Powder Blue (2009) User Reviews (79)

Decent, if not underwhelming

[Heislegend · 5/10 · 11 August 2009]

Allow me to get one thing out of the way right now: if you are a straight male (or gay woman) between the ages of 18-50 you might as well consider this movie required viewing simply because of Jessica Biel's topless scenes. To be honest it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread and it's not really in a sexualized context, but just to say you saw it should be enough. A little juvenile? Sure...but there it is. I'm kidding of course (kind of) but really...not bad.

Basically what you have here feels kind of like a lame rip off of Crash. A lot of stories happening in the same time line that feel like they should intersect a lot more than they do. Without that intersection it feels like a lot of little pieces rather than a whole. I can't help but feel like some of these actors were slumming it, particularly Ray Liotta. Has there been a movie since Field Of Dreams where he didn't play either a dirt bag or a stand up guy with a shady past? Talk about typecasting. There also seems to be a waste of perfectly good Lisa Kudrow in the film. I guess I don't understand casting her in the movie at all for such a small part when I'm sure they could've found someone just as good for a lot less money.

One small technical annoyance...the film has a pronounced grain to it that I assume is supposed to give it a gritty feel. The problem is that the subject matter isn't as gritty as the production values, so it feels a bit over done. Aside from that it's not a bad movie, but not a good movie either. I would have liked it a lot more if the writers had tried to tie the stories together more. As I said before, the way it is feels more like a collection of pieces more than a whole film. I wouldn't pass it by, but I certainly wouldn't tell everyone I know to check it out. It is what it is...pretty mediocre.

Overly heartfelt has a great cast but has too much "suds" to completely work

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 28 May 2009]

Four desperate people drift together over Christmas. One a stripper with a little boy in a coma, another is an ex-con looks for salvation, a mortuary worker faces foreclosure on his business and an ex-priest looks looks for some one to do a job for him. Well made and very well acted tale has plot lines that are so over done that they border on silly. Talk about stacking the deck, these people have enough going on for five years of soap operas. The cast almost sells the (overly) heart felt emotion, but its just too much.How much of this would really happen to four people over a couple of days? My interest began to wander about a half an hour in because I felt that the film was manipulating things for no really good reason. I understand why the cast was drawn to the material since it allows them to dig in and chow down on the scenery. Its not a bad movie, its just an over done one. I'd wait for cable.

Decent Drama

[SmoothGooch · 7/10 · 10 May 2009]

I went to the theater tonight expecting something very similar to "The Air I Breathe" and the composition was similar in deed, "Powder Blue" is the story of four people, struggling with themselves and their fates.

However, i must disappoint all users that bashed this movie in advance. The story is captivating, comprehensible and sensitively told and the acting is perfect, something one can expect by looking at the cast.

"Powder Blue" didn't blow me away like TAIB but it is a descent drama with a top cast and a touching though sometimes a bit kitschy and predictable Story.

Not bad in spots, but the story and dialog never rang true for me.

[TxMike · 21 July 2009]

Of course this is the movie where much was made of the fact that Jessica Biel plays a stripper, Rose Johnny, and infamously did her very first nude scenes. I can now verify that all those magazines that formerly chose her as "most sexy" or something like that were right on.

But this movie wants us to take it seriously, it seems, but is written in a very whimsical style. Take Brit Eddie Redmayne, for example, who plays Qwerty Doolittle, a mortician who is faced with losing his business just after his father died. Qwerty? Does that sound familiar? Those are the 6 leftmost letters in the top line of the standard keyboard, just like the one I am typing on now. It is commonly referred to as the "qwerty" keyboard.

Take Forest Whitaker as Charlie. He did something dumb while driving, his pretty new wife died in the crash, and now he has taken all of his savings, $50,000, and is going from person to person, to find someone who will kill him and receive the money in exchange. Why? Maybe because his religious beliefs do not allow him to kill himself?

I like Ray Liotta who plays distraught Jack Doheny, seemingly without much time to live, just off a prison stint. He is looking up his daughter and grandson who don't even know about him. But he is one continuous sad sack in this movie.

Then, at the end the editing is done to make the movie seem very clever, as we see some people dying, some achieving redemption.

Not a particularly good movie, with choppy dialog and some over-acting, but it was nice seeing Jessica Biel the way our Creator intended for her to be seen.

