Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Iseerphia All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

lampic Very strange disclaimer at the beginning of the movie (claiming that this is a fiction and not based on real characters) describes the whole approach here, where things are not being said in order not to offend anybody - why making this movie at all? - and never going into real dirt and making a statement but pussyfooting around very real crime like "it doesn't really matter" so it all turns into courtroom drama about lawyers fighting and nitpicking, building the case and planning how to destroy the opponent. Some interesting points: main attorney taking his salary (a cold million) and pulling out with money just to leave his client because of "other obligations", a woman asking "How would you feel if he gets out of it and kills another woman?" Like with everything else, movie simply skips these little details and goes on about Phil Spector being weird recluse who is misunderstood because he is washed-up eccentric and delusional modern day male version of Norma Desmond. But my main objection here is, no matter what public perception there is, the fact is still that we are talking about crime. A person can wear a flowerpot on top of his head and still won't end up in court if there is no other objection. I absolutely love 1960s music that Spector created but it doesn't take away the fact that guy was known for decades as a gun weaving sadist who usually got along with everything because of his wealth. Even if script is disappointingly and maddeningly avoiding any statement, acting is superb as we have clash of Titans. Al Pacino bites in his role for all that's worth and no matter what he says, how he rages, pleads, charms and tries to behave, he knows what he knows and we are just left guessing. Helen Mirren as his replacement-attorney holds perfectly her own against this monumental ego and calmly tries to built up a case for defense that occasionally even make a sense. Often she has to behave like Sister Rachel in "One Flew Over The Coockoo's Nest" towards her client who is so darn irrational and we can sense her struggle in getting a job done. I must say that Mirren is so good at this that I can't possibly imagine director's first choice (Bette Midler) in this role. At the end, it probably depends how much are you familiar with subject in order to enjoy this courtroom drama.

dunsuls-1 Up front I'll state I'm a fan of the music legend Phil Spector BUT I was a fan of football player and actor OJ Simpson.A killer is a killer and both are now in jail.However this film is slanted ,and rather interesting,that Phil was innocent.However,as a former juror who had to judge a case on all evidence as it was presented,I'll trust the jurors who convected Phil in his second trial.That all said,it is interesting in that IF this film is truly accurate,it would indeed explain the first case deadlocked jury.All that said, Helen Mirren as Linda Kenney Baden,the defense attorney, has a advantage over Al Pacino as Phil Spector in that you weren't going to "know"her character as you know Al's.Both were still outstanding and I never got board watching them weave their point of view of a accident death rather than the second degree murder conviction he finally received.

Turtle Heart The cast of this film is sterling throughout. There are some great parts for several legendary, at this point, character actors at work. Anyone who has a strong passion for music understands something about Phil Specter. This film gives us a workable understanding of a complex, reclusive and aggravating person at the end of a legendary life. The film clearly makes an argument about his guilt or innocence that surprised me. Most people did not follow the details of this story. I was traveling during that period and recall hearing he was convicted, which is a well known fact, so not a spoiler. This film takes us at least part of the way inside the story of his trial and the question of his true nature, and it does it very relentlessly and fairly in my view. It could have been fleshed out more, there could have been more of it...but is sure does settle some questions in a very interesting way. I was intrigued by one line that suggested Specter would be convicted to make up for not convicting OJ Simpson.I agree his trial was perhaps hopelessly poisoned at the beginning, and this film shows us some basis for this interpretation. The cast and the direction are very, very good.

evening1 I didn't expect to come out of this liking Phil Spector. But I kinda did.Based partly on his famously big hair, I considered him a whack job who'd done well earlier in life, then spiraled way downward. Thanks to an extremely compelling screenplay by David Mamet and a bravado performance by Al Pacino, I came away if not exactly feeling comfortable with Spector then at least considering the possibility that he was convicted of being weird and having a checkered past -- and not necessarily for being a killer.Helen Mirren excels as hard-as-nails defense attorney Linda Kinney Bader (wife of the famed forensic pathologist), who starts out skeptical, but (thanks in part to the defense team's $1-million fee?) comes to believe in the innocence of the extremely eccentric but probably not insane music producer.I recognized Jeffrey Tambor as someone from TV -- which shows I knew not -- but he wasn't convincing as powerhouse attorney Bruce Cutler, vaunted defender of mobster John Gotti. (I wasn't even aware he was supposed to be the tough-:guy lawyer till I read the closing credits.)Back to Mirren, who was interesting to observe as her character battled pneumonia throughout Spector's first trial -- "If you're not sick, you're not working hard enough," she mutters through Kleenex and gulps of Alka Seltzer. I had never questioned Spector's guilt until watching Bader's vigorous work here, which resulted in a hung jury. (We learn in the epilogue that she was too ill to represent Spector in his re-trial, which resulted in his conviction and 19 year-to-life term, which he's now serving -- God only knows how -- in California State Prison at Corcoran.) Spector had a history of erratic behavior that had not previously resulted in violence. However, at least one former consort testified that he had used a gun to prevent her from leaving him. Could something similar have happened with the hapless Hollywood hanger-on Lana Clarkson? Mamet presents a good argument against it. As Spector points out, this suicidal wannabe would have done anything he wanted and he had absolutely no reason to murder her. Yet we also see scenes in which he unleashes a formidable temper.Spector seems to have suffered freom a persecution complex. Others get away with stuff, but not him (Robert Blake comes to mind). To hear Spector tell his story, the no-name cocktail waitress walks into his life and inexplicably destroys his own.This made-for-HBO production is quite compelling and well worth viewing. See if it changes your mind, too.