Hell's Kitchen (1999)

Waste of time

Masterful Movie

Fresh and Exciting

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

When a robbery goes awry, the bandits all end up in a puddle of blood and only one lives and goes to jail for five years. Upon his release, the girlfriend wants her new boyfriend to kill him. Only trouble is the boyfriend knows that the fault was not the ex-con's and can't bring himself to do the town. Meanwhile, the ex-con tries to turn his life around by becoming a boxer and training under a former heavyweight contender. A moving and inspiring drama that benefits from Angelina Jolie's terrific acting skills but also Mekhi Phifer who is amazing as the boxer who tries to built his life once again, Hell's Kitchen is a great film with great messages about life and learning to forgive the past and move on. (8/10)

I've seen this movie a number of times. Maybe because I'm a huge Angelina Jolie fan, maybe because I relate to a number of elements in the film. The cast is comprised of considerable talent and I can understand how in many of the scenes there appears to be "over-acting" performances. But, having spent and worked with the typical characters portrayed in this film, I can say that the seemingly exaggerated emotional displays are appropriate. Understanding these characters, their circumstances, their self destructive paths and social limitations, these actors capture their characters in their true form. Real life and real people seldom come in neat little packages.

I, along with a large chunk of the male population of this world, believe that Angelina Jolie is one of the most beautiful creatures on this green Earth (or quite brown in some drought ridden places such as our backyard) and have since become a fan of her movies. One night in a family video renting, I walked up the aisles of the video store trying to find something that grabbed my attention. In the Thriller section, I found many copies of this movie, and I question the judgement of the staff, as this is quite clearly a drama, and a pretty good one. Fortunately, I did not rent it out that night, as my Father would have had kittens if he let me watch this (for the record, I personally think I should have waited until I was a bit older), so I waited until he wasn't the one paying for it, and I got it then. Mekhi Phifer plays Jonny, a man who was involved in a robbery that went wrong, and as a result, an accomplice, Hayden is killed. Gloria (played -as usual- superbly by Angelina Jolie) was Hayden's sister, and confronts Jonny five years later after he gets out of jail, blaming him for the death of her brother. She asks her boyfriend, Patty, to kill Jonny, but for reasons that I shall not reveal, Patty knows that Jonny did not kill Hayden. Jonny settles back into Hell's Kitchen and trains to be a heavyweight champion. Some of the scenes are a bit too long, some are a bit disturbing, some are a bit weird, and some of them have all these things mixed together. But on the whole a good movie, but not one made for younger audiences. 8/10p.s. I might not be a good judge of the pacing of this movie, because when I watched it, we had younger visitors, and they weren't allowed to watch it, so I had to keep stopping and starting it, which is a shocking way to watch a movie.

This movie is a good reflection on what the lives of interesting people could be. Being a fan of Angelina Jolie, I loved her role. I would suggest this movie to anyone that is interested in NYC, or Angelina Jolie's movies. I have also liked the rest of the cast in their other movies, as well. So the cast adds wonderfully to the movie, or maybe they Are the movie... I have not found this movie very many places to rent, and even though it is a new movie, it is out-of-print. If you are interested in renting this movie, I found it at Blockbuster, so check it out if there is one near you. I also purchased mine on an auction.