Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

HeadlinesExotic Boring

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

sctwilm One of the more obvious truths in show business is that, since people have different tastes in art, there are many different kinds of movies, and many different ways of talking about them. As my Uncle Al used to say, "Kid, that's why Mister Ford makes 'em in a lot of different colors now."My late father was a lyricist back in the days of Tin Pan Alley; he sold his first song lyric before he was twenty, and he spent his entire life delighting in, and making his living with, his imagination. He treasured imaginative ways of telling stories, and I guess that's why I married a poet. I will forgive an otherwise uninspired movie if it offers an imaginative and unusual way of thinking about an idea.Art, like religion, is a cultural universal; every society on earth makes art. In homogeneous cultures, and in all totalitarian societies, artistic orthodoxy is highly valued. The more diverse a culture becomes, the more tolerant it becomes of subversive art. The American film industry today is the most diverse in the world. Instead of an unchanging stream of movies glorifying the fatherland or the revolution, we Americans, or at least some of us, have been entertained by the animated fantasy of Walt Disney, the profound vision of Orson Welles, and even the as-yet-immature imagination of Jack Baran. Who's Jack Baran? I'm coming to that.One of my father's favorite songs was Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen's "That Old Black Magic," which contains the line, "You're the mate that fate had me created for." And that's what DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO, directed by Jack Baran, is all about, a comedic fable about luck or fate or destiny, and the mythology that our culture has constructed around it. It's not a new idea, but it's an interesting idea, and it's more interesting to me than whether the good guy will get the bad guy before he blows up another building. The fact that young Jack Baran didn't quite pull it off is forgivable.DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO was written by two young graduates of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute, which supports independent filmmaking, that is, movies not driven by the major studios and their commercial formulas for box-office success. Well, they certainly avoided formulas. They've also avoided box-office success. I saw this movie twice the week it opened, and I can say for a fact that at least four other people in my town also saw it because they were in the theater with me.I found DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO to be provocative, witty and entertaining, but I surely can see why it's not everyone's cup of tea. Its theatrical colloquy and supernatural premise combine to create a script that probably reads a lot better than it plays. The incongruity between the theme and the characters demands an extreme suspension of disbelief, something most film-goers are simply not willing to do. So what's to like? Well, I liked this movie because it appealed to me like a quirky short story by P. G. Wodehouse, lightweight but clever. I liked it because James LeGros does a terrific job in a supporting role. I also liked it because Nancy Travis sings "That Old Black Magic" in a scene that had me tripping over my tongue.I guess what I'm saying is that I liked DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO because I think my father would have liked it. It is an imaginative first effort from a bunch of young filmmakers, and investing in it was an act of courage. And evidently, for many people, so was sitting through it.

Tamara Nartichti Tarantino Is the One Who Is the Whole Movie Himself.Actually I saw this movie just because of Tarantino. Even though James Belushi was tops too, the movie is a mediocre piece of work: trivial plot line, standard dialogues and so-so acting.If you ever thought of getting into the Emperor's (Tarantino) soul, you can find the portal right here in this movie. There was the shot that covered all costs of getting this film, the shot where Tarantino goes still for a moment, and that very moment the whole different Universe opens in his eyes. That moment lasts less than a second, but you can catch it. It's right in the end, when at the restaurant Johnny, the cops, and everyone is watching the girl's show, after the cop says: "Hey look, it's that guy…", then there is a shot of Johnny (Tarantino), and first milliseconds of that shot is actually the portal.I would say that he is a male Giaconda there, but not as twisted and troubled as she is. She is an oppressed strong woman, with unbelievable personal magnetism, Leonardo succeeded in transmitting her energy of a fighter in the portrait, since then she is fighting with everyone who looks at her. It's possible to defeat her, but it is easy to be defeated. Tarantino possesses the same, if not more powerful, personal magnetism and it is clearly seen in that shot. His eyes are open, undisguised there (this kind of unmasking can take place only when one is too tired to be able to hold his mask, - after Pulp Fiction he really was tired and "Destiny…" was just in time to "catch up" his real unmasked self), and you can really see how deep, deeper than the blue, they are. So much depth, power and knowledge reflected in them, that you almost think you are looking into the Infinity itself.Well, just for the sake of that shot I take the DVD again and again, every time I want to dive into the Soul Ocean of the most devout movie worshipper ever existent on the planet Earth.

shaun pearson I picked up Destiny on the Radio on VHS years ago on the grounds that it had Quentin Tarantino slapped on the boxed cover. Sure enough the film was no match for either Revoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, but it was a very like-able film. Destiny on the Radio is one of those films you can just sit back and enjoy scene by scene, it has a lot of reply value. It does not feature a gripping storyline, it does not really have an outcome, it's just one of those movies that drifts from scene to scene with a whole cast of characters. I'm not even sure i got the movie, i'm sure even sure the viewer is supposed to get the movie. To some it up, the best thing is go out and form your own opinion. I have seen far worse movies and one thing is for sure, Destiny on the Radio is more enjoyable than Star Wars Episode 1, 2, 3 and the Jurassic Park movies.

wendlandj I don't know why this movie is always so poorly rated. From my point of view this is a fast paced movie with a little bit of everything: romance, car chases, music, crime, comedy, and a healthy serving of the surreal. I own a copy of this movie and I have watched it many times without getting tired of it - so why does the rest of the viewing community have it in for this little diamond in the rough? The chemistry between Dylan McDermott and Nancy Travis sizzles and James LeGros makes a charming quirky sidekick. I could have lived without the Bobcat Goldthwait cameo, but when isn't that the case?Here's a good acid test: if you liked Toys, L.A. Story or the Linguini Incident then you'll like Destiny Turns on the Radio.