Lawbolisted Powerful

SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

videorama-759-859391 Though this movie isn't earth shattering, it's rather memorable, where we two great actors strut their stuff. I remember seeing this 30 years ago, where it made more of an impression on me back then. It's the luckless characters that make it work, Lancaster in particular of course, seamless, as a small time hood, who runs a lucrative numbers racket, who dreams of much greater success, and notoriety, being matched with those famous hoods, where at times, you wonder if truths are lies. He also makes money, looking after and servicing a bed ridden, old, and once beautiful starlet, showgirl (the unforgettable Kate Reid). The movie starts off wonderfully where an enterprising, yet ill fortunate, training croupier, Sarandon, is baring some of herself, you might say (slicing lemon have never been sexier). She's the apple of Lancaster's eye, where the two meet merely at Lancaster's welcome fortune and blessing, after her former loser/scumbucket hubby, a younger and different looking Robert Joy (the deformed looking guy in Land Of The Dead, and Hills Have Eyes remake) buys the farm. AC is memorable like I said, but isn't something really special, where if looking at in another way, it is. However it's entertaining and rewarding, thanks to the great cast, Joy, another memorable standout, Reid, the biggest, while the always ever smiling Al Waxman, was a likable card playing hood (he was the pudgy detective in Class Of 1984) and only appears briefly here in a couple of scenes. The movie is also memorable for the great photography and use of locations, where to me, Atlantic City is like a Miami Dive, where 20 to 30 years, before the point of the story, it would of been something different. But the most memorable scene here, was that one shot of that big casino building, crumbling down, and reduced to nothing more than rubble. Also, that unforgettable line with Lancaster and Sarandon check into that hotel, near ending, both you'll see in the preview to this. The title song is those that will ring in your head too. Catch that in the preview as well.

dougdoepke Plot—A small-time numbers runner in Atlantic City eyes his cute young neighbor, at the same time he tends to the needs of a bed-ridden older woman. Then he steals a cache of powdered drugs that the neighbor is taking care of for her brother who has stolen them from the mob. The money now acts as a catalyst in bringing forth the dreams of the three as they interact.I'd like to suggest a main theme that ties together much of the movie's lengthy narrative. Everybody's got dreams in this character driven Louis Malle film. What stood out for me is how morally compromised the main characters are. Still, we can't help liking them despite their flaws. True, Lancaster's small-time numbers runner (Lou) is generous with his money. But consider that all that dough comes from stolen drugs he's resold to a supplier. Thus, one man's generosity comes from the addictive misery of others. Then too, he's not above popping two hoods as they try to get their money back. More significantly, killing them finally confirms that he's a real hood and not just a bragging story-teller. Thus his big dream of being a real killer is fulfilled as his gushing reactions show. Then too, sneakily fulfilling Sally's dream at the end may be a kind of redemption for his own lifetime of guilty pleasures. At the same time, waitress Sally (Sarandon) steals money from Lou despite their romantic over-nighters. And that's after he's offered her a glorious life for them in sunny Florida. But, behind that charming smile lies an unrelenting brain, as she drives on toward her card- dealing dream in ritzy Monaco. Perhaps tellingly, we're not shown her upshot, unlike what happens to Lou. Then there's the bed-ridden Grace (Reid). Her dream may well be regaining mobility instead of just lying in bed complaining and imposing on Lou for her daily needs. With that dream fulfilled thanks to Lou's new-found and non-mercenary commitment, she finds reason to walk.Perhaps this is what underlies that final dignified shot of Lou and Grace walking together along a rebuilding Atlantic City whose own yearnings are underway. That last shot is a portrait of dreams-- maybe not well understood or morally deserved-- but at last fulfilled. Thus an unusually thoughtful 100-minutes is topped off.

