Golden Gate (1994)

Truly Dreadful Film

Absolutely amazing

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I came across this film while in my workshop. I stopped working and from there on, I sat and was drawn into this film. Matt Dillon (you either like him or hate him). I like him, as the FBI agent Kevin David Walker, and Joan Chen as his lover Marilyn Song, have chemistry that appears real. The plot is era correct, in every way. The paranoia about Communism and Marijuana was depicted as a tool of subversive abuse by the FBI and local police. This was well acted by character actor Bruno Kirby who portrays Dillon's boss, Ron Pirelli and is good in this role. The story is a bit slow in some spots, but that is overcome by the underlying disintegration of Dillon's life. The last scene was a cinematic masterpiece and had me in tears. It is a gem that should be on every viewers list.

Who knew that the Golden Gate was made of cardboard instead of steel? Obviously not the producers and the director of this garbage. They filled the film with cardboard characters and standard tripe.Matt Damon plays a guy who wanders around morosely spouting below stock lines trying to reconcile his life as a Federal Agent. He works in Chinatown for years but throughout a whole film set in Chinatown not one damn person speaks Chinese ever in the film! Throughout the film the Chinese actors and actresses speak fluent 1980's style English. They all dress drably except when it is time to show of Ms. Chen. Then she wears a bright red tittie-forming top that makes her stand out against the drabness all around Chinatown. The hokiness of the story and characters dribs and drabs making one dread each next line of dialog for it is obviously going to be worse than the prior one.Meanwhile...like an Okie of John Steinbeck's...Matt Damon never is seen having a home in Chinatown at all. All he does is wander around from scene to scene. There is not one shred of him being a realistic human at all.This film is so awful it makes one want to throw themselves off the Golden Gate bridge.

Despite the ridiculous comments about the movie "not taking seriously the Communist threat" there was no Communist threat in the 50's. The only threat was that of the right-wing zealots who, in their crooked hysteria, did their best to destroy the Consitution and the Bill of Rights for their own political gains! Sort of sounds like today, doesn't it? The movie is very well done, although a little hazy in the script but excellent performances by the leads make up for it! The ending is a little too sudden and a little too fantasy laden for my tastes but I get the impression that it was meddled with by the studio types.

I caught this film late one night in Japan. I had never heard of it and was amazed. I've always liked Matt Dillon, and fell in love with Joan Chen watching this film.Matt Dillon is his usual brilliant self playing an FBI agent who falls in love with a subject under observation. He contrives a way to meet her and they connect with a blinding love. However a love founded on a great lie and betrayal. Joan Chen is beautiful and pure, true to her culture and family. Her role here could not have been portrayed by an American-Chinese actress with such realism. This film spoke to my heart and I would definitely rate that night in Japan watching this as an unforgettable experience. Watch it if you like films that speak true.