Lives of Desperation

[atlasmb · 6/10 · 7 November 2013]

The comparisons to Crash (a great film) are inevitable. Powder Blue has a stellar cast in a story that is really a collection of stories that sometimes interconnect.

Forest Whitaker, Jessica Biel, Ray Liotta, Lisa Kudrow, Patrick Swayze et al. populate the dark world of Powder Blue. From the first scenes, we realize that this world is filled with crime, violence and poverty. This world becomes a "character" in the sense that it has as much (or more) to do with the motivations and actions of the characters as other characters do.

The first character introduced is a man, played by Forest Whitaker, who is living on the edge of desperation and hope. As the stories develop, we find that most of the characters are similarly dealing with issues of mortality and day-to-day negotiations with an uncaring world. Everyone is hurting.

Most viewers can probably identify with the sense of desperation that pervades the movie, either because they have experienced it or because they were in situations that could have taken them down a dark path. Thus, the film has an inherent honesty. Some viewers may not want to visit the demons that this film will resuscitate. But there are positive moments and acts of kindness in Powder Blue. For some viewers these moments may "redeem" the movie.

Overall, the acting is excellent. Although I thought Jessica Biel embodied her role as a mother who strips for a living, I felt that a few of her scenes were less convincing.

well acted,but ultimately disappointing tale of depressed sad people.

[jaybob · 6/10 · 2 June 2009]

This movie is another in a series of films we have seen about seemingly unconnected persons having same type problems.

The director and writer Timothy Lin Bui Tries hard,this is his second feature in English,let us hope his future films are not as sad & depressing as this. Forest Whitaker is one of the stars as well as one of the producers,he also was in this directors first film.

Speaking of producers, the credits list about 15 different type of producers.(old expression---'too many cooks spoil the broth'.

The four principal players are Forest Whitaker as a suicidal ex-priest. Jessica Biel as strip club pole dancer with a dying small child Eddie Redmayne as a very depressed young undertaker, Ray Liotta as a troubled ex-cop with many other problems.

To top all this off it is Christmas season.

There is not one happy person in cast.

The above mentioned actors do quite well in a bad script. Also in cast in smaller roles are Lisa Kudrow, Kris Kristofferson * Patrick Swayze.

The song score does match the sombre mood of the script.

It is easy to see why this movie made in 2007,is just now being released directly to DVD.

My rating is mainly for the fine performances.

Ratings: **1/2 (out of 10) 68 points (out of 100) IMDb 6 (out of 10)

Crash's distant cousin

[bowmanblue · 7/10 · 7 December 2014]

The film 'Crash' was a hit, as it used multiple characters' individual narratives to intertwine a story which all ties up together. Here, 'Powder Blue' attempts to do the same - with mixed results.

First of all, I didn't like it. But it is quite a long film and I persevered. Now, looking back on it, I'm glad I did. It's not as good as Crash and it is kind of overloaded with sentimentality - every scene seems to be trying to get you to cry for each and every character. Perhaps it was nice to see some Hollywood characters feeling as down and miserable as the rest of us? Either way, the performances are pretty good - naturally from Forest Whittaker and Ray Liotta, but also from Jessica Biel (who comes in for more than her fair share of acting criticism these days).

It is certainly a slow-burner. Not much happens during the beginning and it takes a while to get going. So, although it doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel in terms of film-making, it's not a bad little piece, but I feel it's one of those films that you have to be well in the mood for to really appreciate. It should probably come with a warning not to watch it if you don't want to be depressed or brought down by one tale of woe after the next.

Oh my...

[rurquhart-2 · 2/10 · 12 May 2009]

This film aims high. It seems determined to extract heart-wrenching, raw, profound human truth from each and every scene. Unfortunately, because so little of the characters' behaviour makes sense, and so much of the dialogue is so unbelievable, the result is an overbearing mess - and very difficult to sit through.

Are we expected to believe that a person who wishes to die, but does not wish to commit suicide, would go about it as Mr Whitaker does? If we don't believe this (and how could we - I mean, thrusting a revolver into the hands of complete strangers - and not even murderous-looking ones at that - and begging to be shot dead) then how could we be expected to make any sort of emotional investment in his character's plight from that point on? (In any event, wouldn't prompting someone to shoot you amount to suicide anyway?)

For me, expecting an audience to believe a premise of this sort is pretty insulting. If a filmmaker can't put a little more thought into their characters' behaviour, they don't deserve an audience's attention.

Similarly, how are we expected to believe Ms Biel's interactions with Mr Liotta, given the circumstances of their meeting? The rapidfire progression from stalking, to friendliness, to 'don't look at me!' was just baffling. Even by the loosest standard of believability, her character just seemed unhinged (her flicking between extremes in her scene with the doctor, and the speed with which she absorbed her son's eventual fate, did not help in this regard either). If her behaviour was not intended to be realistic (e.g., if there was some exaggerated theatrical style in mind) then surely that style would need to be maintained throughout the movie in order for the whole to remain coherent. It wasn't, and it didn't.

Further audience insults include: lazy hints at complex or meaningful back stories (e.g., Mr Kristopherson's character, Mr Whitaker's wifely and priestly flashbacks, Ms Kudrow's scoundrel ex-husband and Qwerty's puppets); a jarringly unrealistic injured dog (which, after being hit by a car at speed, lies there placidly and allows itself to be carried away by a stranger without so much as a whimper or snarl, despite remaining conscious throughout); and a guy's absurd attempt to slip past two huge doormen and make a slick getaway... in a clunky old freight elevator! - as though the doormen might not catch him!

Stilted dialogue? You bet! Just wait for the 'easy banter' between the two nurses on the way to the room where Ms Biel's tyke enters cardiac arrest. Then check out the same nurse when she later informs Ms Biel that the hospital bills have been paid. Yeeeesh.

This film seems to strain for the type of tone and affect achieved by Magnolia. But to make a film like that, you need to be Paul Thomas Anderson. This guy is not he. This guy is not even Paul W S Anderson. This guy is a bad-vibe merchant at best. A floater.

Quite good, despite a few cheesy scenes.

[kingofyou · 8/10 · 10 May 2009]

My rating: 7.6

It was better than expected. It definitely reminded me of "Crash" and especially "The air I breathe" with multiple story's, drama and the city atmosphere, it has a similar feel to it.

Despite a few REALLY cheesy scenes in the end, it really was entertaining all the way trough. The acting was good, most noticeable by the mesmerizing Jessica Biel and the always strong actor Forrest Whittaker.

Biel has a few nudes scenes in the movie which was done very tasteful and very sexy ! and if you didn't think much of her before, you most like will be in love after watching her dance :-). Too bad this is probably the only thing this movie will be known for, as it lacks serious promotion and probably will go straight to DVD.

Hope it will do good, just spread the word I guess.

It should find it's indie audience I'm sure.

blue movie blue

[RavenGlamDVDCollector · 6/10 · 4 October 2015]

Deep, moody film, unsettling, with an overdose of despondency. Ideal fare for those who wish to wallow in their own terminally depressive states. Me, I'm just a perv, I was checking up on STRIPTEASE on Wikipedia, when I Googled I got a link to the best striptease movies ever, so last week I watched CLOSER, this week, POWDER BLUE. I was thrilled to hear that Jessica Biel was in it, as a stripper, mind you, hell, she made me look at (I still can only shake my head) that show with the reverend, I'm not going to even mention its name, but really, me watch the Religious Right's flagship TV show? I just hovered around the TV and watched when she and her kid sister was on. This, of course, is way at the other end of the spectrum. Too dark, too melancholy, too depressing, but the sight of Jessica on stage is worth my every effort. So, it's a long way from the old days of a politically-correct holy-righteous TV show to this mixture of lust and redemption. Still, when I think of her, I'd always remember SUMMER CATCH, again, not my kind of movie, too much damned baseball, but what a dreamgirl.

Show me all the nudity in the world, if it doesn't come along with the soulful eyes, what's the point? And Jessica has them. Lovely eyes you can gaze into, and see love. A thing of beauty, as that other reviewer said.

Of course, the people who watched that unmentioned TV show wouldn't watch POWDER BLUE, unless on the sly, what with the straying-from-the-flock menfolk...

Getting back to the movie itself, it is not exactly guaranteed to put you in a fun frame of mind. An ex-priest who lost his young wife and wishes to be put out of his misery, but who doesn't want to pull the trigger himself, entices all and sundry, including a transsexual prostitute, with the lure of big money, into doing the deed. He meets Sandy (Lisa Kudrow, downbeat from FRIENDS), a waitress, and life seems to begin to have meaning again. A stripper with a cocaine habit and a kid in a coma, is confronted by her long-lost, morose and dying Dad, even as she finds love with a mortician, a geeky misfit who shares her love for animals. Whole lot of drug use, origin of movie title, obviously.

