HBO started this out as a contest for people to submit stories of their real-life experiences on the New York City subway and then chose ten stories to put to this film. Some excellent actors and directors were chosen to perform in this film, which is a series of vignettes. As a result of all these talented people being involved, the film is very easy to take and sometimes entertaining. There are some moments of wit as well as a few moments of drama which are memorable. Also, "Subway Stories" creates a believable experience even in the midst of stories that sound improbable at times. None of the stories are all that bad. The trouble is that no part if this film is all that exciting or compelling. Maybe the problem is that there are so many stories that the viewer doesn't have the time to become involved in the characters and their problems. Also, many of the characters show little common sense and as a result, their dilemmas are exasperating. I suppose this is worth watching if one is intrigued by the idea. It's certainly painless to sit through. It's just that given the fascinating premise and the impressive array of talent gathered, it should have been much better.
18 Reviews
Oh well... worth watching, but probably not buying
australianfreak114 October 2005
I do regret a little that I bought it without seeing it first. Some people might really like the style of those short stories, others might not. People who tend to like reading short stories would definitely enjoy most of them.
If you are an (amateur) filmmaker yourself or have worked on low budget productions, I guess you would really appreciate it. Some of those stories are constructed very clever, it is amazing how they turned everyday situations into something special in so little time.
If you have happened to see the September 11 short stories you might know why I expected a little "more".
If you are an (amateur) filmmaker yourself or have worked on low budget productions, I guess you would really appreciate it. Some of those stories are constructed very clever, it is amazing how they turned everyday situations into something special in so little time.
If you have happened to see the September 11 short stories you might know why I expected a little "more".
Strikingly less than the sum of it's parts
rdoyle2914 October 2022
HBO held a contest asking people to submit stories about stuff that happened on the New York subway system. This film is an anthology of the winning stories, each one with a different director.
On the whole, it's fairly mediocre. The majority of the stories aren't that remarkable. They mostly have a "hey, imagine that" kind of ring to them, but the sum of them all manages to be less than the parts.
Bob Balaban gets the best story ("The 5:24"), which also manages to be the longest, with Jerry Stiller either being Steve Zahn's greatest opportunity or a complete con. Julie Dash has the most refreshingly unusual one.
I watched this because of Jonathan Demme's segment, and it's a serious disappointment. It's a very one-note little joke, that probably plays better if you are very amused by Bill Irwin. I'm not.
On the whole, it's fairly mediocre. The majority of the stories aren't that remarkable. They mostly have a "hey, imagine that" kind of ring to them, but the sum of them all manages to be less than the parts.
Bob Balaban gets the best story ("The 5:24"), which also manages to be the longest, with Jerry Stiller either being Steve Zahn's greatest opportunity or a complete con. Julie Dash has the most refreshingly unusual one.
I watched this because of Jonathan Demme's segment, and it's a serious disappointment. It's a very one-note little joke, that probably plays better if you are very amused by Bill Irwin. I'm not.
Engaging and clever movie.
verdun19 January 2001
Funny, poignant, attractively economical. Maybe the stories (and the subway scenes) are a touch sanitized but the whole thing works wondrously. It sometimes reminds you of "Smoke" - very high praise. Loved the NYC tourist's game of recognizing the stations and character types.
Only in New York!
Stijn17 February 1999
I really loved these weird stories about the New York City subway, especially the one with the boy and the older woman, and the one with Dennis Leary. That's what I want to say about it. It's underground, it's a different world...go and rent it
A little bit of unforgettable urban poetry.
EThompsonUMD9 September 2001
Like the few other viewers of "Subway Stories: Tales from the Underground" who bothered to comment on this wonderful HBO "indie" film, I came upon it by chance (well, channel-surfing to tell the truth) and immediately became enthralled. A series of shorts held together by the NYC subway setting (obviously), by a wonderful framing device that brings the work to a highly satisfying and affirmative conclusion, and by a shared sense of found life, the effect of the whole is even greater than the individual parts although some of those were unforgettable.
