Reviews (1)

holy smoke in holy land
This movie could have been a victim of Amos Kollek's vanity since he wrote, directed and acts in it, and his father is the Mayor of Jerusalem. But fortunately, he also had the sense to cast Faye Dunaway as his lead. In spite of being unable to shake off elements of the gorgon Joan (as predicted by Pauline Kael in her review of Mommie Dearest in The New Yorker), Dunaway lends her considerable presence and technique to the part of a temp journalist in Israel, eager to make an impression. She even gets to take her own photos, a la Laura Mars. At first Dunaway doesn't quite know to respond to Kollek as a suitor (and his performance is so ineffectual that he can't even read a joke well) but soon we get taken away by her and become reliant on her reactions. This film is an improvement on Costa Gavras' Hanna K, since Kollek's focus is stronger, and because he provides a positively brilliant ending, we're probably willing to forgive his own throw-away performance. This film also features Hanna K's accused terrorist Mohammed Bakri in a similar role. (Talk about being typecast!) It also contains interviews with various partisan leaders, including Hanan Ashwari, Abba Egan, and Rabbi Meir Kahane (who was assassinated shortly after the film was made). What is interesting is that the interviews don't affect the tone of the film, since Kollek introduces each location in a similar way, and also because there is no attempt made to allegiance. In spite of Kollek's character being Jewish he is still able to visit a Palestinian household without being murdered. I got a laugh at how Dunaway is offered Moscow as her next assignment, but it's an assignment I'd sure like to follow up on, since seeing Dunaway in the lead of a film is so rare these days. That's of course, if she survives her time in Israel. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A mess
Julie Hagerty's finest hour will always be her doggedly literal-minded stewardess in "Airplane" ("He's in the hospital." "The hospital? What is it?" "It's a big place with lots of sick people. But that's not important right now.") This film, on the other hand, which slunk onto my TV screen late one night as if the national television service were rightly ashamed of it, is not going to generate any joyful grins, except perhaps from the Israeli Tourist Board.

The premise is confused to begin with. Hagerty discovers her alarmingly smooth-haired husband in bed with another woman and promptly jets off to Paris. But by a less than hilarious series of circumstances, she ends up in Israel with no money and no luggage. She goes to work on a kibbutz (you'll sit stony-faced as she not very amusingly grapples with bunches of bananas.) More interested in painting her nails than working for the good of the homeland, she earns the disrespect of her flatmate (Aviva Ger, delectable but with the perplexed intensity of someone more used to playing Hedda Gabler in the national theatre than acting in a "gentle comedy".) She meets various men, all of whom turn out dodgy. Eventually she sort-of gets together with this nice guy (Amos Kollek).

Kollek has a pleasant onscreen manner, dry and hangdog, like an even more Jewish Woody Allen without the worry lines. But the script is a rambling mess, a string of anecdotes with no forward movement, and the direction is more daytime-soap-quality than movie standard. When not being merely baffling in its inconsequentiality, it's confused as to whether it's a farce or a movie about How Julie Got Her Groove Back. There are lots of nice shots of lakes and Jerusalem and that's about it. Surely Israel can make better movies than this.

Goodbye, New York...Hello, great movie!!
Well, to me, "Goodbye, New York" is a sweet, romantic comedy that is almost like "Sleepless in Seattle", but not quite. "Goodbye, New York" has Julie Hagerty's character playing an angry New Yorker who finds out that her husband has been cheating on her with another woman and leaves him. She gets on a plane to Paris, but eventually ends up in Tel Aviv and joins a group in the process. This is one of Julie Hagerty's better films to me, even though she was great in both "Airplane" movies and "What About Bob?". This is also kind of ironic because Julie is the only major star in the film. But that doesn't matter because this movie has comedy and a little bit of drama. "Goodbye, New York" also has a little bit of heart as well. Truly one of the better Julie Hagerty movies. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very Nice Comedy!!
This Movie is shot on some of the seedy streets of New York City is about an aspiring novelist Schygulla(Hanna Schygulla) as she accidently becomes involved in a real life mystery involving murder and drugs.In one of Alex Balwins first film appearances as a cop trying to catch the drug dealers with special cameo appearances by Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Deborah Harry,this film is a very nice comedy!!

forever lulu
well i had just seen the movie forever lulu and my mother and i loved it so much that we really want to own it and i would love to get it for her as a gift her birthday is coming here in December so if i can find a video 10$and below i will be very happy to make my mother happy thank you have a wonderful day ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Lost hope
When I first started watching this movie I thought it was real lame due to the way it was shot and the acting.I really didn't feal anything for the actors and the made up stories either. But when then "writer" was interviewing the real life hookers some of the stories were really sad and moving. It is truly sad some of the things that happen to people in our society but there ae few easy answers on a topic like this.

