1992
Rated R
Written by David Mamet
Directed by James Foley
Starring Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, and Jonathan Pryce

The boy has been trying to get me to watch this movie for ages. He thinks it's awesome. So I finally caved.

Glengarry Glen Ross is the story of four real-estate salesmen competing for their jobs. They're told that at the end of the week, only two of them get to keep their jobs and the two with the lowest sales numbers are fired. Rick Roma (Pacino) is the only successful salesman, and the other three (Lemmon, Harris, Arkin) are struggling to keep up. Spacey plays their slimy office manager Williamson, Baldwin plays Blake, sent from "downtown" to tell the salesmen about the contest, and Pryce plays Lingk, a passive man who gets talked into a real estate deal by Roma.

The screenplay was written by David Mamet, who based it on his play. I usually like movies that are based on plays, they usually have fantastic dialog that moves along at a quick cadence. Movies based on plays are usually character-driven with few if any flashy sets or special effects. The actors are forced to carry the story.

And these actors are first rate. All of the actors except for Pryce have either won or been nominated for Academy Awards (and Pryce has won a Tony).

But I didn't really like this movie. A good screenplay, fine direction, and talented actors can only go so far. The thing is, the characters in this movie were absolutely reprehensible. There was only one character that didn't make me want to vomit; the rest were despicable, obnoxious, and cutthroat, all while being pathetic at the same time. This is the same reason why I didn't like Boys Don't Cry. It was an EXTREMELY well-done movie with characters that were completely unsympathetic.

It's hard to rate a movie this way. I'll give it three stars, only because it was done so well. It's also critically acclaimed, so if you don't need to like the characters in a movie, maybe you'll love it.