City of Industry (1997)

Waste of time

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

There are so many inaccurate references to "film noir" from reviewers that I'm prompted to write this review simply to correct them. Though this film has some "film noir" elements, the essential elements are completely missing. The best film noir features an "innocent" person who gets dragged into crime. Usually it's as a result of a knowingly bad decision, but it comes from the seduction of a femme fatale.Both these elements are missing. The main character (played marvelously by Harvey Keitel) is a lifelong criminal. There's nothing "innocent" about him. Nor is there any femme fatale who double or triple crosses him or who seduces him into the misadventure.The film not only lacks the essential hero (or anti-hero) and femme fatale, it lacks the visual style of most film noir.Finally, the film lacks the requisite ending to ever be classified as film noir.Of course there are some film noir elements. It takes place in an urban center (LA) and dwells in the less upscale parts of town. A lot of the action takes place at night. At the core of the film is a double cross (though it isn't the femme fatale and there are no triple crosses) and we get introduced to a motley crew of seedy low lifes. There's a good bit of violence, but truth be told, most classic film noir are not nearly as violent as this film.It's probably best to view this as a "revenge" film, or more accurately a crime revenge drama.

Oh boy! Another "Heist Gone Wrong" movie! And, wouldn't you think that Harvey Keitel would be getting tired of these? After "Reservoir Dogs," you'd think he'd want a break!But, not here. The heist is planned, carried out, and, guess what?!, there is instant double crossing, shooting and everything else. Heavens! The second that happened, I pretty much checked out, and just waited the rest of the movie out.And, of course, it's a "final heist" for Keitel's character. So, that naturally means that everything's going to go wrong, guaranteed!The film is entirely on the shoulders of Harvey Keitel's performance. His fearless brand of acting is what make the film worth watching.But, it's standard plot makes it not worth it otherwise.****** (6 Out of 10 Stars)

Thief Harvey Keitel comes to Southern California to join his younger brother, Timothy Hutton, and a nice Latino (Wade Dominguez) and a driver (Stephen Dorff), to pull off a diamond heist at one of those high-end stores that line the main drag in Palm Springs. They are successful. As they are about to divvy up the loot, Dorff kills Hutton and Dominguez. He tries to kill Keitel too, but botches it, which is what you might call a bad mistake.Dorff takes off with all the loot and the rest of the movie has Keitel tracking him down, at the cost of a lot of money and an infinity of pain. At the end, having dispatched Dorff, the wounded and bleeding Keitel sees to it that Dominguez' widow (Famke Janssen) gets most of the money from the job. Keitel disappears, perhaps dying, and Janssen retires with her two kids to Port Arthur, Texas. End of story.A lot of this is familiar territory by now and has been done better elsewhere -- "Heat", for instance, or "Straight Time." But it's not badly done, despite the rather weak script. It's always interesting to see the underside of L.A. The Chinese sweat shops, the bars where the black guys hang out, everybody in shades, dilapidated single-family homes with their front yards littered with trash and children's toys, Lucy Liu doing a pole dance, San Pedro's cracking plants, dusty and mostly empty motels with propane gas tanks ready to explode at the hint of a stray bullet, careering cars knocking down utility poles and emitting showers of fake sparks, sleazy flowered shirts that scream out "Dollar Store", hotels with dark apartments where you wouldn't want to live unless you like junkies for neighbors.The director handles his background people with effortless aplomb. After he shoots two of his accomplices, Dorff chases Keitel through a louche trailer park, firing wildly. When he loses his quarry, Dorff looks angrily around. When the bullets started flying, the rednecks and their dogs scramble over fences to get out of the way, only to appear at their doorways seconds later. One fat guy in a cowboy hat cocks his shotgun, and another has a pistol at his side. It's amusing. You feel that these guys have been around such situations before. But the director has kept them in long shot and doesn't make a big to-do out of the point. Nice touch.In another scene, Keitel is beating the crap out of the bartender in an empty saloon. Two Latinos walk through the door, take a quick look at what's going on, and back out again.If there's not much new in the revenge plot, the details of life in this particular social world are pretty nicely captured. Well, I must say that the villain of the piece, Dorff, is thoroughly stereotyped. There's nothing "good" about him. He's a young, cocky, ruthless showoff. He plays raunchy music loud in his convertible. He shoots through his own girlfriend's chest in order to plug the guy holding her from behind, and shows not a wit of remorse. The director allows Dorff to commit a fundamental error. As in "Platoon," every time the F word is used, it is shouted emphatically. "And bring the EFFING money!" That's not how the F word is used. If anything is stressed in an utterance, it's the noun, not the adjective. Bonus point: Harvey Keitel has an opportunity to howl with anger and smash some furniture.Not a memorable movie, but one worth watching for diversion.

John Irvin's "City of Industry" has the grit and pessimism of another crime classic, "52 Pick-Up". Although it's not as stylish as Frankenheimer's film, it is just as violent and just as radiant (in a sleazy way). Like "52...", there are several splendid performances, not the least being that of Harvey Keitel, a vengeance-seeking career crim, and Stephen Dorff, an incredibly savage villain. Set in parts of LA you'd only want to visit on the screen, this Ken Solarz-scripted underworld drama is constantly engaging and vicious while remembering to be intelligent, too. Timothy Hutton turns in a stellar performance, as does the always-watchable Famke Janssen as a woman recently widowed by the fall-out from Dorff's betrayal of friends. Irvin is not an ostentatious director, so when his source material is weak (as it was in "Raw Deal"), he can't dress it in pretty clothes. But when his material is strong, as it is here, he stands back just far enough to let the story take its rightful turn. This is a seriously underrated classic.