Editorial Review

Jim Jarmusch's 1991 ensemble comedy turns a gimmick into a revelation. The story begins in Los Angeles one evening at 7:07 p.m. A talent agent (Gena Rowlands) gets into the back of a taxi driven by a sullen, chain-smoking young woman (Winona Ryder), and over the course of their bumpy conversation, Rowlands's character becomes convinced that the cabby would be perfect for a particular part in a movie. Meanwhile, at that very moment, taxi drivers in New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki are all having unique encounters with a variety of fares, breaking through that invisible social barrier between the front and back seats of their cars, often to absurd or touching effect. Among them are cabby Roberto Benigni's ranting confessions to a priest, Armin Mueller-Stahl's relinquishing of the wheel to a stunned Giancarlo Esposito, and Isaach De Bankolé's relentless discussion of sight and sex with an angry, blind woman (Beatrice Dalle). What emerges is a chain of brief intimacies (not always welcomed by the characters), like a number of matches lit simultaneously across the globe, flickering brightly for a few short moments. This popular work by Jarmusch helped confirm his reputation as a fiercely independent filmmaker of rare perception, rigor, and classical sensibility matched with original thinking. Read more

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Reviews (30)

fun flick
Watch this one with friends. The Italian part had me laughing so hard I hurt.

Oh. My. God.
If you haven't seen this 1991 classic comedy, see it now. A Great Night on Earth
I watched this film late at night, when every sane person is supposed to be asleep, out of their cars and in their beds.Life still goes on, however, for the taxi-drivers who move people from one quiet location to another in the wee hours of the night.The locations are quiet, but the people are not, and the dialogue in this movie is humorous, meaningful, and real.A temporary bond is formed between passenger and driver (sometimes the roles are even reversed, as in the New York vignette featuring Helmut Grokenberger and YoYo, played by Armin Mueller-Stahl and Giancarlo Esposito, respectively).Armin Mueller-Stahl, born in 1930, may be relatively unknown to American audiences (as opposed to, say, Rosie Perez), but he did play Vertikoff in the George Clooney flick "The Peacemaker" (1997).Who is the stranger at the wheel who is responsible for bringing one home?What kind of person drives late at night, waiting for the dispatcher's call to a new address?A passenger has to pay him or her at the end of the ride, but there is still a feeling of gratitude, and even affection, towards this gruff conveyor of souls."You're a good man, Mika," the half-drunk, initially hostile, Finnish workers tell their driver (played by Matti Pellonp��) at the end of their journey.Or a battle of wits takes place, as evidenced by the Paris vignette.Ivorian actor Isaach De Bankol� (who also appears in Jim Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes") is great here as a luckless "taxiste" whose prying questions are turned against him by his blind passenger (played by B�atrice Dalle).Roberto Benigni is of course hilarious, and does here what he does best: rapid, hilarious dialogue with a lot of gesticulation and wide grins.He and the actor who plays the priest (not a bishop), Paolo Bonacelli, have been co-stars before: on the Benigni vehicle "Johnny Stecchino." Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

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Reviews (2)

aight
movie is split in 5 sections/cab rides... one in la, one in ny, one in france, etc.
Quite possibly one of the best American films of the 1990s
As with many of Jarmusch's films (Coffee & Cigarettes, Ghost Dog, Down by Law, Ghost Dog, etc.), Night on Earth is simultaneously endearing and mindboggling.The film centers around five short cab rides in five international cities in a single night.From a lurid confession in a Roman cab (with Roberto Begnini) to an impromptu audition in LA (with Gena Rowlands and Winona Ryder) to a hysterical ride through New York with a retired East German clown (Armin Mueller-Stahl), this film will keep you laughing, crying, and thinking so deeply, that all you want to do is rewind and watch this night again (yes, rewind, because alas... it is not available on DVD!!!) ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

This disappointment from Jim Jarmusch stars Johnny Depp in a mystery-Western about a 19th-century accountant named William Blake, who spends nearly all his money getting to a hellish mud town in the old West and ends up penniless and doomstruck in the wilderness. A benevolent if goofy Native American (Gary Farmer) takes an interest in guiding Blake on a quest for identity in his earthly journey, but the film is really just a string of endless shtick about inbred woodsmen, dumb lawmen, and a trio of irritable killers. With Robert Mitchum, Iggy Pop, Gabriel Byrne, Alfred Molina, and a noodling soundtrack by Neil Young. Read more

Features

• Black & White
• Closed-captioned
• Dolby
• HiFi Sound
• NTSC

Reviews (257)

The Surreal West
I have deleted my multi-page review as being irrelevant, and will leave just this:"Do you have any tobacco William Blake?I think this film will become one with Brazil and Clockwork Orange andCitizen Kane.

