whoa, awesome stuff this one is
Added 9/26/2009
Well I can honestly say I'm completely SHOCKED right now with Miracle Mile.
At first what seemed like a typical relationship kind of movie involving a man finally finding the perfect woman, quickly turns into one of the most bizarre storylines imaginable. I was ALMOST ready to stop watching the film after 10 minutes when I thought I began getting a good idea what kind of movie from the late 80's I was getting myself into. I was WRONG, plain and simple.
When the main character is walking outside a diner and hears a pay phone ring, the guy on the other end claims an attack is going to happen to the city, and after the conversation ends, the guy who picked up the phone runs back into the diner and starts having a panic attack as he tries to explain to all the people around him what just happeend. He explains to all the people at the diner that he just had a conversation with a man on the phone who claimed a nuclear war was going to occur on the city. At first the people don't believe him and think he's drunk, but he soon convinces everyone.
Interesting this part was, because I thought we were going to be introduced to the main characters we'd see throughout the movie right here, but 10 minutes later we never see these characters again. I guess this was just part of the tricky and clever writing of this movie (not to mention a frighteningly realistic possibility).
The movie then turns into an incredibly wild ride with the guy who picked up the phone outside the diner rushing around through the city at night time, trying to find his girlfriend and escape. How does he do this might you ask? By risking his life in several instances, being involved in situations where things blow up, and stealing cars and threatening people with guns.
It's not quite a cheesy action film though, thanks to the storyline. This is mainly due to the realistic setting the writers were going for dealing with what could possibly happen when a city is threatened to be under a nuclear attack.
Of course things really get heated up when everyone in the city finds out what's about to happen. Some really memorable moments then occur.
Unfortunately the soundtrack SCREAMS late 80's completely, and maybe I was seeing things, but I thought I saw the words "Tangerine Dream" flash on screen in the very beginning. Tangerine Dream is a really unique band that specializes on atmosphere, but if they were a part of the movie, I can't say they really delivered with a memorable soundtrack. Just typical late 80's musical and atmospheric pieces that are severely dated by todays standards.
I recommend this movie to just about anybody. The storyline will make you think, and the ending. The ending? It will leave you speechless.
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I'd like to remind you that this is an intensely dark film. It's not your typical Hollywood Lala Land bull$#@%; this is an ultimate thriller that deals with a possible apocalypse. Fear and panic slowly start to spread in the city of Los Angeles, and it's all because Harry (played by Anthony Edwards) accidentally receives a wrong number from a phone booth that signifies a nuclear war about to take place. This is one of the finest thrillers I've ever seen, and it had me waiting to see how it all ends. A word of caution, though: don't see this movie if you're REALLY depressed.
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A generally undiscovered gem of a film...
Added 2/11/2009
A long, long time ago, in a past life far, far away, I casually watched this film, having rented it on VHS (say what?) mainly out of interest in the subject matter, but unlike other rented videos in those days, I was so impressed that I watched it a few times (rare back then) before having to take back my rental. For it seemed this was not only a really good movie on a topic of interest to me (possible nuclear war). but took place in an area I was so, so familiar with. The "Miracle Mile." A stretch of strangeland in LA basically west of La Brea, east of La Cienega, north of Olympic, and south of Beverly.
A bit later, it appeared on cable, and I taped it, sans commercials and uncut and uncensored. At that time, I was collecting dozens of favorite movies on many cheap, blank VHS tapes, all of which I eventually threw away upon various Los Angeles moves. However, of the many such films on VHS I had collected but later discarded during various moves and other events in my life, this one always held a special place in my heart and mind and soul and memory and I've seen it at least a dozen times or more. Though it has almost NEVER been shown on TV since for so long, fast forward and only recently has it popped up again on digital cable, which has given me a chance to revisit it, and validate my original feelings that this film is really something unique and special and sadly, unknown to most movie/film lovers.
I must admit that, besides the actual content and quality of this film, my own personal connections to it and its general philosophical and political drift, just so happens to match up very closely with me, and within exactly the extended neighborhood (and mindset) where I spent more than half of my nearly 14 years as a resident of the big Orange. It thus, remains special and always will. The area in LA generally called the "Miracle Mile," and its surroundings, I was and am in memory of, and oh. so familiar with. And the subject matter is still close to my concerns, two or even three decades later.
While the movie itself, regardless of where it was filmed, might make do for most, I actually lived in that very area of LA for so many years, and so, it all makes this one-of-a-kind flick especially special to me personally. Regardless of the title, and of what eventually happens in the movie which takes place in the "Miracle Mile" section of Los Angeles, all of this was conceived and filmed very close to my former "home," and so touches upon and directly hits upon so much of my own experiences and thoughts of what the area and the times were all about, back then. Sadly yet, so much of this film still rings true, to this day.