I have to stipulate, my DVD is just a plain version, no subtitles, and there are a lot of places where subtitles would have really helped. Watching for a second tine now, I catch on to stuff I missed the first time round. The blue snow bit I find to be overly-dramatic. After all, it hardly ever even rains in California, and here you have this blue ice...? Heaps of it?

If it wasn't for Jessica, I wouldn't have been remotely interested in this. Yes, there are powerful emotions here, but, no, the story itself is not the kind of thing I want to watch. Not that there aren't cute romantic moments, like the trolley cart scene.

P.S. Hell, that was Patrick Swayze???? Went through the entire movie without realizing.

A Disappointment

[jeepcj5guy · 4/10 · 8 June 2009]

No doubt this movie had potential. The cast offers a handful of well-known actors, several of which are more than capable of good acting (Whitaker in particular is usually superb). Unfortunately, most of the well-known stars in this film only had bit parts. Kristofferson, Swayze and Kudrow each maybe have five lines of dialogue in the entire thing. There were several scenes in the movie, one in particular near the end, which simply had no business being in the film at all. Even worse, NONE of the characters' back stories were developed whatsoever, something which may have actually prevented the story from falling completely flat.

This film will obviously be compared to Crash and The Air I Breathe, as I've seen already in several other reviews. Just because a story is "gritty" and emotionally charged does not make it good or even entertaining. This film was plagued by the same issues as The Air I Breathe: mediocre writing, unnatural dialogue and virtually no character development. Crash was successful because it had character development, the story was poignant and somewhat believable, the film itself was artfully edited and the dialogue was well written and very well acted. As the audience, we need to be able to suspend our disbelief in order to accept a "strangers' lives intersecting" type of plot. I had no problem suspending disbelief in Crash. Not the case with Powder Blue.

Putting comparisons aside, was it the worst film I've ever seen? No. In fact, it was still considerably better than The Air I Breathe. The music and cinematography was actually above average. Liotta's character was disappointingly wooden (no surprise there). Whitaker probably did the best he could. Biel definitely offered a brave performance and appeared to really pour herself into her role, although seemed to lose momentum in the end. Bottom line: don't go into Powder Blue with too high expectations.

In need of a miracle...

[giakkaru · 9/10 · 12 May 2009]

I rented this movie although many people crucified this movie as being a Crash sequel or just a blurred copy of The Air I Breathe.. Being a great fan of the existential dramas, where destinies cross each other only to emphasize the true value of life and most important the heart mending result of doing something right, (even it is too late) i decided to watch this movie in hope of seeing something equally thrilling to Crash. In fact, Powder Blue has some similarities to Crash or The Air I Breathe, but director Tim Bui manages to underline the most important idea of human destiny: the miracle. Here we see the miracle of destiny that incorporates the miracle of love (Rose and Qwerty), the miracle of divine intervention and hope (Charlie and the trans gender prostitute) and the miracle of sacrifice. (Jack for his daughter Rose)

In conclusion this movie is not to be compared to Crash, even it is based on the same destinies-cross-each other-structure. And of course the soundtrack which is surprisingly good, with featured artists like Bliss or Imogen Heap.

I recommend this movie 8,5/10

Only three words are needed in recommendation: Jessica Biel naked...

[MrGKB · 6/10 · 5 March 2010]

...and beyond that, not a whole lot, despite some ensemble acting of note and a reasonably well-constructed, if nearly impossible to believe, script. Writer/director/producer Timothy Linh Bui has the "Crash"/"Magnolia" thing down, weaving a number of intersecting plot lines together that are all resolved at film's end with one sort of Christmastime "miracle" or another. As mentioned, none of it is terribly credible, but thanks to a committed cast able to elicit a surprising amount of sympathy for their characters, "Powder Blue" somehow manages to transcend its soapy nature to a certain degree.

Being a character-driven piece, viewers are mostly going to enjoy the film for the acting. The aforementioned Jessica "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" Biel is winning as the stripper with a good heart and several crosses to bear, Ray "Field of Dreams" Liotta plays against type (somewhat) as an ex-con with a debt to pay, Forest "The Last King of Scotland" Whitaker demonstrates why he's one of the busiest character actors working today, Lisa "Friends" Kudrow shows off her chops in a small but memorable role, Patrick "R.I.P." Swayze is nearly unrecognizable but still effective in his last big-screen part, Eddie "Savage Grace" Redmayne assays the lonely geek role with assurance, and newcomer Alejandro Romero turns in a powerful performance as the ill-fated tranny who helps Whitaker's suicidal priest find redemption. This young actor deserves a lot more work.

So, "Powder Blue" isn't everyone's cup of tea, and probably holds little interest to the typical IMDb crowd (if there is such a thing), but if your interest was piqued by anything said above, I say go for it, enjoy the show. I did.

Crash Aftermath

[kenjha · 2/10 · 27 September 2009]

This is the price we must pay for the success of "Crash" - atrocious copycat films. This film is slightly better than the similar "The Air I Breathe," but that's not saying much. Bui's script is pretentious and his direction is heavy-handed. He thinks he is creating an emotional powerhouse, but the development is so poor that it is hard to care about the characters. The plot line featuring Whitaker (who now specializes in these types of films) is ludicrous. What's most ludicrous is that Biel and Kudrow (not exactly ugly women) throw themselves at men who reject them. About the only reason for watching this turkey is Biel putting her considerable assets on display.

Theatrically unreleased: no surprise

[lor_ · 19 January 2010]

On paper one wonders "how can a film with such a powerful cast not receive a theatrical release?". Before becoming paranoid or just lamenting the boneheadedness of today's ignorant Hollywood moguls, the answer is simple: the finished product is a disaster.

Anyone who's regularly attended industry screenings, especially organized film markets like AFM, Mifed or the old IFFM in NYC, knows that acquisition reps and distributors take a tough look at films on spec. This isn't a major studio production, or a Weinstein Brothers film, but yet another of the literally thousands of indies cranked out because money was flowing freely -this was produced in 2007, before the financial world went into turmoil and borrowing money for anything (let alone as risky a prospect as making a movie) seized up entirely.

I let my Netflix fingers do the walking, and painlessly rented this one last week, but it was a chore and a half getting through to the bitter end. The young filmmaker in charge has concocted a very poor script, one that would never have been green lighted by a major studio or even a mini-major -even if the studio mogul was demented enough to order his underlings to "GET ME A 'CRASH', after that Paul Haggis special made such a big splash at the Oscars. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Kieslowski fan -I've seen all his feature films and even some of his short films & TV work shown in local retrospectives, but his own investigations of how chance/coincidence/fate rules the lives of FICTIONAL characters fail to justify the dozens of crappy Chaos Theory movies being made. Obviously many scatterbrained film festival directors and programmers eat up this stuff, but I find nearly all of the recent efforts in this non-genre to be examples of poor writing. And that includes the aptly titled but way overrated BABEL, or the more obvious forerunner to this project, the unbearably contrived 11:14 (which, surprise, surprise, also failed to get a theatrical release in the U.S.).

It's obvious why good actors work for scale in junk like this -they have the prospect of juicy roles (regardless of the absence of a viable structure from which those roles can hang), the half-assed inverted prestige of "going indie", and above all else can relish the opportunity of chewing the scenery for an untested, timid director - you know, the famous Klaus Kinski syndrome -he always preferred to work for hacks rather than geniuses like Leone and Herzog, because he could trample all over them.

Case in point: in Powder Blue we have a lapsed priest played by Forest, obviously aware that you don't have to give back Oscar statuettes based on subsequent poor efforts. His attempts at getting folks to kill him are so preposterously and awkwardly written and staged by our writer/director here that the film basically self-destructs in the first couple of reels.

The connectors between the characters and movie references are lame in the extreme -not worthy of a '60s sexploitation film by Michael Findlay or Doris Wishman (I'm being mean on purpose, but let's face it, this auteur is NOT as advanced in his plot development as say a Russ Meyer or Joe Sarno). The guy watching the stripper turns out to be her long-lost father; the hooker's dog is found by her nerd in shining armor, the creepy young funeral director; Jessica's anecdote quoting ANNIE HALL; the sudden, highly symbolic snowfall helps connect beautiful romanticism to the corny frieze (pun intended) of Liotta's corpse in the snow, giving way to a "Six People You'll Meet in Heaven" beach scene of grandpa stiff and grandson stiff cavorting in what looks like a lift from the idiotic finale of Jodie Foster on the beach with daddy David Morse in CONTACT; Swayze's real-life brother Don popping up as the bouncer in Patrick's strip joint; the heartfelt through-the-glass, phones at ears scene of Biel & Liotta is a remake of an infinitely better Nastassja Kinski scene in Wenders' classic Paris, Texas; the Eddie/Biel "Let's Hug" scene that is straight out of an acting class exercise; and a "Two Tickets to Paris" finale in which Biel's last line is barely audible, etc., etc. Flunk this guy out of screen writing class already.

Yes, the indigestible collection of scenes immortalized in the final cut, for DVD, of POWDER BLUE is just the sort of thing folks shake their heads at when attending film markets. I was always astounded back in the day (about 25 years back) at people who would duck in out of the salles at the Cannes Market or Mifed, watching a reel or two of a film, and then rushing to check out the other films screening simultaneously in nearby theaters. As a film buff I was inculcated with watching films in their entirety -even in the later ages of VHS and DVD I adhere to this policy, not checking out excerpts or jumping to future "chapters". But when you see a film as badly constructed as Powder Blue you can understand why the hard-headed mercenaries of this industry think they can tell early on whether a film is headed nowhere. It's unfair, since even a terrible film is presumably eligible for "redemption" in its final reels, but I'm beginning to see the logic in such impatient behavior.

Great Character Study, But Ultimately Doomed for Labeling

[Christian-Loescher · 7/10 · 17 July 2009]

Sometimes people want to see a movie for what some would call "the wrong reason." Powder Blue is a prime example of this: it was well-hyped before its straight-to-DVD release to be the first movie wherein the beautiful Jessica Biel has several nude scenes. And I will admit, I fell victim to buying and watching this for said wrong reason, however, was not disappointed behind my initial intent in addition to the rest of how the movie played out.

Powder Blue, written and directed by Timothy Linh Bui, focuses on the downward-spiraling lives of four main characters, played by Forest Whitaker, Jessica Biel, Ray Liotta, and relative newcomer Eddie Redmayne. The inimitable Whitaker's character, Charlie, desires someone to murder him, so that through his cast-aside faith in Catholicism he would not necessarily be committing suicide and therefore a mortal sin. Charlie's search for a murder-for-hire brings him to mortician Qwerty Doolittle, played by Redmayne. Qwerty, in addition to being involved slightly with Charlie's emotive plot line, also becomes more deeply involved with Biel's character, the interestingly-named Rose-Johnny, a stripper attempting to maintain her chaotic life whilst paying medical bills for her hospital-committed and comatose son. Lastly, Liotta's soft-spoken Jack befriends Rose-Johnny, and in doing so sets the stage for a Magnolia-esquire plot-switching film that is quite compelling and interesting to follow.

The acting is quite well-done, not surprisingly in particular by Whitaker and Liotta (though Biel does shine as well), and Patrick Swayze and Lisa Kudrow provide smaller supporting roles. In spite of the well-written story and good performances, however, the full package is not quite engaging enough to allow the viewer to pity the characters; instead, paying attention to Powder Blue allows a viewing into the lives of four people, trying to save theirs by getting involved with others'. To be sure, an enthralling, yet slightly overused theme in cinema, such material needs to be cohesive and fulfilling to succeed, and where it is obvious Linh Bui intends to tell a story of huge grandeur and emotional impact, Powder Blue falls a bit short. Special mention, however, goes to the film's score and soundtrack, the latter of which contains several very catchy trip-hop, jazzy numbers used during Biel's club sequences.

In all, Powder Blue is a sufficient dark drama that suffices to keep the viewer entertained for its duration, but unfortunately, certain viewers who may not be as impressed by intertwining story lines and good character acting may always label Powder Blue as the "Biel naked movie." For those of us who enjoy related movies, however, said label is a fantastic fringe benefit, to a film that is impressive yet sometimes forgettable in some other respects.

