City of Industry (1997)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A thief who robs another thief has 1000 years of forgiveness.City of Industry (1997) is an action flick about revenge. Plow is shallow and everything you need to know, which is next to minimal, happens right before your eyes.I like how they introduced the main character. At first, you don't give a damn about him, but then, he starts to grow on you.Somethings just happens without any impact into the main plot. It just happens. I don't know why. Maybe they were trying to set the tone for Skip's persona, but I guess they left it way too vague. Not sure about it.Overall, OK action flick. Nothing special, but cool nonetheless.

This is one of those movies that wants to look tough. And ends up looking like a wannabe. The actors are good but again look like wannabe tough guys. And yes, they fit the model of toughness with their sunglasses, weapons, slapping women and shooting gangsters, but it nags a little. Everything has been done better in other movies that DO look cool and tough. I am fond of heist movies with tough guys. But some humor and a more natural casual style of directing will give a heist movie much more cool and real looking toughness. Pulp Fiction is funny, but you dont dare mess with Harvey Keitel, however ridiculous he may be dressed in that classic. In "City of Industry" everyone is trying so hard to look cool but it is not very believable at times.All in all this is still a reasonably good heist movie with lots of killings and revenge. Lots of action scenes. It didnt bore me. I have watched it two times over the years. Harvey Keitel played great. But sometimes he too became almost a parody of himself. Let's call it a good popcornmovie. 7 out of 10 mainly thanks to Harvey Keitel who saved this film. Could have been much better though if the direction had been more creative. It could have been.. but it just wasnt.

There are so many inaccurate references to "film noir" from reviewers that I'm prompted to write this review simply to correct them. Though this film has some "film noir" elements, the essential elements are completely missing. The best film noir features an "innocent" person who gets dragged into crime. Usually it's as a result of a knowingly bad decision, but it comes from the seduction of a femme fatale.Both these elements are missing. The main character (played marvelously by Harvey Keitel) is a lifelong criminal. There's nothing "innocent" about him. Nor is there any femme fatale who double or triple crosses him or who seduces him into the misadventure.The film not only lacks the essential hero (or anti-hero) and femme fatale, it lacks the visual style of most film noir.Finally, the film lacks the requisite ending to ever be classified as film noir.Of course there are some film noir elements. It takes place in an urban center (LA) and dwells in the less upscale parts of town. A lot of the action takes place at night. At the core of the film is a double cross (though it isn't the femme fatale and there are no triple crosses) and we get introduced to a motley crew of seedy low lifes. There's a good bit of violence, but truth be told, most classic film noir are not nearly as violent as this film.It's probably best to view this as a "revenge" film, or more accurately a crime revenge drama.

This is pretty much a noir revenge story, with stone loner Roy Egan(the great Harvey Keitel) navigating the high and low of seedy LA, wending his way through dive bars, upscale LA law firms, and enduring beat downs from Asian and black gangs while pursuing THE BIG PAYBACK, son. As JB, the godfather of soul might say, "His patience thin, he want revenge." Harvey reluctantly joins a heist crew led by little brother Hutton that will knock off high-end jewelry store connected to the Russian mob. The brutally executed caper is successful, but then Skip Kovic (Dorff) goes turncoat, cancels some of the crew, including little brother, and now Harvey is out for blood. The big man looks good, obviously still hitting the weights, with some Risky Business shades and tieless Man in the Arrow shirt look. Okay, so he is in his late 50's, with a bit of a gut, and he walks with a little swayback. But, you know what, this is the man who pulled off "Fingers" son, and he would dominate the screen even if he walked around LA reading from the Congressional registry. Best scene: In his small hotel room after the post-robbery bloodbath, Harvey cuts through any Hamlet-style vacillation by pounding a card table with escalating fury, overturning it, sending out an unholy moan, and then setting out to kick some serious A. Only Harvey could turn a wordless moan and the act of overturning a card table into a statement of existential despair. Second best: when the big man gives a slimy bartender a beat down. About this second scene: post-robbery, Harvey goes to a hoodlum hangout, and tries to bribe the bartender for the whereabouts of Skip Kovic (Dorff). The bartender, who we know is in the know, tells Harvey to f- off, and Harvey steps back, squints, and waits, cigarette dangling. That goof with his silly goatee starts scrambling forward from the bar. Harvey administers a serious beat-down, KEEPING HIS CIGARETTE IN HIS MOUTH THE WHOLE TIME. Oh, and he picks up a gun for good measure. Now that is MOVIE MAKING, son. Irvin could have 86'd Eliot Gould and Michael Jai White, and the other Hollywood B-types trying to give the movie some bogus street cred. I buy Eliot Gould as a mobster as easily as I can buy a slurpee using a $3bill earned from my paper route on Mars. More of the stupendously sexy Famke Jannsen. And a nice cameo with Lucy Liu as a stripper with a SM motif. If Irvin was trying to channel the spirit of Michael Mann, he might have added more dialogue and made the Dorff character more complex. Still, I'll be here when City of 2 (Electric Boogaloo) comes out.