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The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and The Game

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All reviews by Jeff Walters
Spoilers Ahead!!

The Good........ B R E A K D O W N   

Story - "An automobile breakdown in a lonely stretch of Southwestern desert becomes the starting point for a terrifying, torturous journey when Jeff Taylor's (Kurt Russell) beautiful wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlan) accepts a ride to a local truck stop to call for a tow truck and suddenly vanishes without a trace."

This little movie seemed to sneak up on me out of nowhere. And when a movie with a cast like this 'sneaks' up on you - it usually means that no-one is talking about it for a reason....that is - it sucks! But not this movie. I'm still trying to work out why this movie received little press. Because it's a terrific film. In a year when most movies have tried to thrill the audience with whizz bang effects and progressively bigger and bigger explosions, this film manages to out thrill them all through a chilling story and the occassional terrific stunt.

I knew from the clever opening sequence where seemingly random spinning lines eventually form into a map of where the movie is set, that I was going to like this flick. Very nicely done. Kurt Russell is perfectly cast as the frantic husband willing to do anything to find his wife. What makes his character even better is that he is very realistic. He makes mistakes, is often outsmarted and does not jump to a fight, but rather is intimidated by violence......at the start of the movie anyway.

The villian's shoes are filled by a man who seems to be in almost every single movie and tv show - J.T. Walsh. You may not immediately recognise the name, but I'd be very surprised if anyone didn't know his face. He leads the small group of kidnappers and does a sterling job. The rest of the kidnappers also preform well. In particular, Jack Noseworthy, who was also in Event Horizon.

I did have a few minor complaints with the film, where there were a couple of huge coincidences. For instance when the wrapper of a donut his wife had been eating just *happens* to float past whilst he is drifting in a river. I don't think so. But as I said, the errors are minor and should really be overlooked due to the fact that the rest of the movie is scripted so well.

Unlike many movies this year which have looked promising but failed to deliver in the final 30 minutes, it is during this time that Breakdown really shines. And it is also during this time that you'll see the best stunts. The scene where the truck is tettering on the edge of the bridge is one I'll not soon forget.


The Bad........ S P E E D  2   

Story - "Annie (Sandra Bullock) is back. This time she has a new boyfriend (Jason Patric) and a new crisis. Our lovely couple decide to take a cruise at just the wrong time. This is because a nutjob (played by William Dafoe) has decided to take revenge on the Cruise company that fired him......oh no, couldn't be the same boat as Jason and Sandra could it!!"

Welcome to your oh-so typical sequel. It tries to be twice as big as it's predecessor, yet ends up twice as shallow. Shallow....hmm...now there's an idea. Maybe if the ill-fated cruise liner in this movie had struck a shallow reef early on things may have turned out better. The first thing that struck me...and surprised me, was that the camera work (for the opening sequence anyway) was terrible. Looked like the cameramen were drunk and kept tripping on their own feet......very different to the original movie.

The characters? Well, not many of the characters actually *had* characters, but here's a rundown. Annie, who was the highlight of the the original, must have seriously banged her head in the train crash at the end of the first movie. Why? Because something's got to account for her losing that many IQ points. Even though Annie wasn't exactly a rocket scientist in Speed, here some of her actions just make you want to beat your head against a wall. For instance, after successfully using a chainsaw to cut a hole in a door so that a group of people can escape noxious gases - she stands in the middle of the opening for about five minutes till someone reminds her that the people can't get out till she get's the chainsaw out of their faces....BANG BANG BANG <---- sound of head beating against wall. In point of fact Sandra's character is turned into little more than one of those scantly dressed extras from Hercules, who constantly has to be rescued.

Jason Patric? All I can say is Bring Back Keanu. Keanu Reeves might have the emotional range of a tree stump...but that's one more tree stump than Jason has. I don't think he changed facial expressions all movie - Jason, smile for the cameras!! Now frown!...I said frown....oh...you are...BANG BANG BANG.. Wooden just doesn't describe this guys performance, but it'll have to do.

The Bad Guy.....ahh...William Dafoe - there's a bright move. How can you go wrong with the star from that acknowledged classic, Body of Evidence? (Yes, that is sarcasm). His wide eyed maniac of a character doesn't start out too bad....but goes steadily downhill as the movie progresses. In the end he degenerates to chasing Annie around for a hostage, even though he already has the money and can escape....BANG BANG.

Though I'd like to give this movie a double thumbs down, there were some nice sequences. Considering the movie cost over 100 million dollars - you'd hope there'd be at least a couple. The real eye-popper for me, even though it was given away in the trailer....BANG BANG.....was the sequence where the Cruise Liner sideswipes the oil tanker. This looks terrific and I was very surprised to hear that the Cruise Liner in it was....completely computer generated! Wow....I don't think I've ever seen a CG model look so real before. The sequence where Jason Patric in trying to disable the propellers from under the ship is also terrific, and the only time during the entire movie where you get that feeling of....speed.

This lack-of-speed problem affects many sequences. Such as the oil tanker part.....it was - "Oh no, We're going to hit the oil tanker!", 20 minutes later - "Oh no, We're going to hit the oil tanker!" 20 min....you get the point. This movie failed simply because it didn't live up to it's name....there was very little feeling of speed. In the original movie, the lead characters had to make split second decisions to survive.....in this movie it felt more like - "Well people, we're gonna run into that there island in a few hours - I think I might stroll over to Engineering and see if I can't turn off the engines...I'm passing the cafeterria on the way, can I get anybody anything?"

The ending of this movie really is terrible. Even though it features what I've since found out is one of the most expensive sequences ever in a movie - it just doesn't work at all. The part where the liner crashes through the town looks very realistic, but....surprise surprise - it just takes waaaaay too long. It seemed to go for 15 minutes before the ship finally stopped. One thing that struck me as extremely poor scriptiing was that as the ship crashes through the harbour and town, around 25 people are killed by the ship....and there's only 15 or so people left on the ship. So when it stops safe and sound and the characters are all cheering - the audience is sitting back and thinking - "wait a sec...this is a happy moment because?"

Then there was the dog.....I almost fell out of my seat when I saw the bit with the dog dodging the falling debris. Putting a dog in peril has become the ULTIMATE Hollywood cliche......every movie seems to have a 'Dog-in-Danger' sequence - Volcano, Dante's Peak, Independence Day, Daylight, Twister. Lost World......etc, etc.

This movie is a perfect example of how NOT to make a sequel. Director Jan De Bont should try watching the orignal movie and this one back-to-back and see if he realises where he went wrong.


The Ugly........ E V E N T   H O R I Z O N   

Story - "The first Faster-Than-Light ship....the Event Horizon has suddenly reappeared after being missing for seven years. A rescue team (led by Lawrence Fishburn) must journey to the ship and search for survivors. But the ship has been beyond the boundaries of our universe....who knows where it's been?"

Man, this was one wierd movie. Similar to Conspiracy Theory in that it couldn't decide which genre it is. The first hour is your standard stock Aliens clone, which nicely created an eerie atmosphere about the ship. The last half hour? This was when the makers blew the script out the airlock and just decided - "Screw it, let's just kill everybody". From then on - forget Sci-Fi...this movie becomes 100% horror.

What really dissappointed me about this movie was that it tried to scare you in entirely the wrong way. Instead of using clever tricks or trying to build up to a scare - this movie just uses loud noises, sudden camera shifts and short quick bursts of gore.....yawn....everyone's seen it all before and knows when to expect it. The one thing that was done well was the lead up to finding out about what happened to the previous crew. There are skeletons lying around mangled and mashed, but what did this? Then finally after being painfully restored - the new crew views the video.

The acting isn't too bad at all.....considering what the actors had to work with anyway, as there is no complex or interesting dialogue to speak of. There was some very nice camerawork in certain sequences though, like when the hull near the bridge of the Event Horizon is breached and the camera pans back to follow specific objects as they bounce across the deck and are sucked out into space.

This movie could have been so much better. It had a good experienced cast who deserved more to work with. There was just nothing new here that any of us haven't seen before in Aliens or Hellraiser.


T H E  G A M E   

Story - "Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas), is a shrewdly successful businessman who is always in control. Well-bred and well-schooled, Van Orton lives a well-ordered life. Until an unexpected birthday gift from his brother Conrad (Sean Penn) destroys it all. Like it or not, Nicholas has been enrolled in a game -- "a profound life experience" that begins quietly but soon erupts in a confusing maze of devastating events. Terrorized by unknown forces who seem intent on dismantling everything he has built, Van Orton has to win this deadly game or lose control of everything in his life."

I'm not a huge Michael Douglas fan.....maybe it's because he likes to play characters that no-one could like. At the start of this terrific movie, it looked like he would once again be playing an unlikable.......a character who you just couldn't care if lived or died. But slowly over the course of the movie, the character of Nicholas Van Orton grows as he learns off his experiences.

I have never seen Michael Douglas give a performance like this. He was terrific - I can't imagine anyone cast to play the role of Van Orton. Sean Penn plays his part well, but only really has one or two scenes to make his impression. Deborah Kara Unger, who plays the mysterious woman constantly crossing Van Orton's path, performs just as well as Douglas does, and it's a full time job trying to work out just what her agenda is.....is she really just an innocent woman dragged into the Game.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie...up until the final two minutes. Before I say anymore - let me warn you that I'm about to give specific spoilers regarding the movies ending....so if you haven't seen it and want to remain blissfully ignorant then flee now.......they gone?....okay back to business. Van Orton has just mistakenly shot his brother because he thought it wasn't a Game, but a real plot against him. He is shattered and plunges off the roof in despair much like his father did when he was a child.....he is falling....and I'm sitting there thinking, Wow, what a powerful movie.....still falling......this was brilliant.....and then he lands safe and sound on a large air bag and there is a big happy ending. I'm sorry, did I just see that?

All of a sudden this dark and hauntingly brilliant movie is all light and happy. No-one got hurt, all is forgiven. Even though Van Orton was pushed to the brink of suicide and madness, everything is immediately fine and rosy. The movie even ended with Van Orton asking Miss Mysterious Woman out on a date......I don't think I've ever seen a movie do such a 180 degree turn in my life. What was a brilliant and powerful ending was thrown out the window in favour of an unconvincing and sugary happy ending. Why did they do it? My guess is that director David Fincher feared he might might be condemned again after the huge negative reaction he received the last time he made a character jump to their death (Ripley in Aliens 3).

This is a brilliant movie. You never know if it is a Game or a con job designed to rob Van Orton of all his assets until the end. But do yourself a favour, if you get this out on video - press 'stop' once Van Orton swan dives off the building, it will make a much more powerful impression on you that way. For once, a happy ending just really wasn't called for.


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