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starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte, Michael Murphy, Dermot Mulroneydirected by: Robert Altman
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304285350
Format: Color, NTSC
ISBN: 6304285353
Label: New Line Home Video
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Release Date: September 09, 1997
Running Time: 116 minutes
Sales Rank: 34652
Studio: New Line Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: August 16, 1996
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Robert Altman wanted to captured a sense of what life was like in his hometown during the Depression, both in a story about the people who lived there and, more impressionistically, in the jazz that sprouted there before moving to New York. But his plot here is rambling and undramatic: A small-time hood double-crosses a vicious black gangster (Harry Belafonte) and is grabbed by him, marked for death. To save his life, the hood's dim blond wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) kidnaps a rich politician's wife (Miranda Richardson) and spends the day driving around town with her, on the theory that the politician can convince the gangster to free her husband. Leigh is jittery, Richardson seems bored--and the lengthy jam sessions we see (involving contemporary musicians such as Joshua Redman) serve only to prolong an already slow-moving film. Possibly worth seeing for the silky menace of Belafonte, but there is little else to recommend it. --Marshall Fine
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Saxophone Players
The music in this movie is great! Joshua Redman tears it up with his great old/new style of playing the saxophone!!
Doug Earley
Rating:  - Don't waste your time
If you're looking for drama, suspense or anything approaching a real plot, look elsewhere. Not only is the ending predictable, but you'll have to wait through a very long and boring movie to see it. Atmosphere is about all you'll get. Depending on your opinion of jazz or what passes for it in this movie, you may be in for further disappointment. We rented it on line through U-Verse and I'm going to ask for a refund. Belafonte was the only one who was convincing and that's because he wasn't acting.
Rating:  - The Battle Of Kansas City Jazz Or The Deception Of Beauty
When one listens to the gorgeous music of Lester Young, Charlie Parker(I think he was "shown" in a scene as well) and Coleman Hawkins and William Count Basie,a jazz fan is left with a sense of wonder what must have gone down at KC in those days...Now we have a great depiction of the music and what life might have been like with great music revisited and performed by these "new giants of jazz" recreating the high swinging good time sense of euphoria sweeping those magical tunes..
Yet, at the same ... Read More
Rating: - Atmosphere and little else.
Even the mighty have their moments when they stumble and KANSAS CITY is one of those moments for maverick director Robert Altman. There's little more than atmosphere in this film; the period-recreation of 1935-ish Kansas City Missouri, the great jazz throughout every frame and a bravura performance by Harry Belefonte as a gambler/crime kingpin named "Seldom Seen" don't mask the fact that the plot's thinner than newspaper and that every other actor save Belefonte is chewing the scenery and burping after ... Read More
Rating: - Might Have The Best Ending Ever
Bottom line, whether you love or hate "Kansas City" will depend on your reaction to Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance. Leigh's character Blondie anchors the story as a desperate wife trying to save her husband from the gangsters he tried to rob. Leigh looks great in this role, she is fit and trim which makes her face that much cuter. The contrast between her almost angelic appearance and her tough persona is intentional because the toughness is an affectation, qualities she has adopted because she loves ... Read More
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