Another month, another Bruce Willis movie, where he's only in it for 5 minutes.
If you know the story behind these films, they become more interesting. RedLetterMedia did a whole examination on how and why these films are made, the business model behind them, etc.
In addition, Willis is rumored to suffer from early onset dementia and has trouble remembering his lines, which cost him gigs with major Hollywood studios. In light of this, he turned to smaller gigs lately, like his appearance in theatre in an adaption of Misery, as well as these small, low budget movies, that are filmed in 2 weeks on a shoestring budget.
Obviously these movies are not going to be Die Hard. Stop expecting them to be that. Approach them with the knowledge that they're filmed in 2 weeks by a skeleton crew, and suddenly they become more interesting from a film making perspective.
Of all these terrible movies, Gasoline Alley along with Midnight in the Switchgrass ranks as the best, thanks to a decent plot setup of a man suspected of murdering four women, with all the evidence pointing to him, and him having to prove his innocence before the cuffs click, or he is killed.
The film is carried by a fantastic performance by Devon Sawa, who's been on my radar since last year's stellar "Hunter Hunter" and puts in more effort than this material deserves. He looks grizzled and tough, ready to explode into violence at any moment, which adds a layer of suspense. Luke Wilson counteracts this with an initially jovial turn as a cop who thinks he has his guy, only to gradually become more serious and supportive, as he begins piecing the puzzle together.
The suspense is held pretty well until about 2/3rds into the movie at which point things start to drag. Once you know who the bad guy is, things turn predictable and dumb, with a shootout in a dimly lit environment (not a warehouse for once). Much like a car chase earlier, the director doesn't really know how to stage an action scene. Shots of people firing guns or sped up footage of cars chasing each other over deserted roads doesn't make a good action scene. If you don't have the budget to make an action scene, don't make an action scene. Low budget movies work best when they're carried by the plot and actors, with the a potential of shocking violence happening at any given time. Sawa understood this in his performance. He plays action man when he can't be action man and instead must use his smarts.
Willis... he's not going to be John McClane anymore. But he's doing his thing as long as he still can and getting a decent payday for it. Good for him.
I found myself enjoying this movie for the two lead performances and some decent writing in the first half of the film.
If you know the story behind these films, they become more interesting. RedLetterMedia did a whole examination on how and why these films are made, the business model behind them, etc.
In addition, Willis is rumored to suffer from early onset dementia and has trouble remembering his lines, which cost him gigs with major Hollywood studios. In light of this, he turned to smaller gigs lately, like his appearance in theatre in an adaption of Misery, as well as these small, low budget movies, that are filmed in 2 weeks on a shoestring budget.
Obviously these movies are not going to be Die Hard. Stop expecting them to be that. Approach them with the knowledge that they're filmed in 2 weeks by a skeleton crew, and suddenly they become more interesting from a film making perspective.
Of all these terrible movies, Gasoline Alley along with Midnight in the Switchgrass ranks as the best, thanks to a decent plot setup of a man suspected of murdering four women, with all the evidence pointing to him, and him having to prove his innocence before the cuffs click, or he is killed.
The film is carried by a fantastic performance by Devon Sawa, who's been on my radar since last year's stellar "Hunter Hunter" and puts in more effort than this material deserves. He looks grizzled and tough, ready to explode into violence at any moment, which adds a layer of suspense. Luke Wilson counteracts this with an initially jovial turn as a cop who thinks he has his guy, only to gradually become more serious and supportive, as he begins piecing the puzzle together.
The suspense is held pretty well until about 2/3rds into the movie at which point things start to drag. Once you know who the bad guy is, things turn predictable and dumb, with a shootout in a dimly lit environment (not a warehouse for once). Much like a car chase earlier, the director doesn't really know how to stage an action scene. Shots of people firing guns or sped up footage of cars chasing each other over deserted roads doesn't make a good action scene. If you don't have the budget to make an action scene, don't make an action scene. Low budget movies work best when they're carried by the plot and actors, with the a potential of shocking violence happening at any given time. Sawa understood this in his performance. He plays action man when he can't be action man and instead must use his smarts.
Willis... he's not going to be John McClane anymore. But he's doing his thing as long as he still can and getting a decent payday for it. Good for him.
I found myself enjoying this movie for the two lead performances and some decent writing in the first half of the film.