Don't pay attention to the Amazon review for this item.
I almost never leave a review for any item (maybe I did 1 before this), but I haven't seen a review that misrepresented the item so badly before.The Amazon reviewer for this item says it is a disappointment.That is not really a critical review, and, for me, is it completely untrue.
Don't you know who you are?...
The short of it -- William Blake (Depp) takes the train from Cleveland to the end of the line in the Northwest having been promised an accounting position at a mining corporation. He arrives to find the job taken by someone else. He spends the last of his money for drink, helps a woman in the street, one thing leads to another and he's running for his life. He meets an Indian who thinks he's the poet Wm. Blake. And tries to help Blake remember who he is. The whole thing is a surrealistic journey to find his true self.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Movie    2. Westerns   

Features

• Black & White
• Closed-captioned
• Letterboxed
• Original recording remastered
• NTSC

Reviews (38)

WELCOME TO AMERICA ONLY IT GETS MUCH MUCH WORSE
Road film for the eighties: From Bing and Bob in the forties to Dennis and Peter in the sixties and now this in the eighties. Welcome to America. Where is the wonder? Where is the song?
How Strange That Anyone Could Endure It
The most astonishing thing about this film - stranger than paradise or hell could ever be - is that anyone let Jarmusch make another film after it wrapped. (That it won Best First Feature at Cannes in 1984 shakes one's faith in a rational universe.)
stranger than anything
A Hungarian girl goes to visit her cousin who lives in the ugliest apartment in the ugliest part of New York City; then the cousin and his best friend go to visit the Hungarian girl who now lives in the ugliest house in the ugliest part of Cleveland; then all three of them take a road trip and end up at the ugliest hotel in the ugliest part of Florida.Along the way nothing happens, and then it happens again.A great film, and an important one too, that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Feature Film-drama    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Now here is a movie that's practically perfect for DVD. Shot over many years with eccentric actors, Jim Jarmusch's collection of black-and-white vignettes is as uneven as a collection of music videos (without songs). Even with the dull spots and the drop-dead-hip ambiance, there's something touching about this parade of frazzled people holding on to their coffee and cigarettes like life rafts--especially in the final sequence with Taylor Mead. There are some severely misconceived pieces, but the best are a treat:Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan in a hilarious Hollywood encounter, Tom Waits and Iggy Pop getting off on the wrong foot in a funky diner, and Cate Blanchett doing a dual role as herself and a jealous cousin. Bill Murray can't save one underwritten piece, but Jack and Meg White are amusing in an absurdist blackout. Use the Scene Selection menu, and revel in the fetishizing of java and butts. Read more

Features

• Black & White
• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (89)

Uneventful
This movie is a compilation of short movies of singular and plural people hanging around in cafes and diners over simply cigarettes and coffee.Some movies are duds but some of them are totally brilliant and funny.Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan conversation, entitled "Cousins?", Cate Blanchett playing herself and her cousin in "Cousin", the Whites from the White Stripes are some of the gems that you can find in here.It's really unique to have singers partaking in this project such as Iggy Pop, Tom Waite, Wu-Tang Clan, White Stripes.Bizzare, uneventful and something to be enjoyed in DVD.No extras.Commendable watching.

