The Hollywood Sign (2001)

Wonderfully offbeat film!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Perfect cast and a good story

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Three decadent actors find a corpse close to the Hollywood sign. After some investigation, they realize that the guy was an employee of the financial department who had stolen a casino with four other thieves. They decide to steal the money from the gang, acting like they were real cops. The story has a surprising end. The first three quarters of this movie is surprisingly good. Tom Berenger, Burt Reynolds and Rod Steiger perform three aged actors, forgotten by the studios, trying to survive in Hollywood. There are great scenes, like the death of Robbie Kant (Kay E. Kuter) while crossing the street or when Kage Mulligan (Burt Reynolds) cries watching a western movie he made when he was a young actor. There are many elements of cult-movie along the story, through the comments of the veterans actors. However, the conclusion of the plot is very disappointing. Anyway, 'The Hollywood Sign' is a good entertainment. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): 'Uma Grande Jogada' ('A Great Move')

The objective of "direct to video" movie makers is to attract the biggest "names" that their budget can afford. All the better to sell videos and offshore rights. From that cynical perspective Hollywood Sign still remains a failure. The plot is minimal and falls apart if you start to ask to many questions. Similarly, the dialog has some good lines, principally on their reduced acting status in Hollywood, but no where near enough to make this any sort of sly masterpiece. Therefore the whole value of the movie comes down to the three leads. Tom Berenger starts out with some character and pathos but recedes as the movie progresses. In the main showcase, with the three leads impersonating police, he is effectively wallpaper. Burt Reynolds can be described as erratic. On the plus side he shows true emotion looking at his old movies and comedy in in preparing for the "cop" role. However, in between, he is often vacant and the viewer is left to contemplate what appears to be really bad plastic surgery. Rod Steiger dominates all the scenes he's in and, by far, comes off the best. It's a matter of personal taste as to whether he goes into overacting but I could at least see the emotion which would have driven him to star status in the first place. Fans and completists of any of these three will be willing to see Hollywood Sign and, in that regard, the direct to video movie makers have achieved their objective. However, it is doubtful that anyone will need to see it twice.

This light-hearted comedy was a great surprise for me, I didn't expect much from The Hollywood Sign since it was a direct-to-video movie but after finishing it, I was impressed not only by the quality of the film, but also for the brilliant performances from the three leads.Granted is not a mainstream movie, but for what it is - a low budget comedy - The Hollywood Sign was entertaining and quite poignant at times. I personally felt that the three main actors had a nice time working together (something that a lot of people who watched it noticed too) and that they did their best with the material handed.Burt Reynolds, Tom Berenger and Rod Steiger have personal connection and knowledge about the main theme of the story - about being an actor and getting old in a place where legends are built with the same speed they are destroyed.All of them were at the top of the world during a certain period, especially Burt Reynolds, the box-office king of the seventies, and they had to face hard times afterwards. Reynolds has the most emotional and beautiful scene, in which he, with tears in his eyes, watches an old western he made.Beautiful moment and homage to Burt,a really talented, charming, wonderful and unfortunately underestimated actor of his time. I wonder if people in Hollywood will one day give Burt Reynolds the respect and admiration he deserves, or if they are only going to give credits when it's too late, as in the case of the outstanding and deceased Rod Steiger.

Silly comedy in which three decadent actors team up in a ridiculous farse to catch the money stolen from one cassino of Las Vegas. Lame story, with a direction which tries all the time to be clever but is just dissapointing. Anyway, the three leads (Berenguer, Reynolds and Steiger) are good and seems to be having a good time just for the fact they are working together.I give this a 4 (four).