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Glengarry Glen Ross

Glengarry Glen Ross

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Finally, a well made old style movie with acting
Review: When I see a great movie like this I figure there is still hope for Hollywood and creativity. In these days of special effects and million dollar budgets, it's refreshing to see an old style film that centers around the personalities of a few central characters. This is as good as an old Bogie black and white with cussing thrown in. The cast is superb and Baldwin's lecture is not to be missed. This movie shows everyday men working in a seedy real estate business, then the stakes are upped and someone gets greedy. The language is strong because it fits in with their characters. This is a great film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sizzling, Intense, Brilliant.
Review: I bought this movie because Alec Baldwin (one of my favorite actors) is in it. I'd never seen it before--wasn't interested when it first came out in theatres, had never even seen the play on stage--but I'd heard Baldwin was brilliant in it, so I bought it.

Now I'm kicking myself for never having seen it on the big screen. And I've seen it at least a dozen times since buying it.

The story, if you've read any reviews, you already know: Four guys in a real estate office (Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, and Al Pacino) are in a sales contest from "Mitch and Murray", the big bosses from downtown. As the slick-suited real estate millionaire sent to motivate the sales force (Baldwin, in a role written expressly for the film) explains, "First prize is a Cadillac.[...]Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired." With such motivation complete, Office Manager Williamson (Kevin Spacey, in his first big role) hands out the night's allotment sales leads, and they're pure drek...driving the men to various stages of desperation to ensure they don't fall off the sales board.

That's the story. What makes this movie work is the outstanding performances. Pacino as office hot-shot Ricky Roma got the film's only Oscar nod for acting, but Jack Lemmon's performance as Shelley "The Machine" Levine would have been a better choice. Levine hasn't had a sale in months, and has lost his edge; his scene bargaining with Williamson for a better lead capsulizes Levine's frustration and fears perfectly. Just to watch Lemmon, a wondrous actor, bring every nuance of this character to life is fascinating.

As for the reason I bought this in the first place, Alec Baldwin? He's magnificent. You'll forget he's only in one scene; his character's threats and emotional manipulation swirl through every scene in the film. His profanity-laced motivational speech is searing; you can feel every man in the room cringe as he verbally emasculates them in the name of generating more sales for the unseen Mitch and Murray. And the film's most quotable lines come from him: "Put that coffee down! Coffee is for closers." "What's my name? F--k you, that's my name! You know why? Because you drove a Hyundai to get here, and I drove a $80,000 BMW. THAT'S my name." "A-B-C--Always Be Closing. Always Be Closing. ALWAYS BE CLOSING!"

Enough talking. See the movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A real "guy" picture
Review: Usually, when a film features a cast this good, it never lives up to its promise. Not this time. The movie features Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin and Alec Balwin (who is only on screen for five minutes, but they are easily the best five minutes of his entire career). How good is it? Well it can be ranked at or very near the top of all of those fine actors resumes. David Mamet's screenplay gives them all a chance to interact by shouting and cursing each other out in ways that are almost musical. Pacino and Spacey, Lemon and Spacey, Pacino and Harris, those are just some of the more memorable verbal altrications. And the bleak and cutting portrayals of a salesman's existence gives the film a sense of desperation that makes the performances even more powerful. This is one of the best films of the 1990s.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unreal
Review: An absolute must see for anyone in sales! Shocking performances. Stunning dialog! Unreal.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Perfect Movie
Review: This movie surely has all the elements of the perfect movie. Excellent actors engaged in excellent, believable acting; superb storyline; fantastic sets and mood; and a well-crafted and laid out plot. Glengarry Glen Ross has many of my favorite actors in it: Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, et al. With this cast, it was almost sure to succeed. But, we've seen films with superb casts that have gone nowhere. Well, Glengarry Glen Ross goes somewhere; it goes straight into one's memory bank as a great film worth watching over and over again. I haven't bought it yet, but definitely intend to. Enjoy this excellent film

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: In some ways - better than the play
Review: James Foley's film of "Glengarry Glen Ross" is not only one of the best films ever made of a play, it's definitely the best film David Mamet has ever been involved with. Mamet is The Man Who Mistook Himself For A Director; his own films as a director tend to make me giggle, with their stylised deadpan and bizarre rhythms, but the brisker and more unbuttoned Foley succeeds in making Mamet's frequently overlapping dialogue flow and glisten. The play is notoriously tight and indoors, and Foley (or more likely, the producers) makes a token attempt to suggest the world outside (including a subplot, not in the play, about Lemmon's sick daughter, who if he gets sacked may die in hospital - the only bit of the script that doesn't ring true). It doesn't really matter. The real meat is the crackling malehood of the whole thing. The other bit not in the play is Alec Baldwin's towering cameo as the Man from Downtown ("You need brass balls to be in real estate"), in which he not only blows such superb actors as Lemmon, Ed Harris and Alan Arkin off the screen, but thoroughly redeems himself for having made such not very good films everywhere else. (Apart from his fine work in "Miami Blues".)

Not a couple movie, this. One for getting together with your mates, some beers, some pizza and a memory retentive enough for you all to be able to chant your favourite lines back at the screen. All together now: "Will you go to lunch? _Will_ you go to lunch?"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Time capsule material
Review: If for some reason you have never seen this movie you simply MUST see it. Glengarry Glen Ross is one of the best written, best cast, and best acted films of the latter half of the 20th century.

I happened to catch the edited for TV version on one of Ted Turner's stations once and laughed my (bottom) off. "Forget You" says Moss (Ed Harris) to Ricky Roma (Al Pacino). "Forget you all!"

And who can forget Kevin Spacey telling Alan Arkin: "Go to lunch. Would you please go to lunch!"

A true AMERICAN classic.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All salespeople must watch this!
Review: If you want to know anything about ANYTHING, this movie will tell you... it will show you how to stand up and always close a deal... whether it is selling something, or meeting a new person.

Once you are done watching this movie, repeat the acronyms ABC and AIDA, and their meanings, to yourself every morning...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Real estate and the measure of a man.
Review: This is a resonating film. It is not spectacular in the ordinary sense, nor sweeping, nor bright. In many ways the film exists as a testament to the enduring power of Logos, both spoken and written. Mamet brings a dazzling script, and the actors bring their "A" games: there is nothing else you need.

Mamet has written a story about what one character calls 'a world of Men,' and indeed, there are no female characters. There is also no release and no safety in this movie; the characters are all desperate, clawing for the tiniest bit of success that means they can eat for one more day. They're salesmen, and we see their methods; as always, Mamet is interested in the art of the Con and the art of survival.

The cast is amazing. Pacino is mesmerizing, in a role where his affectations are appropriate to the character he plays. Lemmon is simultaneously pitiable and despicable, a delicate balance that is maintained throughout.

I have said that the movie resonates. I've never been a salesman of the type presented here, but I think of them often because of this film. On the surface, capitalism means endless equal opportunity for everyone. However, since we cannot legislate talent, the reality is that most of life is a mad squabble for meaningless stakes. Better than any film in recent memory, _Glengarry Glen Ross_ captures that fact.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best sales movie of all time
Review: A brilliant adaptation of Mamet's play and has some exceptionally brutal insight into the world of high pressure sales.


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