The Big Easy

Rating:
Summary: This movie was hot , fresh and feisty.
Review: Wow! Amazing, simply amazing. Get your credit card out now and purchase this movie!!!

Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: A really great film. Dennis Quaid gives a good performance as Remy, but the film belongs to Ellen Barkin. She gives a great, firey Oscar caliber performance. Great music, and great action. A great american film!!

Rating:
Summary: Good Story but the Surround Sound effects don't hold up
Review: Liked the story and the acting was good. Video quality was of couse perfect with DVD but the normally expected surround sound effects and stereo just didn't hold up. Almost mono with most sound coming from the center speaker. Suggest this movie for content but it's no Top Gun or Twister for audiofiles.

Rating:
Summary: It was great!
Review: This movie was sexy, thrilling, and interesting, Dennis Quaid is sexy and an excellent actor. This movie is definitely worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: New Orleans and its Steamy Side
Review: It is official....I do not know a single woman who does not believe this is one of the sexiest movies ever made. Quaid and Barkin make the seamy side of New Orleans steamy!! An entertaining flick combining murder, mystery, cops and corruption with backdrops of zydeco and cajun' love between the stiff Barkin and fluid Quaid. As the town's sizzle melts her reserve away, the truths of who has been killing local gansters and drug dealers are revealed to these odd couple cops whose personal chemistry keeps pulling them back to each other and the difficult conclusions that must be discovered.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Movies I Have Ever Seen
Review: I loved this movie. It had everything, suspense, thrills, twists and the best love scenes ever filmed. Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin have wonderful chemistry. I can't wait to own this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Glad I finally watched it.
Review: A friend of mine has chased me around with this DVD for weeks, telling me it is a must see. She was right! The only problem is, it's her copy and now I'm going to HAVE to buy my own. I live about an hour away from New Orleans and let me tell you, they have the Cajun flavor down pat. I just wish Dennis Quaid were there all the time. This movie is sexy, steamy and very entertaining. It's amazing that it is from 1987 and yet is not outdated at all. If you haven't seen it yet, then buy it now!

Rating:
Summary: Southern Comfort
Review: The Big Easy is one of the best thrillers from the late 80's. Memorable for its steamy scences between its two leads and its appreciation for its locale--there's plenty to like about the film.

When a small time hood's murder triggers a bloody gangland drug war, police Captain Jack Kellom (Ned Beatty) assins detective Remy McSwain (Dennis Quaid) and his partner Andre DeSoto (John Goodman) to the case. Remy's a smooth-talkin' cop who fits right in with the easy style of New Orleans. He meets his match though, when Anne Osborne (Ellen Barkin), a hard edged Assistant District Attorney comes to town to investigate police corruption. At odds from the moment they meet, their charged relationship turns into much more.

Diretctor Jim McBride takes full advantage of the film's setting--I know it sounds like a cliche--making the city of New Orleans function as a charater in the story. This tactic allows the viewer the ability to forgive certain problems with writer Daniel Petrie Jr.'s script. A couple of plot twists are fairly easy to spot...but overall it's a compelling enough mystery to sustain itself. Quaid and Barkin make quite a pair. Early in his film career Goodman carved a niche solidly playing someone's police partner on film. The Big Easy is no exception.

The extras on the DVD are a disappointment. Cast/crew information and the theatrical trailer is all you get. The film is good enough to warrant a special edition upgrade. I hope that will be a reality someday soon.

The Big Easy is a recommended thriller. Put a little spice in your life.


Rating:
Summary: If I can't have you, can I at least have my gator?
Review: Let me begin by saying that it took me three times to finish this film. I am a strong believer that if a film takes three days to finish, or you find yourself constantly glancing at your watch, then the film has lost you. You are not interested in the movie any longer, all you want is for the film to end. Quick and simple, you have better things to do today.

To begin, I couldn't stand Quaid's accent. I realize that we are deep into the world of Louisiana, but it almost felt forced from Quaid. It felt as if he had been practicing all night, only to forget most of it in the morning and continue to "try" to do his best. Second, the chemistry between Barkin and Quaid seems forced as well. Neither one of them seem to be in love, it just seems like it is more a convenience relationship then a full fledged love affair. I have trouble believing that a couple is going to be happy together after just spending an evening together at a bar OR that a love could form when you are trying to convict the man on corruption charges. I felt that some sort of ethics question should have been brought up, but it wasn't.

The secondary characters in this film made no sense either. I didn't care, or know, who Bob, Dick, or Jane were in the background of this film. I did notice John Goodman playing a small part ... but he has done better. I felt that with this film, the director had swayed from the overall point of the film. Jim McBride tried to bring a story of romance with the backdrop of crime in the unlikely of places. What was actually created was a "gumbo" style of film. Tons of different elements combined in the same bowl, only to create some sense of spice and uneven texture.

I think something was missing when they were trying to establish a sense of family bond between all the major characters, but I still didn't realize that Ned Beatty was trying to marry Quaid's mother. In the middle of the film that hit me hard ... too hard. I felt at times that this film was similar to watching a very cheap, and un-mutant like version of X-Men. I could see Quaid doing Gambit, but it would have been sloppy and poor. Perhaps I was hoping that somewhere in the middle of this film Quiad would turn into Gambit and perhaps ... just perhaps ... throw some of those explosive cards at everyone around him. Chaos could have been better created than this film.

Finally, I would like to end on a note of science. If you are in a big gun battle at the very end, the climax is about to come (as horrible as that just sounded), and the last of the bad guys is about to get their come-uppins please DO NOT ever shoot at bags of cocaine. Do you know why? Because they will explode upon impact of any bullets. Did you know that? I would have to say that that is the only history I learned, or was willing to learn, during this film.

ps... also if the title of your film is The Big Easy try not to allow your main character to use it in every line that he has. It will not, nor has it ever, worked in cinema.

Grade: * out of *****

Rating:
Summary: Really a great flick.
Review: The cover poorly represents the movie--it's a great action drama flick with a few cozy bed sessions, but the cover isn't even an actual shot from the movie scene, that I remember. I dislike intimate sessions on movies, and this one was not even offensive to me. I got this one only becuase it was 3.99 and free shipping. I scored. I'd pay $10 for it, easy. Watch this if you're into the actors, or a change of pace in good cop bad cop movies.