I have to hand it to Gary Oldman for toughing it out to finish this movie; because, I could see it in his eyes, he hated working this film. I, too, hated this flick. The torture and abuse on the screen, while disingenuously hidden from the viewer — we only actually see Ving Rhames' reaction to a video of his sister's brutal sodomy-rape by two Chinese guys, and there's some kind of contrived flashback of Gary Oldman's retarded kid brother taking the rap as a cop- killer — pales in comparison to the EDITORIAL TORTURE heaped upon the audience.
Seriously, this movie tries your patience. Whoever was cutting this film lingered too long on mundane scenes and then ZIPPED to improbable action scenes, until I was blurting, "Oh, come ON!" every few seconds. Let's just disregard the horrible costumes and hairstyles and deliberately bad dialogue — I mean, it MUST BE deliberate, right, it must be a premeditatedly bad script — and tell me WHERE Ving Rhames is supposed to be exacting vengeance on Gary Oldman?
Tell me.
Ving has Gary point-blank in his sights in the evil headquarters, right, then BOOM there's a scuffle and BOOM there's a night-time car chase in the city and BOOM now they're out of the city and it's daylight in the desert and BOOM suddenly Gary Oldman's car is sinking in quicksand.
Hey, all of that transpires in less than two minutes, okay?
Oh, yeah, I get it, I get the poetic justice of death by quicksand over a bullet in the — NO, I DON'T GET IT!!! I don't understand why or how this ending was slopped together. It's like the film editor was doing jello-shots.
I can hear the ENTIRE AUDIENCE moaning, their trust and credulity exhausted. Mercifully, Ving decides to shoot Gary Oldman's head sticking up out of the quicksand, but only AFTER insisting that Gary recite "Death Be Not Proud," okay?
Is that enough abuse? Not abuse of the actors on screen — God knows Ving and Gary were probably drinking themselves to sleep every night during production — but I mean abuse heaped upon the audience, cringing in their seats. If this hasn't been nominated as one of the WORST movies of all time, it should be.
Seriously, this movie tries your patience. Whoever was cutting this film lingered too long on mundane scenes and then ZIPPED to improbable action scenes, until I was blurting, "Oh, come ON!" every few seconds. Let's just disregard the horrible costumes and hairstyles and deliberately bad dialogue — I mean, it MUST BE deliberate, right, it must be a premeditatedly bad script — and tell me WHERE Ving Rhames is supposed to be exacting vengeance on Gary Oldman?
Tell me.
Ving has Gary point-blank in his sights in the evil headquarters, right, then BOOM there's a scuffle and BOOM there's a night-time car chase in the city and BOOM now they're out of the city and it's daylight in the desert and BOOM suddenly Gary Oldman's car is sinking in quicksand.
Hey, all of that transpires in less than two minutes, okay?
Oh, yeah, I get it, I get the poetic justice of death by quicksand over a bullet in the — NO, I DON'T GET IT!!! I don't understand why or how this ending was slopped together. It's like the film editor was doing jello-shots.
I can hear the ENTIRE AUDIENCE moaning, their trust and credulity exhausted. Mercifully, Ving decides to shoot Gary Oldman's head sticking up out of the quicksand, but only AFTER insisting that Gary recite "Death Be Not Proud," okay?
Is that enough abuse? Not abuse of the actors on screen — God knows Ving and Gary were probably drinking themselves to sleep every night during production — but I mean abuse heaped upon the audience, cringing in their seats. If this hasn't been nominated as one of the WORST movies of all time, it should be.