Original... BUT...
DON"T WATCH IF YOU"RE TRYING to QUIT SMOKING.This is one film where the pleasure of smoking is made only too real.
great fun
This is great fun and an ideal way to spend an hour or so if you are a fan of the director or film-making in general.An array of great personalities appear on screen in a series of witty conversations full of in jokes and memorable lines.It is just a bit of fun though, nothing too serious and perhaps not a movie you would return to with any regularity.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Jim Jarmusch's low-tech tribute to the 30-year-old collaboration betweengrunge godfather Neil Young and his favorite garage band, Crazy Horse, is both aquirky little movie and a monument to one of rock & roll's greatest noisemakers.Partially culled from some gritty archival material shot in 1976 and 1986, andsupplemented by lots of super-8 footage of Young and Crazy Horse between showswhile on a concert tour (the concert footage itself appears to be shot on 16mm),Read more

Features

• Import
• NTSC

Reviews (27)

Would anyone....
...tell Neil Young to only use the newest hightech-equipment and only record live performances where every single note is hit correctly, no crackling noises or whatsoever? No? So why hassle around with this Jarmusch-film in the above manner? His film takes a similar approach as Neil Young does with his music, Mr. Young appreciates the product, I shure do too and so should you. In case anyone hasn't noticed: it's all about rock'n roll. Nuff said.

Jim Jarmusch and Neil Young Collaborate Again
The method of Jim Jarmusch has worked, to this point, to minimalize the actor's environment as means of accentuating the spoken word.Relationships are shared usually between the audience and an intimate few; 3 (Stranger Than Paradise), 2 (Night on Earth, Coffee and Cigarettes), 1 (Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai).Banter usually focuses on juxtaposing decisions made in the past with the decisions, although often not apparent, that are to be made within the quagmire of what is routine.Transient characters use expression and subsequent argument as the auteur's mouthpiece to confront this routine.Year of the Horse is Jarmusch's exception; rockumenting the band Crazy Horse and their lead man Neil Young on their 1996 world tour.
this is a masterpiece
One bandmate jestingly complains that some artsy filmmaker from NYC can't get to the essence of Crazy Horse (and what they've gone thru for 30 years) , but Jim Jarmusch gets as close to it as you can in 107 minutes.The band members open up, each individually interviewed in a basement with a washing machine in the background,in their hotel rooms, and on the tour bus.And the concert footage from different eras is often stunning.Some of the complaints below are essentially that the film is non-linear but these critics miss the point because this is an artists depiction of fellow artists and the artists he's depicting are masters of the psychedelic experience.It's NOT supposed to be linear.My favorite parts were Jarmusch's visual dipictions to go along with the music (far better than any MTV videos), they are simply stunning compositions, they are as true to the music as can be, they add to the music.This is a must for those into the artistic psychedelic experience.Roll one up, have a few bottles of wine, strap yourself inand enjoy the trip! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Elvis may not be alive, but his spirit continues to permeate the American cultural landscape. Jim Jarmusch pays tribute his legacy in his funky third feature, Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Original recording reissued
• NTSC

Reviews (31)

Elvis! No, Carl Perkins! No, Elvis! No, Carl Perkins!
Mystery Train follows three stories through the heat of dreary summertime Memphis. Two Japanese teens dressed to the nines in 80s couture explore Memphis on a quest to determine once and for all whether Elvis or Carl Perkins was the true king of American rock and roll. They are awkwardly out of place amongst the townsfolk, but even more out of place with each other. She constantly jokes and jokes with him, at one point smearing lipstick across his face, only to be continuously ignored as he stares coolly into the distance. Their depressing love making scene in the seedy hotel where all the characters end up underscores the distance between them.
Memphis Blues

MY FAVORITE JIM JARMUSCH FILM
This was my second JIM JARMUSCH film and is probably my foavorite of his movies. The stories are so orginal and flat out hilarious, all three taking place in MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE and involving ELVIS PRESSLEY in some way. The best story is the first, FAR FROM YOKOHAMA, involving the young Japanese couple (MASATOSHI NAGASAI & YUKI KUDOH) visiting MEMPHIS for the first time. Music legend SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS is terrific as the night manager of a run down hotel. Highly recomended for any movie fan or JARMUSCH fan who hasn't seen this movie. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Feature Film-drama    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

This disappointment from Jim Jarmusch stars Johnny Depp in a mystery-Western about a 19th-century accountant named William Blake, who spends nearly all his money getting to a hellish mud town in the old West and ends up penniless and doomstruck in the wilderness. A benevolent if goofy Native American (Gary Farmer) takes an interest in guiding Blake on a quest for identity in his earthly journey, but the film is really just a string of endless shtick about inbred woodsmen, dumb lawmen, and a trio of irritable killers. With Robert Mitchum, Iggy Pop, Gabriel Byrne, Alfred Molina, and a noodling soundtrack by Neil Young. Read more

Features

• Black & White
• Closed-captioned
• Dolby
• HiFi Sound
• Letterboxed
• Widescreen
• NTSC

Reviews (257)

The Surreal West
I have deleted my multi-page review as being irrelevant, and will leave just this:"Do you have any tobacco William Blake?I think this film will become one with Brazil and Clockwork Orange andCitizen Kane.