Each of the stories were, like life, completely unpredictable and most were left open-ended: Was the stock-tipster (Jerry Stiller) a con-man or an unacknowledged financial genius? Was the beggar (Dennis Leary) a bitter Vietnam Vet or the cynical system-beater he was accused of being by the Lady in the Red Shoes (Christine Lahti)? Would the pregnant woman (Anne Heche) jump into the oncoming subway and would the calloused New Yorker with the headphones (Gregory Hines)notice, care, try to stop her? I could never guess any of the resolutions or stop wondering about their significance.
The structure of "Subway Stories" is somewhat analogous to the loosely connected short stories in Joyce's collection, "Dubliners." Each segment is a little slice of life that builds not to a rousing climax, but to an understated epiphany in which either we, a character, or both share a moment of truthful revelation. Although not all the stories are equally developed or intriguing, the whole production is characterized by first rate ensemble acting and direction. There's some great music too.
Each of the stories were, like life, completely unpredictable and most were left open-ended: Was the stock-tipster (Jerry Stiller) a con-man or an unacknowledged financial genius? Was the beggar (Dennis Leary) a bitter Vietnam Vet or the cynical system-beater he was accused of being by the Lady in the Red Shoes (Christine Lahti)? Would the pregnant woman (Anne Heche) jump into the oncoming subway and would the calloused New Yorker with the headphones (Gregory Hines)notice, care, try to stop her? I could never guess any of the resolutions or stop wondering about their significance.
The structure of "Subway Stories" is somewhat analogous to the loosely connected short stories in Joyce's collection, "Dubliners." Each segment is a little slice of life that builds not to a rousing climax, but to an understated epiphany in which either we, a character, or both share a moment of truthful revelation. Although not all the stories are equally developed or intriguing, the whole production is characterized by first rate ensemble acting and direction. There's some great music too.
I'd like to give it the A train, but it ends up on the D list.
mark.waltz5 June 2014
Warning: Spoilers
A mixture of hit and miss tales, comedic, tragic and sometimes more of a fantasy than "Harry Potter", this outrageous stew of New York goulash is worth seeing for a few segments, a few memorable character bits and most of all, memory of a time where technology didn't ruin your morning commute. Set in 1996 (based upon stories submitted in 1995), this features advertisements of Broadway shows which were playing that year ("Big" prominently featured; "Phantom" nowhere in sight), and a collection of characters whom only New Yorkers and a few select others can understand.
We can all relate to Bill Irwin's plight of ending up on an empty car (reeking of a bag featuring an undisclosed stench) or the con-games of a small percentage of pan-handlers. There's also a sexually aggressive woman who won't talk but basically gets a cheap thrill every morning for months from a well-dressed (and newly married) businessman that wreaks of being totally gratuitous. More touching is the beat-up young man who finds compassion from an older woman (the unforgettable Mercedes Ruehl) who refers to him as an angel in a scene that only hints of a sexual encounter but other than their kissing never goes there.
A disrespected nightrider (the outlandish Rosie Perez) gets vengeance on a drunken masher in the middle of the night, while some rowdy passengers realize that a young woman singing on the telephone isn't your standard New York whack-a-doodle. A morning rider (Gregory Hines) looks concerned over at an obviously pregnant woman he believes is about to jump onto the tracks as a train approaches. A young couple have two different conversations at once and she storms off, convinced he doesn't give two crap-loads about her political feelings, or even her feelings at all, and the follow-up with her brief conversation with a passenger in another car on the same subway. Extremely interesting is a segment between a young stock broker and an older man (the always scene-stealing Jerry Stiller) which, in the wake of 9/11 and the 2008 market crash seems a bit prophetic and is certainly more than just a bit Capra-esque.
Whether or not you relate to any of these experiences (such as a paranoid white woman taking a late night train for the first time whose fear results in her being locked up overnight in a closed off exit) or of the various scary looking "creatures" whom New Yorkers know that deep inside are totally harmless, is based upon chance, but there are enough subway stories in the naked city to keep this theme going on at infinitude. While each segment has a different director, unlike other similarly multi-storied films, it never feels like its going from one place to another, but suffers from lack of believability in certain circumstances while others will win you over totally.
