robbing muggers just after they have robbed someone. Midway through the film Baldwin obtains a detective's badge and proceeds to impersonate a police officer, which allows him to more easily apply his trade and opens the way for several hysterical scenes. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a prostitute who, after a tryst with Baldwin, ends up falling in love and living with him. The dynamic between these two characters occupies a central role in this film, and it is both convincing and interesting. As the film progresses, it becomes obvious that Baldwin is battling himself and facing large changes and challenges within himself. While continuing to impersonate a police officer while robbing people, it becomes obvious that he begins to internalize the persona and seems to think of himself as a protector of others. While this film is frequently violent, comic and funny, it is tinged with a very serious edge that meanders into areas of human longing, sadness and loss. This film unfolds slowly, but is compelling and funny every step of the way. Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance is poignant and provides emotional ballast, but Baldwin's performance borders on being gut-wrenchingly good. The heaviness and self-consciousness that often accompany his later performances are nowhere to be found. This film is daring, orginal and intelligent...and a lot of fun along with way. Hopefully the new DVD edition will allow it to surface on radar screen's everywhere.

Alec Baldwin shines as "Junior" in this offbeat, quirky, action/crime/comedy adventure. That sounds like an odd combination, and it is just that unique combination that really makes this film work.

The fun begins when "Junior", a career criminal, is on the loose in Miami, hence the title. After stepping off a plane, and breaking the finger of a Hare Krishna at the airport who later dies of shock, Sgt. Hoke Mosley (Fred Ward) is on the case.

Meanwhile, Junior is going about his business of robbing, assaulting, and assuming the identity of "Herman Gotlieb". That is funny all by itself, but that's the wallet lifted, so that's who Junior is. He is living in a cheap hotel where the bellboy is a pimp. So, when Junior wants a lady for "entertainment" he gets a roomservice prostitute, enter Jennifer Jason Leigh as "Susie", a not too bright, but sweet girl who is "working" the hotel. Once she is sent to Juniors room, they remain together as a couple. Blissfully ignorant, Susie naively trusts Junior, and plays the role of dutiful wife, oblivious to his frighteningly deviate behavior. Everyone is happy, until..........

Trouble starts for Junior as Sgt. Hoke Mosley, a denture toting vice veteran who lives up to his hokey name, closes in. Particularly amusing is a shared dinner at Junior and Susies place, where Mosley lets Junior know, he's a suspect for the airport Hare Krishna death incident. Fred Ward is very amusing in this role, and repugnant as well. Looking at him makes you think you can smell him right through the screen. He drinks up all the beer, eats all the food, and exits after asking Junior if he'd mind taking a look at a line-up, and standing in it too. Junior knows it's time to make a serious move, or it's back to jail.

Although George Armitage is the director of this film, the entire cinematography, mood. music, quirky camera angles, and cast spells Jonathan Demme all the way. He is the credited producer of this film, but I imagine he certainly had alot to do with the directing and casting as well. You can see all Demme favorites here in small cameo roles, as in his previous "Married To The Mob", and "Something Wild" (see my reviews). Charles Napier, a welcome Demme mainstay, is in a peripheral role here as a collegue of Wards' Mosley, but he's just one of many familiar faces that show up unexpectedly throughout the film.

"Miami Blues" is a unique blend of comedy, and action crime thriller that will get your attention with it's visual flash, and hold your interest with its well paced plot and odd characters. It's a forgotten sleeper that should not be missed.

One of the most over-looked, under-rated 90's noir killer-on-the-loose films of the times, that had Oscar all over it. The most Elmore Leonard-like film to date (Out of Time,too)which says this stands taller than most movies with guns and cars.Alec Baldwin displays the marks of genius here, over the top, beyond the fringes of insanity and then he pulls back from sociopath to sweet, chummy boyfriend to his thespian equal, Jennifer Jason Leigh, who plays the dim-witted,sweet girlfriend forever to endearing believability. A twist on the Bonnie and Clyde matchup,as this Bonnie, Leigh never catches on to the pathological insanity of her boyfriend. Baldwin, the serial killer, is dogged by a careless detective,Fred Ward, who also brings a bag of acting chops.Baldwin takes on other alter egos as required, even impersonates a cop, to mock the men in blue further as they draw the net in. When Baldwin slips out of his hideout to kill and return unaware of anything out of the ordinary, projecting innocence, you know you are in for a ride. The whole range of crazy, offbeat characters that fill an Elmore Leonard pulp get their proper due in this suspenseful, climactic look at insane homicide or normal domesticity in a single moment. When justice gets served you are drained and yet filled with genuine feeling for the used,innocent girlfriend, Leigh. Baldwin, Leigh and Ward live up to the highest standards of the profession in this Miami concoction. Unforgettable performances.

This film, along with David Lynch's 'Wild At Heart' , should be credited, or faulted, with sparking the shift in American independent cinema, and art films in general, from sex to violence. All the elements that made 'Reservoir Dogs', and its legions of imitators, so successful a few years later, can be found here. Alec Baldwin gives one of his best performances in this little-seen, underrated film based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford. Baldwin plays a dumb, small-time con man recently released from prison who takes off to Miami to work new territory. Once there, he meets a dim-witted hooker, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and proceeds to use her as he continues to pull off small time heists and petty thefts to get ahead. Part of Baldwin's brilliance is that he gets to put his woefully underutilized comedic talents to work here (anybody who's seen his genius at work on the three times he's hosted 'Saturday Night Live' will know what I'm talking about.) The film is a brilliant blend of black humour, violent slapstick and just palin ol' oddball weirdness. I think it got filmed in the late 80s and didn't find a distributor till about 1990. The Miami setting is used perfectly, as a tacky backdrop to Baldwin's minor scams. Everything about this film is a bit off, and it all blends together brilliantly. Fred Ward plays Hoke Moseley, an aging cop who is put on Baldwin's trail after Baldwin breaks an annoying Hare Krishna's finger at the airport, who then dies from shock. From there its a series of strange scenarios set into motion, enhanced by the bizarre Florida settings (restaurants with synchronized swimmers, pastel-coloured hotel rooms, pawn shops with shotgun-toting bodygaurds) screwy characters and Alec Baldwin's collection of ridiculous looking stolen clothes (ugly cable knit sweaters, shiny running shorts and pink plaid golf pants). I can't begin to describe the many strange circumstances that culminate into scenes because so many of them are memorable...Baldwin pointing an Uzi at a toy store clerk who then asks for a price check, Baldwin holding up drug dealers with said toy gun and then finding out later in his hotel room that he's just stolen a million BRAZILIAN dollars. From there he launches into a hilarious Scarface impression. There's one fabulous part where he tries to stop a convenience store hold up with a jar of spaghetti sauce, only to get run over and have his eyebrow ripped off. Or when Fred Ward comes over for dinner, only to be stalked by Baldwin later, who steals his badge, gun and false teeth. Baldwin then goes on a crazy stealing spree, catching drug dealers and taking off with their booty, or shooting a robber at a bar before yelling 'Stop or I'll shoot!'. Another great scene is watching Baldwin get his fingers chopped off during a botched pawn shop robbery, and then witnessing him scoop up his severed digits along with the loot. You have to see this movie several times to appreciate it. It's absolutely hilarious. I've been quoting lines from the film for years, especially Baldwin's cruelly blunt lines. (One favourite: after getting his eyebrow sowed on by a widowed neighbour, he tells her ''I'll bet your husband was glad to die.'') The whole movie has the feel of a really bad Miami Vice rip-off, but it works to its advantage, painting Miami as this hopelessly gaudy town, rivalled only by Las Vegas in raw bad taste. I like how it shows the flipside of the glitzy, seedy glamour of Michael Mann's famous TV show. This is a more interesting look at Florida's grimy underbelly, filled with small time hoods, racketeers and crooked vice cops. George Armitage does a great job bringing Willeford's quirky characters and decidedly unconventional plot developments to life on screen. Both Baldwin and Ward are brilliant and Leigh does a good job too. There's so many great parts to this film I think I'd rather leave it to all of you to catch it sometime. The book is just as good and features three more stories in the series of Hoke Moseley detective tales.

this is a GREAT, very funny action/black comedy movie (like Gross Pointe Blank) you will like even if you are not a Baldwin fan. Fred Ward plays a character very similar to his character in Tremors that steals the show, and Leigh does a great job too.

Never writing a review of one of my favorite movies is a major oversight on my part. "Miami Blues," adapted from a book by Charles Willeford, is a movie which has great impact. Alec Baldwin portrays Frederic Frenger Jr. (aka "Junior"), a man whose middle name should be "Trouble." He is a person capable of anything at any time. Arriving in Florida after his release from prison, Frenger instantly starts up with his modus operandi. Forging some documents in order to attain someone else's identity (the drugged Herman Gottlieb), he walks through the airport and is confronted by a Hari Krishni member; without hesitation, Junior breaks one of the man's fingers. The man dies. This sets up the plot. Frenger is now wanted for homicide. We are introduced to Hoke Mosely, a nicely drawn character. He's a career cop out to get to the bottom of the Hari Krishna's demise. He's told someone with a "suede sportcoat" was the culprit -- this is Junior in Herman Gottlieb's clothing.

We find Junior shacked up in a seedy hotel, where he hooks up with Jennifer Jason Leigh's character, Susie. She's a simple gal from Florida who is working her way through college engaged in the "oldest profession." They take to each other instantly and decide to move in together. As a newly formed couple, the dialogue between the conniving psychopath and the honest prostitute with a heart of gold is hilarious as they talk about their future ... with Mosely hot on the trail.

Won't give anymore details except to say this movie will not disappoint. Solid performances of well-drawn characters. Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Fred Ward (as Sgt. Hoke Mosely) are exceptional. Look for Paul Gleason (of "The Breakfast Club" and "Trading Places") as a crooked cop. As usual, his trademark style and character are very entertaining.

Miami Blues: A movie to buy, see again every so often, and discuss with friends.

Alec Baldwin is at his best as he plays a psychopathic character in this fast paced action drama. Ingenuity and being nice to his new found girlfriend are the only disirable qualities in Baldwin's character. You won't want to leave your seat with this one.

You know when the opening piece of music on the soundtrack is Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" that you're on to something special, and it never fails to deliver. Up there with True Romance and Something Wild as a superb mix of thriller/comedy. And don't you just want to try some of Susan's vinegar pie...?

I wish I could say something original about this very clever, unusual and brilliantly acted film. All I can do is agree with the reviewers who gave it five stars. See it, and it will be just a little bit less overlooked. Better still, see it with friends... just don't invite anyone squeamish or anyone lacking a sense of humor.

For admirers of Baldwin's work on 30 Rock, this will give a broader opinion of the the thespian. Fred Ward and Nora Dunn have minor roles but stalwart. Basicly, it's Alec's "Falling Down."