Watch 200 Cigarettes For Free

How sad is this?

Film Perfection

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

There is so much more than meets the eye here. This was the first time I saw Casey Affleck, and I thought 'This guy CRAPS on his brother for acting'. I've not been disappointed since... his turn in Jesse James was outstanding.I adore Martha Plimpton, and can (of course) understand the character's obsession with EC.This film has worked it's way into our family 'language'. 'Ronkonkoma' in a heavy NY accent features largely... as does 'I want to lick his glasses'.There is so much to love about this film. It's cheesy and not cheesy, all at the same time, and it's the little things that make it.There is a great deal to read between the lines, and so if you don't like subtle complexity in your films, then perhaps this wouldn't be for you.

This film tells the story of a number of individuals out on the streets of New York on New Years Eve, looking for love and fun."200 Cigarettes" is a collection of snapshots of the night. There are many people in the story, and all of them looking for love of varying length. I think the Kate Hudson's subplot stands out because she is so innocent, and yet her date is such a philanderer. Christina Ricci and her friend looking for a party is quite hilarious, while Paul Rudd's subplot really stirs up emotions as he and his female friend struggles for power."200 Cigarettes" may be a party film in disguise, but it is more a film to feel rather than a film to entertain. Viewers will find a character in the film to identify with, and feel the emotions.

200 Cigarettes is described as an episodic film. It follows around a number of people on New Years Eve of 1981 and climaxes at one huge party. These people seem to miss each other, yet also go through their own problems to try and understand themselves and their part in life. Some of them realise the truth about themselves, while others of them simply continue to go on as they were. To really understand the movie we have to look at the characters, some of them individually, while others together. The first two are a couple of friends, yet in a way a lot more. The movie opens with them in the "disco cab" (more on this later) and the cynic is simply whining about how his girlfriend left him and that New Years Eve always sucks because it is also his birthday and as such the expectation is doubly high. These two form a major focus of the relationship aspect of the film as they both try to understand what the whole purpose of it is. One simply feels that he cannot hold down a girlfriend because he changes for her only to have her turn against him. The other simply does not care and will sleep with any man she can. It is then that her eyes are opened in a sexual encounter with the guy in a toilet cubicle. She realises that the way she treats sex is really meaningless and that making it a cheap thrill destroys the whole purpose of it. He, on the other hand, has realised that the one girl that is good for him is the girl that knows him. The problem he faces is that the girls he dates really don't know him that well, and as such they end up leaving him after they decide they do not like him. On the other hand, she has been a friend of his for a while and they can both say that they know each other. As such it is inevitable that they end up together. The next couple are a couple of girls who simply want to get laid and end up fighting other the guys that they are with. They dump Eric, the Irish artist, because they decide that he is no good in bed. They then travel the city trying to find dates for the night, but cannot. The only time they find somebody is a single bartender, who they ditch because he is a yuppie. It is when they are told that they way they are behaving will destroy their friendship. To them, having dates should not be important but rather they should focus on their friendship. They end up getting dates, but remain secretive about it because they realise that to do otherwise will undermine their friendship. Eric is a rather pitiable guy as he also can never seem to hold down a girlfriend, but this time it is because he is no good in bed. He is one of the first at Monica's house, the place where they are having the party, and tries to come to terms with what he learns from Monica. His realisation at the end of the movie is that he is bad in bed, and there is really little that he can do about it. Monica is frantic because she is organising a New Years Eve party, even though she hates parties, and finds that nobody turns up. When Eric does, they talk and try to come to terms with their inadequacies, but when her friend arrives, she takes Eric away leaving Monica alone again. Monica is simply very tense and this tenseness means that she drinks so much that she passes out and ends up missing out on the party that she so really wanted to experience. Jack is an interesting character because he believes that he is curse. It appears to be a sweet individual and the girl that he is out with lost her virginity to him the night before. At first it seems that these two are the perfect couple, but this is soon destroyed when we learn that Jack has more than one girlfriend. So we discover that Jack is simply a sleaze who does not want girls attached to him. After his current girlfriend admits that she loves him, he tells her that he is cursed because he simply cannot stop girls from falling in love with him. To this she retorts that he really doesn't understand his fortune for there are many people who spend their entire lives looking for a woman to fall in love with them while Jack simply takes it for granted. He does not grow, for in the end he is still annoyed when Rita throws herself upon him proclaiming her undying love for him. What we know that he doesn't, is that Rita is actually quite fickle. This is the essence of the movie: relationships and the failure to relate to people. This is basically what everybody struggles with in the movie, and by the end some have overcome their struggles, while others are still simply blind to their problems. Jack and Dave are the two that are blind to their faults while Eric is left a broken man when the truth of his sexual inadequacy hits home. He is left with a problem that is simply not as easily solved as the rest. I guess the reason here is that relationships cannot be based on sex, and Eric uses sex as a crutch to support his inadequacy in relating to people, while Jack simply refuses to form a deep relationship and Dave is oblivious to everything. The Cynic throws away his cigarettes symbolising his realisation that he no longer needs a crutch to relate to anybody, while Eric, Dave, and Jack are left with their crutches and are not able to let go of them.

A complete flop. This is one of those "people finding themselves in spite of themselves" type of stories. Lame script writing, unrealistic situations, dreadful overacting, and aimless direction lead this movie on a meandering voyage to nowhere.It's New Year's Eve, and some 20-somethings are having an overdue dose of coming-of-age, mentally, socially, etc. Already, I hear you snoring. Why should anyone care about losers who are 10 years behind in their intellectual development? The film engages on a wild dance between several groups of characters, each more dimwitted than the last, as they try to seek out some big "in people's party." We all know that we find ourselves by getting bombed on New Year's Eve, don't we? Every single character is a familiar "Dumb and Dumber" stereotype, and the pseudo-philosophical speeches they deliver fit these stooges about as well as The Gettysburg Address would fit being recited by Michael Jackson. The cornball link for the disparate group of random fools is that they're all chain smoking nerds. Inspired? Thought provoking? Maybe you'll be thinking about what you'll do after the film is mercifully over; that's about it.Nobody achieves anything useful, and the story just plods along until you have an epilogue sequence on New Year's morning, most of the characters waking up in strange beds, and realizing that they learned nothing from all of this. The audience ends up feeling the same way.