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No Looking Back

No Looking Back

List Price: $19.95
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ed Burns At His Best!!!
Review: Even if i wasn't from rockaway beach(where 90% of this movie was filmed)i'd love it!
it reminds me of a more adult version of ted demme's 'beautiful girls'.(rockaway isn't as dismal as it appears in the film,
but like anytown USA we all have our dive bars,old eateries etc...)
i love the soundtrack.
sometimes music speaks louder than dialog.
perfect blend.
we've all in one way or another lived this story.
great cast and acting all around.
a must see for all who live or came from a small town.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: If you loved the soundtrack...
Review: Excellent movie, better soundtrack, BUT since there is not soundtrack album you might want to try Patti Scialfa's (you all know who she is, right?) album Rumble Doll (Colombia, 1993). If you watched the song credits at the end, you'd she had several of them.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: not nescesarally his worst
Review: five years ago, my wife brought this video home for us to watch,-after having brought the first two home for us to watch. this movie seemed somehow prophetic at the time. it was. she left me a month after we watched it. I found it dreary and depressing at the time,- and needless to say; - Ive had no desire to watch it since. but along with ALL his other movies, Ive ordered it on DVD from amazon[.com]. what I take away from it is that no-wheresville small towns CAN have attributes [its POSSIBLE], and edward burns himself. he plays more or less the same character in all of his films,- cool, detatched yet involved, and AWARELY EXPERIENCING life. above all-solid. his character in every film thinks and feels, yet at root, theres nothing thats going to DESTROY this guy. a man engaged in life for the long haul.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Movie for a sunday afternoon
Review: I admit it-I watched this movie only because Jon Bon Jovi was in. It was worth it to find this jewel of a movie. I was very impressed by the extraordinary performances by all three main characters (most people are surprised at how a good of an actor Bon Jovi is, he never ceazes to amaze me on how talented he is) and the poignant - yet rarely seen in movies - small town life. A must see.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Wonderful Music
Review: I completely agree with many of the other reviews out there... the music is great and used beautifully in this movie to give the right feeling to the scenes.

The characters were very well acted, though I found it impossible to feel sympathy for Claudia during the scene where she and Michael break up. I did, however, feel happy for her as she drove out of town to seek a new life that would captivate her imagination. I think she did the right thing in staying with neither guy.

No Looking Back is basically about relationships and how they affect your inner self and what you want out of life. In this movie, the main character, Claudia seems content in her life, but when an ex-boyfriend returns to town and seeks her out, she is reminded of her previous ambitions and dreams and this causes her to become dissatisfied with her life.

Interesting movie that is worth watching, though I find it to be pretty much forgettable(for me anyway).

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I want the music...
Review: I enjoyed the overcast Eastern sea-coast sense. But I enjoyed, most of all, that's right...the unavailable SOUNDTRACK. We want it. We need it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: no looking back - a decent film
Review: I happened to catch this film on video. I was surprised to see Jon Bon Jovi shine as a normal guy with girl problems. The other bright spot was Edward Burns (from Saving Private Ryan) who directed this film and starred in it as well. Lauren Holly was good. The film sometimes comes off as a music video. But it doesn't really affect the film or how we connect with the characters. Not a bad film, not at all. see it,buy it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Introspective, meloncholy.
Review: I like Ed Burns for some odd reason - he's not a trained actor, not a flashy personality, not the typical Hollywood type - but more of a real person, depicting real stories in a real world. I like watching No Looking Back on a lonely, cloudy, cold Sunday afternoon. Ed's, Charlie, reminds me of many guys I've unfortunately fallen for in my past! The music in this movie really is great - I bought "Home" by Sheryl Crow and love it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of the BEST!
Review: I rented this movie on a whim because I had read about it ages upon ages ago on a Bruce Springsteen fanpage. I didn't expect to be blown away, but I sure was!

From the very first scene, where Sheryl Crow's "Home" is playing and they show all the places in the NY/NJ small town, I felt right 'at home'! I LOVED the song and the images may well have been of my own town! And the resonance of this movie didn't stop there!

I identified with Claudia (Lauren Holly) in so many ways. (although, I must say, ALL of the characters in this movie were stunningly acted and VERY true to life! I mean, these absolutely ARE the people I interact with everyday in my town!!!) But Claudia's attitudes, style, the way she was 97% ready to turn in her "Born to Run" fantasies for a decent blue-collar life, yet the way she needed to be free to be herself..... I found it all highly resonant! And I'm sure I'm not alone...

The relationship between Claudia and her mom and sister was very truthful to the small-town way, and while the characters were occasionally just a slight touch too 'Hollywood cliched', that is perfectly understandable because movie people are supposed to be larger than life, no matter what the film!

So anyway, I think Bon Jovi turned out a believable role (yet he was even better in "Pay it Forward" as an abusive father!) and Ed Burns was so totally that guy in high school who used to be "the hottie" and is now the listless drifter (aka loser!). Blythe Danner was terrific (esp. the scene on the front porch) and the girls who were Claudia's sister and friends were super too!!! And Susan May Pratt's small role was surprising and refreshing, too.

The storyline was excellent and really made me interested enough to worry about what the outcome of these people's lives would be (as is not always the case with movies (ex. "High Fidelity")). I won't decribe it in detail for the benefit of those who don't want me to spoil it, but sufficient to say, it's realistic (in a Hollywood way) and very engaging!

Whoever did the costumes and set design for this movie deserves a bonus! I love love LOVED how realistic they were (and I'm dying to find a shirt just like the one Claudia wore in the scene at the laundromat!), how they were stylish but very much the kind of thing young small-town people would wear! Fabulous!

And of course....the soundtrack! Absolutely superb!!! I would just like to say though, that the reason why they didn't release it is probabably because Bruce Springsteen has been known not to let his music be included on many compilation/soundtrack CDs. He didn't even put "The River" on the High Fidelity soundtrack and he even cameo-d in the movie!! So that is probably a big part of it.
Also, the only Patti Scialfa song that is currently available on CD is "Rumble Doll" (the song from when Charlie is driving her home) The others were on Patti's demo-tape type thing that she was working on for Columbia while she was touring w/ Bruce, etc, so you won't be able to find those songs anywhere els (sorry!).

But regardless of availability, wasn't the soundtrack a knockout!?! I've already mentioned, I LOVED "Home", and the Patti Scialfa songs, and Bruce Springsteen songs (One Step Up, Valentine's Day, and I'm on Fire)!

In fact, one of the ways in which I identified with Claudia was that she was a Bruce fan. Her serene, yet inwardly excited reaction when she hears "One Step Up" in the laudromat is SO me! But it's also the reaction of hundreds of small-town women when they hear Bruce Springsteen! (he's our blue-collar dreamboat, need I say more...!).

But seriously, No Looking Back was a phenomenal movie and I VERY highly recommend it to anyone who loves dramatic movies, great music, and wants to step inside the world of the northeastern small town!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I just can't get this film out of my head
Review: I saw this film months ago, yet I keep thinking about it, and keep checking Amazon to find out if the soundtrack has been released. Why haven't they done that??? Great soundtrack. Great movie -- very subtle in some ways. The film really captures so eloquently the "mating dance" between Charlie (Ed Burns) and Claudia (Lauren Holly). Clearly there is a lot unspoken -- left up to the viewer's imagination -- but isn't that the way it works in the real world? One of the other reviewers commented that the director "missed a prime opportunity to build up heightened emotions and fire in the interim". I think the producer used the soundtrack to do just that, and enhanced the effect of the movie in doing so (like I said, just can't get this movie out of my mind). Amazon, if you can, please send on my note to the producers -- maybe they'll get the message from the many reviews -- release that soundtrack!


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