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Mystery Train

Mystery Train

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $13.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very good movie. First act is the best.
Review: My DVD had English subtitles. The first act is the best. Watching the young japanese couple interact is very rewarding. There is so much subtlety and silent communicating. No surprise, since it is revealed in the booklet that Jim Jarmusch (director) created this movie around the Japanese actress (Youki Kudoh).
'Life is Beautiful' star (and wife of Roberto Benigni), Nicoletta Braschi, stars in the second act. More great quiet acting. She is a true beauty.
Funny role by the late Screamin' Jay Hawkins.
Also appearing in the late Joe Strummer of the Clash.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: three interesting stories unified through Elvis
Review: Mystery Train is an outstandingly unconventional glimpse of the Elvis legacy by Jim Jarmusch. Three stories follow Memphis tourists and natives as they worship or complain about the king in this perfectly cast tale of humanity.

Structurally individual, stories here are presented as three segments. Unifying aspects like the sound of a gun, a lack of television, and a certain hotel gradually alert the viewer that these stories occur more or less at the same time, in the same hotel, with different characters.

The first story follows two Japanese tourists in Memphis, who debate the validity of Elvis' career in comparison to that of Carl Perkins. They meander around the city, touring recording studios before settling at a hotel operated with subtly comedic performances by Screamin Jay Hawkins and Cinque Lee to work through the details of their relationship.

Two unacquainted women later arrive at the hotel, sharing a room and learning subtle differences of habit. Nicoletta Brashci stars in the second segment, as a generous woman encounters a ghost while transporting the ashes of her husband.

The third and most directly entertaining story follows three Memphis friends, including Joe Strummer, as they wreak drunken havoc throughout town. Responsible for some rather unfortunate events involving gunfire, the three are the source of excellent comic relief, cultural examinations, and social commentary.

In Mystery Train, Jim Jarmusch makes such naturalistic directing choices the cast is seemingly native in their roles. It has a slight documentary feel in this respect, as if it is a peek into three actual, living, breathing lives. Robert Muller helms photography nicely, while Melody London edits wonderfully invisibly. The film has a certain feeling of quaintness to it, a very subtly modest method of making, and a very artful take on three unified yet distint tales of humanity.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: VERY QUENTIN TARANTINOesque
Review: The photography was absolutely amazing, especially the night scenes. I enjoyed its offbeat pace and the absurdity of its content.

It's a neat effect, the way the trilogy connects the stories. I got it the first time I watched it.

In the first story you hear something seemingly out of place and you wonder why it ends without any further explanation. When you hear it in the second story you realize that's what's going to connect the trilogy. And of course through the whole third story you're expecting it to happen any minute.

Like I said in the beginning...very Quentin Tarantino-esque!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This movie is awesome! It, at times, can be so off-base and bizarre, that it is just hysterical. (E.G., "I wouldn't eat that if I were you.") Outside of the (clueless) Japanese couple, my favorite actor awards would have to go to Screamin' Jay Hawkins as the hotel manager and Joe Strummer (ex-Clash rocker). They are incredible!

You'll like this movie. It has great cinematography, great direction (almost Tarrantino/Rodriguez-esque), a cool soundtrack, and a good, if not darkly funny, storyline.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: There is only one good part to this movie.....
Review: This movie takes a really long time to come to its conclusion. There are three separate tales here, and each comes together at the very end, then the movie abruptly ends.

My DVD had English subtitles, but I feel sorry for those people who didn't have them or who don't speak Japanese.

The best part of this movie is a nice shot of Yuki Kudoh topless in bed with her boyfriend. The rest of the movie was long and drawn out. I'd recommend skipping it unless it's a really slow Saturday night or if you are a huge Yuki Kudoh fan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Movie 5 stars, DVD ?
Review: Well, I've bought 2 copies from Amazon.com, and one from my local retailer (Tower) and all I have to say is I wished I could WATCH it! I've heard similar complaints from others I work with who've bought this disc: IT DOESN'T PLAY! I mean, literally--it won't play in the average DVD player! Strange, but true. MGM: WHAT'S GOING ON?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Quirky but effective
Review: What "Mystery Train" gives us a dandy, light slice of indie noir. Here, three tales in a broken-down hotel. One about an Italian widow. Second, about a corrupt British Elvis impersonator and his American girlfriend. And lastly, about two Japanese tourists.

What makes "Mystery Train" so interesting and involving is the way the characters are portrayed and how they react to certain things. Example: The Italian widow speaking to the ghost of Elvis.

But it's Jarmusch's directing that makes this quirky, funny, and touching, which should have won him an Oscar for "Best Independent Film of the Year." Sumptuous, funny, touching, and offbeat, it's a delight from start to finish.

Rated R for language and some nudity.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Where are the English subtitles?
Review: When I saw this movie in the theatre many years ago, there were English subtitles during the foreign language scenes. However, the DVD version does not offer English subtitles. It does offer French and Spanish subtitles.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Where are the English subtitles?
Review: When I saw this movie in the theatre many years ago, there were English subtitles during the foreign language scenes. However, the DVD version does not offer English subtitles. It does offer French and Spanish subtitles.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Love the Movie, Hate the DVD
Review: Yes, there are english subtitles on the 3rd and 4th subtitle channels. BUT...and here's the rub. I'm pretty sure, the subtitles are not accurate and the subtlety of Jarmusch's dialogue is ruined. Some of the humour is not there.


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