Search - 2 Days in the Valley on DVD

Lydia Z. (grandmalydia)
Reviewed on 1/21/2024...

Good movie

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Michel D. (michelann) from WALNUT GROVE, MO
Reviewed on 10/22/2013...

Wow what a cast! This is a "black comedy" filled with twists and turns. Glenne Headly is great although barely recognizable at first. Paul Mazursky stands out as a director/writer with suicidal tendencies and a gun loaded with only one bullet that helps everyone out at the end. Jeff Daniels and Eric Stoltz are a pair of bumbling cops who want to be more in a valley filled with nut cases! Watch it and you'll fall in love with them all.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Don K. from BEAVERTON, OR
Reviewed on 4/13/2012...

Clever and cool. More twists and turns than a mountain road. A little bloody, but not gory. Huge cast. A fine addition to my collection.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Joseph M. (RoboticJoe) from TOLEDO, OH
Reviewed on 3/12/2011...

Great movie, great twist at the end, all around an awesome story! Very well written and the actors and actresses really made the characters come to life!

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

THIS is a romantic comedy?

Dennis Littrell | SoCal | 08/21/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Yes. You've seen "grunge on the run" romantic comedies--Wild at Heart (1990), Natural Born Killers (1994) come to mind, and poor waitress/crazy old man romantic comedies, e.g., As Good As It Gets (1997)--well, this is a mousy secretary/aging hit man romantic comedy.

Somewhat. It's also a tongue-in-the cheek satire on all things that Hollywood thinks movie-goers crave: cute dogs, sexy women, good-hearted underdogs winning out, dumb cops, the ugly rich (Greg Cruttwell's wormy Allan Hopper fits the bill), shoot-outs, blood, dead bodies (enough to grace a Shakespearean stage) and that favorite of testosterone males everywhere: a good old-fashioned cat fight.

Charlize Theron and Teri Hatcher provide the eye appeal as they slap and toss each other around; and to be honest I have to say they are definitely worth watching. Excellent support comes from James Spader, as an amazingly clean-shaven (what does he use--Nair?) psycho-sickie with a stopwatch.

But Danny Aiello is the real star. He plays Dosmo Pizzo, the over-the-hill hit man (currently moonlighting in embarrassment at the local pizzeria). He loses his hairpiece, finds redemption, true love, thirty thousand Big Ones, and presumably lives happily ever after on the lam with his unlikely moll (Glenne Headly) in this clever plot by coincidence from director and scriptwriter John Herzfeld.

(By the way, what's with Hollywood and its perverse love affair with sympathetic hit men? A new genre? The hit man as the underclass hero? I just saw Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) which stars John Cusack as a "cute" amoral murder artist. What next? The lovable terrorist? Knowing Hollywood, I think we can count on it.)

Anyway, Spader's character is not so lovable. He kills without the slightest qualm and takes a great delight in blowing people away. Charlize is his girl friend and they have lots of you-know-what together. Teri Hatcher is an Olympic class skier with a loser boyfriend. And the Valley of course is the San Fernando Valley just north of L.A., onetime home of the Valley girls, now best known as the porn capital of America.

Jeff Daniels and Eric Stoltz play Valley cops (who are not as smart as L.A. cops--one of the jokes in the movie, ha, ha, ha). Both do a great job. Daniels is street wise and quick on the trigger and a bit of a prude while Stoltz is naive and a wanna-be homicide inspector. There are half a dozen cameos by not so well-known but talented people like veteran Austin Pendleton who does a killer sarcastic monologue on the directorial failures of suicidal Teddy Peppers (Paul Mazursky). One-time "Goodbye Girl" Marsha Mason has a modest part as a sweet and realistic nurse, and she is excellent. And there are dogs. You gotta have dogs.

However what makes this work is some clever dialogue and some satirical plot ideas, but mainly it is a tour de force of acting by a talented and highly professional cast. This is one of those movies in which every actor is a threat to steal the show at any time one way or the other. In a way it's a parade of cameos cleverly stitched together and then nicely edited.

But see this for James Spader whose skill playing nerdish weirdos is on fine display."

An Underrated Ensemble Drama / Crime Thriller.

Bradley Tobin | Penrith, Sydney NSW Australia | 04/18/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Many people put this in the "Quentin Tarantino Rip-off" pile, but it really owes more of a debt to Robert Altman than it does to Tarantino. Sure, it has Crime Thriller elements, but at its Core it is an Ensemble Drama akin to "Short Cuts" and "Magnolia".The Star-Studded Cast includes Eric Stoltz (as a discontent vice cop), Jeff Daniels (as Eric's hard-nosed partner), James Spader (as an ice-cold hit man), Danny Aiello (as a washed-up hit man), Charlize Theron (as James' accomplice/girlfriend), Teri Hatcher (as a murder witness) and Glenne Headly (as a Hostage). They, and Everyone else in the film, give Fitting, Seasoned Performances.Stoltz and Spader give the Best performances, both Funny and Real. Especially Spader, he virtually Carries the Film. Charlize Theron, in one of her first films, is Very, very Attention-Grabbing, through her Looks and her Abilities. Daniels and Hatcher appear too Infrequently to be Memorable. Aiello and Headly give equally Likeable performances that become the Moral Centre of the film.The film, like all the ones mentioned above, follows a Series of Unconnected stories that somehow Intersect with each other at the climax. To explain How would spoil the fun of Watching it all Unravel Yourself. Writer/Director John Herzfeld smartly resists the temptation to Modernize and Spice up his Direction, allowing the Actors to tell the tale."

Underrated but Amazing

mugentyper | Canada | 10/27/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"2 Days in the Valley is a great movie for anyone. If you like interesting story lines accompanied by amazing performances by very talented actors/actresses then you should watch 2 Days in the Valley. This movie packs a lot of star power with names such as Charlize Theron, Teri Hatcher, Eric Stoltz, Danny Aiello, Jeff Bridges and James Spader.

The story revolves around the events surrounding different characters, all unrelated. The movie has many sub-plots and develops them all independantely until they all merge together and we get the big picture. Throughout the movie, we learn important details that are all leading up to a great finale.

2 Days in the Valley isn't one of those mediocre films with a few good scenes here and there, it is packed with quality moments throughout. This allows you to watch it over and over again, enjoying it each time.

2 Days in the Valley is both funny with its wit as well as engaging with the ensuing drama. There is no great purpose or lesson to be learned from 2 Days in the Valley; it's just a fun movie that is sure to entertain.

As far as the DVD special features go, since it's an older movie the special features are pretty ghetto and consist of trailers but hey, what can you do.

I definately reccomend it to anyone willing to try new things.
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