Denzel Washington stars as an ATF agent investigating a terrorist attack on a ferry carrying 600 or so people.
If you've seen the previews of this film, then you know that someway, somehow Denzel has a chance to stop this from happening, even though it already has...
Again, if you saw the previews, this film is not what you think. It's not "Groundhog's Day" as an action thriller. So get that out of your mind when you watch it.
Now initially, for those who are observant, you'll notice things are oddly wrong. Then they'll hit you over the head with a club with clues that things are wrong. Again though, some people might not pick up on the hint. To these people, you will have trouble following the movie.
In fact, the movie starts off really well. You'll be hooked on Denzel's very likable character and on finding out exactly what happened and how evidence pieces together. You'll even chuckle as Val Kilmer shows up weighing about 80 pounds more than the last time you saw him. Then the movie takes an interesting turn. Val's team is introduced as so in their...surveillance equipment. Now this is where you'll still be hooked, and probably even more so, but it's also where the bullshit alarm will go off in your head. This is the moment when you need to just turn it off and enjoy the film.
Although, admittedly, it really gets weaker and weaker from that moment. Actually, let me restate that. The plot gets weaker, but the actual scenes when they're on surveillance duty are actually well acted and shot.
The worst moments come later though. The first comes right before the climatic finale. You'll wish you could grab a writer from this film and bitch slap him or her. Seriously, it's just so fucking frustrating. They cannot set the rules in a film, then completely break them without any explanation, and expect us to swallow that shit.
Another bad moment, which is actually funny comes later, and I'm sure some people will miss it, but let me try to explain it without spoilers. Say you're in a box and I tell you to get out. You can't because you're in a box right? Well, now I'm going to remove three of the walls. How stupid would you have to be to continue to try to escape the box via the last remaining wall? Apparently, as stupid as the writers.
Ok, I know I'm bashing the writing, which seems to be common practice these days, but the film isn't that bad. Great acting all around and an interesting premise do override bad writing here. Just not enough to save it's a must see. Worth a rental, but you'll have the same complaints I did.
6 out of 10.
Deja Vu
Well, now I'm going to remove three of the walls. How stupid would you have to be to continue to try to escape the box via the last remaining wall?
Just like Santa Anna attacked perhaps the sturdiest wall at the Alamo when the rest were crumbling.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
There is a moment in the movie when a woman is at a board explaining how time flows that made me laugh because me, Gordon, and Cakedaddy had the same conversation years ago regarding Terminator's time line. We even had pretty much the same drawings.
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell
Leisher wrote:There is a moment in the movie when a woman is at a board explaining how time flows that made me laugh because me, Gordon, and Cakedaddy had the same conversation years ago regarding Terminator's time line. We even had pretty much the same drawings.
I remember that:
Cakedaddy kept insisting that a traveller could only enter through the present, but Gordon said that someone could come from the future.
Edit: I have way too much free time on my hands.
Edited By Paul on 1179246220
You do have way too much time on your hands.
Actually, we were discussing how time would have to flow in The Terminator universe for things to occur the way they did. In those films, time had to be linear (am I remembering this correctly?), rather than all at once...or was it vice versa?
I think I am backwards, because I think I argued that John Connor would never have been born if time flowed in a linear path because the first time through, Sarah couldn't have knocked boots with Reese(?). Thus, all moments in time had to occur at the same time allowing for John to affect the past, even one in which he wouldn't have been conceived.
Actually, we were discussing how time would have to flow in The Terminator universe for things to occur the way they did. In those films, time had to be linear (am I remembering this correctly?), rather than all at once...or was it vice versa?
I think I am backwards, because I think I argued that John Connor would never have been born if time flowed in a linear path because the first time through, Sarah couldn't have knocked boots with Reese(?). Thus, all moments in time had to occur at the same time allowing for John to affect the past, even one in which he wouldn't have been conceived.
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell