Jimmy Hollywood

Rating:
Summary: Jimmy Alto.."Actor Extraordinaire" or GET A GRIP!
Review: Director Barry Levinson("Rain Man"),brings us this quirky comedy of life in the not so glamorous side of Hollywood. Joe Pesci plays Jimmy Alto, "Actor Extraordinaire". He knows it, his pal William(Christian Slater) knows it, it even says that exact thing on the bus stop ad he has invested in(using his girlfriend's money). Alas no one else in Hollywood has seemed to discover this brillant acting talent yet!

It seems the criminal element in his neighborhood make a much better living stealing car radios and such, then he does. When his girlfriend(Victoria Abril) is mugged and Jimmy's car is broken into("Why does anyone bother rolling up their windows, ya just have to pay to fix em when they rob your radio?"),Jimmy and William, who's a little on the slow side, decide to start video taping the criminals and turning them over to the police.And not just the tapes, the perps are delivered as well.This action turns into the biggest break in Jimmy's career he could ever hope for.

The police assume that some big time vigalante group is responsible for these actions, and Jimmy seeing at as the role of a lifetime makes himself over as "Jericho" the leader of this group, and really gets into "method acting".He's thrilled as he see's himself(in disguise) on all the news shows. He's finally got some attention! Pretty soon the police and the criminals are after "Jericho" and Jimmy must decide on an ending for this story.It's all very "Hollywood" right up to the end,and you should at least stay for the beginning of the credits as there are some great surprise cameos.

Joe Pesci is marvelous as the stuggling actor who is enthralled with the great movie stars of the past. Christian Slater plays the spacey William perfectly, and Victoria Abril has a great chemistry with Pesci and is wonderful as the girlfriend who can only sit back and say in her delightful Spanish accent"Are you out of your mind?!"

The film is alot of fun, the musical soundtrack is great, and the VHS has a nice picture and sounds terrifc in the Hi-Fi Stereo. I would even say 4 and 1/2 stars if the film hadn't been "formatted to fit your screen", but still very much worth the view.

If you've ever had a dream..this film is for you....Laurie

Rating:
Summary: Making It in The Dream Factory.
Review: Joe Pesci stars in this movie as Jimmy Alto an unemployed actor living in L.A. who's originally from New Jersey. Jimmy spends his time like a lot of actors in L.A., auditioning for roles, sitting around watching movies, and sunbathing by a pool. Jimmy dreams of making it big. However, the Hollywood he dreamed of no longer exists. All the greats are gone and the famous locations of old are run down. One day after Jimmy has his car stereo stolen he enlists his mentally challenged friend (Christian Slater) to help find the thief and video tape the crook as he commits a crime. They do so and end up binding and gagging the crook and dropping him off at the police department. From there, the S.O.S. is born and Jimmy decides to take on the role as "Jeremiah" leader of the S.O.S.

Overall I enjoyed the movie. At times it moved rather slow. The pieces of Hollywood trivia strung throughout are amusing. In some ways, the film felt like a modern SUNSET BOULEVARD with two guys and a comic ending.

Rating:
Summary: slater keeps this at bay
Review: this is really an awful movie but I like it because of Slater's performance which is the best thing in this film. Pesci is ok as Hollywood. but dont find anything special about this piece, only for Slater's work as the blank man who repeats himself over again and he does his character well. the end is stupid. plus its upped a notch by the cameo at the end by Harrison Ford.