We can all relate to Bill Irwin's plight of ending up on an empty car (reeking of a bag featuring an undisclosed stench) or the con-games of a small percentage of pan-handlers. There's also a sexually aggressive woman who won't talk but basically gets a cheap thrill every morning for months from a well-dressed (and newly married) businessman that wreaks of being totally gratuitous. More touching is the beat-up young man who finds compassion from an older woman (the unforgettable Mercedes Ruehl) who refers to him as an angel in a scene that only hints of a sexual encounter but other than their kissing never goes there.
A disrespected nightrider (the outlandish Rosie Perez) gets vengeance on a drunken masher in the middle of the night, while some rowdy passengers realize that a young woman singing on the telephone isn't your standard New York whack-a-doodle. A morning rider (Gregory Hines) looks concerned over at an obviously pregnant woman he believes is about to jump onto the tracks as a train approaches. A young couple have two different conversations at once and she storms off, convinced he doesn't give two crap-loads about her political feelings, or even her feelings at all, and the follow-up with her brief conversation with a passenger in another car on the same subway. Extremely interesting is a segment between a young stock broker and an older man (the always scene-stealing Jerry Stiller) which, in the wake of 9/11 and the 2008 market crash seems a bit prophetic and is certainly more than just a bit Capra-esque.
Whether or not you relate to any of these experiences (such as a paranoid white woman taking a late night train for the first time whose fear results in her being locked up overnight in a closed off exit) or of the various scary looking "creatures" whom New Yorkers know that deep inside are totally harmless, is based upon chance, but there are enough subway stories in the naked city to keep this theme going on at infinitude. While each segment has a different director, unlike other similarly multi-storied films, it never feels like its going from one place to another, but suffers from lack of believability in certain circumstances while others will win you over totally.
Subway Stories is worthy of your time!
id24726 August 2007
I love short story films, especially when, of one particular theme, they are connected to satisfy a feature length running time.
Like taking any subway/underground/metro train, with Subway Stories, if you don't like one particular story, wait a few minutes and a better one will come along.
Of course everyone will have their particular favourites, but for me
Fern's Heart of Darkness, Sax Cantor Riff, Manhattan Miracle, Love on the A Train, and Underground were simply original and wonderful.
I'm English and lived in London for four years so these types of stories are not exclusive to New York.
Where there are people, there are possibilities.
Like taking any subway/underground/metro train, with Subway Stories, if you don't like one particular story, wait a few minutes and a better one will come along.
Of course everyone will have their particular favourites, but for me
Fern's Heart of Darkness, Sax Cantor Riff, Manhattan Miracle, Love on the A Train, and Underground were simply original and wonderful.
I'm English and lived in London for four years so these types of stories are not exclusive to New York.
Where there are people, there are possibilities.
A mixed bag of short stories that is mainly interesting and enjoyable
bob the moo22 February 2005
HBO invited the citizens of New York to send in their stories and experiences of travelling on the subway system 1000's did. From these, this film was produced, using the real experiences of day to day travel to inspire this anthology of short stories. Starting with a man who learns the hard way the importance of following the crowd, the film continues with the Vietnam veteran who gets a backlash from the passengers, a woman trapped in a turnstile, a man conducting an affair on a train and a man who starts getting stock tips from an old man riding the morning train each day.
Not getting HBO in the UK, we are pretty reliant on what is imported by other channels; many of the biggest shows make it of course but it is less common for the many cable movies made by the station to reach the UK. So it was with surprise that I found somebody had bought this collection of stories and stuck in the late night schedules to be mostly overlooked and ignored. Loving short films as a type of movie experience I wanted to give this a try and I wanted it to be good and, on the whole, it was pretty enjoyable and interesting. Some of the stories are very basic or reveal their all as easily as a paid dancer and these tend to be the lesser films even if they do still have some merit.
