Home :: DVD :: Art House & International :: European Cinema  

Asian Cinema
British Cinema
European Cinema

General
Latin American Cinema
High Heels and Low Lifes

High Heels and Low Lifes

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $17.98
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A silly but entertaining "crime caper comedy"
Review: Two attractive, slightly daffy women overhear a phone call about a heist and decide (unwisely) to blackmail the perpetrators. The story isn't even remotely plausible, but if you're willing to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride, there are some funny bits along the way. If you enjoyed movies like Swordfish, Snatch, True Romance and Nurse Betty you'll probably like this one too.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Two Good Leading Ladies Raise This Caper Comedy a Bit Higher
Review: Very light-hearted caper comedy of which quality is enhansed by enchanting two leading ladies, "High Heels and Low Lifes" is perfectly made for Minnie Driver and Mary MaCormack. Even though the film met a commercial and critical failure, and it certainly deserves partly its not so good reputauion, the film is fairly agreeable largely owing to these ladies.

The story is admittedly silly and implausible. Driver (hard-working nurse) and McCormack (unemployed actress) accidentally overhear the conversations of bank robbers, and get the number of one of the gangsters' cell phone (!). The girls, being so unhappy with love and job, decide to blackmail those gangsters to get some money for the hospital, first making an uninvited phone call to unlucky Danny (Danny Dyer, "Human Traffic"). Danny, not so clever as to tell every detail of robbery over cell phone, handles the case on his own, trying to hush up those unwelcome guests, and thus making things more complicated.

With many twists in the plot, the film attempts to entertain us, but what it succedds most is not that part, because for many of us, the film looks made by the number, reminding us of many similar situations we have seen before, including "Life Less Ordinary" and any Guy Ritchie films.

It is clear that the director Mel Smith is not suitable for the job if you just remember his works in the past -- "Bean: the Movie" and "Tall Guy" both comedy without crimes, and I must say, not particularly an original one as comedy either. The former one is helped by the presence of Rowan Atkinson, and the latter by the script of Richard "Four Weddings" Curtis and Emma Thompson (it washer film debut). And "High Heels," made by family-oriented Touchstone Pictures, seems often trying not to offend us, showing its tame version of violence. In short, as a caper comedy, it lacks energy, being too luckwarm.

However, those leading ladies save the entire work from forgettableness, though not completely. The acting of them is both very good, making us smile with their down-to-earth characters. Special mention goes also to their fashionable costume designs, which are always colorful and fantastic.

One of the better roles for Minnie Driver, "High Heels and Low Lifes" will amuse her fans, making them confiedent again in her talent and career, which seem a bit declining with misfires like "Slow Burn" and "Beautiful." This one is flawed, but much better.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Two Good Leading Ladies Raise This Caper Comedy a Bit Higher
Review: Very light-hearted caper comedy of which quality is enhansed by enchanting two leading ladies, "High Heels and Low Lifes" is perfectly made for Minnie Driver and Mary MaCormack. Even though the film met a commercial and critical failure, and it certainly deserves partly its not so good reputauion, the film is fairly agreeable largely owing to these ladies.

The story is admittedly silly and implausible. Driver (hard-working nurse) and McCormack (unemployed actress) accidentally overhear the conversations of bank robbers, and get the number of one of the gangsters' cell phone (!). The girls, being so unhappy with love and job, decide to blackmail those gangsters to get some money for the hospital, first making an uninvited phone call to unlucky Danny (Danny Dyer, "Human Traffic"). Danny, not so clever as to tell every detail of robbery over cell phone, handles the case on his own, trying to hush up those unwelcome guests, and thus making things more complicated.

With many twists in the plot, the film attempts to entertain us, but what it succedds most is not that part, because for many of us, the film looks made by the number, reminding us of many similar situations we have seen before, including "Life Less Ordinary" and any Guy Ritchie films.

It is clear that the director Mel Smith is not suitable for the job if you just remember his works in the past -- "Bean: the Movie" and "Tall Guy" both comedy without crimes, and I must say, not particularly an original one as comedy either. The former one is helped by the presence of Rowan Atkinson, and the latter by the script of Richard "Four Weddings" Curtis and Emma Thompson (it washer film debut). And "High Heels," made by family-oriented Touchstone Pictures, seems often trying not to offend us, showing its tame version of violence. In short, as a caper comedy, it lacks energy, being too luckwarm.

However, those leading ladies save the entire work from forgettableness, though not completely. The acting of them is both very good, making us smile with their down-to-earth characters. Special mention goes also to their fashionable costume designs, which are always colorful and fantastic.

One of the better roles for Minnie Driver, "High Heels and Low Lifes" will amuse her fans, making them confiedent again in her talent and career, which seem a bit declining with misfires like "Slow Burn" and "Beautiful." This one is flawed, but much better.


<< 1 2 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates