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The plot is a weird combination of Cape Fear meets The Wire meets Alfred Hitchcock Presents, ridiculously compressed to fit a running time of less than two hours. If any of the subplots had been given more room to develop, they might have made for an interesting TV series
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This is one of the films where I ended up rooting for the bad guy.
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You would think I'm wasted on a Nick Styles Speedball Cocktail every time I post in this thread, reading back on earlier, idiotic comments of mine. However, I'm not, just tired, sue me.... -Sesn How tired are you, Sesn? This is one of the films where I ended up rooting for the bad guy. Not ... (gulp) ... surely you can't mean ... Earl Talbot Blake?! "I guess a baretta in the butt beats a butterfly in the boot, huh?" It's just that Denzel Washington (usually a fine actor imo) and his "family" were wayyy to plastic and perfect to me. Washington eats up the scenery in the movie even more than Lithgow, yet as fun as Lithgow can get Washington Good Guy Badge gets way to far shined up imo. It's not even a comic book as far as dimensionality goes (and btw, yes I'm aware that elements of the artistic show up in comics, I mean the OLD old school stuff). When it comes to cardboard cut out characters, I'll take the entertaining villain over a Boy Scout Ken doll any day (and some folks will so hate me for this, but even though I can't stand Star Wars I'd take Vader over Dork Stywalker any old day).
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Posted: |
Jan 25, 2018 - 8:18 AM
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By: |
DeputyRiley
(Member)
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It's just that Denzel Washington (usually a fine actor imo) and his "family" were wayyy to plastic and perfect to me. Washington eats up the scenery in the movie even more than Lithgow, yet as fun as Lithgow can get Washington Good Guy Badge gets way to far shined up imo. It's not even a comic book as far as dimensionality goes (and btw, yes I'm aware that elements of the artistic show up in comics, I mean the OLD old school stuff). You make good points. Not a perfect film by any means! But I do think that making Nick Styles so plastic and perfect was kind of the point, and may have been done on purpose. The shinier his Good Guy Badge was, the nastier Blake became, I think. As you move Styles up the plastic-o-meter, Blake moves down the vicious-o-meter by default. Plus, Styles had to exude such a Boy Scout demeanor to make his "fall from grace" that much harder and dramatic. If he'd had more shades of dark to his character the story wouldn't have worked as well IMO, because he wouldn't have had such a far way to plummet and thus such a triumphant and kickass retaliation. I know I'm overthinking the movie but that was my thought in response to what you wrote. I think Denzel did good in the role, but he was destined to be outshone by Lithgow and the role of Styles wasn't much of a challenge for his talent. While I agree Washington chewed some scenery (i.e. The Nick Styles Show and various states of drunk/drugged Nick), he didn't come close to the dynamic flash that Lithgow put on in his performance. He definitely villained it overtime even though during the second act he downplayed everything to the extreme as he calmly and cooly turned the screws on Styles. That's mah opinion ricocheting back in your direction I guess.
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One of Silvestri's most underrated scores.
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Good Lord almighty, I re read this since it popped up again (Feb 4 2020) and am embarrassed for myself and a few others! Shames on us'ss! Note to self - do not come back to this thread again and sully your flawless persona here...
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A slick, early 90s, B-movie thriller with engaging performances. I've listened to this countless times over the decades, and ya, I could go for an expanded release; one of Silvestri's stronger efforts. Another 10 mins or so of action could possibly flesh it out more.
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