Father Geek here; this time with another review from the Windy City, this one of the star studded, or is that stud starred flick THE SCORE. I spotted a poster for this one quite a while back in a local Austin multiplex, it was nice, but the cast is what really caught the eye... man, 3 generations of great badass actors, buuuuuuuut they must have a script worthy of their talents and from this report that doesn't seem to have happened... sad... sad...
I have yet to see a review for the new Frank Oz flick: The Score, so I thought I'd chime in. It was an 8:00 sneak preview at the Olympic Theatre here in Chicago. The same theatre with various Harrison Ford, Chris O'Donnell, Cusack, and other Chicago alum decking the walls. So the Score.
I walked in expecting little, I've seen the trailer, but have heard relatively little considering the talent involved, and had no idea of what to expect.
The opening sequence basically parallels the entire movie. It starts with a semi-intelligent little caper, one that builds and builds and builds, and just when your ready for the big caper, Nick Wells' (DeNiro) mask comes off his loose Taxi driver jaw blurps out: "I'm getting too old for this".
"I'm getting too old for this."
Are you kidding? Someone please tell me he's kidding. Surely with the talent involved, surely Frank Oz, or DeNiro, or anyone with any sense would cut that line in favor of ANYTHING.
And like I said, the entire movie is like this. The movie enjoys building and building, in fact, the first hour is introducing characters and building towards two things: The final heist, and the inevitable meeting of the three greats from three generations.
So we build, after DeNiro spouts out that hideously horrible generic cliched dialogue, that remains ringing in your ears even past the closing credits, he decides to retire, until Brian (Norton) comes along and blackmails DeNiro to do one last job. Let's set it straight, Brian is the mentally retarded Norton, and Jackie is the real Norton. You see, Norton is the new guy on the block, and he of course needs the experience of the well known veteran to show him the ways.
So we build and we build, they begin planning the heist, suddenly it becomes a game of who can trust who and why and where. Jackie thinks Max (Brando) and Nick are reteaming against him, Nick thinks the same of Jackie, and his little gang of comrades, and Brando, well, Brando just sorta sits there and oozes, providing the so called comic relief of the film.
The movie is distracting. It begins to build on one thing, but then completely goes off on a subtangent and begins exploring other things, leaving loose ends that are anything but tied up at the end.
As the movie that loves to build, does it pay off?
Well, yes and no. The ONE scene with DeNiro, Brando, and Norton, well, it fizzles. I mean literally, I half expected a subtitle to appear halfway through the scene reading: "I'm too old for this". The entire time your watching this movie, you don't see Max, Terry, and Nick, you see Marlo, Bobby, and Eddie. It's distracting and oh how the movie loves to distract, whether it be with the casting, the tangents, or brain churning music, it hates the idea that anyone enjoy themselves, it seems to try so hard to build to nothing.
But the final heist, pays off in a relatively uneventful way. Needless to say, DeNiro's not only racing against the clock, but he's racing to save his own life. But you would never guess it by the way he plays this scene. Completely cool and collected, and completely unbelievable. There isn't an ounce of tension in this entire scene, or the rest of the movie for that matter. It's more or less of showcase of great actors that fails to amount to anything.
Oh well, chalk it up with the rest of this summer's disappointments.
Love,
You Ate Sand?