I know that I'm not the only person who was mislead by the cover and the name "Whore 2"(I thought the first one was stupid and have only seen it once)but I think its worth a look. Don't expext much though,it's sad but interesting.

What A Terrific Effort: Puts Pretty Woman To Shame
As a New Yorker who spent a tremendous amount of time in Hell's Kitchen during the 1980's and 1990's, I cannot commend director Amos Kollek (who also plays the antihero in this film) enough for his honesty in creating such a gripping mirror image of the times. Though Kollek's character, Jack, may be detractingly virtuous, the viewer is too compelled by the reality of the landscape to notice. Kollek corralled actual Midtown Manhattan prostitutes for these interviews and splatters them on the screen warts and all without judgement. This is the most authentic NYC-based effort I've seen since STORY OF A JUNKIE and sends a real message that the over-glamorized Hollywood characterization of the modern streetwalker is nothing but bunk. ... Read more

Description

Overworked Manhattan coffee shop waitress Bella isn't looking forward to her 35th birthday. Stuck in a relationship with a married man for far too long, Bella takes a chance on frustrated novelist/taxi driver Bruno. Determined not to scare yet another man off with her dreams of marriage and family, Bella plays it cool and tells Bruno she hates children. A tough break for the womanizer since his ex-wife has just dumped two small children on him ... In her coffee shop world, Bella witnesses she's not alone in the bittersweet battle against romance's difficulties. Shy widower Paul struggles through the tender courtship of lively widow Emily. Ornery old Seymour gets a magical shot of youth when he falls for a sexy exotic dancer. Despite love's accompanying twists and turns, everyone holds out for the best. And the persistent Bella discovers fairy tales can come true...even in New York City. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

this was really good
The video cover said this is like the show "Friends if it actually were in New York" -- except no one is really friends with anyone. That said, it follows the interesting path of Bella, a diner waitress approaching her 35th birthday who has been in an affair with a married man since she was 23. (Bella is way skinny and attractive in that guppy-faced way most 1990s models had, but then it's an independent film.) Also no one ever dates anyone their own age. That's fine but EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the entire movie??? Please.

The loneliness in an urban space, coupled with ther fact that you actually know a lot of people, you just are not close to them, is very true. the stuttering streetwalker from Poland is an especially gripping charcater. The fact that the elderly gentleman Seymour wants to have coffee with Wanda from the live girl show and treat her to an old-fashioned date is way trite.

But what happens to Bella is interesting, varied and will hold your attention to the end. You end up feeling good by the time the closing credits roll.

Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow
This movie was filled with stereotypes and characters that just didn't make me care. The editing was self-indulgent and slow and there were several scenes that should have ended up on the cutting room floor. It is an uncomfortable movie with little warmth and an overdose of angst. The quirks that they tried to work in for the characters to make them human were very contrived and made me conscious I was watching a movie rather than allowing me to get involved in the story and characters as people. The actors did their best - but couldn't overcome the flaws in directing, editing and story line.

Louise Lasser does it again!!!
Louise Lasser is as brilliantly funny in this movie as she was in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman over 25 years ago. Although she has a supporting role, she fills the screen with her familiar style of comedy and sweetness. I recommend this film just because of her.