However the films that stood out in my mind are those that capture the randomness of life in a big city, where things happen quickly that can't be repeated or ever relived, where you don't know all the answers and it is more than just a funny story that happened. A couple of the shorts here hit this on the money and are interesting and yet leave you not knowing everything so that it does linger with questions and so on. It is these couple of shorts (Miracle Manhattan, 5:24, Love on the A Train, The Red Shoes in particular) that make the film worth seeing even if the other ones are fairly ordinary and only really watchable without being special (Fern's Heart of Darkness and Sax Cantor Riff to name two).
The cast is impressive even if they are not all used that well and the quality of performances does rather depend on the material. Not to rate everybody but; KRS-One was a surprise but did the job; N'Bushe Wright was good; Denis Leary was impressive and convincing; Zahn was unusually understated as indeed was Stiller; I don't understand why Mekhi Phifer bothered to show up considering all he got out of it; Taylor and Rapaport make an average film better; Rockwell is an interesting find with nothing to do; Perez isn't annoying (is there higher praise than that?); Heche is shot in the distance and hard to make out and has her short stolen by a good turn from the late Gregory Hines. The rest are OK in support but really the film is more about the stories than the cast and weak stories aren't greatly improved even when they do have a good cast here.
Overall this is an interesting collection and I'm glad I saw it. There are no really bad entries but one or two are fairly ordinary and I wouldn't rate them if they had been short films in their own right; however the majority are actually well done, interesting stories that snapshot memories and half stories to be interesting and leave the audience curious but, like the train, forced to move along and take what we can from them. Not a brilliant collection by any means but the good outweighs the average and it is worth seeing if you get the chance.
Not getting HBO in the UK, we are pretty reliant on what is imported by other channels; many of the biggest shows make it of course but it is less common for the many cable movies made by the station to reach the UK. So it was with surprise that I found somebody had bought this collection of stories and stuck in the late night schedules to be mostly overlooked and ignored. Loving short films as a type of movie experience I wanted to give this a try and I wanted it to be good and, on the whole, it was pretty enjoyable and interesting. Some of the stories are very basic or reveal their all as easily as a paid dancer and these tend to be the lesser films even if they do still have some merit.
However the films that stood out in my mind are those that capture the randomness of life in a big city, where things happen quickly that can't be repeated or ever relived, where you don't know all the answers and it is more than just a funny story that happened. A couple of the shorts here hit this on the money and are interesting and yet leave you not knowing everything so that it does linger with questions and so on. It is these couple of shorts (Miracle Manhattan, 5:24, Love on the A Train, The Red Shoes in particular) that make the film worth seeing even if the other ones are fairly ordinary and only really watchable without being special (Fern's Heart of Darkness and Sax Cantor Riff to name two).
The cast is impressive even if they are not all used that well and the quality of performances does rather depend on the material. Not to rate everybody but; KRS-One was a surprise but did the job; N'Bushe Wright was good; Denis Leary was impressive and convincing; Zahn was unusually understated as indeed was Stiller; I don't understand why Mekhi Phifer bothered to show up considering all he got out of it; Taylor and Rapaport make an average film better; Rockwell is an interesting find with nothing to do; Perez isn't annoying (is there higher praise than that?); Heche is shot in the distance and hard to make out and has her short stolen by a good turn from the late Gregory Hines. The rest are OK in support but really the film is more about the stories than the cast and weak stories aren't greatly improved even when they do have a good cast here.
Overall this is an interesting collection and I'm glad I saw it. There are no really bad entries but one or two are fairly ordinary and I wouldn't rate them if they had been short films in their own right; however the majority are actually well done, interesting stories that snapshot memories and half stories to be interesting and leave the audience curious but, like the train, forced to move along and take what we can from them. Not a brilliant collection by any means but the good outweighs the average and it is worth seeing if you get the chance.
