Love the Hard Way (2003)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Some things I liked some I did not.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I'm not going to finish watching this movie. I just can't buy much of anything about this movie. Everything from the lead actresses fake breasts to the improbable con jobs they run is just completely, literally unbelievable in any sense.Brody doesn't seem like a criminal - definitely not a rough, intimidating one - and it is difficult to see what about him would lure the girl out of her college world. It's even more difficult to see how she could go from someone who is sweet, sharp-witted, and presumably of near-genius IQ given her position in school, to someone suicidally stupid enough to serially risk getting murdered or contracting AIDS... especially since this transformation seemed to happen all in the one scene where she sees what she must have suspected was happening anyway: Brody in bed with another girl. I could go on picking it apart, but it isn't worth the time.Movies like this really aggravate me because it is obvious that a lot of talented people were involved, but the writers/producers have produced little more than a stylish insult to human intelligence. I get the feeling that what we are dealing with here is people coming from a cushy film-geek background aspiring to be hipsters, as opposed to people with something to say and/or a basis in real experience.

"Love the Hard Way" is nothing more than what the title explains. Of course, there's a whole story and a lot of events, situations, well written characters, very good performances...Peter Sehr has created his own world, and set it in real life. The movies I like the most are the ones that show real people. I always say that reality causes emotion. We don't want to see anything fake. Well, many people cry in movies because the plot is manipulated for them to do so, and they just cry. In movies that come close to reality, we cry because we know the things can happen or because we identify with them. It's not something we don't know. Adrien Brody plays Jack, a thief. He wakes up every day, probably with a girl beside him in the bed, and wears the same jacket, just to go out for a walk, for a movie, or for a heist He has two friends (Charlie and Jeff), or colleagues, and knows two women (Sue and Debbie). The five of them created a plan, and periodically carry on with it, and succeed. These types of persons really exist. They are lost in their lives and are always looking for a way to find themselves again. Is amazing that Jack kind of hides a passion he has for writing. He "hides" inside a room he has, and starts to write about the things he deals with everyday. When Jack meets Claire (Charlotte Ayanna) he doesn't know how to act. She's very intelligent, looks at him, and says: "You're trying to get some attention". He instantly leaves but they meet again in the University, where Jack and Charlie do some work. Claire has a boyfriend, Fitzgerald (Joey Kern), and a girlfriend, Pamela. The two girls are going to meet the boyfriend at a scientific presentation. This great scene, shows Jack and Charlie following them, and ruining things every time they try to impress the girls. They are a little ignorant (in another scene, when a detective asks Charlie what his work is, he says: "African American literature, until 1950"; he knows that doesn't exist, probably), however charming enough to arrange a meeting (I'm talking about Jack and Claire here) at a station. Jack goes there, he invited Claire, and doesn't know if she's going to come. I forgot to say, he has never met anyone like her. He's used to all these "one night stands", and never thought he would be meeting her, because she went to the meeting.That same day they both have dinner and talk for a while. She's trapped by him, because she has never met anyone like him. She tries not to stare at him. He tells her, as they're going to his apartment: "You're in love with me". She answers: "No I'm not; I have a boyfriend". "You're not now", he replies. "But you will be". They both have sex that night, in a beautifully shot scene, with anticipations that seem to be coming from someone's mind. What happens next is part of their daily lives. It can be good, it can be bad; and that is the best about it. "I have a lot of personal experience". He explains that everything is like a box, and is always the same, so I know what I'll probably find in it". "And what about this box?", Claire says, referring to herself. "Do you already know what's inside or you want to open it and take a look?" This movie is wonderfully directed, edited, and of course, written. You get involved in it, you want to see life. The score is amazing, and the team made an excellent work in finding every different song, with its style and lyric, just to explain each scene of the movie. Every frame is connected in every possible way.We shouldn't forget the actors. They all do a good job. Some are important, some are just there; but they have to be.I don't consider Adrien Brody a great actor. I think he knows how to choose a role, and that he chooses it because he wants to play it. That's good enough. Now I'm going to praise his performance in this film, and don't hate me for the things I'm about to say. He voices Jack with a humanity that makes him unique. He looks at people with a simplicity that makes Jack a real being. He walks with steps that define a performance. He won an Oscar, for "The Pianist", a movie I didn't find a masterpiece (as many say). Maybe it's because of the Holocaust, which has been used over and over for movies. Roman Polanski is a fine director, and in my opinion, he directed a fine movie. Going back to Brody, hate me now, but he probably deserved that award, although his performance in "The Pianist" isn't as good as his Jack in "Love the Hard Way". I just found all the elements, and the ones that make him shine; in this performance.His manners and movements are part of the body language that wraps this wonderful portrayal. His character made me think about Mark Ruffalo's (an excellent actor) Coles, in the also real and compelling "XX/XY". The kind of character that doesn't know his feelings, because he doesn't feel anything at all. "I can't love anyone", Jack says to Claire, looking directly into her eyes.

Wow..Adrian Brody CONTINUES to blow me away. He made this a year before his Oscar-winning performance in "The Pianist" and....you can see that his intensity & believability as a tortured soul in this film paved the way to Roman Polanski. This film was very intense & leaves you thinking. Anyone, esp. women, who has fallen in love with a "dangerous/mysterious" type will surely relate. Adrian's "Jack" seethes with loyalty to his longtime friends & lifestyle. His performance is very subtle, so he slowly let us in to the interior that lies under the criminal, streetwise exterior. Also, great performances by Jon Seda & Pam Grier. For anyone out there who understands that with deep love comes deep pain...this movie is HIGHLY recommended.

I'll believe that someone can get bit by a special poisonous spider and gain super powers before I'll believe that someone that looks like Charlotte Ayanna (and supposedly is a science student) would have ANYTHING to do with someone who looks and acts like Brody's character or would start to turn tricks for less than $10,000 per night. The acting is OK, and it is shot well, but the premise is a bit far-fetched. Brody isn't physically imposing enough to carry the role, and Ayanna is FAR too good looking. She would be at Columbia a month before she hooked up with the NYC jet set and, as for him...I mean...who does he intimidate acting like a thug? He's about 140 pounds soaking wet holding a brick...looks convincing as a starving war refugee, not as a tough-guy. Would have been better if Seda and Brody had switched roles. Pam Grier seems to just be going through the motions. The story is interesting, aside from the miscasting, but thoroughly unbelievable. Rent Mean Streets or Pope of Greenwich Village if you want a slice of the New York underworld that's a bit more palatable and easier to stomach.