Geez, two early film reviews in one day and both disappointing. For this film, I noticed that Dark Horizons ran a couple of fairly negative reviews, but I figured, "aaaaaah, they are DePalma haters" You know there are a ton of them out there, buuuuuuut then I got this review which comes from a DePalma fan that loves films like BODY DOUBLE, PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and DRESSED TO KILL, like me. And he didn't care for it. BUMMER... Well, as always do note that this is a very early test screening and an awful lot of changes can still be made. And DePalma does work and work his films through the test screening phase till they meet his high standards. I just hope this isn't a RAISING CAIN... whhhhhheeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww badder than I thought bad could get.... Man, takes the breath right out of ya...
I won't even get into what my day was like before the screening...let me just say, making a movie myself right now, I was keen on forgetting about all of my own worries and indulge myself in the work of a master: Brian DePalma. After all, he single-lensedly introduced me at a tender age to homicidal transvestites (Dressed to Kill), the late opening hours of the Tower Video Los Angeles porn section (Body Double), very prominent popping veins (The Fury) and bizzare, scary-looking masks in semi-parodies that I didn't really understand to be such (Phantom of The Paradise)....what I'm trying to say is, I was psyched to see this film. I was ready for some inspiration!
I collected a whole bunch of my friends and current collaborators and we descended upon the Paramount Lot. It became rather apparent early on that much was riding on the screening, since the paranoia factor was unusually high... We would find out why before soon. After standing in the freezing cold for a good while and pyching each other up even further about the coolness we were about to witness, we were led into the thater.
Soon, Paramount brass streamed in en force. Sherry Lansing, Jonathan Dolgen. Then Brian DePalma. And finally, Nicholas Cage himself.
The screening began....
The Story: Nic Cage is a police searge in Atlantic City, where the fight of the milennium is taking place. He's meeting up with his good buddy from the Department of Defense, Gary Sinese. He's there to protect the Secretary of Defense Secretary who's attending the fight. Then the Secretary of Defense gets whacked, while being handed a mysterious envelope by a lady dressed in white with a blonde wig. Nic has to figure out why. 98% of the movie takes place in the "actual" arena, and involved Nic talking to people who witnessed the event, giving us a reason to slip into several "flashbacks".
The Setting: An Atlantic City Boxing Arena, which is supposedly part of a mega-resort also including a casino/hotel.
The Acting: Nic and Gary give serviceabl performances. Nic is at his most manic throughout the show, playing an "anti-hero", who cheats on his wife and his girlfriend and extorts money from drug-dealers. Gary is being Gary. Stan Shaw is an all out embarrassement as Heavy Weight champion Tyler. And Carla Gugiono, formerly of Spin City, is also at hand as the Lady In White. Not a grateful part, and an eventless performance.
The cinematography: Not wanting to get overly indulgent here, but it does deserve mentioning that the cinematography in fact was so prominent that it became distracting. In an attempt to steal the crown for longest uninterrupted shot from Hitchcock's "The Rope" and Altman's "The Player", the first 10 minutes of the film are one long, uninterrupted sequence (possibly one hidden cut, but I'm not sure). The film ends similarly, with a long, uninterrupted sequence involving construction workers, which my girlfriend christened "..the prolongued homoerotic sequence rubbing a column"
The Action/Suspense/Special Effects/Set Pieces/Mac Guffins etc.: See personal comments below.
Personal Comments: This was one of the biggest disappointments of my preview-watching career. The crowd was bored into stunned silence, except for the Paramount brass, which laughed at the many "quick-witted" quips. At first I felt sorry...but then I just wanted to leave. The plot was simply non-existent. Note to Mr.Koepp: When you feel like writing a "film noir", please do so. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that. Unless the result is an absolute non-event built around unlikeable characters going through the most standard motions of plot. I didn't give a rat's ass (and apparently neither did the rest of the theater) about any of the characters.
Period.
And that's just the story and the acting...we're not even talking about the ending, which must be one of the most excrutiatingly embarassing moments I've ever had to endure in a theater. Trust me when I say that it makes the ending of Alien Resurrection look like a godsend. Not one person clapped when the lights came up. People just looked around in stunned silence. A few people laughed in exasperation.
To Wrap Up: A terrible, terrible movie. At first, only boring. Then, the ending elevates it to the status of worst movie on Brian DePalma's resume, second only *perhaps* to Raising Caine, as my partner pointed out. Mr. DePalma, please PLEASE even if you have to rip off more sequences from Hitchcock or Eisenstein...do whatever it takes to NOT make a movie like this one ever again.
I've vented. Now I feel better.
A still red-in-the-face,
MerryMan
