Grand Canyon | Danny Glover, Kevin Kline | Send lawyers, guns and money . . .

Grand Canyon | Danny Glover, Kevin Kline | Are you joking?

DVDs:

Grand Canyon

	Grand Canyon Danny Glover, Kevin Kline 20th Century Fox, 2001 average customer review:based on 82 reviews view larger image
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Send lawyers, guns and money . . .

Let me tell you right off the bat, I think this is an excellent movie. No one overacts, no one steals scenes, no one is more self important than the others, and all converse easily with his or her counterpart. It was really panned by NYT and a whole host of others but there's a message here that we missed then and now, thirteen years later, is significantly more important.

I teach a Leadership class at a local college and I show the first 20 minutes of Grand Canyon just for the scene with Simon arriving on the darkened streets of West Inglewood. You know the one I mean. "Are you the one I should be talking to?"

I think Kasdan was speaking from his heart sort of like Davis after he is shot. We need to take a stand. Simon says to the gangbangers, "you may not know this but things aren't supposed to be this hard." And Claire says to Mack, " . . maybe this is your miracle."

We pass eachother on the street and have a chance to deliver random acts of kindness and mercy. Often instead we take the route that will give us the most "feel" and the most bang for our buck. Simon asks Mack why he is pursuing him and Mack says because he doesn't want to take a chance that he's supposed to do something. Random acts of kindness. Thinking of the consequences of your acts. Not turning your back on people places or things because it's an inconvenient time. Hell. It's always an inconvenient time.

Mary McDonnell is fantastic; Danny Glover is brilliant; the supporting cast fantastic. You could see Big Chill in it but in Grand Canyon, there's a message for all of us. 5 stars. Could be 10.

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Are you joking?

I don't care what the New York Times says - this is one of the best movies ever made!!

A "must-have" movie

I personally consider this one of the best films ever made.
While set in LA, it is not about LA.

It is about how people not having as much control over their lives as they think they do. About how chance meetings of other people, if given a chance to flourish, can lead to personal growth in the most unexpected ways.

The cast is fantastic, but the real stand-outs are Mary McDonnell and Mary-Louise Parker. (Laura Linney was also in the film, but was given too little screen time.)

This is a movie about personal growth, with an almost mystical undertone - despite the potential horrors of "living" in LA.

See it. Then buy it.

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Well worth watching more than once...

I saw this film at a local cineplex when it was first released and since then, I've revisited "Grand Canyon" at least a dozen times. Here are a ten observations:

1. This film's theatrical release took place around the time that the Rodney King trial was getting underway, and the ensuing LA riots would take place some months later. It's interesting how the underlying theme of "Grand Canyon" preceeded the "Can't we all just get along," thrust of King's later remark to the news media in the wake of the riots.

2. Kevin Kline does a good job of portraying an immigration lawyer who is having an affair with his secretary; Danny Glover and Mary McDonnell are okay in portraying a tow truck driver and a modern LA mom, respectively; and probably because he had nothing to do with the producing, directing or writing involved in this film, his role in "Grand Canyon" happens to be one of Steve Martin's better performances.

3. The only special effects in this movie are in a dream sequence of Kevin Kline flying through the night air in metropolitan Los Angeles. Otherwise, there are no car explosions, flying monkeys, no interglactic arks transporting shipments of minerals through deep space, no aliens blowing holes through buildings, and no Whoopie Goldberg.

4. One element missing in the movie is humor. Aside from Glover's remark that the Kline character may not know many black people, there really isn't much to laugh or even smile about; this lack of humor alone seems to make the characters less human and more like puppets in some morality play about undesirable behavior and human nature that plods along slowly, but methodically.

5. Everything got thrown into this movie except the kitchen sink. I suppose the whole concept of all these significant events (a rescue from would-be muggers in a bad part of LA, finding an abandoned baby, being shot by a gunman at close range, etc.) happening all at once may have looked good on paper, but in transition to film, I found myself thinking how implausible such an unrelated chain of events happening to a few people within a few hours would be.

6. The thought that everyone should get together and that miracles really can happen are fine sentiments, but halfway through "Grand Canyon," I was wondering what Kadsan was going to throw in for a Grand Finale: The Kline Character discovers a body buried in his backyard? The Glover character dies in a bar fight? The Mary McDonnell character turns lesbo? Kenny Rogers buys vast tracts of Brentwood in order to build an amusement park/dude ranch?

7. At the very end of the film, everybody piles in a van and they all drive to the Grand Canyon, where they gaze in dumbfoundedness at this awesome natural wonder. I guess if this movie had been written by Callie Khouri (Thelma and Louise) Kevin Kline would have driven the van off a cliff... I guess Kasdan must have decided against this sort of ending because he couldn't find enough room to put Ridley Scott in the van.

8. Probably because the white Ford Bronco didn't even exist at that time, no mention is ever made of O.J. Simpson. At the time this film was being developed, O.J. was still being filmed running through airports with old ladies and business suits cheering him on. Clearly, I was disappointed that some featurette including vignettes of O.J.'s struggles wasn't included on the dvd, because witnessing the O.J. trial was a lot like experiencing a vast cultural divide for us working stiffs.

9. On the dvd that I bought, you have to fast-forward through all of this crap to get to the main menu. I hope someday that the idiots who direct the manufacturing of these things realize how much they are pissing people off by doing this.

10. Despite many of the above observations, the dvd film version of "Grand Canyon" is excellent. "Grand Canyon" has a lot going for it, or else I wouldn't have given it five stars. Great Cinematography. Great Soundtrack. Excellent casting. I certainly enjoyed it, even though the actual story line was slightly weak.

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