Sometimes you just get lucky
ts-1413 December 2000
I had the good fortune of catching Subway Stories, by accident, trying to get away from the Astronauts Wife. What a wonderful grouping of shorts. I have to say, I couldn't leave the room. Some were better than others, but they all kept my interest. Don't let this Subway pass you by.
cult classic....
napadapper23 November 2006
an emotional roller-coaster which leaves you staring at the credits in la la land long after you should have gotten up and fetched that other beer.....i find it strange that the most compelling story i have witnessed on film is not readily available on DVD..in NTSC format at least and also that adrenaline pumping ...Tyral Hicks scene.. which brings these riveting stories to their anti climax..or climax if you may..is hidden away in fine print in the cast listing by billing......is there anyone who can help me source the DVD in NTSC format. another anomaly regarding this film is that it seems to be only shown at 2 or 3 AM .. but hey i guess that how it attained it cult classic status...
Great stories, amazing singer
tizzi2216 January 2001
I liked all the stories. Fern's Heart of Darkness was a nice little turn on a rich white woman when she was faced with being...well, I won't ruin it. Each story was a wonderful look at life and its tragedies, celebrations, and hopes. The one that got to me the most was Taryl Hicks singing to her dying mother. That not only sent a tear to my eye, but sent chills down my spine with the power and emotion displayed in her voice. There are rarely any singers that I would call even special in their talents, but this absolutely is the one I remember. Every time I see her portion in the vignettes it still sends chills down my spine and a tear to my eye.
This movie was great, and it's my all time favorite.
kyle-gary24 May 2003
This was an excellent movie. I personally think it should have been put in the movie theater Well I shouldn't take it that far but it was a good movie. My Favorite actor in Subway Stories actually was Danny Hoch. I'm not even sure why, I think it was because he was cool and laid back. Where as his friend was very hype kind of rowdy and a little drunk. But even then I still liked both characters, and I think their roles fit them well. I also think it was the best story out of all ten stories, which is called "HONEY GETTER". The overall movie was put together very well, and it actually made me visit New York mind you this was my first time visiting. I checked out all the scenes where the stories were shot, and it kind of Felt as if I was in the movie it self, feeling weird like I was in my own little world. Another thing I did was went to the spot where the movie first comes on from the blimp look. It took me a while to find it bit I finally did, and the spot that they show or I should say the view is just right above Union Square. Because if you look real carefully at your tv, you'll notice the foot locker and the dirt on the side which I believe now is a movie theatre called United Artists. Well that pretty much concludes my little story and I enjoyed sharing, I hope maybe you'll notice something in the movie I didn't. And just one last thing I hope that this movie comes out on DVD I can't seem to find it anywhere.
Incredible
pbdye20 August 2004
Where to begin...
This movie should be the dream of any sociology-minded person. It analyzes the best and worst aspects of humankind. Unless you're emotionally dead inside, you'll find yourself laughing, crying, and oft times pitying...but most of all you'll see yourself, as in the ten shorts you're bound to find a character you can relate with.
My least favorite segments had to be "Love on the A Train," "The Listeners," and "The 5:24." Typically Steve Zahn and Jerry Stiller can do it for me, but this short is all business, literally. You half expect when you see the both of them together that it's going to be a comedy, but you leave the segment disappointed that you didn't get what you expected. This is "5:24" in a nutshell.
"Love on the A Train" is by far the most risqué of the shorts, but it's done in a fashion that still makes it viewable to even the most puritanical of people. It's also the first time Rosie Perez has ever looked genuinely sexy to me. For people who AREN'T fans of her, you don't have to worry about dialog.
I've always been somewhat drawn to Lili Taylor for some odd reason, which is why I had a lot of hope for "The Listeners." Unfortunately, it didn't have the bite of the other scenes. There could have been some real development there, but since these are based on true stories, any alterations to make them seem more cinematic would have taken away from the "reality" these shorts try (and on a lot of levels succeed) to convey.
I didn't list "The Red Shoes" simply because I was of a mixed mind about it.
