Movies I Watched in January, Part 3

And here, with February almost over, is the final installment of the January Recap. Timely as always!


Mamet month (which, I assure you, somehow happened largely by accident), continues with this great little crime movie that features a wonderfully twisty plot and peppy performances from Gene Hackman, Delroy Lindo, Sam Rockwell and Danny DeVito. I don't know if it has any deep meaning, but it's sure fun in a nasty way, and Mamet's dialogue is typically top-notch. The line that gets quoted a lot is DeVito's "Everybody needs money -- that's why they call it money!," but my favorite comes a little later, when DeVito asks Hackman "Don't you want to hear my last words?" and Hackman coldly responds "I just did." It's that sort of a movie.


And finally, Mamet month winds up with the movie that put him on the map (as a writer/director, at least). Less violent than "Heist" and less serious than "Homicide," it set up the template for Mamet movies where each con is hiding another con, and that one's hiding another con. (See also "Heist" and "The Spanish Prisoner.") That formula is reliably fun, at least in Mamet's hands, but it was fun and fresh here, and Joe Mantegna became a bonafide star playing cool-as-ice Mike, the conman you root for no matter how much time he spends stealing money from innocent people. Lindsay Crouse (at that time Ms. Mamet, I believe) delivers a solid performance as a very tightly wound psychologist, but you can't help but prefer Mantegna and his jolly crew of con artists (including Ricky Jay). "House of Games" is such a well-made, entertaining movie that it actually rewards repeat viewings, even when you know the twists that lie ahead. Keep an eye out for the late, great J.T. Walsh and a small (and very early) performance by William H. Macy.

I remember this movie getting a lot of buzz back when it was released in 1981 (and when I was a tad too young to see it) as a shocking look at how crime ridden New York City was. I'm sure the Bronx was in rough shape back then (hell, NYC was in pretty rough shape in 1987, when I spent a college weekend there), but the movie itself looks pretty bland and by-the-numbers after watching dozens of cop movies and season after season of shows like "NYPD Blue," "Hill Street Blues" and "The Wire" (which I realize wasn't set in New York, but you get the idea). There are some moments meant to make us gasp, like when a bad cop tosses an innocent teen off a roof, but mostly the movie is too meandering and episodic to generate any real tension. Paul Newman is charming, as always, and Ed Asner brings a touch of Lou Grant to his role as a crusty captain, but the movie never really clicks. Pam Grier has an odd supporting role as a hooker killing cops, but after seeing her in "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown," you wish she'd been given a little more to do. Still, as an artifact of an era, it's worth a look.