Home :: DVD :: Mystery & Suspense  

Blackmail, Murder & Mayhem
British Mystery Theater
Classics
Crime
Detectives
Film Noir
General
Mystery
Mystery & Suspense Masters
Neo-Noir
Series & Sequels
Suspense
Thrillers
Dirty Pretty Things

Dirty Pretty Things

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $14.99
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: about the movie dirty pretty things.....
Review: This movie is basically about selling of body parts and it contain one sex scene(standing method) with half of the body blocked which is allowed for showing in theatre in Singapore. This movie is being shown in full film that is the film at MDA is rated as Clean.(no censoring neccessary).

N/B: Movies like matrix revolutions will be(PWC, Pass with cuts) but the 70mm film method is only CE(edit version, probably shortening of long-winded parts).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic portrait
Review: Dirty Pretty Things explores the soft underbelly of the immigrant dream, principally tracing the lives of 2 illegal immigrants as they wend their way through new lives in London. In addition to lending the characters a granularity that makes the story deeply personal, the issues that Stephen Frears tackles are highly topical. In this day of much immigration rhetoric, this film provides both text and context in a riveting and evocative manner.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a darn good non-Hollywood film.
Review: Interesting thriller-drama that keeps you watching. Free of Hollywood slickness and doesn't rely on known actors. Well-acted, with subtle love tension between the two main characters that we can all relate to. Good scuzzy supporting cast. Not a great film, but one of the best films showing right now.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Grim
Review: "Dirty Pretty Things" is a well-directed, well-produced and well-acted movie. It also is the most relentlessly grim film I've seen in a very long while. Even the relatively uplifting climax is short-lived, dropping the audience back into the overwhelming depression and hopelessness that characterizes the story. It's a bummer--don't see it if you yourself tend toward depression.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An Ethicist's Delight
Review: DPT portrays a world that most of its audience will have only a peripheral exposure to: life as a third-world illegal immigrant in a first-world city (although the movie is set in London, it could easily have been set in polyglot New York or Los Angeles). The hero and other characters in the film go about their business of attempting to improve their lives in an environment of exploitive bosses, overbearing police, and other immigrants who make very different choices than the first inclinations of the primary subjects.

At its heart, DPT is asking the question: how does one behave morally in an immoral world? How does one better one's life without harming others? And how is it that people who appear to be immoral can often claim to be helping others while they help themselves? What is right and wrong?

The choices the hero makes are not easy ones. He's a moral man (one character calls him an angel), yet he's knowingly breaking the law (although the law isn't always right), and even he engages in petty deceptions before being presented with much more weighty decisions to be made.

There are enough challenging moral choices in this film to spawn hours of debate among ethicists. Even the average moviegoer will be forced to ponder `what would I do in this situation'? One can also extrapolate the lessons of the movie (especially the ending) to much broader subjects. Is it right to engage in a war in which soldiers and civilians are killed, in order to remove a despotic dictator - or is there another, better, more moral path? The lesson of DPT is: moral purists will suffer, and the most immoral will survive and thrive, unless a way is found to beat the immoral at their own game.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: French "Amelie's" Star does a Turkish immigrant???
Review: Well I saw "Amelie" and LOVED IT!! and knew that I liked this actress performance enough to go see anything else she would be in, okay so there were only 4 people in the theater to see this movie..... I figured it must be because it's been out a while and there are other newer movies out there that are getting "trailer" play on TV, although I don't remember seeing very many commercials for this at all.

I wouldn't say this is a thriller only because my idea of a thriller is one that is a "who did what or who" for 80% of the movie. Not so with this one you do have a mystery to figure out. (do yourself a favor don't read all of the reviews because some of them have spoilers) There are 2 mysteries the main one is where did the heart come from/who the heart belongs to and what is up with Okwe's past? I went not knowing what to expect and I enjoyed the unexpected :) I agree with what everyone else has written, the actors in this movie did a most impressive job Okwe's character was Credible, Sanay (Tautou)was believable, Juliette (the hooker) was likable and even the friend of Okwe that worked in the Morgue was essential to the plot. Fine performances by all.

Having worked in hotels for most of my life I found this movie disturbing and a very dark look at the Graveyard shift LOL I definately felt the plight of all the illegal immigrants in London, someone else mentioned that they did not like that, that is ALL the director showed... well my feeling is that this movie is about just that or just them and exsposing the desperate lengths these human beings are willing to go through for a better life. I'm not going to go into the storyline further because the reviews before me have done so extensively.

I have come to realize in my journey of Foreign Movies that they don't always end "happy" or at least happily ever after for everyone. If you have a opportunity to see the movie or rent it when it comes out I say go for it it was very well acted and the plot was engaging.

Respectfully Reviewed

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gives "room service" a bad name
Review: If you were delighted by Audrey Tatou's quirky, comedic role in AMELIE, be prepared for a whole new side of this French actress in DIRTY PRETTY THINGS. This young star does drama with the best. And either way, her enormous brown eyes would melt linoleum.

Tatou plays Senay, an undocumented Turkish immigrant toiling in London's underground labor pool as a maid at the Hotel Baltic in an unprepossessing part of the city. The night shift desk clerk, Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor), also undocumented, is a Nigerian on the run from government persecution back home. In the old country, Okwe was a licensed physician. In London, besides his hotel gig, Okwe drives a cab using borrowed credentials. Senay surreptitiously allows Okwe, who hasn't a permanent residence, the use of her flat's couch to sleep on while she works the day shift.

One morning, Okwe pulls a fresh human heart out of a plugged toilet in one of the hotel's rooms. Wishing to make it a police matter, Okwe brings the body part to the attention of the Baltic's day manager, Sneaky (Sergi Lopez), who persuades the former to let the matter rest by playing on his fear of discovery by Immigration. Besides, Sneaky advises, the job of a hotel is to PRETTY up the DIRTY THINGS that happen during the wee hours.

If you're hoping to catch a glimpse of touristy London, forget it. I've been there more times than I can remember, and didn't spot anything I recognized - not even the Thames. This is London's gritty underbelly, the home of undocumented immigrants so desperate to reach someplace better that they risk death selling their body parts on the transplantable organs black market in exchange for passports and airline tickets. For instance, Senay longs for New York City, a place (she thinks) of lights in the trees and policeman on white horses, where she has a cousin.

Tatou appears on American ads for DIRTY PRETTY THINGS perhaps because she's the only one of the actors potentially recognizable to U.S. audiences. However, Ejiofor is the film's lead, and his low key, excellent performance argues for more widespread exposure. Lopez's Sneaky is the sort of oily, disgusting villain that one loves to hate. Particularly endearing in a secondary role is Sophie Okonedo as Juliette, the effervescent hooker who uses the Baltic for her nightly trysts.

DIRTY PRETTY THINGS is an unusual love story, a tale of righteous retribution, and an indictment of sordid conditions just around the corner and out of sight of the chirpy tour guide and her charges on their way to Buckingham Palace to have a chinwag with the Queen. It's a film different from, and certainly much superior to, the usual fare.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Cheap work... dissappointing... a FAILURE
Review: I was quite sure that I was going to watch a stunning movie... but it was a total dissapointment!!.. It could be a brilliant movie though.. if the director, Stephen Frears did his job well. Because the movie is about a big social issue.. But this film is showing us only one side of the story, which is the immigrants point of view. What about the ordinary english people's point of view? ..which I really wonder. But we don't get an idea as we don't meet any English people during the film. I'm pretty sure the director did this on purpose... but it's nonsense!

The way of working the story isn't very impressive either. Only thing we see is a bunch of immigrants suffering from the low standards of living, doing jobs they hate, living in dirty places. Yes these are true.. But these could be showed in a much more creative, smarter way without using "the poor people are good, the rich people are evil" cliche. The movie doesn't say anything new. I liked the way the story started, but hated the way it ended.

