Best movie of this year hands down!

Simply Perfect

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Danny DeVito directs and co-stars with Jack Nicholson in Hoffa. DeVito had high hopes for the film and felt that not only would it be a commercial success but a critical one with awards for cinematography, production design and acting.The film failed at the box office and did not garner the awards expected. The reason because the film is a honourable failure. There is a script by David Mamet and although there are some great production values its not consistent. There is a great scene where Hoffa is talking to some people in a corridor of a building with big windows. Through the windows you can see a courtyard with a market going on with people going about in period costume. In a costume drama, many other people because of the budgetary concerns would had done it just in a walled corridor.However you have scenes where its obviously done in a film set and some scenes are obviously staged such as the hunting scene.The biggest problem is the film does not address the audience outside of the USA who have little or no idea of who Hoffa was. I heard about him as a college student mainly to do with the fact that this a notorious Union leader who is now supporting some bridge under a highway!During the initial scenes when DeVito's character who is a composite of several real life persons first meets Hoffa, I had no idea when the meeting took place. In the 1930s or 40s or the 50s? When Hoffa takes over the Teamster union and wants some people fired, why exactly did he want this? Who were this people that he wanted fired? As we do not know this people do we care? What exactly did Hoffa do wrong for him to be imprisoned? Getting a shady Italian-American to make money for you via some loans is not illegal surely at that time unless it was actual money laundering. Wikipedia tells me that it was fraud, jury tampering and bribery. The film is called Hoffa yet we know so little about him after viewing the film.The film is told in flashbacks as Hoffa waits for a meeting in a parking lot of a diner. Again we are not told of the time period of this setting which should be the mid 1970s as that is when he disappeared although the ending in this film leave little doubt what happens to Hoffa.Its a well constructed film of a man that divides America but DeVito the director needed Mamet to put more detailed in the script so we have a better idea of who Hoffa was.

This is a really bad movie! It's such a shame that Danny De Vito doesn't stick to directing comedies because he is much more suited to that style. Jack Nicholson acted very well but not outstanding, however his acting i believe did redeem the film a little. The films story line was all over the place and very confusing if you did not know the history behind it. Many of the scenes were filmed on built cardboard sets which was very obvious throughout and looked shockingly bad. Danny De Vito's character was completely fictional and seemed to have been placed in the movie due to his own admiration for Jimmy Hoffa. A number of scenes in the film were laughable , very over dramatized and patriotic. I do appreciate how difficult biographical movies are to make but this one is awful and considering the amount of highly skilled actors involved a complete disappointment.

I freely admit I have not even finished watching this movie on DVD before reviewing it.I know what happened to Hoffa, so I haven't been gripping the edge of my seat. In fact, I have not been gripping it since I started to watch this in fits and starts since last night.I have an excuse. I live in Tunis, where there is not much action, and the TV is terrible so I buy a lot of films on DVDs. If it's English and has a big name star, I'll buy it.But what in the name of whatever was the reason for making this film? No one believes Hoffa was a saint. And they made up the deVito character. Hoffa's jibes at Bobby Kennedy, his uselessness and the family's history as rum-runners is good, but we knew that.I like it that there can be films giving the other side to the dominance of capitalism in the States, but this does not do this.Anyway, movies are meant to entertain, to move, to help you identify with a hero, to tell a story of success towards a goal, to show a great love story...If I had been watching this film in a cinema all the way back in the early 90s with even the best love object of my life, I would have said about 45 mins through, 'I'm off to the pub, luv', and I am sure she would have followed me.I suppose in those days if you had Nicholson and Mamet, you had a success.But no.And if you'll excuse me, because it is raining very heavily outside and anyway it is close to curfew at 10pm because of our recent revolution, I will pour a very large whisky and cringe through however many minutes are left.

Hoffa is a film with two distinguished actors: Nicholson and DeVito. However, it is also a propaganda film of a rather vicious composition, with greatly reduces its quality. It tries to portray Jimmy Hoffa, one of the contemporary leading American union leaders. This is done in such a downgrading way, which is not substantiated by evidence, that it must be painful to all those who valued the man. In addition it implies that unions are interwoven with organized crime. It is hard to understand what motivated DeVito to direct and produce this film. Is it the desire to shock and provoke? Union busting? I don't know all the details (who does?), but imagine that Hoffa was an exceptional and controversial personality. In fact Stallone made a similar film "FIST" based on the life of Hoffa, which is much more sympathetic and nevertheless tactfully abstains from using Hoffas name. Let us first look at the facts, that emerge from the film Hoffa. Jimmy Hoffa started as a local union official with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union of Transport personnel. He advocated a confronting method of collective bargaining, including an aggressive attitude of picket lines (which probably fitted the trade). In this way he succeeded in realizing results for the workers, although he also disregarded the orders of the national union board. There were also defeats. One time he lead a demonstration against a railway company, that employed a large bunch of thugs (private security?), who beat several of the demonstrators to death. Eventually he was elected president of the Teamsters. In the mean time a senatorial committee under the chairmanship of Robert kennedy accused him of having connections with communists and the mafia (a rather funny combination - but it is of coarse true that political figures can be affiliated with crime). Later Hoffa was accused of abusing the pension fund of the Teamsters, and convicted. However, the evidence is not really conclusive. Any way, after five years Hoffa was freed on parole. Shortly afterwards, he mysteriously disappeared. These appear to be the facts. Now the fictional (dramatized) additions of DeVito: at the start Nicholson (playing Hoffa) lighted the warehouse of a rebellious employer. Hoffa made a deal with the mafia, allowing them to rob the cargo of Teamster trucks. Hoffa managed the pension fund of the Teamsters together with the mafia. After his release from prison Hoffa wanted to regain power of the Teamsters and tried to murder one of its leaders. DeVito knows (so he tells us) that Hoffa was actually liquidated by his "former mafia mates". If for some reason you really truly hate unions, this is the film for you. Otherwise I recommend you to shun this portrayal. If you are just interested in collective bargaining or even sympathize with unionism, there are definitely more informative and realistic accounts. Try Salt of the Earth, Norma Rae, Bread and Roses, Harlan County War, Matewan, Man of Iron. Or take a look at the other films about social action, that I have reviewed here on IMDb.