Two Bits (1995)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This film is really good. If you like Italian, if you have a touch of sentimentalism in you, if you like Pacino (who doesn't)& if you're nostalgic for films about yesteryear (1930's, The Great Depression), then this one'll be a treat for you.Twelve year old Gennaro wants to go to the "air-cooled" La Paloma Movie House. He needs 25 cents but money is hard to come by at this time. The kid is resourceful though. He's willing to work for his goal. Jobs are scarce & people are dying from lack of food & things they cannot afford like medicine. "Grampa Pacino" is on his death-bed out in the back yard but he 'can't die' until he gets forgiven for something he did decades ago. He gets his grandson to ask the person for forgiveness - THEN he can have the 25 cents. I really like the closeness of these two characters. I don't know where this young Jerry Barone (Gennaro) came from but he's a good actor & he's handsome. (He could probably play Hispanic, too.) So enjoy a bit of the old country with Two Bits. You'll be surprised. There's nothing' sappy about it. It's for everyone...

If you have experienced loss of someone close this movie will surely have an effect on you. It's a wonderful look at a relationship between a boy and his grandfather in the depression era. As always Al Pacino (the best actor who ever lived) is brilliant and heartwarming in this sincere yet all together different role for him. A short but bittersweet film that will take you on a sad but very personal journey. I've seen this film about 10 times and have never made it all the way through without crying. This is a beautiful film in todays blockbuster big movie era. No special effects just emotions. Definitely better than 5.8 out of 10 I would say more like 8 out of 10. Mary Elizabeth and Al are magnificent-

A movie about how life itself is better than any movie. At least, if you live in the movies. Or better still, it seems to say, in a movie theatre which is IN a movie. Unlike real-life movie theatres.The acting in this movie is not so good. The story-line is pretty predictable. The script shines in the humorous dialog between Al Pacino, the dying grandfather, and the boy, which is where the magic happens. Everything else is, eh.

I love a nice drama as much as anyone, and have always been a sucker for a memoir of a boy reminiscing about that special time spent with Grandpa, long, long ago.My guess is that the title Two Bits was chosen for this meaningless piece of drivel because `Plug Nickel' and `A Complete Waste of all our Time' were both already taken.James Foley reasserts his position as number one ‘handholder to the stars'(drama)-the type of guy who is credited as director (with all the associated headaches) even though the project is controlled creatively, entirely, and usually disastrously by a single minded, self-promoting ‘star'(in this case Al Pacino). The directorial talent and skills that seemed so promising in ‘At Close Range' and even ‘After Dark My Sweet' are far in the past now, for Mr. Foley, sadly.If Mr Pacino saw this as possibly his own personal ‘Death of a Salesman', it's unfortunate that the salesman was no where to be found.I would talk more about the story if I had the slightest idea what was so important about it to bring it to film-an immigrant boy, his widowed mom, and a crotchety old Grandpa…the standard setup for today's derivative and ineffective sitcom.Pass. Pass. Pass