I love Marty and all, but as I'm watching this right now, the 50 minutes that I've watched feel like ages..it seems like it's going on for ever without much interesting happening. Is this supposed to be a character study ? Cause so far there's no plot that I can spot...
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way to condescend someone without knowing anything about their tastes. I like The Departed and Shutter Island as much as the general audience, but I also like slow-paced, art housey films and have watched dozens of them. What I don't like is when it relies all on the end to make sense as you say it will. And why does it bother you that I posted in the middle of watching it? Care about something worthy of your time.
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That's right, Mean Streets isn't for me. It's for film snobs like you who get their panties in a bunch because somebody didn't like it. Oh, yeah - wrong about your hypothesis on what I was doing in the first half. I was watching it with my full attention trying to grasp what all this directionless *beep* I was watching on screen was all about. I guess I forgot to light a joint - I mean, CHANCES ARE, that's probably what you do when you watch "art housey" films. Go %^&k yourself snob
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you are a snob, dude...i liked mean streets and i also like inception...so what? i do not like hollywood fluff, and if you are implying that inception is, then you clearly are just trying to act like some sort of person of intelligence, but you are really just a pretentious/pseudo-intellect, douche bag..i bet you hate goodfellas too, right?..i would put my film collection up against yours anyday..
so far we know you like mean streets (and you think that makes you better than other people for some reason), now lets here some other films you like so we can all bash you and put you down..
Seriously. I hate douchbags who think that only one kind of movie can be good and anything with any kind of special effects is automatically mindless Hollywood trash.
I can appreciate Avatar, The Departed, Win-Win, Dog Day Afternoon, Goodfellas, Terminator 2, Inception, Wall-E, Rear Window, The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather II, The Pride of the Yankees, Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest all equally because they are all wonderful films.
I can also find "Mean Streets" to be boring and without any real value as entertainment. Compared to other similar films from the same era (Godfather I and II, Dog Day Afternoon, The Conversation) the only thing going for it is the soundtrack. Scorcese certainly made better films about criminals in The Departed and Goodfellas. Both are far more watchable, have more compelling storylines and the acting in all three is excellent because Scorcese is an Actor's director.
I found myself bored out of my mind while watching Mean Streets even though I REALLY wanted to like it. I am a Scorcese fan, a Keitel fan, and I like a lot of the other people involved, but it just didn't do it for me.
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Agreed. ANYBODY who can go fifty minutes into "Mean Streets," and consider it a "snoozefest," is much better served with something like "Heat." They have attention deficit disorder, or something!! They gotta' be constantly surrounded by explosions, shoot-outs and mayhem!! Story, exposition and character development? Ain't THEIR speed. The soundtrack, itself, sold me!!!
"Mean Streets" is a little GEM of a movie!!! I just bought a copy for my new girlfriend. She LOVES "Goodfellas" and "Casino." I told her about "Mean Streets," and she NEVER heard of it!!! I wish I were her: Seeing it for the FIRST TIME, again, I mean!
"You can't HANDLE the truth!" Jack Nicholson, "A Few Good Men."
Heat happens to be a masterpiece!! and I bet your new girlfriend would love it.
shareOK, let's all be honest here - no need to hide the truth.
The first poster clearly has no maturity or intellect to enjoy a film like this. Hell, he/she doesn't even know how to watch a film (stopping halfway through to bash it on the internet? Gimme a break).
MEAN STREETS is not for you, as is this board. Keep away. And, good Lord, if you want an arthouse film to tear apart, go watch LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD or INLAND MEPIRE. MEAN STREETS is only "art house" to those who only watch Hollywood blockbusters.
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http://mulhollandcinelog.wordpress.com/
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Aren't Megan Fox and Zach Efron going to star in the remake of LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD? I hear there will be a CGI volcano eruption that will destroy the chateau.
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Oh yeah, that's right. Because stopping online to "bash" - as you seem to feed your own words into my mouth - a film is really relevant to the conversation. Stop nitpicking apart the unimportant things.