Sparkling
... I have to write about this glorious film as the average rating is way below acceptable. I saw it twice in one week, living in Greece this spring. This is an unusual, refreshing film about Bella, an unusual mid-30's NY woman, who refuses to live typically and a whole set of Big Apple characters she interacts with who share her life and her free spirit. How can you not adore a woman who throws her perfumed just-out-of-the-tub lush towels out the window to tantalize and warm the hobos under her apartment, a woman who still cares for her unkind older lover whom the camera has no sympathy for, and who herself has an elegant compassion for the colourful characters she waits on in her diner workplace or who interact with them? These include the exhibitionist peep show intellectual, the older guy with the shyness of an adolescent, as well as the taxi driver/closet writer and young father who is overawed by Bella's unique outlook and femininity, and you should be itching to know about the fantastical 5-D fairy tale outcome to a chance confrontation in the heroine's NY life. I can't wait for the video...when's it coming out?

I found it kind of strange... and not in a good way..
Normally, i like these kinds of movies, multiple characters who are all very different and weird or out there.. but I don't know.. i guess i never really got into this film completely.

First of all, I could never get past the looks of the main character. Normally, Im sort of sickened by those movies who have to have a beautiful heroine--and i don't know if Bella was supposed to be beautiful or not. She looked as if she was LA beautiful, but not really. She basically looked like a walking plastic surgery patient. Full blown lips, she must have had a face lift (it was distracting cause it looked like she had a difficult time talking) really skinny, really tall, with inflated breasts. I didn't understand, but her looks were distracting to me..

Another thing was that the May/December relationships in the movie were all over the place. I don't disagree with them, and i don't deny that they are out there, but it seems that's all there were! Bella was involved in an older married man, her boyfriend was sleeping with a 65 year old woman, and a regular at the diner started dating a dancer half his age.. I guess it would have made more sense to me if they had relationships across the map, not just older/younger ones.

I saw it in the LA weekly and there was a quote saying "What Friends would be like if they really lived in New York" I don't know about that.. it wasn't hilariously funny and the characters weren't ones that you fell in love with. It jumped around too much and some scenes had no point to them. Like when Bella undresses talking on the phone to her mother and a young boy stands outside watching her. It could have done just as well with her on the phone. I guess what im saying is that certain scenes didn't really go anywhere. But, there was some light humor and interesting parts.. maybe just wait for the rental? ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Lost hope
When I first started watching this movie I thought it was real lame due to the way it was shot and the acting.I really didn't feal anything for the actors and the made up stories either. But when then "writer" was interviewing the real life hookers some of the stories were really sad and moving. It is truly sad some of the things that happen to people in our society but there ae few easy answers on a topic like this.

I know that I'm not the only person who was mislead by the cover and the name "Whore 2"(I thought the first one was stupid and have only seen it once)but I think its worth a look. Don't expext much though,it's sad but interesting.

What A Terrific Effort: Puts Pretty Woman To Shame
As a New Yorker who spent a tremendous amount of time in Hell's Kitchen during the 1980's and 1990's, I cannot commend director Amos Kollek (who also plays the antihero in this film) enough for his honesty in creating such a gripping mirror image of the times. Though Kollek's character, Jack, may be detractingly virtuous, the viewer is too compelled by the reality of the landscape to notice. Kollek corralled actual Midtown Manhattan prostitutes for these interviews and splatters them on the screen warts and all without judgement. This is the most authentic NYC-based effort I've seen since STORY OF A JUNKIE and sends a real message that the over-glamorized Hollywood characterization of the modern streetwalker is nothing but bunk. ... Read more

Description

Overworked Manhattan coffee shop waitress Bella isn't looking forward to her 35th birthday.Stuck in a relationship with a married man for far too long, Bella takes a chance on frustrated novelist/taxi driver Bruno. Determined not to scare yet another man off with her dreams of marriage and family, Bella plays it cool and tells Bruno she hates children. A tough break for the womanizer since his ex-wife has just dumped two small children on him ...

In her coffee shop world, Bella witnesses she's not alone in the bittersweet battle against romance's difficulties. Shy widower Paul struggles through the tender courtship of lively widow Emily. Ornery old Seymour gets a magical shot of youth when he falls for a sexy exotic dancer. Despite love's accompanying twists and turns, everyone holds out for the best. And the persistent Bella discovers fairy tales can come true...even in New York City. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

this was really good
The video cover said this is like the show "Friends if it actually were in New York" -- except no one is really friends with anyone. That said, it follows the interesting path of Bella, a diner waitress approaching her 35th birthday who has been in an affair with a married man since she was 23. (Bella is way skinny and attractive in that guppy-faced way most 1990s models had, but then it's an independent film.) Also no one ever dates anyone their own age. That's fine but EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the entire movie??? Please.

