Kansas CIty
Added 9/14/2009
This movie proceeds at a pace similar to that of a sultry summer day in Kansas City, slow and meandering. A woman's husband falls in with oganized crime and to get him back she kidnaps the wife of a politician. The problem is she can't seem to plan beyond the next five minutes. She really should have thanked the gangsters for taking her husband then used the opportunity to get a real life, but she fashions herself and him as Bonnie and Clyde wannabes.
The movie uses Kansas City blues music to transition from scene to scene, which is very well played, but adds little but annoyance to the progress of the film. The characters meander through scenes without much emotion leading the viewer to wish the whole film could be fast forwarded to the next scene.
The setting is the Great Depression, but other than the motly crew of voters brought in to rig a local election, no one seems to be suffering from economic distress. All of the cars appear to be brand new and the buildings are neat and tidy. No signs of poverty are anywhere to be seen. In the end the husband and wife get their just rewards and the film comes to a merciful close. The viewer is left asking what was the point of this whole thing?
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Saxophone Players
Added 11/5/2007
The music in this movie is great! Joshua Redman tears it up with his great old/new style of playing the saxophone!!
Doug Earley
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Don't waste your time
Added 8/31/2007
If you're looking for drama, suspense or anything approaching a real plot, look elsewhere. Not only is the ending predictable, but you'll have to wait through a very long and boring movie to see it. Atmosphere is about all you'll get. Depending on your opinion of jazz or what passes for it in this movie, you may be in for further disappointment. We rented it on line through U-Verse and I'm going to ask for a refund. Belafonte was the only one who was convincing and that's because he wasn't acting.
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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The Battle Of Kansas City Jazz Or The Deception Of Beauty
Added 12/30/2005
When one listens to the gorgeous music of Lester Young, Charlie Parker(I think he was "shown" in a scene as well) and Coleman Hawkins and William Count Basie,a jazz fan is left with a sense of wonder what must have gone down at KC in those days...Now we have a great depiction of the music and what life might have been like with great music revisited and performed by these "new giants of jazz" recreating the high swinging good time sense of euphoria sweeping those magical tunes..
Yet, at the same time, music lovers see the battle going on between the somewhat bluesier, aggressive playing of the giant Coleman Hawkins contrasted clearly with his major rival Lester Young, the more sweeter melancholy player..These 2 contrasting visions play-out throughout the entire movie not only as a backdrop as a soundtrack but a portrayal of the contradictory lives played by it's characters.
There is no difference between the Downtown KC of crime, brothels and booze(opium and cocaine as well) with it's underworld in contrast to the Americana of the Uptown KC with it's quaint Democratic lifestyle untouched by the jazz going down at the Hey-Hey Club...ultimately leading to murder from all sides.
This is a powerful message and why the movie scores big besides the wonderful music and the 2 Cd's spurned out which are equally impressive.
The moral equivalency of these 2 worlds makes this movie a great one.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Atmosphere and little else.
Added 9/19/2005
Even the mighty have their moments when they stumble and KANSAS CITY is one of those moments for maverick director Robert Altman. There's little more than atmosphere in this film; the period-recreation of 1935-ish Kansas City Missouri, the great jazz throughout every frame and a bravura performance by Harry Belefonte as a gambler/crime kingpin named "Seldom Seen" don't mask the fact that the plot's thinner than newspaper and that every other actor save Belefonte is chewing the scenery and burping after every chew. On the surface, this movie's approach isn't much different from Altman's others--there's constant activity, so much that it's initially disorienting to try and figure out all of the threads of the story, but in many of his films (NASHVILLE, MASH and GOSFORD PARK, for instance), those threads gradually come together into a whole. It never happens in KANSAS CITY. The threads stay threads and you're left with a jumble, albiet a jumble with a great score.
3 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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Kansas CIty
Added 9/14/2009
This movie proceeds at a pace similar to that of a sultry summer day in Kansas City, slow and meandering. A woman's husband falls in with oganized crime and to get him back she kidnaps the wife of a politician. The problem is she can't seem to plan beyond the next five minutes. She really should have thanked the gangsters for taking her husband then used the opportunity to get a real life, but she fashions herself and him as Bonnie and Clyde wannabes.
The movie uses Kansas City blues music to transition from scene to scene, which is very well played, but adds little but annoyance to the progress of the film. The characters meander through scenes without much emotion leading the viewer to wish the whole film could be fast forwarded to the next scene.
The setting is the Great Depression, but other than the motly crew of voters brought in to rig a local election, no one seems to be suffering from economic distress. All of the cars appear to be brand new and the buildings are neat and tidy. No signs of poverty are anywhere to be seen. In the end the husband and wife get their just rewards and the film comes to a merciful close. The viewer is left asking what was the point of this whole thing?
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Saxophone Players
Added 11/5/2007
The music in this movie is great! Joshua Redman tears it up with his great old/new style of playing the saxophone!!
Doug Earley
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Don't waste your time
Added 8/31/2007
If you're looking for drama, suspense or anything approaching a real plot, look elsewhere. Not only is the ending predictable, but you'll have to wait through a very long and boring movie to see it. Atmosphere is about all you'll get. Depending on your opinion of jazz or what passes for it in this movie, you may be in for further disappointment. We rented it on line through U-Verse and I'm going to ask for a refund. Belafonte was the only one who was convincing and that's because he wasn't acting.
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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