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wheatt
Reviews
Hollywood Homicide (2003)
dreadful
It not a serious crime drama/thriller so it must be a comedy? Hang on though, it's simply not funny or even mildly amusing. It is continually tedious throughout.
What is worth mentioning is that the film maker seemed obsessed with the ring tones on the character's mobile phones, to a point where it was just irritating (if you are supposed to turn off your mobile phone during the course of a film, why did the film makers insist on pushing this annoying plot-device on us?).
It would've been much more interesting if Mr Ford and Mr Barnett were just playing themselves (real actors moonlighting as cops). No explanation needed, it just would have been more watchable.
Tiresome.
Super Troopers (2001)
Not perfect, but it's heart is in the right place
This isn't a teen comedy movie. It's not a "gross-out" movie. The script branches off down too many dead ends and some of the character development is iffy. Apart from the little character development there is, it's VERY uncomplicated.
But that's great; it works so well a lot of the time. You just have a bunch of highway cops who are compelled to screw up at every opportunity. It's their whole reason for being. This is where character development doesn't work for two of the characters. One involves a plot device formula relationship (going out with one of the regular cops on the "other team"); the other is a strange long term relationship with a woman (who has a son from another relationship) who wants him to stay in town if the department shuts down.
The long term girlfriend of Thorny (possibly the lead character?) only reacts to him passively and in no way sways him from the capers he pulls while on highway patrol (i.e. he doesn't "mature", therefore, what's the point?).
This is my main gripe, apart from that the film starts off strong and then loses its impetus, with the exception of the occasional brilliant scene or snippet of dialog. Lots of great ideas were exposed and then discarded (the German couple were woefully under used as a comic device).
The role of Thorny is played brilliantly deadpan by Jay Chandrasekhar, and the other highway "patroller's" are great, with well defined individual character traits. Brian Cox makes an appearance, but doesn't pull off anything spectacular (he's no Lloyd Bridges).
It's strange and it's beautiful, give it a chance!
Ticker (2001)
there are dogs in the street that could do better than this
An interesting cast: - Tom Sizemore - Interesting character actor Dennis Hopper - Malevolant screen genius Steven Seagal - Entertaining grim reaper with ponytail
And this is how they were cast: - Sizemore - Undercover cop, troubled alchoholic with(out) dead family. Avenging partner who looked like he had been a cop for all of two minutes, but was still able to offer cryptic life-affirming advice to Tom (who looked twice his age). Hopper - Northern Island terrorist with a part time accent. Seagal - Hint of Jamaican, with pony tail.
The film editing leaves you thinking you fell asleep during large periods of plot development (blink and you'll miss it, or sometimes they just won't show it).
The three main characters drift in and out of scenes, they start talking to each other somewhere in the middle of the film. Seagal looks tired and wants to be put out of his misery for turning up on set. Hopper is unstoppable, no amount of bad script stands between him and his pay cheque. Sizemore is steered through each scene.
I fell asleep the end and was only disturbed from my slumber by a lot of banging going on (guns or bombs, or guns and bombs).
If only Hopper had killed Sizemore and his partner at the beginning, then this film would have been a lot shorter.