Hi-Life (1998)

Wonderful character development!

Undescribable Perfection

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

"Hi-Life" is no Christmas blockbuster. It's a small, rewarding treat of a Christmas-in-NYC movie, and it's one of the few holiday movies I love to see every year. It's a slice-of-life (well, slice-of-one-night, really) film full of small, everyday characters, written smartly and played by first-rate character actors. The NYC setting is warm, colorful and nostalgic without being dated in the least... kind of like New York itself (okay, like some parts of NYC). So: if you don't enjoy that sort of thing, if you've gotta have big-name glamour, special effects, knee-slapping jokes, car crashes or heavy,"message" drama in order not to be bored - avoid this film. P.S., if you miss living in and hanging out around New York, see it, especially during the holidays.

Bizarrely funny comedy that keeps the viewers on their toes as a bevy of characters flit all over town chasing an illusive 900 dollar payoff, but not for exactly what each supposes. Good dialogue and hilarious situations make for a snappy, fast paced film which appears to be going much more slowly.

I loved the fact that the producers of Hi-Life used real Upper West Side locations in this film, including the Hi-Life itself. It tugged at the heartstrings of this former UWS resident, now exiled to Atlanta. The movie itself was tolerable -- mainly because Peter Riegert was in it. Can't have enough Peter Riegert in a movie, as far as I'm concerned. The rest of the cast was amiable, if not very energetic. The story -- which could have been quite clever, with various folks chasing the same $900 for a variety of unethical reasons -- floundered in the face of lackadaisical pacing and cramped, dark cinematography.

I didn't absolutely hate this movie, but I kept waiting for it to get better and it never did. I think I may have laughed once, but now I can't even remember what for.My wife didn't even make it through the first fifteen minutes without falling asleep. Unfortunately, I sat through the entire thing.Actually, I can see a slight twist of humor in that so many of the characters were intertwined... almost like a soap opera where everyone turns out to be related. Still on a scale of 1 to 10, the best I could give it would be a 3.I guess I just expected more from this movie, especially since there were good actors and actresses involved. (Daryl Hannah, Moira Kelly, etc.) I've certainly seen worse movies, but this one did absolutely nothing for me.