Customer Reviews

Romeo Is Bleeding (Widescreen)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This macabre 90's noir offering lures us into Oldman's sorrowful tale of temptation and it's resulting regret. His narration provides a comic bedfellow, and the Mark Isham soundtrack (with some great vocal pieces courtesy of A.J. Croce) adds punctuation to many of the vignettes. I particularly enjoyed the frequent instances I was caught off-guard and injected with a dose of terror, moments for the most part due in part to Lena Olin's performance as the psychotic villainesse. This film was directed by Peter Medak, whose previous work includes The Krays and The Changeling and plenty of TV work. Scripted by Hilary Henkin, the story has a lot of flashbacks and flash-forwards that give little hints and bursts of adrenaline to the story when you're least expecting it.

For the most part a good - not excellent - film and a great opportunity to see a good enemble of actors. I'd liken some elements of this film to Frank Miller's Sin City - a bit less gruesome, but with the same edgy grit minus the animation and over the top violence.

What a tragic waste of such a great cast.

The film's self-absorption with creating high octane noirish melodrama does it in. As though the directors have seen and savoured a lot of neo-noir stuff, which allows them to be sardonic about it.

The end product is shocking, violent, and more often than often simply over-the-top. That covers pretty much all that one could remember it for. Oodles of sexual games, sadistic antics and titillating come-ons. The soundtrack provides sporadic respites.

Which makes for a semi-decent flash in the pan. Problem is, someone lost the recipe.

A very dark film about a man's love, greed, and moral dilemma. Gary Oldman plays a crooked cop named Jack Grimaldi who is cheating on his wife, stealing money from the FBI working for the mob giving up key witnesses for a payoff. His character still has emotion and morals in himself which he struggles with and yet is still likeable in a strange way. He gets in a jam when the key witness he supposed to catch he's also supposed to kill. He comes up with a plan to have the russian sick Mona Demarkov fake her death by giving her a fake death certificate for money in return. But this plan back fires. The fight scene with him and Demarkov in the car is intense. By the end he is left to his own devices but makes it out okay in his own way. A story about one man's struggle with greed vs moral. One of my favorite films.

critics are often undecided until they see how others react because they are stupid take dracula 92 laughed at at first now those same critics call it the greatest horror movie of our times and say that gary oldman deserved an oscar well here u go again another great acting job by gary oldman whose a crooked cop trying to not let his loved ones findout when hes suddenly in a cat and mouse game with a russian hitman a great movie try it out

REVIEW BY NICK EVANGELISTA:
The Female Villian in this film is spooky beyond words. You just have to see her. This film works from start to finish.

Ah what a guilty pleasure this film is. The pseudo crime-noir story Romeo is Bleeding is an excellent character study and a chance for multiple actors to chew scenery and develop some great chemistry. Gary Oldman once again plays a seedy, disheveled and dangerous cop [not quite as nasty as the Professional though, heh] turning in bad guys in protective custody to the tune of $65K a dime. A serial womanizer, with Juliette Lewis in tow playing out his fantasies, his world starts to unravel when he is tapped to narc on Russian hit-woman Lena Olin. Olin oozes as much venomous danger as sex appeal as she plays Oldman like a fiddle. Never knowing if her affections are true, or if he's going to get shot in the back of the head, Oldman stumbles around blindly as forces greater than he can imagine conspire against him. Violent but with a blistering black humour, this is a great, underrated film. Recommended.

Plenty of action, violence, sex and a very twisted storyline. I consider it to be one of the cherries in my collection. Not a date film, by ANY stetch of the imagination!

one of the better movies of recent times. Some of the best actors, Oldman and Olin. It is a rare instance where everything works together and blends into a beautyful tale.

If there's one thing Peter Medak (director) has succeeded in doing above all else, it's the head spinning number of themes and emotional avenues he has managed to explore in this craftly scripted nightmarish Gary Oldman flick. From one scene to the next, we go through comedy (Mona Demarkov's attack on Jack in the car), high drama (Jack's wife's confrontation of his infidelity), high octane set pieces (Jack's accidental shooting of his mistress) to pure horror and revulsion (burying the crime boss alive). And yet, when all this is said and done, Romeo is Bleeding has at it's core a very simple and touching love story. That despite the main character's flaws, his intentions are always good and his love for his wife unending. It's this, and this alone, that guarantees your emotional tie to the film. The ending is, beyond question, one of the saddest, most tragic outcomes for any movie hero, or protagionist for that matter. There's been times when I haven't even caught the whole movie, waltzed in at the ending and been upset by it. Even the most hard nosed critics and stone hearted detractors would have a hard time refuting this climax for sheer emotional ferocity. Romeo is Bleeding isn't easy watching (at times, it's downright frustrating), but for those who stay on the nightmare bus till it's final, downbeat ending, the results are alot more affecting than at first thought possible.

I didn't come into this movie with incredibly high expectations, but I did think I would find something entertaining to pass the time. I soon couldn't find much reason for all of the affection for this film. It seems to struggle to introduce each new plot point and lacks any real flow. There are some scenes of interest, but the movie as a whole fails for me. You can put a suspenseful scene in or a great bit of dialogue, but that can't support a whole movie. I suggest almost any other Gary Oldman film instead (notice that I said almost....look at an Oldman filmography and I think you'll know what I mean).