Audrey Tautou's performance was very disgusting! She definitely looks Turkish. But that's all. The way she speaks English is not even close to Turkish-English accent. I'm not saying that Turkish people speak "better" English. But they sound absolutely different!!.. To give you an idea.. You'll understand what I mean the second you hear a Turk speaking English.
And the dancing scene in Senay's place for instance. The music supposed to be a Turkish music but it was like anything, but NOT Turkish. Was it really difficult to find a real Turkish music track to put in that scene? or atleast something like Turkish? Her dance isn't like anything turkish either. I really don't understand why would a Turkish character be played by a French actress. I know lots of Turkish actress' who could handle this role nicely.
The director wanted to shoot a film about a Turkish immigrant in London... but didn't bother doing a research about Turkish culture. So the result is ONE BIG FAILURE!! More the movie ignores the facts, less I show respect!

My only star is for the atmosphere in the movie... and to Okwe..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great acting and script!
Review: "In this business," says a sleazy hotel manager, "people come at night to do dirty things. It is our job to make them look pretty." Dirty Pretty Things stars Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Amistad") as Owke, an illegal alien from Nigeria who is desperately trying to scratch out an existence in the shady side of London. He lives with Sanay (Audrey Tautou), a Turkish immigrant and co-worker at the Baltic Hotel. It seems this hotel is not only used by prostitutes and drug dealers; it is where black market kidneys are harvested from willing and unwilling donors, all under the supervision of the evil manager, Sr. Juan (Sergi Lopez).

English actor Ejiofor is wonderful as the hard working and compassionate ex-doctor with a terrible secret. He takes command of the screen and breaks your heart. French actress Audrey Tautou, the pixie of "Amalie," shows her versatility in her first English-speaking part. She is neither perky nor glamorous here; she convincingly plays a poor chambermaid who is forced to do terrible things just to survive. Spanish actor Sergi Lopez plays the villain with such cheerful delight that I was quite intrigued with him. Here is a man who loves what he does and will do anything to protect himself. The various accents of the three leads are sometimes hard to understand, but they add authenticity and make the film seem all the more gritty.

Directed by Stephen Frears ("Dangerous Liaisons"), it has a bit of a low-budget look and a forgettable musical score; however, the quality of the acting and script are both outstanding. The quirky characters who complete the cast - the kind-hearted call-girl, the helpful morgue doctor, and the silly doorman, were all wonderful and added to the richness and and realism of the script. The movie was photographed in lower-class areas of London, giving it a raw and dangerous look. I was on the edge of my seat throughout, wondering what would happen next, until the deliciously satisfying conclusion, which made me want to cheer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Ensemble Of Stars
Review: This movie is a perfect example of a brilliant thriller that relies on characters and brains rather than explosions and gunfights. There is very little of what people usually think of as action, but the suspense is nearly unbearable all the same. The basic plot is about illegal organ transplants, but that is beside the point. This is really about, as main character Okwe so eloquently states, "The people you do not see." Waiters, maids, and hookers-all immigrants barely able to survive, most working several jobs. The acting is what really makes this movie work. Audrey Tautou plays Senay, a devout Turkish Muslim whose descent into painful and humiliating situations is almost unwatchable. This character is as well-acted as Amelie, but far more fragile. Tautou also pulls off a Turkish accent quite well. Sergi Lopez is absolutely disgusting as the villain. Sophie Okonedo provides most of the few laughs as a sarcastic prostitute. But the real star of this is Chiwetel Ejiofor as Okwe. The man is, to say the least, a stunning actor. I have seen very few actors with this kind of charisma. You simply can't take your eyes of him. He brings to mind a young Omar Sharif, with soulful eyes and obvious intelligence. See this movie for Ejiofor, if for nothing else.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates