1990 Directed by Brian De Palma
After his mistress runs over a black teen, a Wall Street hotshot sees his life unravel in the spotlight; A down-and-out reporter breaks the story and opportunists clamber to use it to their advantage.
Tom Hanks Bruce Willis Melanie Griffith Kim Cattrall Saul Rubinek Morgan Freeman John Hancock Kevin Dunn Clifton James Louis Giambalvo Barton Heyman Norman Parker Donald Moffat Alan King Beth Broderick Kurt Fuller Adam LeFevre Richard Libertini Andre Gregory Mary Alice Robert Stephens Marjorie Monaghan Rita Wilson Kirsten Dunst Troy Winbush Patrick Malone Emmanuel Xuereb Scotty Bloch Hansford Rowe Show All…
Bonfire of the Vanities, 夜都迷情
Has there ever been a big movie more poorly cast than this one? Almost every key role is played by someone who is completely wrong for their part. All the flashy De Palma camerawork in the world — and there’s a lot of it — can’t solve that problem.
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Having heard so many negative things about these films, many calling it the worst film ever screened, an embarrassment, the worst of the worst, a film that should shame everyone involved, a disaster, and yada, yada, yada, yada..... This wasn't all that bad.
I mean, as someone who has been vocal about wanting to see Tom Hanks play more wicked and morally flawed characters, this was a dream come true. He plays a sleazy, horrible character who is difficult to cheer for during the film's trials. He's over-the-top, as is practically everyone else in this picture, whose personalities are just as awful. Also,…
I'm a sucker for Bruce Willis in David Addison mode, and there's plenty of De Palma-ism here to keep this mostly fun, but by his own admission softening McCoy amd making this material much more of a broad farce is a total mistake.
The big courtroom finale of this has to be one of the most embarrassing, misguided, shitheaded sequences ever produced for a Hollywood movie. Feels like an artifact from some terrible parallel universe where Brian De Palma made truly offensive respectable entertainment like this rather than the gory thrillers and horror movies that we have the luxury of being offended by instead.
"and there it was…a simple wrong turn."
And here it is…the Heaven’s Gate of the ‘90s.
Well, except for the fact that Heaven’s Gate was actually a decent movie, that was wrongfully accused.
As for Hanks, well….It’s always darkest right before the dawn. He’s definitely not the problem with this film, but unfortunately it marks the low point of his career. The good news is that his Golden Hot Streak is just about to begin…
And for the record. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but outside of a few good films, I think De Palma is massively over-rated and this film stands as my 'Exhibit A’
For supporting evidence, please refer to 'Exhibits B & C’: The Black Dahlia and Mission to Mars.
"We want to know how you plead to the charges."
“…umm...I’m sorry"
The Vanities were all burning,
Back when Tom Hanks was learning,
Which parts to take,
For his big break,
Towards the Oscars his career would be churning.
This sits right alongside An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn in the small canon of Legendary Hollywood Fiascos That Might Be Unreclaimable. I have no contrarian take. Abrasive, heavy-handed and thuddingly unfunny from beginning to end. Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis are catastrophically miscast. Tom Wolfe's career was proof that you could be openly racist in the '80s as long as you lived in Manhattan and said "I'm not racist."
The Bonfire of the Vanities tells an interesting story with important themes, but executes it poorly. I haven't read the book it was based on, but I imagine it is a lot better than the film. The story focuses on a hot shot Wall Street banker who makes a couple of bad decisions that leads to his life falling apart. It becomes obvious where it's all going and how the peices fit together really early, but it takes such a long time to get there. Most of the surprises are saved up for the final third, which makes the rest of it a bit of a slog to get through. The tone is all over the place - bouncing around…