This is a film which remains and has remained compelling from start to finish, back when it was released and to this day, even for those who never lived where I lived, or experienced what I did, or to this day, still don't understand that the possibility of sudden nuclear war and the end to all we know is alive and well these days. It deals with a topic which should be among the main concerns of everyone living on this planet present day. If anything, the low-tech vision of it all presented here (witness the "pay phone booth" and bulky "cell phone" used by two of the characters) was, and is just a warning which society and civilization has seemingly ignored many years later. in this age of designer cell phones and the net.
While this film presents as highly credible a vision as it did for its time of possible nuclear holocaust, the reality of today is probably a lot more depressing, and I suspect the "warning" which would precede such an event for most of us, would be even less on a timescale that is depicted in the movie. That is to say, no real warning of all, at least as far as time is concerned. And that would go for various other disasters, including biological, chemical, germ, and other such concerns. Still, the "terrorist" threat in this movie, comes home-grown, and is very well still possible today, and if ever there was a visualization of a "nightmare," this film ranks right up there with any other "end-of-the-world" attempts. In fact, I would be hard pressed to think of a film which more closely resembles an unfolding "nightmare" as this.
I would never reveal to those who have not seen this or who are reading this prior to first seeing the film, the ending, or how it all proceeds to that ending, but needless to say, this "nightmare" of a film starts out in a more positive light, as I suppose most people's nightmares might begin, but which turn swiftly sour. In this case, we have a modern-day Romeo and Juliet starting out under the most positive and hopeful circumstances, only to see it all decay into something which quickly turns into irrational chaos, fear, and eventual, possible doom.
One of the great things about this low-budget, but still great movie, is that the possibility of eventual doom isn't really answered until the very end of the film. In fact, from beginning to end, this is one movie which keeps you, and even the characters, guessing about the outcome, until the finish. A finish which refers back to the very start of the film, and eventually posits that events and circumstances beyond our usually egoistic fantasy of control of our own lives and fates, most probably still lays within the actions of others and other things, in nature and evolution. And within the fact that we are just a small little insignificant part of this thing called "civil society," the powers of which to affect our lives can never be underestimated or under anticipated.
This is a great movie, though it is rather short (under 90 minutes), does have a few flaws now and then as to minor character developments and plot contrivances and circumstances which may seem implausible. Still, it all works beautifully because there is more than enough believability in the common nature of the characters and how it all unfolds during the bewitching pre-dawn hours in which most of it takes place. In a strange place called Los Angeles, and in one of that place's strangest places, the "Miracle Mile."
The acting here is first rate, top to bottom, the writing and direction superb, and the pacing, virtually in real time on the screen, is amazing. This is a film, if you have any social consciousness at all, which will grab you and stick with you in your afterthoughts, long after you see it. Repeated viewings, despite knowing the end, can be equally enlightening, which makes this a must-buy for anyone who sees this for the first time and loves it as much as I did when I first saw it, long ago and far away when I lived in the "Miracle Mile." For those with the bread to purchase favorite-film DVD's of course and for collectors of same.
Hopefully, with this review, I have been obtuse enough to interest others into at least checking this out without giving away too much about a movie which is pretty much unlike any other Hollywood film I've ever seen and which you've ever seen. This is a film which is hard to compare to others since it is so unique and deals with a subject which has rarely been dealt with past, present, and alas, future. It is filled with memorable moments, and is consistently excellent throughout. And all props to the unforgettable musical score, by the synth-heavy "Tangerine Dream," which adds so much to the final mix and essence here.
A fantastic film, even though the landmark 24/7 coffee shop "Johnies," and the May Company department store at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, have long since disappeared. Truth is however, this could've taken place just about anywhere in Anytown, USA, and it would still be just as great. The fact that it takes place where I spent so many years, makes it extra-special to me, but actually, even back in those days, the Miracle Mile always had this underlying strangeness to it. This film only amplifies that notion, but does so in a manner which makes it accessible to all. Without hesitation, highly recommended...
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Works on many levels - topnotch and overlooked!
Added 1/8/2009
This underrated 'thriller' also works as a black comedy that's easily read as an outpicturing of a young man's sexual hysteria that mushrooms (ha-ha) when he meets the girl of his dreams at the LaBrea Tar Pits in La-La-Land. It's also a chilling pic of cause-and-effect in sort of a "Don't Look Now"ish vein, but more pop and fast-paced. The production design pits red against green-blues, and it's a love poem to an evocative sector of L.A. that's most appealing at night when everyone is home or in the clubs. I've watched this little gem many times and still find many pleasures within. Get it!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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To fall in love the day before the earth's going to end
Added 12/23/2008
Harry (Anthony Edwards) took 30 years to find the right girl, Julie (Mare Winningham) and in an hour he may well lose her and the world as well.