I absolutely love Denis Leary (man has the best hair in showbiz, I think - plus having a love scene with a topless Liz Hurley in Double Whammy elevates him to "God" status in my eyes), and Christine Lahti commands attention. I didn't like the sketch because it was poorly done...I didn't like the sketch because it deals with a subject matter you can quite easily relate with on a grotesque level. Let's just say one thing of Lahti's dialog might be true by the time the segment ends.
"The Red Shoes" ties in nicely with "Fern's Heart of Darkness." Both segments force you to look at a part of yourself you don't wear on your sleeve.
I wasn't a particular fan of Honey-Getter but I can't knock Ajay Naidu. The guy was Samir in Office Space, which automatically exonerates him of any bad roles or performances. If I talked bad about him I could never watch the movie again, and that would be a travesty.
Now, onto those I absolutely loved:
"Sax Cantor Riff" was gorgeous. It draws you in with a mediocre beginning with a mediocre start (even though it includes Sam Rockwell, a fledgling actor back then who's moved onto greater things - Charlie's Angels not withstanding). Then you're exposed to one of the most beautiful scenes and sounds in the movie (which was so initially shocking to me the first time I saw this that it brought tears to my eyes), followed immediately by something that attempts to convey something only the educated will understand. Absolutely phenomenal.
Mercedes Ruehl's character in "Underground" should be proof enough that older women can still be incredibly sexy. She was 49 when this was released in 1997, but you can't really tell. "Underground" is probably one of the shortest pieces, but it's very expressive - even though you're left to wonder at the end if anything illegal actually took place.
Lastly, since I don't want to come off as pathological about this movie, "Manhattan Miracle" was extraordinary. I've always been an extraordinary fan of Gregory Hines, and this segment shows you that there is a lot more to acting than just remembering your lines.
See this. You won't forget it.
This movie should be the dream of any sociology-minded person. It analyzes the best and worst aspects of humankind. Unless you're emotionally dead inside, you'll find yourself laughing, crying, and oft times pitying...but most of all you'll see yourself, as in the ten shorts you're bound to find a character you can relate with.
My least favorite segments had to be "Love on the A Train," "The Listeners," and "The 5:24." Typically Steve Zahn and Jerry Stiller can do it for me, but this short is all business, literally. You half expect when you see the both of them together that it's going to be a comedy, but you leave the segment disappointed that you didn't get what you expected. This is "5:24" in a nutshell.
"Love on the A Train" is by far the most risqué of the shorts, but it's done in a fashion that still makes it viewable to even the most puritanical of people. It's also the first time Rosie Perez has ever looked genuinely sexy to me. For people who AREN'T fans of her, you don't have to worry about dialog.
I've always been somewhat drawn to Lili Taylor for some odd reason, which is why I had a lot of hope for "The Listeners." Unfortunately, it didn't have the bite of the other scenes. There could have been some real development there, but since these are based on true stories, any alterations to make them seem more cinematic would have taken away from the "reality" these shorts try (and on a lot of levels succeed) to convey.
I didn't list "The Red Shoes" simply because I was of a mixed mind about it.
I absolutely love Denis Leary (man has the best hair in showbiz, I think - plus having a love scene with a topless Liz Hurley in Double Whammy elevates him to "God" status in my eyes), and Christine Lahti commands attention. I didn't like the sketch because it was poorly done...I didn't like the sketch because it deals with a subject matter you can quite easily relate with on a grotesque level. Let's just say one thing of Lahti's dialog might be true by the time the segment ends.
"The Red Shoes" ties in nicely with "Fern's Heart of Darkness." Both segments force you to look at a part of yourself you don't wear on your sleeve.
I wasn't a particular fan of Honey-Getter but I can't knock Ajay Naidu. The guy was Samir in Office Space, which automatically exonerates him of any bad roles or performances. If I talked bad about him I could never watch the movie again, and that would be a travesty.
