User reviews

Harry Levine (Al Pacino) and Jake Manheim (Jerry Orbach), two unsuccessful writers, spend a cathartic evening arguing about money, aesthetics, their friendship, and Harry's new manuscript.

This film, based on a Broadway play (which had starred Pacino) is well-adapted by director Al Pacino (it helps that there was minimal stuff to direct). The origin as a play is fairly obvious, given how much is talk and how little is action (and I wonder if they had to add or modify scenes to create additional movement and scenery).

While not one of the greatest films ever, and not even one of Pacino's best, it has its moments and it is a great interaction between two people. If you like a lot of dialogue and bickering (think "Clerks" without all the dirty talk) and miss Jerry Orbach, this is the film for you.

For his 2nd movie, Al gives us an unusual movie, maybe imperfect but original and totally personal.

We are far away of a big production and big issues as the movie is a nightly discussion between two friends that have real troubles to live with their art.

Honestly, I see no difference between this fiction character and the real Al that was unveiled in his first movie: Al is a simple guy that loves NYC and his passion is more for stage than acting.

Nowadays when stars are obsessed with their look, Al just doesn't care, even if his bent attitude and ugly clothes, he may look as a tramp. It's funny to see that getting older, he has gone from godfather, mayor, the devil to lefty, Shylock and this penniless beret writer! In a funny way, he's like an old Serpico who hadn't leave his basement accommodation!

However, inside, he's still the same great guy: supportive, helpful but sometimes a bit grumpy and always ready to scream! But, what the heck, we are humans so imperfect and it's better to be straight and noisy than devious and smiling!

Thus, even if the stage is minimal and narrow, we have access to all those nuances from Al and his buddy is great to share the ball. There are even funny moments and a good reflexion about artists' condition.

In a way, Al didn't look for big effects but true, simple moments. It may be a waste but finally, it's like you can share a evening with him, talking about life and nothing, and thus it's infinitely valuable.

I just watched this on DVD, and although it offered some interesting moments and insights, the dialog felt forced and the two main actors, both of whom have done great work in other projects, didn't seem to click. On the DVD, there's an epilogue in the "features" section in which Pacino, who also directed, wondered whether there were too many flashbacks. Actually, I thought the flashbacks were enlivening, enabling the story to be more involving than it might otherwise have been. Pacino also mentions that because of Orbach's "Law and Order" shooting schedule, they were forced to film 84 pages of dialog in 21 days, perhaps explaining, at least in part, why the film feels a little undercooked.

This is the only movie I've ever gone to see twice at a film festival. It played in Toronto at the 2000 film festival, and my friend and I talked about it for hours afterwards. It's an invigorating movie, based on the play by Ira Lewis, about two bohemian guys, approaching 50, adrift in the early 80's, yet stuck in the past.

It's a "talkie" movie that could play on a double-bill with "My Dinner With Andre", a two-hander about a book Pacino has written and the first encounter with his friend, played by Jerry Orbach, since the Pacino character has lent it to him. But it's about so much more than that: it's about writing, dreaming, the creative process, relationships, loneliness, poverty, and finally, values. There isn't a moment that we're not involved with these two guys as they negotiate their relationship. The script crackles with life and wit, observation and nuance. Pacino first directed the great documentary "Looking For Richard", about how to approach staging a Shakespeare play. And here in "Chinese Coffee" he proves once again that he has a natural ability to tell a story in a completely fresh and interesting way, free of the constraints and pettiness of a routine plot.

If you're an actor and you haven't seen this movie, than shame on you, this one will have you going for days. And you'll return to it, too. It's a buried treasure in a great career for Pacino. I can't recommend it any higher.

9/14 9:00 am CHINESE COFFEE (*****)

Unlike most films of plays that fail to break free of stagy theatrics, this film draws its strength from a wonderful script and an intimate tone of Off-Off-Broadway theatre. The combination of Al Pacino and Jerry Orbach together for a solid hour and a half could not be more special. Susan Floyd is also wonderful as Pacino's bohemian love. Painter, long time friend of Pacino and "Before Night Falls" director, Julian Schnabel, introduced the film on behalf of Pacino, who had to return to L.A. to shoot a movie.

Well I just loved the Chinese Coffee for its brilliant acting and direction. It reminded me of the theater of the Absurd in a strange haunting way! With Chinese Coffee Mr. Pacino surpasses his own status of being a stellar performer & a superstar combined and cements his position as one of the greatest artists of all times.