Harry meets Julie at a museum where a class full of kids are looking at dinosaurs. It's love at first sight, but Harry thinks he'll never see her again until Julie appears looking over the rim of the La Brea tarpits with him.
They're scheduled to go out on a date, but a freak accident keeps Harry sleeping. He awakens at 4:00 to go to the diner where Julie works only to answer a pay phone call and discover the world's now in WWIII.
They've got 50 minutes to catch a helocopter to take them to the North Pole. Harry's got to find Julie and get her out of there.
The scenario's entirely plausible, particularly after hearing friends' accounts of trying to get out of Houston, Texas when Hurricane Rita was coming in 2005. Ordinary citizens go to extraordinary means to save themselves and end up worsening their condition in some cases.
I won't disclose the end, but I will say it was definitely something I will never forget. I will not recommend this film for anyone who is tense or depressed, it's just too much. Still, an interesting character study, though not one I would care to see again.
Rebecca Kyle, December 2008
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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whoa, awesome stuff this one is
Added 9/26/2009
Well I can honestly say I'm completely SHOCKED right now with Miracle Mile.
At first what seemed like a typical relationship kind of movie involving a man finally finding the perfect woman, quickly turns into one of the most bizarre storylines imaginable. I was ALMOST ready to stop watching the film after 10 minutes when I thought I began getting a good idea what kind of movie from the late 80's I was getting myself into. I was WRONG, plain and simple.
When the main character is walking outside a diner and hears a pay phone ring, the guy on the other end claims an attack is going to happen to the city, and after the conversation ends, the guy who picked up the phone runs back into the diner and starts having a panic attack as he tries to explain to all the people around him what just happeend. He explains to all the people at the diner that he just had a conversation with a man on the phone who claimed a nuclear war was going to occur on the city. At first the people don't believe him and think he's drunk, but he soon convinces everyone.
Interesting this part was, because I thought we were going to be introduced to the main characters we'd see throughout the movie right here, but 10 minutes later we never see these characters again. I guess this was just part of the tricky and clever writing of this movie (not to mention a frighteningly realistic possibility).
The movie then turns into an incredibly wild ride with the guy who picked up the phone outside the diner rushing around through the city at night time, trying to find his girlfriend and escape. How does he do this might you ask? By risking his life in several instances, being involved in situations where things blow up, and stealing cars and threatening people with guns.
It's not quite a cheesy action film though, thanks to the storyline. This is mainly due to the realistic setting the writers were going for dealing with what could possibly happen when a city is threatened to be under a nuclear attack.
Of course things really get heated up when everyone in the city finds out what's about to happen. Some really memorable moments then occur.
Unfortunately the soundtrack SCREAMS late 80's completely, and maybe I was seeing things, but I thought I saw the words "Tangerine Dream" flash on screen in the very beginning. Tangerine Dream is a really unique band that specializes on atmosphere, but if they were a part of the movie, I can't say they really delivered with a memorable soundtrack. Just typical late 80's musical and atmospheric pieces that are severely dated by todays standards.
I recommend this movie to just about anybody. The storyline will make you think, and the ending. The ending? It will leave you speechless.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I'd like to remind you that this is an intensely dark film. It's not your typical Hollywood Lala Land bull$#@%; this is an ultimate thriller that deals with a possible apocalypse. Fear and panic slowly start to spread in the city of Los Angeles, and it's all because Harry (played by Anthony Edwards) accidentally receives a wrong number from a phone booth that signifies a nuclear war about to take place. This is one of the finest thrillers I've ever seen, and it had me waiting to see how it all ends. A word of caution, though: don't see this movie if you're REALLY depressed.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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A generally undiscovered gem of a film...
Added 2/11/2009
A long, long time ago, in a past life far, far away, I casually watched this film, having rented it on VHS (say what?) mainly out of interest in the subject matter, but unlike other rented videos in those days, I was so impressed that I watched it a few times (rare back then) before having to take back my rental. For it seemed this was not only a really good movie on a topic of interest to me (possible nuclear war). but took place in an area I was so, so familiar with. The "Miracle Mile." A stretch of strangeland in LA basically west of La Brea, east of La Cienega, north of Olympic, and south of Beverly.
A bit later, it appeared on cable, and I taped it, sans commercials and uncut and uncensored. At that time, I was collecting dozens of favorite movies on many cheap, blank VHS tapes, all of which I eventually threw away upon various Los Angeles moves. However, of the many such films on VHS I had collected but later discarded during various moves and other events in my life, this one always held a special place in my heart and mind and soul and memory and I've seen it at least a dozen times or more. Though it has almost NEVER been shown on TV since for so long, fast forward and only recently has it popped up again on digital cable, which has given me a chance to revisit it, and validate my original feelings that this film is really something unique and special and sadly, unknown to most movie/film lovers.
