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Miracle Mile

Miracle Mile

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $13.46
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of denn grimm's top 10
Review: This film is 1 of my all time favorites!! Its so hard to find in the video stores and I wish it would come out on DVD but oh well...

I wont bore you with the standard review....I'll just let you, the movie enthusiast, that this film is AWSOME!! Back in the days of fearing the great nuclear war, this film is a favorite of mine at my birthday(to my wife's dismay). It makes you feel lucky to be alive and like rollercoasters, brings you to the edge of life. A premium night of film watching with a 6 pack of beer, dim sum and a double feature of Miracle Mile and Testament.....cant beat it with a stick!! happy watching!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I love this movie...
Review: This film is one of those movies that you wish they'd convert to DVD! It forces you to become emotionally involved with the characters, from beginning to end, all while maintaining a well developed sense of irony. The side characters are interesting (there are many of them), and as far as pre-Apocalyptic 80's suspense films go, this one did a damn good job; it even has a little bit of hopeless romanticism tied in. The soundtrack is done by the Ambient group "Tangerine Dream", adding to the aura of sensitive excitement. Relatively realistic, playful at times, but ultimatly fast paced and scary, this is definitly a film to check out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Once upon a time in the 80s
Review: This movie looks a little absurd now, living comfortably in the post-Cold War era, but there was a time not 15 years ago when we all knew that total nuclear anhailiation was just 45 hair-trigger minutes away. Do you remember talking with your classmates or coworkers about what you'd do with your last 45 minutes on earth? Run and hide? Go get high? Make out with that chick you were secretly in love with in your English class? Life was a bit more exciting back when we were all about to be vaporized by the Russians. And if you can put yourself back in that 80s mindset, you might just love this flick.


It's a romantic thriller, set in the not-so-distant past, when survivalist freaks were your friends and neighboors, apocalyptic songs like 1999 were on the radio, and only the most important people in the world had things like laptops and cellphones. Fills a nice gap between war thrillers like Fail Safe or Dr. Strangelove and the depressing anti-nuclear fables like The Day After.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love uprooted by reality
Review: This movie starts as a beautiful love story. Harry (Anthony Edwards) and Julie (Mare Winningham) meet at a museum and become attached immediately. They can both tell they've met the right one and want to see more of each other. But Julie has to work that night at the coffee shop. Harry goes back home to take a nap and will meet her at quitting time: 12:15 A.M. But, as fate would have it, the electricity goes out at Harry's place, he oversleeps due to the alarm not sounding, and he ends up being over 3 1/2 hours late. Julie has gone home in despair. He tries calling her at the phone booth next to the restaurant and has to leave a message. He leaves the booth, buys a paper, hears the phone in the booth ringing and picks up in mild anticipation. But it isn't Julie. It's someone at a missile silo trying to call his Dad. "We're locked in", he says, trying to warn his Dad. "50 minutes and counting". "This is it, this is really it, this is the big one. Thor Arthur 66DDZ....It's for real Dad, this is no drill." Edwards asks him, "What are you talking about?" "I'm talking about nuclear fu----g war", the voice says. After some communication the caller realizes he dialed the right number but the wrong area code. Harry figures it has to be a joke but it sounded too real for him to be sure. He goes back into the coffee shop and tells the customers what he just heard. Naturally, no one wants to believe it. But a woman in the restaurant with a laptop computer and cell phone who has connections high up in government takes what he has to say very seriously. She asks him to repeat what he heard. She thinks it's for real, after contacting people in "D.C." "Four out of five are now in transit to the extreme Southern hemisphere". She finds that "more than just very curious". All but two people in the restaurant are convinced and are frantically preparing to escape. But Harry's only thoughts are about Julie. If this is really the end he has to find her building and get her and try to escape this insanity. He has less than 45 minutes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Movie
Review: This was a great movie. The one you catch late at night on cable that keeps you awake. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. Its completely worth watching/owning. Very suspenseful. A very good depiction of what could happen on doomsday.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Apocalypse In Eighty Minutes
Review: Though not exactly a boffo box office success when it was released in 1989, MIRACLE MILE has attained significant status as a cult film, one of the last films to deal with nuclear war and Cold War paranoia before the fall of communism and the Berlin Wall. In it, Anthony Edwards, then best remembered as Tom Cruise's sidekick in TOP GUN and still five years away from the hit TV drama "E.R.", plays a jazz musician who has a hard time being able to keep commitments to girls, even his latest girlfriend (Mare Winningham). A 4 A.M. call to her from a pay phone goes unanswered. But mere moments after he hangs up, that same phone rings again. He answers it and hears that the missiles are flying and that there are only eighty minutes left before they hit.

And from that moment on, Edwards comes totally unbalanced, not being able to decide whether that call was a prank or whether in fact it signalled the actual start of World War III. He has to find Winningham and somehow get her and himself out of L.A., which is apparently ground zero for those nukes. The result is a pulse-pounding film, despite some minor flaws, that has the feel of a great "Twilight Zone" episode.

