The Non-Conformist Cult Radio Show 7/23/04 (2)

You know… I may not be worthy of my self-described movie pretentiousness. Why?

Two words… Mean Streets.

I have always heard good things about this movie. For like ever.

First of all, it’s directed by one of my favorite directors… Martin Scorsese. Secondly, the film is the first teaming of Scorsese and De Niro. And third… Harvey Keitel is in the thing.

I tried watching it in the late 80’s with an old girlfriend. Melanie and I did not like it. I think we pulled the VHS tape out of the VCR in about 20 minutes. And if I’m not mistaken… We inserted a promotional tape by an unknown rocker named Lenny Kravitz after we dissed Mean Streets.

I’m still a big fan of Mr. Kravitz’s work… But back to the subject…

Then when I was dating a girl named Allyson a few years after and she got on a Scorsese kick right after seeing Goodfellas. I remember her bringing home a VHS copy of Mean Streets. Right then and there I told her, “You’re gonna have to watch that without me.”

She did… And as I recall… She liked it.

I recently thought it may be possible that I wasn’t as mentally sophisticated or intelligent enough to understand the film. I kept hearing it heralded as one of the greatest films of the 1970’s. So I put that joker on my Netflix queue. Perhaps I’m now smart and sophisticated enough to enjoy Mean Streets. Maybe I have matured, so to speak.

I’ve had it in my possession for over 2 weeks now, but I just haven’t had the time to watch it. It sat on my entertainment center and every time that I passed by it, that joker was gnawing on part of my brain like maggots at a corpse convention. I had to see it again. I wanted to see it again.

Yesterday… Labor Day… I finally set aside the time to watch Mean Streets. And guess what?

I still don’t like the film.

Nope. Nothing grabbed me. Even after 45 minutes, I still was finding nothing in the film to keep me going. I didn’t care about the characters and I didn’t see the story going anywhere.

The only thing I liked was getting a peak at a dirty and seedy New York of the 1970’s. The city was dark, dingy, and covered with litter. It was beautiful!

So after those 45 minutes, I pulled the DVD from my player and packaged it with another flick from Netflix that I didn’t much care for… Catch And Release.

That was pure dreck!

The first 40 some minutes had my attention, but it just sort of fell apart when Jennifer Garner started up with the Sheriff from Deadwood, Timothy Olyphant.

I gave them each only 2 stars on Netflix. But I reserve the right to see Mean Streets again in another 20 years. It seems that I may not be “mature” enough at 40 years of age.