And you assuming things about me that I have no "maturity" and "intellect" REALLY must make you feel better about yourself doesn't it, when you especially base that whole assumption on me posting about a film while I was watching it. Pat yourself on the back for that one.
You too barryfleckmann. Perhaps you and Gus can discuss your love for Mean Streets and your hatred for those who disliked it, in a corner in some bar when you have nothing better to do.
And for the record. Heat was a much better written film, contained great depth, great characters I could actually connect with or like, better paced, even a LOT longer, interesting and overall a MILLION times better than Mean Streets. And it only contained one explosion. So you're saying Heat doesn't have great "story, exposition, and character development" - well that certainly says a lot about you.
But hey, that's just my OPINION
Both great, but Heat is better.
shareThis is more of an arthouse sort of gangster flick.
it appeals to a certain type of audience and doesn't really conform to the traditional formulae.
It took me a couple of viewings to really appreciate it.
I thought it was dull and overrated when I first saw it years ago. I watched it against recently and liked it a lot more.
I fell asleep halfway through your post.
You should have had Scorsese write it....it would have been much more engaging.
I think it was a good film. Not a masterpiece, but a quality film nonetheless. It's not for people who like films like Transformers. It has a meaning, a message; it's not a stupid action film.
shareYes, i think it was very disappointing, considering Martin Scorsese directed. I think Goodfellas is much better. I find this film boring, uninteresting and had terrible music. I will soon give this film away.
shareThere's a bunch of different scenarios that happen in this film and even though many of them don't even connect to each other in a typical direct way I still found it enjoyable. It was fascinating to see in a raw perspective, what life was first-hand for this mob guys. The 'mook' scene is funny as hell and that random bathroom shooting was crazy and even though those events have nothing to do with whatever the main plot is, it was interesting just watching them and seeing what life was like for these guys. I think the sloppiness of the various elements of the film only added to how real it seemed instead of detracting you from it's experience.
It's also interesting seeing the early Scorsese film elements at work here (the old school music, continuity errors etc) before they would become refined in his later works.
It's for people with an attention span longer than a 5 year old's. Honest-to-Bob so many of IMDB's "it's boooring" whines are by people who are just stupid.
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I watched this film some years ago only because it was so lauded by critics.
The truth is I understand what the OP means, it was hard work.
Its that man again!!
With no disrespect to others, I never understood why so many people called this film boring. Since I was 14, I've never forgotten this movie and I still consider it one of the best movies ever made.
shareMean Streets IS a very boring movie, with a very great performance from De Niro.
The people that enjoy it obviously don't care that it's pretty boring and enjoy other things about it. When you're talking raw entertainment, this movie doesn't stand a chance against other Scorsese films such as Raging Bull, Casino, and The Departed.
"Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them." - Albert Einstein
Again, with no disrespect, but that's just your opinion. In no way I consider this a boring film. Maybe this is not everyone's cup of tea, but when there's music like that, acting like that, camerawork like that... I couldn't ask for anything more.
Maybe there isn't much story, but I really enjoy character studies.
You should give it another try sometime.
Yeah, I'm afraid Rapture, that The Departed is infinitely more boring for me than Mean Streets. By no means was The Departed a bad film, it's very well made and I enjoyed it, but compared to Mean Streets it is an excercise in slick emptiness, whereas every frame of Mean Streets is full of raw character. And I have never been more excited about the possibilities of cinema than I was the first time I saw the sequence in which Johnny Boy walks into the bar to Jumpin Jack Flash.
"Reality is the new fiction they say, truth is truer these days, truth is man-made"
Great analogy between The Departed and Mean Streets, I feel the same way. I can understand why people find this boring because it doesn't really have a central plot and that can be very disinteresting. On the other hand, the characters are so interesting that I don't mind. Kietel and Deniro were excellent in this and the scene where he's walking in the bar to the JJF does get my blood pumping, but that's just me.
II Timothy 2:15