The tone of the movie is intimate and artistic at times a little dark. I loved the stream of Levine's consciousness which makes the audiences look into his past---his hopes & failures. Pacino is brilliant as a middle aged struggling writer who is haunted by his own past, his parents' and his own shortcomings and aspirations.

Kudos to Mr. Pacino for providing us with such a brilliant artistic piece! He truly is a gem of an artist. Love him! God bless!

Eight-time Oscar-nominated, Tony-winning master actor Al Pacino draws from off-off- Broadway this semi-autobiographical character study and boasts a cast of actors who've proved themselves before and after, a Greenwich Village setting, and thus the world of floundering poets, bartenders, belly dancers, photographers, jealous doormen, haughty Shakespearean quotes, urbane coffee shops and French restaurants. And yet not all of these intermingle naturally within the story, but are forced by a tug-of-war between the play Ira Lewis had written and the film Al Pacino wanted to make.

The narrative is almost exclusively as a one-on-one conversation between the two main characters, yet it is littered with various ineffectual camera angles and at times redundant flashbacks that add nothing to the story, which apparently relates the rapport, romance and failure in the pathetic mid-life of a failed writer barely making ends meet as a doorman, that is, until he is fired. It does so as if such cerebral notions of life would pull the emotional triggers they do here between the writer, Harry Levine, played by Pacino, and his friend Jake Manheim, a photographer played by Jerry Orbach. The result is that, yes, some arresting moments and observations are produced, but they feel nonetheless forced. As director, Pacino brings to bear a periodically overwrought utilization of cuts in the dialogue scenes with Harry and Jake, and so perhaps it is not the words themselves, but the prevention of their taking priority that causes them to seem contrived.

Harry visits Jake impulsively because he is desperate for money and Jake owes him some from a long time ago. He doesn't have the money, so the two engage in an all-night conversation about the aesthetics and troubles of their separate trades, past and present loves, and the directions their lives are taking. The play and film are set in New York City circa 1985. Why? I don't know.

After years of withholding it, Pacino allowed it to be released as a part of a three-movie boxed set called Pacino: An Actor's Vision. Though I see why he might not have been happy with his work, the film stands as testimony that art-house and independent films need not be about overrefined individuals, for Harry and Jake are, from what I could tell, animatedly high-handed men who have merely outlived their functions in society. This is decidedly the case for Jake, but whether or not it is for Harry seems the question of the film.

This movie will require many revisits to fully appreciate it.

Tempted to call it 'My room' or heh - 'My room with a view'.

No spoilers here - not that this movie has any.

Do not miss this experience.

Forget waiting for Godot - I think he shows up in this one.

Just a masterpiece.

I really don't have any words beyond that, short of Thank you Al Pacino for working on this and bringing it to light.

All I can say is - watch this, maybe watch it over some period of time - in pieces.

Film that was adapted from a play and which shows, with the film delving into the life of Pacino's character along with his friendship with Jake and his life with his lover who has left him. The film is a locked room story, which interspersed with curious editing choices which always elevated the story and kept it interesting. But overall, the film is a great watch for Pacino aficionado's and people interested in the life of writers.

As most of all the movie, is about two friends and what their life amounts to in the end, and all the disappointments and vindications you have about yourself and others.

I love to find a few actors and try to see everything they've made. In recent months, I've tried seeing as many Al Pacino films as I can and "Chinese Coffee" is one that's eluded me. However, my friend Angelo discovered this movie on YouTube and sent me the link...so, thanks Angelo!

Before I began watching, I noticed something which USUALLY is a kiss of death for any movie. Although completed in 1997, the movie sat on the shelf for three years...a sure sign that the studio had zero confidence in the picture. The only exception I can think of to this rule was "Arsenic and Old Lace"....which sat on the shelf for a few years but is today regarded as a classic (and rightfully so).

The story is from a play in which Pacino starred in 1992. Early in the story, Harry (Pacino) arrives at his friend's house asking for money that Jake (Jerry Orbach) owes him. However, they soon begin arguing about a manuscript that Harry gave Jake to read...and pretty much the entire film takes place in this apartment as the two friends talk and talk....and talk...and talk.

As I watched the movie, I could see why the studio wasn't thrilled with releasing the story. After all, it's based on a stage play and looks like a play...which is rather claustrophobic and unlike a typical movie. Sure, there are a few flashback scenes but nearly all of it consists of the two great actors talking all night...much like "My Dinner With Andre"...which was a critical success but went bust at the box office (earning just a bit over $5000!).

