VividSimon Simply Perfect

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Matthew Stechel Movie NEEDS to be on DVD stat.This movie is wonderful...wonderful and severely underrated.Its beautifully filmed, beautifully acted, beautifully edited, beautifully photographed, beautifully scored via Mark Isham. This film is the best example i can ever give anyone when talking about film as art.I cannot believe how underrated it is--not only as a forgotten film from the early 90's but just how forgotten it is as a film starring Joe Pesci. Just today i was in a Staples and i found a DVD set that contained both The Super and With Honors--and while both of those are just dandy if you like Pesci--i just can't for the life of me understand how both of those are widely available and this jewel is somehow lost. C'Mon Universal--I know you're not the best at getting your back catalog to DVD but this should be a no brainer--its from the 90's for god's sakes. How is something like Splitting Heirs or Pure Luck available from your backlog and this isn't?!?!?!? If you need a synopsis--Pesci is a very omnipresent shutter bug--he prowls the night taking with his camera and his police scanner frequently crashing crime scenes just to be the first one to get a photograph of the leftover carnage. He lives through his camera if you will. He's forever dreaming of getting a coffee table book published of his crime scene photos--and one day he gets a phone call from night club owner (and very high on the social ladder) Barbra Hershey who wants Pesci to investigate the shady circumstances of her dead husband, etc, etc. The plot is pure noir of course---i hate to say given how much i love it, but the plot is actually kind of irrelevant---the whole point of this gorgeous movie is just to bask in the wonderful atmosphere the movie provides. I mean the plot is fine--Pesci soon finds himself over his head in corruption, and feuding gangsters, and etc--and there are a lot of wonderful moments throughout that come from Pesci's character reacting to the latest obstacles that the film's plot is throwing in his path--(LOVE that one quick scene of him squirming on the floor while the gangster interrogating him is calling him a cockroach and Pesci lifts his fingers to simulate a cockroach....there are just too many quick visual scenes like that throughout.) but again the whole beauty of the movie is just the wonderful wonderful atmosphere.This is a film where truly everything comes together just perfectly to form a glorious movie experience. (i know that sounds dumb to say--but its truly one of the best films i can recommend to anyone interested in just observing how a film can function as both a movie and as art.) It helps of course if you're a fan of black and white photography and classic film noir--but you don't really have to be to just sit back and enjoy this one either. (The end shootout in particular is so beautifully shot---and so stylistically original--I can't for the life of me think of one other film that has even tried to rip it off over the years.) Howard Franklin (who directed this as well as my own personal favorite film Bill Murray's Quick Change) sadly never got to make another serious film along the lines of this one--and that i think is a real shame because judging just from this one film--he could've been one of the best today instead of just a one off director. (I'm sure it didn't help that this prob cost Universal a pretty penny to make and only eked out about 3 mil in total--and i remember being in 5th grade when this came out--this had a pretty substantial campaign behind it because i clearly remember seeing the ads for it when it came out, so right there i know universal must've been expecting something to happen from this) I can't implore all of you hard enough to check this one out--even if it means watching it on a plain olé' VHS tape (altho i believe there are torrents of it available to download) Good Lord if there's one movie--if there's ONE film that i wish would see the light of DVD right now it would be this one.This Thing Never Shuts Off. You Can't Shut It Off.Throw In The Hat. People Love To See The Dead Guy's Hat.God I Love This Movie!

lastliberal I am so used to seeing Joe Pesci as a mobster (Goodfellas, Casino, Once Upon a Time in America) that I never imagined him in any other role. Well, he certainly surprised me in this noir film as a photographer who took great pride in his work and never let his feeling get in the way - until this one time, and it almost cost him his life.Pesci was outstanding as the lonely photographer who imagined he could have a relationship with the gorgeous Barbara Hershey (The Portrait of a Lady, A World Apart, The Last Temptation of Christ). He trusted and had his heart ripped out. Isn't that usually the case! This is not a great film (written & directed by Howard Franklin), but it was entertaining to see another side of Pesci. Great work also by Stanley Tucci.

eolas_pellor Joe Pesci plays the role of Leon "The Great Bernzini" Bernstein with accomplishment, as a kind of grubby, middle-aged everyman. Barbara Hershey, 44 when she made this movie, makes the screen sizzle by her mere presence as Kay Levitz. Pesci probably should have gotten an Oscar nomination for this performance, which is understated, sincere, and totally convincing. Some of the bit actors turn in good, solid performances with only a line or two.The movie itself is heavy handed in spots, but director Franklin has written a number of movies and has a good ear for dialog. The mood of the piece is beautifully created and handled; camera work, lighting and music creating a real experience. The use of black and white sequences and inter-cutting of still photography is wonderfully handled. Maybe only a photographer can really appreciate the way Bernzini looks at the world as a photograph waiting to happen. People who are not willing to surrender to the experience of a movie will have less of a reaction to it.The story is classic film noir, and more remarkable for being based on true events; blending together the great photographer Weegee (many of his photographs are actually used in the movie) and a gas-coupon scandal from the early days of American involvement in WWII. But, having said that, one misses the haunting quality this film conveys.

sg60 I first saw The Public Eye about ten years ago knowing nothing about it in advance. This movie has really stayed with me over the years. It's very rich in atmosphere and I really bought into the characters. The whole cast was strong and the writing was very good. I read one review that complained that the romance wasn't believable. On the surface that might be understandable but the quality of the acting and the writing completely erased the issue for me. The 1940's setting was portrayed very effectively and the music added so much to the story. The scene with Kay Levitz going through Bernzini's photo album was very moving and captured the whole story in a nutshell for me. I strongly recommend this forgotten gem.