Fear appears to be a decent enough thriller; at least up through the first hour. We have a great cast who all play seemingly interesting characters, and that bodes well for the rest of the film. As the action plays out, however, things seem to jump the tracks of credibility. That's a shame since this could have been a really good little film.
The story centers around a 16 yr old girl named Nicole (Witherspoon), who seems to have a lot going for her. Unfortunately, she like so many other young ladies, falls under the spell of a "bad boy" named David (Wahlberg). We the audience can tell from the start that David and his buddies are at the very least shady, and at the very worst homicidal maniacs. Nicole realizes this too after a while. But in defiance of her father (Petersen) she sticks with David a little too long. By the time she's ready to dump him, David is totally obsessed with Nicole, and will stop at nothing to be with her. By the film's final 15 minutes, David and his band of cronies have laid siege to Nicole's house and are terrorizing her entire family.
The film starts out great. We the audience meet characters we care about, and things play out somewhat realistically. The cast is really awesome. Many of the principal performers would go on to much bigger things over the years. Witherspoon and Alyssa Milano are gorgeous, and Mark Wahlberg shows some talent in his first major film role. William Petersen is great in anything he does, and his performance here is no exception. The film falls apart in the final minutes, though. Characterization and logic are thrown out the window as the film relies too heavily on violence and mayhem to sort things out. There are a couple really ridiculous scenes toward the end. In one of them, Wahlberg snaps the neck of one of Witherspoon's friends while he's walking home from school. This is silly enough, but it's also poorly filmed and not at all convincing. In another scene, we see Wahlberg repeatedly punch himself in the chest to make it look like Petersen has beaten him up. It just looks stupid as he's pounding away at himself and trying to look tough.
I don't know. Go ahead and try this one. It could have been better but it's not a total loss.
6 of 10 stars.
The Hound.
The story centers around a 16 yr old girl named Nicole (Witherspoon), who seems to have a lot going for her. Unfortunately, she like so many other young ladies, falls under the spell of a "bad boy" named David (Wahlberg). We the audience can tell from the start that David and his buddies are at the very least shady, and at the very worst homicidal maniacs. Nicole realizes this too after a while. But in defiance of her father (Petersen) she sticks with David a little too long. By the time she's ready to dump him, David is totally obsessed with Nicole, and will stop at nothing to be with her. By the film's final 15 minutes, David and his band of cronies have laid siege to Nicole's house and are terrorizing her entire family.
The film starts out great. We the audience meet characters we care about, and things play out somewhat realistically. The cast is really awesome. Many of the principal performers would go on to much bigger things over the years. Witherspoon and Alyssa Milano are gorgeous, and Mark Wahlberg shows some talent in his first major film role. William Petersen is great in anything he does, and his performance here is no exception. The film falls apart in the final minutes, though. Characterization and logic are thrown out the window as the film relies too heavily on violence and mayhem to sort things out. There are a couple really ridiculous scenes toward the end. In one of them, Wahlberg snaps the neck of one of Witherspoon's friends while he's walking home from school. This is silly enough, but it's also poorly filmed and not at all convincing. In another scene, we see Wahlberg repeatedly punch himself in the chest to make it look like Petersen has beaten him up. It just looks stupid as he's pounding away at himself and trying to look tough.
I don't know. Go ahead and try this one. It could have been better but it's not a total loss.
6 of 10 stars.
The Hound.