Black & White (1999)

Pretty Good

Fresh and Exciting

Best movie ever!

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This is a real pathetic attempt at a modern-day film noir. The concept was good, but was truly executed poorly! Starting first with:DIALOGUE - Excruciatingly painful. The dialogue between characters was similar to a screen test gone wrong. Some conversations seemed mismatched. At some points in the movie it seemed that conversing characters' lines weren't matching. If this was an editing error, then its an embarrassing one. STORYLINE/PLOT - Very transparent; a person born blind and deaf could see what was going to happen before it happened and is finality. And what was the point keeping certain aspects of the story a secret?!? There was no mystery about this movie whatsoever! (Except the mystery about how it was given the green light) And what was with the ending? It was so asinine, I'm not even going attribute it any space in this review. I will say this: if it was a way of bringing the story around, it was a sad attempt.CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT - Big zero! I'm not even sure who this movie was about. Apparently, the writers hadn't the first clue who the main character was; her or him? And their own story didn't mesh; it was very amateur. Also, I don't really believe that the main character - at his age whose living in LA - is THAT pious and innocent. And let's say - JUST FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT - if this character really was that pious and innocent, he wouldn't break so easily. And if this story was about him I would think that his decline would've been the main focus; perhaps delved into a bit more. But alas, it wasn't. In conclusion: this movie was so pathetically embarrassing, don't tell anyone you saw it.

There are a couple of good things about this thoroughly routine cop mystery. Some of the performances are really pretty polished but they mostly come from actors in minor parts, such as Ron Silver and James Handy. And Silver looks great. His hair is combed back and up in what might be called a long brush cut. He's given a slight beard and mustache and a pair of rimless glasses which turns him into -- believe it or not -- a youngish Wolf Blitzer. None of the other performances are less than adequate with the possible exception of Allison Eastwood's, although she's certainly a beautiful woman. Painful to think that we may have lived through almost her entire film career, from "Tightrope," when she was eleven, through such highlights as "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," to this.The plot's ordinary. One of the cops is shooting people through the eyeball for reasons no one can quite figure out. All they know is that it's a cop. Suspicion falls on one guy, then shifts to Gina Gershon, then shifts to -- well, enough. The last few minutes turn things around in a strictly predictable way.The photography is cheap-looking and nothing is made of the location so there is nothing in the way of local color. The script is meant to be dramatic rather than humorous but sometimes it sounds as if the writers' naturally occurring sense of the sardonic could no longer be repressed. Discussing some sort of perversion, one cop remarks: "So what? Sex is legal in this state. A couple more Democrats in the house and it'll be compulsory." The commercial plot develops in such a way as to keep a viewer interested, though not engaged.

I rented this one on DVD, and I must say, this movie is phenomenal. The acting, writing and, most of all, taut imaginative directing -- all first class. Gina Gershon is better than ever, but it's Rory Cochrane who really shines. A real gem! Also, the commentary by the director is very informative and entertaining. I'm adding this one to my collection.

It's such a shame that Gina Gershon is so underrated. She is very talented, I noticed since I first saw her in movies where her role wasn't the primary one in the film. Her performance in "Black & White" is excellent. She should get more recognition, she is a very hard working actress. Has anyone seen her history of movies in the past decade? She participated in over 20 films in the 90's, I think that is something that should deserve credit.Rory Cochrane gives a good performance too, and so does Ron Silver and Alison Eastwood, but the best of the best in this movie was Gershon's acting. Only a few actresses could have done such a convincent job, the character looks very real, it was great.The movie itself has a nice script, I couldn't say it was bored or anything. It keeps the viewer interested on it all the time.There is a very sad thing about the movie, and is it Hugs's death. Gershon's character is really unique and people get to like her, and it's very sad to know that she dies, specially when she wasn't going to kill Chris. Or was she? I didn't understand that part very well, because Chris later said: "She went there to kill Michael Clemence, who was going to kill me". So, she wanted to protect Chris, not kill him, I assumed.It really made me sad, I didn't want Nora to die. The movie is worth watching and it gets from me a score of 7 out of 10. Maybe a 6 would have been better, but, I don't know, maybe just because Gershon is so hot, I'll give it a 7.