I must admit that, besides the actual content and quality of this film, my own personal connections to it and its general philosophical and political drift, just so happens to match up very closely with me, and within exactly the extended neighborhood (and mindset) where I spent more than half of my nearly 14 years as a resident of the big Orange. It thus, remains special and always will. The area in LA generally called the "Miracle Mile," and its surroundings, I was and am in memory of, and oh. so familiar with. And the subject matter is still close to my concerns, two or even three decades later.
While the movie itself, regardless of where it was filmed, might make do for most, I actually lived in that very area of LA for so many years, and so, it all makes this one-of-a-kind flick especially special to me personally. Regardless of the title, and of what eventually happens in the movie which takes place in the "Miracle Mile" section of Los Angeles, all of this was conceived and filmed very close to my former "home," and so touches upon and directly hits upon so much of my own experiences and thoughts of what the area and the times were all about, back then. Sadly yet, so much of this film still rings true, to this day.
This is a film which remains and has remained compelling from start to finish, back when it was released and to this day, even for those who never lived where I lived, or experienced what I did, or to this day, still don't understand that the possibility of sudden nuclear war and the end to all we know is alive and well these days. It deals with a topic which should be among the main concerns of everyone living on this planet present day. If anything, the low-tech vision of it all presented here (witness the "pay phone booth" and bulky "cell phone" used by two of the characters) was, and is just a warning which society and civilization has seemingly ignored many years later. in this age of designer cell phones and the net.
While this film presents as highly credible a vision as it did for its time of possible nuclear holocaust, the reality of today is probably a lot more depressing, and I suspect the "warning" which would precede such an event for most of us, would be even less on a timescale that is depicted in the movie. That is to say, no real warning of all, at least as far as time is concerned. And that would go for various other disasters, including biological, chemical, germ, and other such concerns. Still, the "terrorist" threat in this movie, comes home-grown, and is very well still possible today, and if ever there was a visualization of a "nightmare," this film ranks right up there with any other "end-of-the-world" attempts. In fact, I would be hard pressed to think of a film which more closely resembles an unfolding "nightmare" as this.
I would never reveal to those who have not seen this or who are reading this prior to first seeing the film, the ending, or how it all proceeds to that ending, but needless to say, this "nightmare" of a film starts out in a more positive light, as I suppose most people's nightmares might begin, but which turn swiftly sour. In this case, we have a modern-day Romeo and Juliet starting out under the most positive and hopeful circumstances, only to see it all decay into something which quickly turns into irrational chaos, fear, and eventual, possible doom.
One of the great things about this low-budget, but still great movie, is that the possibility of eventual doom isn't really answered until the very end of the film. In fact, from beginning to end, this is one movie which keeps you, and even the characters, guessing about the outcome, until the finish. A finish which refers back to the very start of the film, and eventually posits that events and circumstances beyond our usually egoistic fantasy of control of our own lives and fates, most probably still lays within the actions of others and other things, in nature and evolution. And within the fact that we are just a small little insignificant part of this thing called "civil society," the powers of which to affect our lives can never be underestimated or under anticipated.
This is a great movie, though it is rather short (under 90 minutes), does have a few flaws now and then as to minor character developments and plot contrivances and circumstances which may seem implausible. Still, it all works beautifully because there is more than enough believability in the common nature of the characters and how it all unfolds during the bewitching pre-dawn hours in which most of it takes place. In a strange place called Los Angeles, and in one of that place's strangest places, the "Miracle Mile."
The acting here is first rate, top to bottom, the writing and direction superb, and the pacing, virtually in real time on the screen, is amazing. This is a film, if you have any social consciousness at all, which will grab you and stick with you in your afterthoughts, long after you see it. Repeated viewings, despite knowing the end, can be equally enlightening, which makes this a must-buy for anyone who sees this for the first time and loves it as much as I did when I first saw it, long ago and far away when I lived in the "Miracle Mile." For those with the bread to purchase favorite-film DVD's of course and for collectors of same.
Hopefully, with this review, I have been obtuse enough to interest others into at least checking this out without giving away too much about a movie which is pretty much unlike any other Hollywood film I've ever seen and which you've ever seen. This is a film which is hard to compare to others since it is so unique and deals with a subject which has rarely been dealt with past, present, and alas, future. It is filled with memorable moments, and is consistently excellent throughout. And all props to the unforgettable musical score, by the synth-heavy "Tangerine Dream," which adds so much to the final mix and essence here.
A fantastic film, even though the landmark 24/7 coffee shop "Johnies," and the May Company department store at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, have long since disappeared. Truth is however, this could've taken place just about anywhere in Anytown, USA, and it would still be just as great. The fact that it takes place where I spent so many years, makes it extra-special to me, but actually, even back in those days, the Miracle Mile always had this underlying strangeness to it. This film only amplifies that notion, but does so in a manner which makes it accessible to all. Without hesitation, highly recommended...
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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