Indeed, MIRACLE MILE was even considered by Warner Brothers back in 1981 as a script for a proposed "Twilight Zone" movie. But the studio wanted to make it so that the nuclear war scenario would be all in the insane mind of Edwards' protagonist, and writer/director Steve DeJarnatt wasn't going to give them that kind of an outlet. In the end, MIRACLE MILE progresses like all the best moments (and there were many) of Serling's landmark 1960s TV series, with plenty of suspense, paranoia, and dark humor, towards a climax that simply must be seen to be believed. Edwards and Winningham make for a very appealing couple, and DeJarnatt, though hampered by a marginal budget at times, jacks up the tension in some great ways, helped out by a score by Tangerine Dream. Although not necessarily a masterpiece, MIRACLE MILE is nevertheless recommended highly as a companion piece to similarly themed films like DOCTOR STRANGELOVE, FAIL SAFE, or THE DAY AFTER.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Buy this DVD
Review: Well, I know the DVD is not out yet, but, I have seen the theatrical release. Strange, depressing and offbeat. I found this film to be an epitome of my teenage life. Now later when I look back on this film and see its first person viewpoint of the end of the world I find it even more effective at depressing me. Civilized society will end before the bombs drop. A great film that has a beginning, a middle and a definite end. Watch this with a group of friends and look at their expressions when the credits roll. It will be worth "Diamonds".

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: So bad after 40 minutes we peeked at end (which was worse!)
Review: What a disappointment. I read so many positive reviews of this movie, I figured, how can I go wrong? Horrid film: lead characters that you wished would die, earnest but bad acting, implausible situations, cop killing...this movie leaves a bad taste in your mouth even during the credits at the beginning. The further you get into it, the worse it gets. After 40 minutes we kind of fast forwarded through to see if it redeemed itself, but it literally gets worse and worse (I am NOT exaggerating!). The ending is just a culmination of the whole bad package. I can console myself in that I wasted only 40 minutes of my life on this film instead of the entire hour and a half. AWFUL!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I need a miracle!
Review: When I first rented this movie in the early 1990s I wanted to buy it, but it was out-of-print on VHS. I figured I would never be able to purchase it, but the world of DVD has changed that. Thankfully, its release on DVD is a very welcome addition to my cinematic library.

Anthony Edwards, best known for his portrayal of Goose in TOP GUN, plays an everyday guy. Mare Winningham plays an everyday girl. The two fall in love & look like they're well on their way to living happily ever after when their Romantic interlude is interrupted by a nuclear war.

There is nothing more heartbreaking than a terminally ill person who has only weeks or months to live. Situations like that bring out the best in all of us. We treat that person like royalty as we know they will not have a tomorrow; every moment counts.

However, in a grotesque world where EVERYONE is terminally ill, with only hours or perhaps minutes to live, things don't work like that. Instead what you end up with is anarchy & absolute mayhem. It is this snapshot of the death throes of a civilization that forms the centerpiece of this movie's plot.

The film has some very nice symbolism. I particularly liked the obvious parallel between the end of mankind and the demise of the dinosaurs. The scene of the two being trapped in the helicopter is a nice touch as well as it brings out the clausterphobic terror of a nuclear war. Quite simply, there IS no place to run to, and there is no escape.

At the beginning of the film, inside a museum of Natural History, there is a voiceover on a presentation of the history of the universe. A 15-20 billion year old universe, a 4 & 1/2 year old planet, sundry lifeforms that have taken millions of years to evolve. The film is noteworthy for how it makes one realize that nearly every species on earth could be wiped on in a matter of days.

While the Cold War is now over & terrorism is the new threat that has emerged to cause us all anxiety, this movie remains a classic. I cannot help but think that the human race is not "out of the woods" as far as a nuclear arms race goes. Someday there will likely be a country that will stockpile enough nukes to take the place of Russia as a nuclear weapons rival. If / when that happens, MIRACLE MILE will have more relevance to our day-to-day lives than ever.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I need a miracle!
Review: When I first rented this movie in the early 1990s I wanted to buy it, but it was out-of-print on VHS. I figured I would never be able to purchase it, but the world of DVD has changed that. Thankfully, its release on DVD is a very welcome addition to my cinematic library.

Anthony Edwards, best known for his portrayal of Goose in TOP GUN, plays an everyday guy. Mare Winningham plays and everyday girl. The two fall in love & look like they're well on their way to living happily ever after when their Romantic interlude is interrupted by a nuclear war.

There is nothing more heartbreaking than a terminally ill person who has only weeks or months to live. Situations like that bring out the best in all of us. We treat that person like royalty as we know they will not have a tomorrow; every moment counts.

However, in a grotesque world where EVERYONE is terminally ill, with only hours or perhaps minutes to live, things don't work like that. Instead what you end up with is anarchy & absolute mayhem. It is this snapshot of the death throes of a civilization that forms the centerpiece of this movie's plot.

The film has some very nice symbolism. I particularly liked the obvious paralell between the end of mankind and the demise of the dinosaurs. The scene of the two being trapped in the helicopter is a nice touch as well as it brings out the clausterphobic terror of a nuclear war. Quite simply, there IS no place to run to, and there is no escape.

At the beginning of the film, inside a museum of Natural History, there is a voiceover on a presentation of the history of the universe. A 15-20 billion year old universe, a 4 & 1/2 year old planet, sundry lifeforms that have taken millions of years to evolve. The film is noteworthy for how it makes one realize that nearly every species on earth could be wiped on in a matter of days.

While the Cold War is now over & terrorism is the new threat that has emerged to cause us all anxiety, this movie remains a classic. I cannot help but think that the human race is not "out of the woods" as far as a nuclear arms race goes. Someday there will likely be a country that will stockpile enough nukes to take the place of Russia as a nuclear weapons rival. If / when that happens, MIRACLE MILE will have more relevance to our day-to-day lives than ever.


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