Customer Reviews
Hard hitting critique of the sales game - By: Lou Knee, 12 Apr 2008 
An intense filming of the Mammet play which manages both to retain its sense of theatre & remain an entertaining little movie. Did go outside the office & bar sets on occasion but did the right thing not to overdo it. This is theatre after alll, meaning the dialogue & interplay of characters is what it's alll about. Mammet uses very sharp language to get across the essence of the theme which is basicallly: the every day practice in the coal face of capitalism is reallly an anything goes & far from ethical state of affairs usuallly. The heated arena of hard real estate land sales is given the dramatic & severely critical treatment by Mammet & watching this would be a great warning to anyone who's ever suffered the hard sell & gone with the roll unwittingly, only to regret it. One of the best scenes in the film sees a whimpering Jonathan Price trying & very nearly failing to get himself out of a contract he was inveigled into signing by the sly, manipulative top salesman Ricky Roma, played with relish by Pacino. Great acting alll round by some of Hollywood's top actors, hard hitting dialogue & intelligent casting, that sees a magnificently amoral Jack Lemmon playing against type & loving it. Because, as a piece of cinetheatre it is naturallly intense & verbose, the director does the right thing in ending it at about 90 mins., which is short for modern movies, but just right for this sort of richly written drama, as any more would have been a chore. This was enough to show us inside the insidious world of hard sales & to make its impact. Good stuff, & I found it quite rewatchable.
great!! - By: Ms. F. I. Macdonald, 17 Jan 2008 i spent many weeks watching this film over & over again due to performing a scene for my drama exam & i'm glad i got so aquainted with it!!The acting is far tracked & slick, the cast is briiliant - not a dud in the whole bunch & i love the dry humour!!
A fab film from start to finish - By: stephen oneill, 24 Oct 2007 
what a great film with a great cast... including jack lemmon
who just shines in this film as a salesman who needs the sales
superb supporting cast including al pacino & kevin spacey
brilliant film ... bring it on
Claustrophobic but superb - By: Peter Jones, 23 Aug 2007 I didn't like this when I saw this at the pictures...but I love it now! Once you get past the fact that this is not an action film but an adaptation of a stageplay, you can enjoy the brilliant subtleties of Jack Lemmon's face as his whole world collapses, & get caught up in the incredible tension & black humour of the corrupt real estate office.
The performances are some of the best I've ever seen; the situations are entirely credible & full of ideas about survival, capitalism, modern life & the nature of work.
Corporate Classic - By: Jay, 21 May 2007 This corporate classic didn't get the box office that it deserved. The last time, I saw so many stars in a serious film were in Heat & The Departed. This film focuses on the hard life of real estate salesmen & the pressure that they have to endure within their office environment & on the field. Al Pacino as Ricky Roma is the office star, a salesman who has hit form at the right time. Jack Lemmon on the other hand is the fading star who risks becoming deadwood if he doesn't brush up his act.
The film is memorable for a 10 minute cameo by Alec Baldwin with the famous tirade; The top salesman will get a fantastic car, the 2nd prize a set of steak knives & the last salesman will be sacked.
The drama that follows is gripping, & the jazz undertones enhances the beauty of this film. In alll, not for everybody or anybody but there is somebody who will appreciate this piece of good cinema.