The loneliness in an urban space, coupled with ther fact that you actually know a lot of people, you just are not close to them, is very true. the stuttering streetwalker from Poland is an especially gripping charcater. The fact that the elderly gentleman Seymour wants to have coffee with Wanda from the live girl show and treat her to an old-fashioned date is way trite.

But what happens to Bella is interesting, varied and will hold your attention to the end. You end up feeling good by the time the closing credits roll.

Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow
This movie was filled with stereotypes and characters that just didn't make me care. The editing was self-indulgent and slow and there were several scenes that should have ended up on the cutting room floor. It is an uncomfortable movie with little warmth and an overdose of angst. The quirks that they tried to work in for the characters to make them human were very contrived and made me conscious I was watching a movie rather than allowing me to get involved in the story and characters as people. The actors did their best - but couldn't overcome the flaws in directing, editing and story line.

Louise Lasser does it again!!!
Louise Lasser is as brilliantly funny in this movie as she was in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman over 25 years ago. Although she has a supporting role, she fills the screen with her familiar style of comedy and sweetness. I recommend this film just because of her.

Sparkling
... I have to write about this glorious film as the average rating is way below acceptable. I saw it twice in one week, living in Greece this spring. This is an unusual, refreshing film about Bella, an unusual mid-30's NY woman, who refuses to live typically and a whole set of Big Apple characters she interacts with who share her life and her free spirit. How can you not adore a woman who throws her perfumed just-out-of-the-tub lush towels out the window to tantalize and warm the hobos under her apartment, a woman who still cares for her unkind older lover whom the camera has no sympathy for, and who herself has an elegant compassion for the colourful characters she waits on in her diner workplace or who interact with them? These include the exhibitionist peep show intellectual, the older guy with the shyness of an adolescent, as well as the taxi driver/closet writer and young father who is overawed by Bella's unique outlook and femininity, and you should be itching to know about the fantastical 5-D fairy tale outcome to a chance confrontation in the heroine's NY life. I can't wait for the video...when's it coming out?

I found it kind of strange... and not in a good way..
Normally, i like these kinds of movies, multiple characters who are all very different and weird or out there.. but I don't know.. i guess i never really got into this film completely.

First of all, I could never get past the looks of the main character. Normally, Im sort of sickened by those movies who have to have a beautiful heroine--and i don't know if Bella was supposed to be beautiful or not. She looked as if she was LA beautiful, but not really. She basically looked like a walking plastic surgery patient. Full blown lips, she must have had a face lift (it was distracting cause it looked like she had a difficult time talking) really skinny, really tall, with inflated breasts. I didn't understand, but her looks were distracting to me..

Another thing was that the May/December relationships in the movie were all over the place. I don't disagree with them, and i don't deny that they are out there, but it seems that's all there were! Bella was involved in an older married man, her boyfriend was sleeping with a 65 year old woman, and a regular at the diner started dating a dancer half his age.. I guess it would have made more sense to me if they had relationships across the map, not just older/younger ones.

I saw it in the LA weekly and there was a quote saying "What Friends would be like if they really lived in New York" I don't know about that.. it wasn't hilariously funny and the characters weren't ones that you fell in love with. It jumped around too much and some scenes had no point to them. Like when Bella undresses talking on the phone to her mother and a young boy stands outside watching her. It could have done just as well with her on the phone. I guess what im saying is that certain scenes didn't really go anywhere. But, there was some light humor and interesting parts.. maybe just wait for the rental? ... Read more

Reviews (2)

This movie is the anti-Pretty Woman...it's reality
This film is about as gutwrenchingly real and gritty as you can get. This is NOT Pretty Woman, this is what the life of a prostitute is really like, no glamor, no fluff, no Richard Gere. Fiona's story, and those of her friends and her mother, is the story of too many women and children in our society, and unless you have no soul, this is very hard viewing. I watched this movie on late night television yesterday and the reviewer gave it one star. Well, I guess some people can't relate to the truth...