So is it any good? Well, the acting certainly is...and I'd watch just about anything either actor made...even "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" (Orbach) or "Revolution" (Pacino)! In this sense, I could see someone really enjoying the movie. On the other hand, the two talk a LOT about the sort of stuff that pretentious love to talk about...such as who won the latest Pulitzer Prize, death, the craft of writing, Theodore Dreiser and more. In other words, it probably won't appeal to the average person. It's incredibly talky, that's for sure.

For the average viewer, I'd give this one a 3. For Pacino fanatics and people who like "My Dinner With Andre", I'd give this one a 7. Overall, a score of 5 seems VERY generous for "Chinese Coffee".

I never was a fan of The Godfather... I like Scarface, but there Al is somehow proving himself to everybody, proving that he is The best actor living..... I was simply amazed by him in Insomnia, i made it my number 2 best movie, after The usual suspects, not only cause the incredible script, location and simplicity, but because Pacino played a guy, who hasn't slept in a week and tries to think str8, because Robin Williams is AS good as Pacino, and that is the first movie i actually enjoyed watching him, the first time i saw how brilliant he is... Watching Chinese Coffee i honestly believed that Insomnia sucked ass, that Scarface wasn't good enough... 1 room, 2 incredible actors, a breathtaking, sublime, PERFECT script and absolutely NO special effects... Pacino here is better than ever! i honestly believed everything that he said and i was completely blown away by his story, by his problems...Orbach is also amazing, but i think in some moments he's pushing HIS envelope to look full of apathy and that drove me back...but the rest of the movie he is on Pacino's level and that u all know is not easy... I simply cannot say how good it is, u have to see it and u'll believe it.

A Broadway play turned into a film starring Al Pacino and Jerry Orbach. Think of this script as sort of a "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" between two heterosexual men. In the span of two hours (with flashbacks) layer after layer of their relatively short friendship is peeled away to raw feelings and pseudo-honest expressions until a few truths may have been reached. My only problem with it is in the style of the dialog – much of the time feeling the scripts are invisible but right in front of them. The timing is too "ready" and snappy, the comebacks polished, the exchanges sculpted with care. Had it (they) been relaxed, awkward, slow to respond, overly fast to respond, etc., I could've believed it. As it is, I never lost awareness this was a staged play.

It's been a long time since I've seen Al Pacino in a different role from his usual "cop/mobster/lawyer" fare. Take Francis from "Scarecrow", one of my favorite Pacino roles, add 25 years and a passion for literature, and you've got a struggling artist, another dreamer waiting for life to happen.

Ideas on identity, art, time, love, sometimes with an absurdist bitter-sweet touch, are explored. As I watched, it reminded me of Orwell's "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" and Luigi Pirandello's "One, No one and One Hundred Thousand". The writing and acting are excellent. It's performances like this that cement Pacino's status as one of the world's greatest actors.

Chinese Coffee (2000)

5 word summary

friends argue about their life

Chinese Coffee is an interesting movie. If you read what its about or even watch it it seems like it should be boring but for some reason its not.

Al Pacino and Jerry Orbach play two old friends who sit and talk for an hour and a half. They talk about their past, money and Harry's (Pacino) new book. That's pretty much it. 2 guys in a room talking, and somehow it's really entertaining. The movie is based on a play, which makes sense, it just doesn't seem like one that would become a good movie, but it does.

The style of Chinese Coffee reminded me of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe, it's not as good but both are very play like and are mainly set in one room and completely dialog driven.

Al Pacino and Jerry Orbach both had great performances. I would actually consider this Pacino's last great performance, but hopefully that will change soon.

So if you like Al Pacino or Jerry Orbach try to find this film. Especially since it's one of the only movies Pacino directed. Hopefully this film is carried more places soon because it really is worth watching. I had to order it off ebay just to see it.

8/10

It's a beautiful script I think everyone can relate to it, not just struggling artists, it's really human, it's about what's going on inside of us which explains why I get it but not fully comprehend it

I'd like this review to be concise and spoiler free, so here are 5 keywords that reflect what you can expect from this movie: #artist #poverty #inspiration #art #argument

This movie is a slow-paced one, and it's filled with nostalgia. The dialogue is very subtle, a lot of things are hidden between the lines.

It's rare to see how the conflict of this movie unfolds, since it's not a confrontation between two characters (although it may seem that way), but between two value systems: one that cherishes the art and the Golgotha it is to create it -- and the other stands for being a part of this world and survival in it.

The title reflects the invisibility artists need to create.

It really takes two powerhouses to pull this off and these two did just that. I sat and basically listened to a movie! Great experience. Give this movie a shot. I watched it twice in a row.

As a writer who needs around 200 Dollars to become broke, this film really touched me.