Don't pay attention to the Amazon review for this item.
I almost never leave a review for any item (maybe I did 1 before this), but I haven't seen a review that misrepresented the item so badly before.The Amazon reviewer for this item says it is a disappointment.That is not really a critical review, and, for me, is it completely untrue.
Don't you know who you are?...
The short of it -- William Blake (Depp) takes the train from Cleveland to the end of the line in the Northwest having been promised an accounting position at a mining corporation. He arrives to find the job taken by someone else. He spends the last of his money for drink, helps a woman in the street, one thing leads to another and he's running for his life. He meets an Indian who thinks he's the poet Wm. Blake. And tries to help Blake remember who he is. The whole thing is a surrealistic journey to find his true self.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Movie    2. Westerns   

Editorial Review

After creating one of the breakthrough movies of the American independent cinema, Read more

Features

• Black & White
• Original recording reissued
• NTSC

Reviews (37)

An American classic
Jim Jarmusch has, up to the present date, done no wrong in his career.His films, all of which he's written himself, are on the same level of genius as Truffaut, in his ability to tell a realistic story, and Fellini, to fill said realistic story with all kinds of eccentric and memorable characters.Down By Law, his second full length film, is his undisputed masterpiece.
After Katrina, the memory of a once-existing city
No doubt all the wood frame structures that exist in the flooded
Different, Slow, Peaceful, Funny,
I saw this movie simply because I've been a big fan of Tom Waits (who plays Jack in the movie)for a few years now, and I finally had to see this. What kept me from seeing this is it is extremely expensive, but I finally forket out the money. Tom Waits, Robert Lurie, and Roberto have great chemistry, and the movie is shot in New Orleans in black and white. That's all you need to know to buy this movie. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Forest Whitaker makes an unlikely modern samurai with his laser-sighted pistols, shabby street clothes, and oddly graceful gait--but then Read more

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• Closed-captioned
• Color
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Reviews (196)

Great film - flawed but awesome
I initially wanted to give this movie 4 stars but can't get myself to do that. The movie revolves around a reclusive hitman who has decided to live by a book written by a 18th century Samurai. As being a Samurai involves having a feudal lord, he picks a local gangster who sometime before had saved him from some racist thugs; This is the weak part of the story that I don't find very convincing but it's needed to explain how he gets involved with the bunch of clowns that the local mafia are to start with. Forest Whitaker gives an excellent performance as a man who somehow manages to be a reclusive hitman/Samurai /gentle individual that cares for others, all at the same time.

Moving love
This seemingly simple picture arouses all the emotions and holds your interest from beginning to end.

Ghost Dog
I thought this was a pretty good movie. It moved a little slow, but I thought the storyline was pretty good and the acting also. I think the movie is pretty much just worth the rent, and I rented it. Overall I liked the action, I wish Ghost Dog would have used his sword that would be been some tight stuff, but the gun was good enough. He was ruthless, and did what had to be done. I thought that it was also a good add to the movie by having a mob in their, to give a different twist to it and it did that well. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Ghost Dog shoots the guy throught the sink, that was some crazy stuff! One of the good stuff also was the music, when he was playin Killah Priest in his car, keepin it Hip-Hop!!!
Read more

Subjects:  1. Action / Adventure    2. Movie   

Features

• Black & White
• NTSC

Reviews (38)

