ualtinova
I have never watched a good drama/crime movie. It was on my local television back then in my high school years and I watched it when I was 15. Now I watched it again after 12 years and yes, again: This is the best crime drama movie ever.This kind of friendship turns into a ruin! How can it happen. Oh, you better watch it if you are wondering.And lastly, I was about to cry when I saw that cockroach going to freedom in the end.10/10 Would watch, again.
The_Void
There was no shortage of 'cool' crime thrillers released on the success of Goodfellas in the nineties, and while I wouldn't say that this is one of the very best of them; it's certainly one of the better ones. Phoenix benefits from Scorsese's leading man Ray Liotta, who takes the lead role in this film as a gambling addicted copper. The plot focuses on crime as you would expect, but the gambling side of the plot is what really makes and sets it apart from most of the other nineties crime flicks. Ray Liotta is Harry Collins, a cop with a gambling addiction; and, like most gamblers, a money problem resulting from it. He owes money he doesn't have to his bookie, a man who calls himself "Chicago", and after being given a few days to pay; he soon realises that he's going to have to take steps to raise the money. This prompts him to set up a plan with his fellow coppers Mike, James and Fred to rip off local pimp and all round bad guy Louie. Naturally, the plan goes tits up and pretty soon all four of them are forced to pay the consequences...The film is never really brilliant (though in fairness, this sort of film doesn't usually turn me on all that much), but it manages to keep a fairly good pace going throughout and doesn't get boring. Ray Liotta has played this sort of role many times before and since, and as you would expect he is well at home with the leading role in this film. British director Danny Cannon (also director of rubbish such as Judge Dredd and I Know What You Did Last Summer) has recruited a decent cast of below a-list stars, which includes Anthony LaPaglia, Daniel Baldwin, Jeremy Piven and Xander Berkeley, as well as one of my favourite B-movie actresses, Kari Wuhrer. Anjelica Huston also appears, but is horribly miscast as Liotta's love interest. There's plenty of what most people will have come to expect from modern crime flicks; we have car chases, shootouts, sharp dialogue and all the rest of it. I'd have preferred the film if we'd have got a bit more of the gambling theme thrown in, but that's not too important as overall, this is a more than passable effort and I'm sure crime fans will enjoy it.
James Gawne
Having grown up in Phoenix, I was fairly surprised to find that there was a police drama that had been set and partially filmed there. I looked into it a little, and found out that it had a fairly good cast, too - Ray Liotta, Anthony LaPaglia, Jeremy Piven, Tom Noonan, Anjelica Huston, Brittany Murphy, Stephen Baldwin. Baldwin actually turns in a decent performance - not the standard for one of the Baldwin brothers. Liotta is great as a crooked cop, though not nearly as good as he is in "Narc." Piven does quite well as the naïve cuckolded cop. LaPaglia and Noonan's performances are probably the best of the film, though. Noonan turns in an even creepier performance here than he does in "Knockaround Guys", and LaPaglia's corrupt-beyond-all-belief Detective Henshaw is practically the polar opposite of the straightforward good guys he plays in movies like "So I Married An Axe Murderer" and "Empire Records". I paid six bucks to pick this up on DVD at a used record place in Santa Monica, and it was worth every dime. If you can rent it, see it on late night, or whatever, I would recommend doing so.
phoenixmetro187
Many films try to examine the corruption of the human character, but only a very few succeed. Phoenix is one of those few. Writer Eddie Richey truly understands emotion. It's not a hero vs villain gratuitous action flick like the god awful Matrix series. The story's conflict is produced by the protagonist himself. And Ray Liotta is amazing. James L. Carter's cinematography is beautiful and Graeme Revell's score is moving. Director Danny Cannon's resume is embarrassing, but it's redeemed by this masterpiece. Phoenix is the very essence of human drama.
AD