blanche-2 Louis Malle created a poetic "Atlantic City," released in 1980 and starring Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon, and Kate Reid. Lancaster plays Lou, a small-time mobster from the old days of Atlantic City. He is handsome, dresses very grandly, and pretends that he used to be in the big-time. Actually he worked in some menial job for a mobster and now takes care of his widow Grace (Kate Reid) who appears bedridden at first. He takes care of her dog, makes her food, rubs her limbs to increase circulation, and occasionally sleeps with her. She's verbally abusive to him. Grace came to Atlantic City in the '40s as a contestant in a Betty Grable lookalike contest, met her future husband, and never left.Lou meets a young waitress and would-be croupier, Sally, and their lives soon collide. He's attracted to her. Sally's sister has run off with Sally's husband, and the two show up to stay with her. Her sister is pregnant. Sally's husband Dave is there to do a drug deal; he meets Lou and stores the cocaine in Lou's apartment. People are after him, so he sends Lou to someone's apartment on a delivery, and Lou is to pick up the money. When Lou arrives home after the errand, Dave is dead. The thugs didn't get their dope, so eventually they turn to Sally. In fact, Lou has the dope and also the money from the first delivery. And he plans on taking up where Dave left off.This is such a well-done film, hearkening back to the old days of Atlantic City just as the city is being rebuilt as a eastern Las Vegas. Lou is part of the old days; Sally is ambitious and wants to better herself. Lou, never anybody, now longs to be somebody for her.The acting is wonderful. Burt Lancaster is magnificent as Lou, an old man who still has young dreams. It's a very subtle performance, very touching and sometimes funny. Susan Sarandon does a great job as Sally, creating a totally believable character.John Guare has written a great script, the first important component of a film, and it was in the hands of a master, Louis Malle. The film was made in Canada, and I recognized many Canadian actors, but the location shots are excellent.Highly recommended, a sublime experience.

HelloTexas11 'Atlantic City' draws its two main characters so well, and they are so well acted by Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon, that it is only at the end that we feel let down for caring about two people who frankly don't deserve it. There are points in this finely directed and well-written film where we think something wonderful (or tragic) will happen to them, that they've gotten a lucky break which will enable them to break free from their shallow dreams (or perhaps go down in flames), but in the end, they go right on living like they did before, albeit with a little more money. I daresay everyone on the planet has known someone like Sarandon's Sally, a young woman struggling to make it who's already been through a bad marriage and hard times and is trying to start over. She's pretty but not gorgeous, energetic; she's also foolish, a little crazy, and emotionally unstable to a degree. Sally is training to be a casino dealer, a career she almost blindly hopes will solve all her problems and maybe even allow her to live in France. She approaches the training with all the fervor of someone who's been talked into a pyramid scheme. But just below the almost manic surface, one can tell she is bound to burn out on the idea sooner or later. She never gets the chance though. Burt Lancaster is Lou Pascal, a former mobster (so he says) who hasn't been outside of Atlantic City in twenty-seven years, even though there is nothing for him there anymore, if in fact there ever really was. He is reduced to taking fifty-cent bets from people, mostly tenement dwellers in the poor black community. His companion of sorts is Grace, a woman about his age who, like him, lives in a past that frankly doesn't sound like it's much worth reliving. He waits on her, gets her groceries and does other errands for no particularly good reason other than he's been doing it so long, it's become a habit. They argue a lot but seem to feel genuine affection for each other. Atlantic City itself is shown in the early days of the casino boom, where there are two kinds of people: those like Sally who are going to work in the casinos, and those like Lou and Grace who are being pushed aside to make room for the glitzy gambling dens. The old run-down hotels are being torn down. Lou lives in a shabby room in one of them, as does Sally next door, though they don't know each at first. Lou finds himself unexpectedly making big money dealing cocaine (inadvertently courtesy of Sally's ex-husband) and begins playing the high-roller he always wanted to be, and pretends that he once was. But he really does have a heart, and he tries to help and 'protect' Sally. As a quirky slice-of-life, 'Atlantic City' hits almost all the right notes. But as a satisfying drama/character study, it leaves us hanging with an 'is that all there is?' kind of feeling. The thing about the ending isn't that it's such a huge downer, but that it is neither here nor there. We half-expect Lou to die trying to help Sally, or Sally to come to the realization she's been used and that learning French really isn't the answer. Instead, Sally steals most of the drug money from Lou and takes off down the road, none the wiser as far as can be told. And Lou goes back to Grace; the last shot is of them walking down the boardwalk, apparently content to be back where they started. It's more depressing than a genuinely depressing ending.