WELCOME TO AMERICA ONLY IT GETS MUCH MUCH WORSE
Road film for the eighties: From Bing and Bob in the forties to Dennis and Peter in the sixties and now this in the eighties. Welcome to America. Where is the wonder? Where is the song?
How Strange That Anyone Could Endure It
The most astonishing thing about this film - stranger than paradise or hell could ever be - is that anyone let Jarmusch make another film after it wrapped. (That it won Best First Feature at Cannes in 1984 shakes one's faith in a rational universe.)
stranger than anything
A Hungarian girl goes to visit her cousin who lives in the ugliest apartment in the ugliest part of New York City; then the cousin and his best friend go to visit the Hungarian girl who now lives in the ugliest house in the ugliest part of Cleveland; then all three of them take a road trip and end up at the ugliest hotel in the ugliest part of Florida.Along the way nothing happens, and then it happens again.A great film, and an important one too, that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Feature Film-drama   

Editorial Review

Forest Whitaker makes an unlikely modern samurai with his laser-sighted pistols, shabby street clothes, and oddly graceful gait--but then Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (196)

Great film - flawed but awesome
I initially wanted to give this movie 4 stars but can't get myself to do that. The movie revolves around a reclusive hitman who has decided to live by a book written by a 18th century Samurai. As being a Samurai involves having a feudal lord, he picks a local gangster who sometime before had saved him from some racist thugs; This is the weak part of the story that I don't find very convincing but it's needed to explain how he gets involved with the bunch of clowns that the local mafia are to start with. Forest Whitaker gives an excellent performance as a man who somehow manages to be a reclusive hitman/Samurai /gentle individual that cares for others, all at the same time.

Moving love
This seemingly simple picture arouses all the emotions and holds your interest from beginning to end.

Ghost Dog
I thought this was a pretty good movie. It moved a little slow, but I thought the storyline was pretty good and the acting also. I think the movie is pretty much just worth the rent, and I rented it. Overall I liked the action, I wish Ghost Dog would have used his sword that would be been some tight stuff, but the gun was good enough. He was ruthless, and did what had to be done. I thought that it was also a good add to the movie by having a mob in their, to give a different twist to it and it did that well. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Ghost Dog shoots the guy throught the sink, that was some crazy stuff! One of the good stuff also was the music, when he was playin Killah Priest in his car, keepin it Hip-Hop!!!
Read more

Subjects:  1. Feature Film-action/Adventure   

Features

• Black & White
• NTSC

Reviews (6)

"Ice cream, you scream, we all scream of ice cream.."
When I saw it zilion of years ago I did not know this the first Jarmush movie. It is simply an outstanding movie - reminding one why a movie is a form of art...Hope it comes out as a DVD.

...we all scream for ice cream.
I am a good egg. only 3 reviews? c'mon people, watch and review this film
This is a really good movie.It lacks some of the layers present in Jarmusch's other movies (Dead Man, Ghost Dog, Stranger than Paradise), but it has the same visual appeal and arid humor.Most importantly, it creates that cyclical, hypnotic rhythm that characterizes all J.J. films.As usual, don't look for too much meaning; if it's there it's an inch deep.Nevertheless, it is a fun satire of the classic jail-break film. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Forest Whitaker makes an unlikely modern samurai with his laser-sighted pistols, shabby street clothes, and oddly graceful gait--but then Read more

Features

• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (196)

Great film - flawed but awesome
I initially wanted to give this movie 4 stars but can't get myself to do that. The movie revolves around a reclusive hitman who has decided to live by a book written by a 18th century Samurai. As being a Samurai involves having a feudal lord, he picks a local gangster who sometime before had saved him from some racist thugs; This is the weak part of the story that I don't find very convincing but it's needed to explain how he gets involved with the bunch of clowns that the local mafia are to start with. Forest Whitaker gives an excellent performance as a man who somehow manages to be a reclusive hitman/Samurai /gentle individual that cares for others, all at the same time.

Moving love
This seemingly simple picture arouses all the emotions and holds your interest from beginning to end.

Ghost Dog
I thought this was a pretty good movie. It moved a little slow, but I thought the storyline was pretty good and the acting also. I think the movie is pretty much just worth the rent, and I rented it. Overall I liked the action, I wish Ghost Dog would have used his sword that would be been some tight stuff, but the gun was good enough. He was ruthless, and did what had to be done. I thought that it was also a good add to the movie by having a mob in their, to give a different twist to it and it did that well. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Ghost Dog shoots the guy throught the sink, that was some crazy stuff! One of the good stuff also was the music, when he was playin Killah Priest in his car, keepin it Hip-Hop!!!
Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Film - Spanish/Misc Sa