Powerful

Boring

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Barry Champlain (Eric Bogosian) is a hard-talking Jewish radio late-night show host in Dallas. Laura (Leslie Hope) is his latest young producer and sex partner. Stu (John C. McGinley) is his long-time call screener. It's Friday night. His boss Dan (Alec Baldwin) has just negotiated a nation-wide deal with Metro Wave. Their representative Dietz (John Pankow) is observing his show. With the new pressures, Barry begs his ex-wife Ellen (Ellen Greene) to help him. She was there from the very start when he was just a slick-talking suit salesman and she arrives for his big Monday night debut. It's a nightly onslaught of racist Chet, dim-witted Debbie, druggie Kent (Michael Wincott) who claims his girlfriend has OD, and many many others.This is an intense hard-talking thriller from Oliver Stone. Bogosian's performance is something special. The verbal gymnastic is incredible. It's the wonderful cesspool of human fears and loathing.

It's an interesting film, that's the least I can say about it, but I'm not entirely sure what I think of Eric Bogosian's character Barry and his acting or what Oliver Stone is trying to tell me here. The dialogue consists of many more or less obvious, juxtaposed points of view of the talk show host versus the listeners / callers, and after a while it feels sort of gimmicky. At the same time, there is a wry love story developing, and it even seems that Barry fore-feels his untimely demise. Politics, thriller, love story, they should only be mixed with great care.Bogosian and Stone surely try their best to deliver an edgy piece, but I suppose it only worked in some parts for me. Michael Wincott's performance as a hard rock cliché come to life was hilarious to the point of getting scary, by the way. All in all, I had an interesting time with this, but perhaps I should see it again sometime to be able to wrap my head around all of the dialogue.A good 7 out of 10 for now.

Unforgettable. But in a way the civil discourse in Talk Radio is somewhat mild compared to now, believe it or not.Eric Bogosian owns the role (it's based on his stage role) and you either love him or hate him, or you cheer for him as he's the head of his late night community of listeners. You wonder if he encourages them, or despises them. But he needs them for ratings and to broadcast to a bigger market.This movie should be shown at any journalism school, particularly those seeking a career in talk radio.It's a cautionary tale for sure, back then and now.

Everybody loves a good cynical movie, right? Right? Well if you don't then Oliver Stone's Talk Radio probably isn't for you. It tells the story of talk radio host Barry Champlain whose local Dallas, Texas show is about to go into national syndication. Barry is cynical, rude, obnoxious, yet truthful. He tells people how it is and he doesn't hold back if he thinks that someone deserves to be told off. Because of this he is becoming one of the most hated figures in Dallas. People call into his radio station with threats, dark remarks, and strong opinions about what Barry is doing. And he feeds off of all of it. But the growing hatred of his persona causes Barry to slowly break down as his coworkers at the station watch on, unable to connect to the man in any way. It is a tragically fascinating story.Any movie with a such a fast paced and snappy script I will automatically fall in love with. Thus after about fifteen minutes of Talk Radio I was star crossed. The dialouge in this film is excellent and it carries so well from start to finish. This film isn't flashy and grand. It is pretty limited on location and, in fact, about 85 percent of the film takes place in the radio station. The script is what shines in this film and it's very obvious. It excellently blends its element of short staccato dialouge with incredibly eloquent monolouges. The whole film is built from its sharp script.But where would a script be without fantastic actors and actresses available to deliver the witty lines. All I can say is thank god for Eric Bogosian, the actor who plays Barry. He is incredible in this film. He delivers all of his lines with a poignant eloquency that carries so well throughout the film and makes some scenes absolutely riveting to watch. This is a powerful film and Bogosian's incredible performance makes it all the more memorable. He also has that perfect radio voice. It's robust, it's articulate, and it is stern. He's a person I could listen to for hours on end, as many people do in this film, that is, the few who actually like Barry's radio show and aren't deeply offended by it. Bogosian plays this highly unlikeable character to perfection and makes him very enjoyable and fascinating to watch.This film was shaping up to be something that was amazingly mind blowing. That was until the ending. The final event of the film is hinted at throughout and you are in high anxiety while anticipating it. And when it finally happens it ended up being really cheesy and extremely disappointing. The film then ends with about five minutes of city pans with voice over that I found completely unnecessary. The voice overs are also coupled with a really lame soundtrack that just made me hang my head in shame. I felt the last five minutes of the film negates everything from the beginning and it really disappointed me. I adored everything about this film until those final few minutes when I was just sorely disappointed.Talk Radio is a fantastic film that needs more recognition than it has. It is compelling, riveting, and even pretty hilarious at times. It is masterfully made up until those last five minutes where my opinion of the film just started to plummet. But it doesn't mean I'm going to ever think of this film as a bad film because it is not. The other hour and forty five minutes are incredible. So much so that if it had succeeded in resolving well this could have made it into the list of my favorite movies. But instead it is just going to end up being a very good film that I won't forget, but won't revere as one of the greatest films ever made.