Good but flawed movie

[pepe4u22 · 7/10 · 22 August 2009]

Just finished watching this movie noticed on clearance at our local Blockbuster. I noticed some big names like Forrest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, Kris Kristofferson. Put it in and was very moved by the acting of Liotta and Whitaker and the fine actor who played the loner mortician, can not remember his name. Fine supporting turns by Patrick Swayze and Lisa Kudrow. The setting for the movie was bleak and this added to the feel of the movie. The only disappointment I had with this movie was the stripper role played by Jessica Biel, she has no depth to her acting and her line reading was very leaden. I noticed some other comments talking about her nude scenes well she was a stripper in the movie nuff said. I wish though some good director would put Ray Liotta in more prominent films as he is the best thing in this movie and if Mickey Rourke can have a big comeback why cannot Ray Liotta who always steals the show with his acting.

just the right amount of sadness backed up by good music selection

[mikanja · 7/10 · 20 October 2011]

I'm not a big fan of dramas because they usually leave me sobbing in the corner of my room and thinking why life is so damn unfair. That doesn't mean that I think those movies are rubbish, just that I don't watch them often. So there is no need to tell that I approached this movie with caution but, as it turned out, I had nothing to be afraid of.

Four different tales of powerlessness and loneliness and what wouldn't people do to escape it. The movie doesn't leave you helpless and questioning the meaning of life, which, in my case, is important, but instead you except that neither them nor you can do anything about it and that, though you do the best you can, life still sucks.

But what impressed me the most was the music. If you heard the songs on the radio, you probably wouldn't think them special in any way (I know I wouldn't), but as background music to most of the scenes it just works. It makes them more real and (for the lack of a better word) close.

So,the verdict is: it is sad, yes, but just enough.

Really bad...a waste of time

[jpozenel · 1/10 · 6 September 2009]

It can't be that so many well known actors were the reason that this is such a bad movie. Nobody but writer/director Timothy Linh Bui can be blamed for this mess.

I've never been a big Patrick Swayze fan, but it's a shame that this will more than likely be his last feature film. At least he wasn't one of the main characters. I'm not much of a fan of the other actors either, but none of them should have agreed to be part of such a cheesy story.

There were two main unrelated story lines. One was about Jessica Biel's character and the other about Forest Whitaker's. Not once during the movie did I relate to or feel anything for either. I think this is mostly because the story appeared to be written by a junior high school student who learned everything they know by watching made for television movies.

The writer/director must have thought that having a fair amount of gratuitous nudity sprinkled in here and there would somehow add to the credibility of the story. Of course Jessica character was a stripper and that would make it so much more interesting, right? Ray Liotta has really been a disappointment in everything that I've seen him in lately. He has not aged well at all. And one small scene with Kris Kristofferson on the bus with Ray Liotta. Why did he bother? It seemed that the director was simply trying to assemble enough well know names in this stinker to draw in diverse audiences. I'm sure that most, if not all of them look back on this movie and wonder "what was I thinking...how did I get sucked into this?"

I was able to get this from my library for free, so all it cost me was my time. If you want to see it, check with your library first, if all you want to do is waste your time.

Drama about 4 people and how their lives change

[yogawellness · 8/10 · 10 November 2014]

This is a very poignant movie about the loneliness that pervades the human condition, and how seemingly coincidental events can affect people whose paths otherwise wouldn't have crossed. Jessica Biel gives a stellar performance as an exotic dancer (it seems she did her own dancing) who has unresolved family situations. Forest Whitaker is another main character whose performance is compelling as a grieving widower. Ray Liotta gives a haunting portrayal of an ex-con seeking some closure. And Eddie Redmayne portrays a mortician who also likes giving puppet shows for children's' entertainment. Lisa Kudrow also does well in a supporting role. I think it's a very well written and executed drama.

I see death everyday.....

[FlashCallahan · 7/10 · 18 June 2011]

Angelenos meet on Christmas Eve through chance, tragedy and divine intervention.

Velvet Larry is the sleazy owner of the strip club where Rose Johnny dances.

Qwerty Doolittle is a mortician who falls in love with her. Randall is the head of a corporate crime organisation who tries to convince a former employee not to seek vengeance on his former co-workers.

Charlie is a suicidal ex-priest. Lexus is a transsexual prostitute who shares an unexpected bond with the priest.....

The colour hues and the editing set the mood for this movie. If you are feeling down, take heed, this isn't easy going fare. But for the ninety minutes we are involved in these peoples life, one cannot help but feel solace.