Now, onto those I absolutely loved:
"Sax Cantor Riff" was gorgeous. It draws you in with a mediocre beginning with a mediocre start (even though it includes Sam Rockwell, a fledgling actor back then who's moved onto greater things - Charlie's Angels not withstanding). Then you're exposed to one of the most beautiful scenes and sounds in the movie (which was so initially shocking to me the first time I saw this that it brought tears to my eyes), followed immediately by something that attempts to convey something only the educated will understand. Absolutely phenomenal.
Mercedes Ruehl's character in "Underground" should be proof enough that older women can still be incredibly sexy. She was 49 when this was released in 1997, but you can't really tell. "Underground" is probably one of the shortest pieces, but it's very expressive - even though you're left to wonder at the end if anything illegal actually took place.
Lastly, since I don't want to come off as pathological about this movie, "Manhattan Miracle" was extraordinary. I've always been an extraordinary fan of Gregory Hines, and this segment shows you that there is a lot more to acting than just remembering your lines.
See this. You won't forget it.
Trains to nowhere
paul2001sw-113 September 2004
The New York Subway is not just a transit network: it's also a place where all sides of that city's racial divide come together, albeit not necessarily in harmony. Even I have a collection of several Subway stories, and I was only in New York for 4 days. So the idea of making a film based on the true experiences of Subway users might not appear bad. But a collection of separate short films (each by a different director) always runs the risk of going nowhere, of offering underdeveloped plots and scenes that are meaningless without context: most of these stories end undramatically when someone simply gets off the train, and feel no more exciting or complete than the tales that I sometimes bore my friends with. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, my favourite segment is 'The 5:24', which develops a proper narrative despite fitting the overall pattern of chance encounters on brief journeys. Overall, however, 'SUBWAY stories' mainly reflects its subject matter: diverse, functional, but not exactly a place you'd choose to be without a very good reason.
Experience The Ride
kyle-gary12 February 2006
This was definitely an excellent movie and kept my whole attention the whole time. But their were also some other interesting things that caught my eye. Geographical errors: Like for example on the segment Honey-Getter when the two guys Edward and Preshant get off the train, right before the lady Humera starts chasing them. If you notice the conductor says R train to Brooklyn when in fact it's the S train which is the shuttle that transports you back and forth between Grand Central Station and Times Square. Example#2 Right after the part I just described in Example #1 when the train takes off, it keeps proceeding forward. But anybody who's from New York knows that at the end of each of those stations are dead ends and the train can only go the other way. I just really found two things very interesting and those things did not make it a bad movie at all. I actually feel like that's one of the things that makes the movie interesting and I would highly recommend anybody to watch it.
A small gem
wordcraft30 July 2001
Don't let this pass you by. Evocative, funny, poignant, and tragic by turns, it leaves you with a warm feeling and a sense of puzzlement: if they can make things as good as this, how come we have to put up with so much dross? Great ensemble playing, great music, stand-out miniature performances from Christine Lahti, Mercedes Ruehl, Rosie Perez, and Gregory Hines, but the icing on the cake is a chilling song from Taryl Hicks in "Sax Cantor Riff". The musical close under the credits was also a knock-out.
Quote of the movie: "Only in New York..."
Quote of the movie: "Only in New York..."
You'll never look at the subway the same way again.
DaniStar-26 April 1999
HBO's critically acclaimed special, "Subway Stories," lived up to most of the potential its high-profile stars injected into it. Based on real-life stories sent in my NYC underground rail riders, I found myself dazzled by the situations people claimed to have experienced. The program was divided into smaller segments, each one a little story. Although you were barraged by scenarios, you could not delve too deeply into each one. That proved to be a disappointment, since some of the stories were much more intriguing than others. The other difficulty in the series was the line between heavy drama and melodrama, and the fantastical elements peppering each segment. Also some of the skits were fuzzy in meaning, leading me to believe that they were aiming too high and forgetting who really rode the subway. It was nice to see Hollywood elite in smaller, more elusive roles than usual. And the subject matter was new and exciting. You'll find yourself studying that subway car a little more carefully to find your own "Subway Story."
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
