A taut thriller from a pre-smartphone era, the internet in its relative infancy, it’s exactly this disconnection which makes the premise genuinely creepy. Think Duel (1971) but with less sympathetic leads who kind of have it coming.
There’s a real sense of menace throughout this road trip from hell, and that’s in no small part to the spooky vocal talents of Ted Levine as ‘Rusty Nail’. Every time he decides to terrorise the trio down the CB radio, I couldn’t help but think of Buffalo Bill trying on his next arm cast.
It’s hard to define Nolan’s style – he goes epic and wide-angle when the moment demands it, but mostly his syntax is economical and unobtrusive, non-showy. It almost always works because you’re drawn into the intricacies of the story.
He has a thing for subject matter. Like the polymath Kubrick, you get the impression he’s autodidactically researched himself into a master of the topic. Memento (2000) defines Nolan at his very best. Immediately after watching I went on the usual internet binge. He seems to know most of his shit.
The non-linear structure works to a tee because it makes sense. The complexities of the character and the realisation that he’s not some naive rookie vigilante are revealed so well you’d be forgiven for thinking this is the director’s 10th venture into movie making.
This is a who’s who of 1999 – Sarah Polley, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, and the loon film buff from Scream 2 (1997).
It’s a wee bit annoying that the characters don’t appear to be affected much by anything that happens but then the movie does exist in this enclosed Tarantino-World with its own parameters. I’ve also never even heard of supermarket employees living such ridiculous adventures. And it’s good to once again have a movie that reveals Las Vegas for what it is – a pointless mess of a city consisting of predators and losers.
Revelation: I never knew William Fichtner could do comedy. He’s understatedly very amusing, his “ulterior motive” confession capping off the most awkward Christmas dinner ever.
Like all Doug Liman films, it’s a brisk affair, unpredictable and with a purposeful style that never wavers.
Because he’s a thoroughly convincing sociopathic sleazeball who doesn’t give a hoot about his rep and the flab. He looks nuts and acts logically … which is kind of scary.
Best scene: The Hoff being dangled upside down by our lad Cruise from a military transport plane and not being particularly bothered by it because he knows he’s too valuable to kill.
Scenes like this continue to contribute to the growing legend that is Hoffman and all discoveries that await new cinephiles.
Firstly, let’s get this out of the way: Angelina Jolie should not be in movies. She has no acting ability that has ever been evidenced in anything she has featured in. I mind that Sony Pictures hack years ago when a producer referred to her as a “minimally talented spoiled brat”. Sums the situation up. For some reason she is in movies, and was cast in this to put bums on seats, though I do question the sanity of folks who’d watch it for the delights of Jolie. She’s awful.
Now that’s cleared up, some positives. Like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2001), this was gripping without ever seeming to be about anything; it’s the little details and the intricacies and the things that are easily missed. It’s less a depiction of Cold War espionage and more a portrayal of a bloke operating within a system of double entendres, maintaining the poker face at all times (Damon is a cold fish here but we can see why).
De Niro hasn’t made many films and this one is curious subject matter. Of all the topics and milieus, I’d never imagined he’d be interested in something like this. It’s very well made, a bit of the Michael Mann about it.
The worst kind, cliché-ridden to the max and full of this wannabe-quirky office banter. It’s like the movie thinks it’s satire when it’s just stating the obvious in the most patronising way.
There are few things more boring than smug white-collar pros talking shop with the aim of beguiling the neutral (uninterested) listener and having them grab the glossary. This goes further, the protagonist informing the audience via the secondary character of kindergarten-level facts.
This reminded me of that movie Thank You for Smoking (2005), another object of my hatred. It was no surprise that it shares the same director. Yuk.
Clooney is, as always, a struggle to watch. He is a pointless actor with zero range. Folk keep telling me it’s all about his captivating personality. I see nothing there.
Some of the scenes here are ludicrous; there’s even a moment involving the lad Clooney showing the mousy female lead how to pack a suitcase for a flight. Clooney to the rescue.
I hated this movie. Hated it. Proper hatred. It needs removed from the planet.
Andrew Dominik made Chopper (2000) and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), so I’ll watch anything he makes, despite a batch of bad reviews for this one. I don’t know what these critics are on because this movie is dazzling from the get-go, an opening sequence featuring a Golden Age Hollywood in flames.
It’s a fascinating, absorbing watch, and you’re pulled right into the tapestry with the magnificent sound editing and cinematography, Dominik a master of his canvas. And it’s one dark canvas, Monroe a bullied, manipulated, tragic figure, less a character than a metaphor for Hollywood itself. I can see why so many folk hate this movie – it’s realism at its most brutal, the myth busted.
How to summarise it? An NC-17 anti-biopic with more visual treats than most of the crap pumped out by the system it lambasts.
James Gandolfini is the scene-stealer once again. It’s as if in every role outside of Tony Soprano, he went out of his way to demonstrate his range and ability to walk off with the movie.
A non-showy courtroom drama more concerned with characterisation than your standard John Grisham, there are also no Aaron Sorkin-style third-act histrionics. The subtle tête-à-tête is the big spectacle here, Travolta and Duvall making sure to keep it low-key but always interesting.
Rather than the melodrama, this is more concerned with how law works and how it can be manipulated. The good guys don’t always win – it’s not a profound point but so few of these pictures make it. Or have such an out-of-his-depth protagonist.
This felt like it was seven hours long and not in a good way. It was a series of relentless explosions and fisticuffs all shot through with no imagination and zero need for any of it to be happening. Sometimes with nonsense like this fare it can be a lot of fun, but not here.
The mammoth budget is shocking (what a waste), but the most irritating thing was the totally charmless Chris Evans’ attempt to make himself interesting by having a silly moustache. It’s even commented upon in the movie in a rare moment of self-awareness.
I don’t even know what this was even about (a stolen disc or something). So boring, the highlight was that most of the scenes reminded me of far superior movies.
The wee exposition and the build up are awarded a wee semi-kudos, as is the stark style throughout. It was also one of the last motion pictures with the existence of a telephoto lens. It does feel too much like an Oliver Stone movie, which doesn’t say much about the film’s hack director.
It’s well shot. That’s all I can compliment it with.
The utter stupidity and narcissism of the smuggling Billy Hayes vexed me even down to his semi-mullet, which even got to the stage of him jerking off to an ex through a glass window. The needlessly sensational violent scenes (one with Hayes spitting out a tongue of a guard he’s just jousted) were even more out of place.
The appearance of the father only intensified my dislike of this rubbish movie, the constant hatred of Turkey, and even from this bloke, who appears at first to be an avuncular sort; there is a scene in which he even slags off the locale cuisine.
It was only good when it avoids the very disconcerting politics. Stone has always been a beguiling one, an alleged left-winger/liberal with a predilection for casual racism and a fawning thing for dictators. This is one of his worst contributions to human history.
The funniest bit of this atrocious movie was the ending, when he even can’t walk away from a prison properly. At the appearance of a military car he slumps his shoulders back like an outcast goblin in a cathedral.
Wanderings and ... wonderings. 