The "actors" in this film appear to be "real" people from the streets. Their honesty in portraying what their world is like can only be commended. Kudos to each and every one of them and to the director as well for having the guts to do this film. The movie has a documentary feel, in the sense that you can hear the camera whirring in the background, there is no dramatic sound track, no fake moaning when one of the prostitutes has to perform a sexual act. The danger and the disempowerment these women must deal with, their heartbreaking search for love, and the disillusionment and sense of hopelessness they face are all powerfully portrayed, as is their underlying rage. So, why, you may ask, would you want to watch such a depressing movie? Because maybe it will give you a little more insight, a little more compassion, and perhaps help you to understand that fellow human being you walk past on the street. I especially recommend this film to men who frequent prostitutes...if you think they're having fun or that they are not "a person", think again...

I highly recommend this movie for the brave of heart.

WIERD MOVIE - but strangely good.
if you want to see a semi softcore porn involving Fiona- who was abandoned by her prostitute mother, only to be mollested throughout her childhood in foster care, and eventualy becomes a crack smoking, heroine shooting, sometimes lesbian, prostitute, (who eventualy almost has sex with her mother when they unknowingly reunite the day before she jumps off a building later in life..) its a movie for you. it was actualy VERY true to real life. I dont think most of the people were actors, it looks like they got them off the street. very realistic film. just..... wierd. but a good wierd! oh yeah-its also like as low budget as they come. but that also makes it unique. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very Nice Comedy!!
This Movie is shot on some of the seedy streets of New York City is about an aspiring novelist Schygulla(Hanna Schygulla) as she accidently becomes involved in a real life mystery involving murder and drugs.In one of Alex Balwins first film appearances as a cop trying to catch the drug dealers with special cameo appearances by Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Deborah Harry,this film is a very nice comedy!!

forever lulu
well i had just seen the movie forever lulu and my mother and i loved it so much that we really want to own it and i would love to get it for her as a gift her birthday is coming here in December so if i can find a video 10$and below i will be very happy to make my mother happy thank you have a wonderful day ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very Nice Comedy!!
This Movie is shot on some of the seedy streets of New York City is about an aspiring novelist Schygulla(Hanna Schygulla) as she accidently becomes involved in a real life mystery involving murder and drugs.In one of Alex Balwins first film appearances as a cop trying to catch the drug dealers with special cameo appearances by Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Deborah Harry,this film is a very nice comedy!!

forever lulu
well i had just seen the movie forever lulu and my mother and i loved it so much that we really want to own it and i would love to get it for her as a gift her birthday is coming here in December so if i can find a video 10$and below i will be very happy to make my mother happy thank you have a wonderful day ... Read more

Reviews (1)

TEDDY KOLLECK: AN HISTORIC FIGURE OF JERUSALEM
Amos Kollek, Teddy's son, assembled a very respectable documentary film which examines the history of pre- and post-World War II Palestine/Israel associated with the life of among its most colorful founders.

Teddy Kolleck, born in 1911 in Austria-Hungary had been a classical Zionist since boyhood. By 1935, he was trained in farming and then joined other young pioneering European Jews to establish an agricultural settlement in the British protectorate of Palestine. Amazingly, there are film records of each phase of this history. Teddy had always been charming, engendered trust and had a way with people. He was very well liked in those early days by the Palestinian Arabs with, whom he became friends.

Amos' film takes us through World War II, the establishment of Israel as a state after its war of independence. Reluctantly, Teddy became the mayor of the Old Jerusalem (some 1/3 the size of te city after the Six Day War). What set Teddy apart was his senistivity to the Arab citizens of his city who he treatewd with great respect and equality. After his 28 years of repeatedly being elected mayor, Teddy is shown to become very angry that the Palestinian youth engaged in the violent Intefada. Teddy took this personally, unable to understand why after his exhaustive work for them these young people had turned against him.

But more than about Teddy Kollek, the film provides and excellent overview of the living history of Israel, Palestine and its people. There is little hint of political or social bias in the film. It seems to be a fair telling of the story of the people who made 20th Century history in the Middle East, and lets us get to know what kinds of people these were and what kinds of lives they led.

Very interesting film and story. ... Read more