Two Bits

A movie about how life itself is better than any movie. At least, if you live in the movies. Or better still, it seems to say, in a movie theatre which is IN a movie. Unlike real-life movie theatres. The acting in this movie is not so good. The story-line is pretty predictable. The script shines in the humorous dialog between Al Pacino, the dying grandfather, and the boy, which is where the magic happens. Everything else is, eh.

I am a Al Pacino fan, recently i made it a point to watch all of the movies he has made. After watching Two Bits, it really made me realize the value of money; the work that little Genero was willing to do for five cents, for ten cents, the lady that lady that stole ten cents worth of potatoes from the local grocer! This was not Pacino's best work but i did enjoy watching it.

source: Two Bits

Most of the Depression stories focus on Jewish families and usually in New York. This one focuses on Italian families in S. Philadelphia. There is a lot of intelligence and insight, but the embarrassingly sentimental spin loses the inherent irony. And that music is probably the most cloyingly mawkish I have ever heard. I would pair this with "Christ in Concrete" to get an emotional balance.

You never get tiered from watching this movie. first this movie succeeds to touch your heart and make it wonder with the little boy Gennaro "Jerry Barone" He did his part very well, with his pure wondering face and great acting managed to make this movie one of the best drama screen ever. The story carry a pain of a widow wife, mistakes of an ill old man and a hope of a little child. Manage to present the different classes among people 'How can this people have money while we are poor, and how can they celebrate while my grandpa. is sick' Genaro said this movie rates 9/10

My summary rewrites the famous U2 song from their "War" album because it's appropriate to describe the mood of this movie. In a way, it's a peaceful, almost happy last moments between a boy and his grandfather. Compared to my recent watching of the Swedish "Svinalängorna", it's almost a day and night for a same situation. Here, there isn't tension, cry or shouts. Maybe this difference comes that Al is really warmly with his grandson unlike Noomi was distant and cold with her mother. It may not be the best part of Al but so far, it's the one in which he is almost totally disabled as he doesn't move: he can rely only with his hands and his eyes and in a look similar to the old Godfather at the end of Part III, he manages to pass emotion. The good surprise of the movie is that it has a lot more to offer: it's also a sort of "stand by me" in the big depression as the young boy learns life lessons from unexpected and unusual moments: It's subtle and intelligent as the boy's quest for 25 cents mirrors the demands of the jobless. It has also a clear, colorful vision of the 30s that finally looks like the 50s except for the TV and the music. Its final message about enjoying life whatever happens is hopeful at least. Personally, it parallels also my life as I can also pinpoint my grandparents death with events as grandpa died on Christmas day and grandma died on my nephews birthday. Next, the movie closes as the boy's family urges him kindly to go away from the dead body of his grandfather in a way to protect him. Mine, precisely my mother, slapped me because i didn't want to see the dead body of my grandfather to protect me!

Not much action here, but a nice little drama in a big day for grandpa and grandson.

This movie is beautifully done. It is one of my favorites. It is a glimpse at another time. It is a movie about values. The whole movie is about one big day in the life of a boy growing up in the depression in Philadelphia and the wisdom his grandfather passes on. It is a touching and rewarding movie. The hopelessness of the depression comes out effectively in the movie. Gennaro and Tullio are just ordinary kids that aren't perfect. There is an interesting interplay between a child's honest selfishness and the relationship between wanting and needing. Pacino: "Your heart wants, your belly needs." Wanting is good because it requires hope. Many touching lines between Pacino (grandfather) and Barone (Gennaro). There is some humor also. Favorite line: Gennaro- "There's no milk!" See it and find out why I liked that line!

"Two Bits" was a noticeable change for Al Pacino, casting him as a man getting his grandson (Jerry Barone) to rectify an age-old matter in 1933 Philadelphia in exchange for a chance to go to the movies. Watching the movie, one gets a sense of the poverty characteristic of the Great Depression, but also how people understood that they had to try and go on no matter what. I realize that some people may consider it bad taste - if not unethical - to use the Great Depression for the setting of a nearly magical story, but I wish to assert that the movie did a very impressive job portraying the setting without getting sappy; then again, how could an Al Pacino movie be sappy? I recommend it. Also starring Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

This movie made me think of - the much better - King of the Hill where we see the direct environment of a rather poor kid. I don't know how they got Al Pacino for this very mediocre (almost bad) mellow movie about a kid who would do anything for a dime to go to the movies. The plot is about the relationship between the dying grandfather Pacino and the young kid during the depression. The last one was not convincing throughout the movie, but Pacino's acting was again outstanding. The make-up "tried" to make him look like an old grandpa, but it's his acting that makes him look like he was really suffering and could die every second of the movie. From the moment the movie starts i was waiting for the moment he dies and whispers his last words to his grandson. There are original parts in the story, but not enough. This is a movie for Pacino fans and younger kids. A last positive thing: no matter how mellow a movie is, if it contains a story, you can learn from it!