Phoenix (1998)
Genre: Crime / Drama
Duration: 107 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Danny Cannon
Stars: Ray Liotta, Anthony LaPaglia and Daniel Baldwin
IMDb score:
6,3 (4.742)
Releasedate: 4 September 1998
Phoenix plot
"In this town, the heat can kill you."
He's a good cop, but he can't help but gamble, even if he's not a winner. His less honest colleagues even earn extra money from the only man he doesn't have a loan with. However, if he does not pay his largest creditor, he will have to dance to his tune, and he will now have to make important choices.
Actors and actresses
Harry Collins
Mike Henshaw
Leila
James Nutter
Fred Shuster
Lt. Clyde Webber
Louie
Veronica
Katie Shuster
Joey Schneider
Reviews & comments
james_cameron
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- 7222 messages
- 9951 votes
Underrated and unfairly forgotten crime thriller by director Danny Cannon, who would hit the jackpot a few years later with producing CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Corruption, murder and manslaughter within an American police department; Not all original, but stylishly and convincingly portrayed and with an excellent cast. Ray Liotta is at his best here in the lead role and delivers one of his most sympathetic roles ever. The supporting cast, including Giovanni Ribisi in a small role, is also excellent. The influence of Tarantino is clearly visible, many films from the late 90s suffer from this, but nowhere is this really disturbing. The main complaint concerns the transfer to DVD. The film is only available in 4:3 format and looks very ugly. A shame!
Translated from Dutch · View original
scorsese
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- 13498 messages
- 11312 votes
Reasonable film about a corrupt cop who gets into trouble because of his gambling addiction. Not exactly an original story and there are also too many side plots. A great atmosphere that is largely determined by the location (Arizona). A cast with quite a few well-known names with Ray Liotta doing what he does best.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Lovelyboy
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- 4097 messages
- 3069 votes
The well-known selection from the moving box with the cross trainer moment. Normally not a movie I would watch or buy, but oh well, it wasn't that bad.
The story may be clear about cop Harry, who is not the worst, even shows fits of goodness, but has a tremendous weakness, especially in gambling. And as befits the average gambler, when there is adversity, you have to fill one hole with another, whereupon the jumps become crazier and the problems bigger. Nothing special, quite cliché even and actually not very special in that respect.
But Phoenix can certainly count on a fine cast with Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Anthony LaPaglia, Rutger Hauer and Tom Noonan plus two very beautiful ladies in the form of Kari 'Agent Tanya' Wuhrer and Brittany Murphy, who died far too young. The film is entertaining during the moments where the four agents are together in the form of Harry, James, Fred and Mike and a certain tough guy chemistry is created with bad jokes and humor. Liotta in particular is a special cast as a good guy, while LaPaglia makes a strong impression as alpha male villain Mike.
But in the end it doesn't really result in anything special despite the attempts to create a Tarantino or Guy Ritchie-like atmosphere, because the story is too transparent, even on the messy side towards the end, there are few highlights and it's not bad but also far from impressive. The result is a sufficient grade but no more than that.
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