Bright Lights, Big City

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Blu B It's a melodrama about a young adult trying to navigate a job he doesn't like, struggling writing, coke problems, romance, his wife left him, dying Mom, troubled relationships, and trying to make it all work or find answers in the late 80's NYC. That's the plot and it never in the slightest figures out a way to take these elements or subplots and make it into a functional cohesive narrative. It just jumps around between each of them. The acting, cinemaotgraphy, and soundtrack is alright. Fox is giving it his all but it just goes nowhere. Alot of it is just people talking and griping and while the direction isn't bad there's only so much you can do without a narrative before it just gets boring. The Mom is the best thing and is great, wish there would've been more of that. Everything else is subpar. The best way also to describe the strucutre here is this is basically at best the first 40% of a regular movie and this film stretches that out over the entire runtime while doing it poorly. It goes nowhere, is boring to look at, and despite setting up a complex multilayered character with all the right elements there it never makes into anything. Skip this. Just very forgettable, boring, and a whole lot of nothing. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 11/07/25 Full Review Audience Member It's a big city with bright lights but that doesn't mean everything is shining brightly The late James Bridges directs Michael J. Fox, Kiefer Sutherland, and Phoebe Cates Jaime is miserable having moved to NYC from Kansas; he would rather be a writer than be at his job, is divorced from his fast-rising model wife, and his mother just passed away He hangs with his buddy Tad drowning in alcohol and drugs His dependency starts increasing too as his many one-night stands with hundreds of women How will he turns things around for the better? A lot of this is just Fox moseying and moping around unable to face his own problems It's quite unremarkable There isn't enough energy to get things in motion Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/06/23 Full Review Cutter75 First watched this movie when I was 13 and hated it watched it again at 34 and really appreciated it Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/12/23 Full Review Shioka O It was kinda boring, I prefer Casualties of War for the non comical J.Fox because I think it worked well. Soundtrack and score is pure 80s. Smooth visual. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 10/23/22 Full Review Audience Member If you read the novel, this movie is a disappointment based on the main fact that it starts 108 pages in. I personally enjoyed and would have like to seen play out on screen some of the first half of the book. This was shocking since the author worked on the screen play. Casting was great and Michael J Fox did a fantastic dramatic performance. Overall the movie felt like it was over too quickly and didn't really go anywhere. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review steve d Fox isn't a good enough actor to make it work. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Bright Lights, Big City

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