The acting is great by everyone, and it's good to see Liotta not taking a role just for the cash, in fact this is his best performance since Narc, and the man has made a lot of films since then.

there are comparisons to other movies in this sub-genre, short cuts, the air that i breathe and even magnolia, and the only hindrance to this is that you know the chatachters will end up knowing someone come the end.

But Whitaker stands out in this movie, he is surely the heart and soul and the most believable character from the whole ensemble.

Like i've said before, it's a good movie, very bitter and glum in parts, but with a 'happyish' ending.

Just wish Liotta didn't do the old Jack Torrance impression at the end, it kind of ruined the movie a little.

Dreadful

[lakeidamike · 1/10 · 24 August 2010]

This movie is one of a number of pictures in the last five years that attempts to mimic "Crash." You know--tell a number of little vignettes and then tie it all together at the end of the movie in some way that purports to represent the meaning of life...or something like that.

This ain't no "Crash." This is one of the most pointless movies I have ever seen. It wanders all over the place with soap opera like clumsiness. The people who made this awful waste of celluloid must have had a checklist in front of them. A very large checklist. Let's see--there is the single mom with the dying child who's forced into prostitution to save the little nipper. There is Grandpa, just out of the can, looking for redemption. There is the man who wants to be a woman who ultimately kills himself, because no one will love him. There is the man who goes door to door looking for someone who will shoot him in the heart for $50,000, because he took his eyes off the road and killed his new bride. They even remembered the struggling waitress with the hillbilly ex-husband and a dorky white kid who is desperate for love, but my God, they forgot to include an incest victim (although they almost got there).

And just for good measure, like your local evening news every night, they did work in a missing dog story.

How can anyone watch this stuff? It is so contrived that it's unwatchable.

One last question about this movie. What is this fascination about snowfall in Los Angeles with these Hollywood types? It was kind of cute in the remake of "Father of the Bride." It was kind of interesting in "Crash." It was downright silly in this movie, especially when Grandpa dies in a snowdrift the size of which they would never get in LA. We get snowdrifts like that here in Minnesota, but I have yet to see one that is blue. We also see powdery snow here and I can tell you that it doesn't look like the gravel at the bottom of your fishbowl.

Blue Powder is truly one of the worst pictures I have ever seen. By the time we get to the scene with dead Ray Liotta teaching the dead little nipper how to fly a kite on the beach, I couldn't stop myself from laughing. It got only funnier when the dorky white kid was kissing the prostitute Mom at the bus stop with two tickets to Paris in her hand. This was really one of the most horrendously dumb movies of the decade.

Excellent

[bdasstv · 9/10 · 10 May 2009]

I guess that there are no comments in this section because people are speechless after watching the movie. The clichéd label of a film where worlds collide, doesn't do it justice. Anyone who has ever felt the emotional pain of having it all and then seemingly having nothing will understand the message behind this tale. Also the raw emotions that are born through loneliness and suffering. Above all of this there seems to be an underlying message of the goodness of human nature and the fact that the world keeps on turning no matter what. Needless to say i really liked it and thought the acting was second to none. The most touching movie I have seen in a long time.

Gritty look at life

[derek-154 · 7/10 · 14 May 2009]

This is another of those films that look at the twists and turns that life throws at us at one time or another. OK it is not a happy film and very dark. Having said that I personally related to some parts of this film as a reflection of things that have happened in my own life and I could easily have shunned it for the reason that I would find it upsetting.

However, and also on a personal note, it made me feel as if I was not alone. A lot of people would rather put their head in the sand than acknowledge that life can be cruel but if you like a balanced view on life i.e. the good AND the bad then this is well worth watching.

dismal and boring

[Spaceygirl · 3/10 · 8 May 2010]

I had such high hopes for this movie but was utterly and completely disappointed. The usually good Forrest Whitaker is wasted in this, and almost saves the movie but not quite. Ray Liotta tries manfully with a one-dimensional character, Eddie Redmayne is saddled with a character called 'Querty' who has more issues than a magazine and Jessica Biel, oh my...her 'acting' skills are dubious although her many assets are often on display for those who care to sit through this. The script is messy and painful and the scenes are choppy and disjointed. The added effect of having every scene being blue doesn't help either, rendering the movie a blue tinge which makes it looks like a porno flick. Avoid.