Just so...so bad

Excellent but underrated film

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It's 1976. Married couple Grace (Helen Mirren) and Charlie Bontempo (Joe Pesci) own the Love Ranch outside of Reno. Irene (Gina Gershon), Mallory (Taryn Manning), Christina (Scout Taylor-Compton), Samantha (Bai Ling), and Alana (Elise Neal) are some of the girls working at the ranch. Charlie is unstable and recruits boxer Armando Bruza to train out on the ranch. His criminal background forces Grace to be Bruza's manager. He controls the local police and faces an effort to criminalize prostitution.This is a mess of stories. It can't be the actors because there are some great ones here. There is probably too many story elements going on. It's in the writing itself. It should concentrate on Mirren and Pesci. It should also get somebody bigger than Sergio Peris-Mencheta. The movie seems to struggle for an identity. It's a waste of great talents.

Boxer name, Bruza, no doubt is linked with almost mythical boxing manager Amílcar Brusa, who trained some good boxers, among them the big Carlos Monzon. Amilcar Brusa passed away a couple of weeks ago.HTTP://tinyurl.com/c7zdzbh The first fight in the movie I believe is inspired in one of the best fights I've even seen: Victor Galindez (the real and unique "Toro salvage De las Pampas) Vs. Richie Kates. It worth to be some scenes of the match, if you like boxing:HTTP://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SXXwnFhdKY I can't see the rest of the movie. Helen Mirren there along with Joe Pesci...I don't know. Also, the "Argentinian" way of the character...I guess they should be some Argentinian actor to work in the movie...

finally Joe pesci has come back to Hollywood. his last movie was lethal weapon 4 as i recall and we haven't seen him in a movie since. but he has come back for love ranch. . this movie i think is completely underrated. its box office material. Joe gives a great performance and steals every scene he is in and is the key performance in the movie. this movie is about a short tempered business man Charlie running a prostitute organization with his wife grace. being very controversial Charlie (Joe) decides to find a boxer to sponsor and make money off of. Sergio Peri's-mencheta plays the boxer. soon after gracefeels Charlie doesn't love her anymore, ignores her, and uses her. she then falls for Bruza and haves an affair with him. now in this movie at least in my opinion don't really feel that bad for grace. she is very depressed in her marriage but at the same time shes a character that you wouldn't like. she can be very stubborn. and Sergio's character is the one character that you feel sorry for. Charlie is a character that makes your emotions go wild. sometimes you like him and sometimes you don't. but Joe makes every character he plays likable. at least to me. so the whole movie i was rooting for Charlie. even when he had his anger moments. this is a well acted, interesting story, highly entertaining straight to DVD movie. I'm happy to see that Joe is back in Hollywood and going back to mob films. he will be doing a mob film called the Irishman starring himself, AL pacino, and Robert deniro.directed by martin Scorsese. Joe pesci is also doing a movie called got ti the next generation also starring himself, AL pacino. also starring john travolta, Lindsay lohan, and Kelly Preston. directed by martin Scorsese. which i cant wait to see. back to this movie. you wont regret buying this. see it.

The film has two sags: One very early on in Act I and another late in Act II. In observing a small private audience that was viewing this film, they were all very much engaged in the drama and the action throughout, but they were nearly lost during the two sags. If it were not for those, the film might have attracted a larger audience.This is not the story of the Mustang Ranch, per se, but rather the story an ambiguous love triangle. (I am thoroughly aware of the Mustang Ranch story, and know Joe Conforte's attorney and best friend, Virgil Bucchanieri, quite well). For example, the film does not use the gimmick of trying to exaggerate the characters that inhabit the brothel, and resists the temptation of trying to replicate the exotica of the Star Wars bar scene.The real test for a film with this class of story arc is the degree to which we care about the characters mid-way through Act II. Do we care what happens to them in Act III? I and the other audience members all agreed that we did and we shed the expected tears in a tense moment between the dreamer, played by Joe Pesci, and the determined pragmatist, played by Helen Mirren, in the penultimate scene. None of the central or supporting roles were in any way "cardboard" characters.The production values were quite high and the number of technical errors were minimal (three errors with production sound that really should have been fixed in post plus a couple of continuity errors). Music was very subtle to the point of vanishing at times. There was no attempt at creating a photographic theme: it was all shot color-balanced at neutral without any exaggerated focus-pulls, odd camera framing or moves (but a lot of crane rentals were involved), Pro-mist filters, or too many magic hour shots. That is, the cinematography did not draw attention away from the drama.The film resolves unambiguously with a shock ending that is well worth waiting for. My final test of entertainment value is: "Are there any scenes in this film that I will remember and repeat in my mind's eye the next day?" I would say that there are such scenes, and I therefore give this picture a 7 out of 10.