City Hall | | Cast : | Al Pacino, John Cusack | | Director : | Harold Becker | | Studio : | Castle Rock | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, DTS Surround Sound, Widescreen | | Released Date : | February 16, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | February 03, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 30, 2005 | | Summary | Not as good as expected | Content
 | When I read the list of the actors in "City Hall" I expected a lot, but somehow the movie lacked something to make it lasting. It's not the acting and it's not the story, they are all ok, but they don't lift the movie to the level that most Pacino or Cusack movies have. For the real fans of these two the movie is worth watching, but it won't be remembered in the next decades I think.
The political side I think is also not a new story, even Pacino himself has played on more movies about the same theme, but in Serpico he was a lot better. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 09, 2005 | | Summary | THE OLD GRAY MAYOR | Content
| One can't deny that Al Pacino is an electrifying actor and he can make almost any movie better than it should have been. In CITY HALL, he suffers from the curse of too many writers spoiling the broth. The script is disjointed, at times contradictory, and the ending is a letdown in the lack of its intensity. Pacino is matched by a fine young actor, John Cusack, who plays the gungho idol worshipping deputy mayor. Bridget Fonda is lovely to look at, but her role is so underdeveloped, she could have been a male character and we wouldn't have noticed the difference. Danny Aiello is brilliant in his usual "mafia" role, but his talent enables him to instill a small sense of humaneness in his doomed role. Notice the great opera singer Roberta Peters in the small role of his wife. Anthony Franciosa, rarely seen in movies these days, plays the crime boss with a reserved intensity that makes him even more vitriolic. David Paymer is good, but his role isn't fleshed out enough to know his character. Martin Landau's judge is also almost a cameo, but Landau delivers. Much mention is made of the late great Jerry Goldsmith's score, which is so eclectic, it doesn't have much impact. The music at the end credits almost sounds like a western or war movie accompaniment.
CITY HALL is interesting, but ultimately its tale of political corruption is so derivative and predictable, it doesn't elevate the movie to the potential greatness it could have achieved. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 26, 2003 | | Summary | Al Pacino, John Cusack, and Danny Aiello are great! | Content
| This is one of the best crime-drama movies during the late 1990s. It was filled with a great cast, a huge storyline, and many of the players involved gave great performances. Pacino was great; he should have been nominated for something. John Cusack was good too, as long as the viewer doesn't mind his Louuu-siana accent. He may come off as annoying if you can't stand this dialect. The way that Pacino's character interacted with Cusack's character was believable, dramatic, and slightly comical at times. Danny Aiello was superb as always. David Paymer was great in a supporting role. Bridget Fonda was good but not memorable.
There were times when this picture mentioned so many characters, probably too many. It may take a second viewing to remember, "which Zapatti was which?" After so many cross-references, one has to stop and think just to recap.
The ending didn't have a lot of sting. It was built up for so long in a good way and then was a little bit of a letdown. This was one of the few letdowns in the film
I think that since the movie wasn't billed as a huge, blockbuster big screen hit, it made some forget that this movie even existed. Pacino was great but the film's lack of "splash" in the theaters may have accounted for no nominations. It was semi-successful in the home market, and viewers are still learing that this title is out there. Made in 1996, it still stands up seven years later and should still be popular for many years from now. So, make yourself some lemon pudding (you'll see) and rent this movie! Overall, a great picture.
4 ½ out of 5!!! |
| Rating | | | Date | April 27, 2003 | | Summary | Practice Run | Content
| Composer Jerry Goldsmiith's score for the drama City Hall is a real letdown. It sounds a lot like the music he would use later for LA Confidential. Sure, there are a few subtle differences here and there, but for the most part, the scores are too similar for my tastes. I am not used to Goldsmith doing this all that much. Even the stuff of his that isn't quite as good, usaully has some originality to it. The music for City Hall must have been a warm up for the latter film I mentioned. Most of the City Hall soundtrack spends its limited running time just reworking the main title-this tactic is not uncommon in a majority of film music-to use a certain amount of repetition-it's just usually not done this much for a single film. Horns, piano, and the drum are pretty much it. The CD has 12 tracks and a running time of 30:14. My recommendation would be be to skip this, and seek out the the 2 soundtrack albums for LA Confidential, instead. At least the score sounds a bit more developed and there's a bit more musical variety |
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