25% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 104 reviews)
Runtime: 109 rather dreary minutes
Directed by: Neil Jordan
Starring: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Danny Huston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
From: Like a dozen different production companies, no joke
I have a messageboard user to “thank” for this experience. Earlier in the year-shortly after this left the cineplexes after a rather lackluster box office take-he asked if anyone had seen this before-he liked the Philip Marlowe character. I responded “no” due to the bad critical & viewer opinion. It's been available for a streaming rental for weeks, albeit at at steep $5.99 price. However, I still had money on iTunes from a gift card many years ago and as I could use that for rentals on Apple TV +... I declared there and now here that I took the bullet--most will be best served to skip the film.
Even if Liam Neeson was rather old for the part, at least he was doing something different from his Old Man Action roles; the cast and the director really should have created something better than this cure for insomnia. Right away the viewer is thrusted into some sort of nonsense tale over a scummy guy faking his death; there are plenty of other sleazy characters I could never give a damn about. Between the cinematography increasingly turning yellow for some reason, a dull story that's only made confusing due to the feeling that entire scenes are edited out that tie everything together, performers that mostly seem like they're sleepwalking through their roles... the fact that this isn't much of a detective story AND there is some pathetic attempts at hardboiled dialogue means this is best not in your queue, whether literal or figurative.
The Big Sleep was the only other time I had experienced Philip Marlowe as a character; there's a film much better than this one. So is Chinatown, which this unwisely decides to echo at times. Quite a few films from the past featured the Marlowe character and they all had to be at least more interesting than this drowsy picture. Ultimately, the lame script really lets this down and the end product isn't even bad enough to make the film a “you gotta see this!” disaster. Rather, the only detail I'll ever remember: this was my first time seeing Daniela Melchoir on celluloid. I've known this for awhile but she sure is a pretty gal... she had a small thankless role so you'll get more out of looking at her Instagram than renting this just to admire her.
No comments:
Post a Comment