Save your money for something good and enjoyable

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

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I have never watched a good drama/crime movie. It was on my local television back then in my high school years and I watched it when I was 15. Now I watched it again after 12 years and yes, again: This is the best crime drama movie ever.This kind of friendship turns into a ruin! How can it happen. Oh, you better watch it if you are wondering.And lastly, I was about to cry when I saw that cockroach going to freedom in the end.10/10 Would watch, again.

"Phoenix" is a hidden gem. I've seen it over five times. For some reason, it never gets old.Harry (Liotta) is a cop with a gambling problem. He can't stop. He owes money to "Chicago" (Tom Noonan) and he if he doesn't pay up, he dies. Harry's partners Henshaw (LaPaglia) and Nutter (Baldwin) are dirty and are becoming "collectors" to bookie Louie (Giancarlo Esposito). Harry needs money fast and the only way is to rob Louie. Everybody goes along with the plan until there's a double cross.There's not a lot of action in the movie until the end, but it's not needed. Ray Liotta is excellent in the movie. But the supporting cast steals it from him. LaPaglia is fantastic as Henshaw. He makes the character come alive. Baldwin, Esposito, Kari Wuhrer, and Anjelica Huston all get their time to shine."Phoenix" is a gritty crime movie that Liotta and LaPaglia fans must see.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Ray Liotta, who produced it too, sure was trying to utilize his success as the lead of (Goodfellas) once. So why not to regain that by another crime movie, especially while no one gave him a starring role in a big movie ever since. The character that he handed over to himself was different and inspiring. That superstitious, lousy gambler, policeman who gambles for gambling, and refuses to be as corrupted as his colleagues could have been something great.. but in another movie. Because with this treatment its beauty lost. He seems special but with nothing there to explore. And his details are interesting but not in interesting conflict. Hence I learned nothing about his reality. But who said anything about exploring, learning and reality in this movie ?!!!!!!! It should have been called (Sex, Violence, and The Gambler Cop). The movie's aim was just entertaining sex and violence all the time WITH NOTHING MORE! Things like the loaner guy and his lisper-too-cartoonish-speech, the unstoppable killings at the heist, Daniel Baldwin surrendering to the police force then LaPaglia killing him in front of them, the twist of the chef of police, or the finale where Liotta killed the loaner and his 2 henchmen... all of that push me to ask which was more laughable ?! Well, I know for a fact that any attempt to describe this movie as a sleeper gem is the unfunny farce!Though, put these pieces together, and you'll find yourself in front of another mindless movie which looks like Hollywood burnished stuff, however resembles in its core any violent "V" crap you have ever seen. So no solace for the good directing I suppose. Actually (Danny Cannon) is so unlucky fine director. This man knows his tools well. He can create a fine atmosphere, a sweaty image, and a charming action. But regarding his career; whether he got bad scripts, or he got a taste for them !I couldn't stand (Anjelica Huston) as the love interest. Aside from being too unattractive for me, there was no existence of even one atom of chemistry between her and (Liotta). Plus being too old beside him as well, unless his character was having unspoken thing for older women (older unattractive ones !). I couldn't understand the King Kong reference also. Was it a hint that Liotta is a man who thinks too much, weighs everything by objective logic while his being as superstitious, taking these very superstitions as logical? Or was it part of the pointless dialog in the crime movies after Pulp Fiction anyway?! Or was it me thinking too much in pointless pulp ??!And to top it all that catchy, so allegedly serious, title; Phoenix !!?? As if the movie was some reading to a whole society !! It represents perfectly this movie's desire to be something it isn't, and it wouldn't. Yet even if; what did it say about the WORLD of that Phoenix ? That all the policemen are decayed. Their boss is more decayed yet smarter. And the solution of crime is another crime. So we live a hell of unmerciful killers and robbers where love and justice are unachieved. It's maybe highly bitter and melancholic reading (that fits a good noir), or just the pure B-movie which drawls with that. The absurd blood rivers in the end answer it frankly. So it's a sad elegy for the world, that needs an elegy itself, for being nothing but unrealistic, totally bloody, and so silly crime movie.In (Chicago) the name worked. In other movies like (Edison) and (Phoenix) it didn't. Stop calling your movies with names of cities to feign a deep point of view and trick some reviewers. Ahhh. The mindless movie that alleges a mind is the worst kind! Finally, if you wanna enjoy, remember : "don't f**k a friend" rule, Liotta's belief in superstitions, LaPaglia beating and killing anybody he doesn't like, and truly.. Brittany Murphy's sexy presence back when her hair was black. Hmmm.. That's about all !

A unique movie indeed which revolves around the life of a person who believes in luck. Usually people are divided into two groups: 1)those who believe in luck (the smart ones who really know what life is about) and 2)those who pretend to be smart and claim that they can make their own destiny. Phoenix is the movie which has the right answer for group 2.It is a brilliant story with brilliant acting from Liotta. The movie successfully manages to tackle the subject of luck and destiny without boring us. You can see it clearly that the actors are making their best to make you enjoy the movie and they all give you the taste of Scorcese's movies. You, at many points, in the movie feel as if you are watching Deniro and Pesci yet in a different context.I don't want to ruin the plot for you but you will definitely like this movie.