User reviews

"Burnzy's Last Call" is very much a theatre piece put on film. The concept of a group of friends and strangers, all misfits with a story, meeting in a bar goes from Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Commeth" to William Saroyan's "The Time Of Your Life" all the way to Burrows/Charleses "Cheers".

Structurally, "Brunzy's" very much matches "Time Of Your Life". Joe is Burnzy. Frances is Nick. Minsky is Krupp. Etc. The feel good ending (Kit Carson doesn't kill anyone) was probably added to make the picture more commercial.

The ensemble acting done by mostly unknown New York actors is yoeman. There are no special effect or plot twist. It is purely slice of life without "Cheers" humor or "Time of Your Life" lyricisim.

An okay indie that is no more than what it is.

I'll be completely honest, I wanted to like this film a lot more than I did.

I stumbled upon it in a search for something else, and it appealed to me: the style of filmmaking, the time period, the cast. When I saw Tony Todd in the trailer playing a role very much unlike his usual horror icon type, I thought it was definitely worth a view.

Two things before going in: despite the release date, the film was made in 94. This appealed to me more, to see the cast in earlier up-and-coming years than today, as well as the setting- at the time I was a staple in a seedy city bar, so I got that kind of feel watching the film too. Also, the original cut is a bit shy of 90 mins, and the cut I watched (streamed) was a little more than 45 mins. What happened here that they edited out half the film?

The film centers around a bar during a night in the late 80's (in which it's set), and a number of different characters come and go in little vignettes. People come and go and have interactions with the bartender ('Sal', who is genial enough in a 90's soul patch kind of way, but not enough to the point you really get invested in him), with Burnzy (who at first I thought was the owner but I believe is just a regular...he tells poignant tales and waxes poetic), and with each other.

PROS:

• it's not at all by any means a bad film. It's fun, interesting, and light hearted.

• I'll admit it faked me out, I thought the title was indicative of the story's conclusion, but it really had a nice heart warming light hearted ending that I enjoyed a lot

• Performances are pretty top end from some notable Talent, as much as you get anyway. They all really put their all into it.

• If you're in it for nostalgic value, oh man, are you in for a treat. Between the style of filmmaking, the time period, the types, the clothes, the bar itself, it's a huge throwback to early 90's.

• The soundtrack if really good..for what you get of it.

CONS:

• some of the dialogue feels a little contrived. It's stylistic of indies of that time (like the opening monologue of a loan shark over the still photo in the opening credits). Some of it feels a little hokey.

• maybe it's just this cut, but it's very hard to get into the characters, mainly because most of them you don't really see so much.

• again, maybe due to the cut, but it feels like the actual night in the bar is so short. Just when you feel settled and getting into it, it's closing time.

• OK, so without spoiling...there's a wraparound making the analogy of the bar itself to a watering hole in the wild. As the film shows scenes it shows clips from said watering hole that relate to the upcoming vignette. I get it, really, and it's cute, but after a few times gets a bit trite. I don't think I would have minded as much if there was more story in between.

• All in all, some of the storylines felt like they were cut short.

• what happened to the soundtrack? If you go on

youtube you can find it- Deborah Harry, David Johansen, The Smithereens...it's really quite good, and you can catch it in bg as people talk, but it doesn't feel showcased, and I can't help but feel it should be.

I honestly don't know what happened here. Is it a great film? It's ok. To be honest it feels really kind of too Tarantino/Kevin Smith -y, and I wanted to be a lot more invested in the characters and the atmosphere than I felt I was for most of it...and just when I did start to feel that way the film ended. It's not however, by any means, a bad film. At all. It's got a nice warm feel, a great cast, and it does a lot with what it has.

What I don't understand is why it's being released in '22, when I can't help but think if this came out in a decent release when it was shot it could have been somewhat notable as an indy treasure and a cult classic. If you're into seeing a type of filmmaking that isn't really done these days, and get a nice feel for the time period, to get your nostalgia thing on, I'd say give it a view. It's definitely an indy film of it's time period (and I assure you, there's way way worse).

I'd love to see it get a complete release one day, all hour plus run time, to really see what was intended. A nice blu ray with interviews and maybe an extra soundtrack disc bonus.

So, really...splunge ("it's a great-idea-but-possibly-not-and-I'm-not-being-indecisive!").