Flawless

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert De Niro Director: Joel Schumacher Original UK Premiere: 1999 Dvd Release: 4th June, 2001 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen, Region 2 Encoding Subtitled In: English, Polish

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Flawless is an American film that stars Robert De Niro & Philip Seymour Hoffman. The 1999 film features De Niro as Walter Koontz a homophobic former New York police officer who suffers a stroke when he tries to assist a fellow tenant whos being assaulted. The stroke leaves Koontz partially paralyzed & unable to speak very well. His doctor recommends singing lessons to help him try to regain his speech, but since he is paralyzed & ashamed of how people are going to view him he seeks out his neighbor who is a flamboyant, pre-op transsexual. Both men discover that as much as they are prejudiced against one another they also have much in common & realize that the other is not so bad after all. There are also a few side-plots about a drug lords missing money, a drag show & some tango dancers. Flawless was directed by Joel Schumacher who also wrote the screen play. Other cast includes Daphne Rubin-Vega & Wilson Jermaine Heredia, both of whom starred in the 1990s Broadway Musical Rent. Posters Of Flawless

Who could possibly be the target audience for Flawless? Walter is a homophobic policeman who suffers a stroke while responding to gunshots in his own apartment building; for speech therapy, he starts taking singing lessons from his neighbour Rusty , a gay drag queen whos saving up money for a sex-change operation. However, theres another storyline that takes up at least as much time as that one, about a drug dealer & his goons trying to find money that was stolen from them, brutally beating up everyone in their path. Furthermore, the local gay community seems to consist entirely of drag queens & Log Cabin Republicans & one of Walters cop buddies goggles at drag queens as if hes just arrived from the middle of Iowa. All the characters, including various prostitutes, drug dealers, a hotel clerk whos a shifty mummys boy, as well as the aforementioned drag queens & cops, are horrific stereotypes. De Niro & Hoffman, both extremely talented actors, do all they can to overcome their cliché-studded dialogue but they never seem to be in the same movie. This is far from inspiring stuff written & directed by the wildly uneven Joel Schumacher, whose up-and-down career includes The Lost Boys, St Elmos Fire & Falling Down as well as the horror that was Batman & Robin.

Robert De Niro is an acclaimed American film actor who is noted for having starred in several of director Martin Scorsese s films. Praised for his commitment to his roles, De Niro gained 60 pounds & learned how to box for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, ground his teeth for Cape Fear & learned to play the saxophone for New York, New York. Although not articulate, De Niro is generally considered a skilled observer of physical tics & details & an intense perfectionist. A graduate of the Little Red School House, De Niro made his first film appearance in 1968 in Greetings. After that, he played some major & minor roles in other films not widely seen, until he gained popularity with his role in Bang the Drum Slowly. He began to work with Martin Scorsese in the same year when the two collaborated on Mean Streets. Later Scorsese films in which De Niro has participated are Taxi Driver, New York, New York, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear & Casino. Posters Of Analyze This

Editors Choice: Analyze That, Analyze This, Meet The Fockers, Casino, City By The Sea, Meet The Parents, Ronin, Showtime, View DVDology

Joel Schumacher is a gay American film director, writer & producer. Many of his films have been stylish, on budget & slick Hollywood fare. Schumacher was born in New York City & studied at the Parsons School of Design. First working in the fashion industry, he began his media work as a costume designer & developed his skills with television work. He wrote the screenplay for the low-budget hit Car Wash & a number of other minor successes. He also wrote The Wiz. His film directorial debut was The Incredible Shrinking Woman, starring Lily Tomlin & he quickly made more successful films, include three brat pack works. Working solidly & building his reputation he had his first large budget feature when he took over from Tim Burton on the Batman franchise - Forever was a major summer success but Batman & Robin was a commercial disappointment, the proposed fifth movie in the series was stalled & Schumacher returned to less ambitious projects. Schumachers Batman & Robin offered a campy description of Batman, which many fans saw as a mockery to the Batman Legend. Posters Of Phone Booth

Editors Choice: Phone Booth, Tigerland, Veronica Guerin, Bad Company, 8mm, Flawless, Batman And Robin, A Time To Kill, View DVDology

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