The writing, direction, and editing are horrific. I've never said that before about any other movie. Lines like "i like the rain." "oh yeah? Groovy." Within 3 minutes of the movie starting, the senior partner goes "I am too old for this." Of course, he is days away from retiring, and within the next 2 minutes (after his partner warned that he should come with him to this place, he gets killed. there is no character development whatsoever. the only reason we are given that the bad guy's lawyer turns him in is that "he was beginning to order me around like i was one of his mules". are you kidding me? no f@#king lawyer would ever ruin his future (practice or life) and so casually decide to do it while having breakfast with an secret service person.
this movie is so unrealistic and so stupid. we have no idea how any of these guys get there tips, how they end up meeting people. how did they end up at a quadraplegic artist's loft who happens to tell him that the bad guy's studio is somewhere downtown near a garage with a Chinese sign on it. Cut to agent walking up to garage sign with Chinese character on it. LA is enormous!!!!! how the hell did he find it? especially since we track the agent walking up to it and you can see that it would be IMPOSSIBLE to casually see it.
how come the bad guy knows when one of his contacts is being watched by the two agents, but yet doesn't even know who they are when they go into business with him. how come the head agent happens to be sleeping with the stripper/prostitute who is the only person in town who magically always gets the information? oh gawd i am getting an ulcer from the utter mediocrity that this movie is.
argh, it only gets worse. the direction is so bad. what the hell happened to friedkin? was he really a two trick pony? he throws in scenes that are completely unnecessary. why does dafoe need to be naked (gonads protected by a grocery paper bag) throwing money into a fire with a strategically placed naked lady in the background? Why does the guy talk non stop about BASE jumping (especially when it doesn't fit into his character whatsoever). Was it new and friedkin wanted to be hip? how the hell did the guys know to stop on the bridge and find the guys below?
Best direction point: Why would the prison murder attempt be done in broad daylight and so obviously that the mark escapes? I mean shoot, Turturro is able to get away from FOUR big black dudes. Couldn't freidkin be more inventive in shooting the scene? he view of the attempt is two guys with enormous 'fros walking menacingly, scowling straight at him. they they jump on top of him, and still cant stab him. a high school kid could think of a better way to come up with an attempt. and, 90% of the way in, all of a sudden there are titles on the bottom of the screen, declaring the day and time. how odd is that? there hasn't been ANY in the ENTIRE movie. So why now?
Look, every movie can have holes shot through it, but these aren't holes, they just don't make sense and are the result of horrible, horrible writing and directing. this movie isn't a sci fi movie, it isn't asking you to suspend disbelief. It just makes no sense that a guy gets killed even though his place is under surveillance and then a cop car comes up to his house, turns off his headlights while still up the block, pulls into the driveway, and then RUNS into the house and discovers the dead body. Why? it is 4am so the guy's secretary didn't find him dead (shoot, the agents watching him are still asleep CUZ it's dark outside) and the guys used a silencer to kill him. Who called it in? why the the cop show up? turn off his lights before he pulled up to the house? Why did he run in?
In fact, what the hell does this have to do LA? This movie could have been placed in a "town" of 10,000 people. why live and die in LA?
I have *NEVER* vented like this. But I have never been tormented by such crap that is supposed to be an 'A' movie.
this movie is so unrealistic and so stupid. we have no idea how any of these guys get there tips, how they end up meeting people. how did they end up at a quadraplegic artist's loft who happens to tell him that the bad guy's studio is somewhere downtown near a garage with a Chinese sign on it. Cut to agent walking up to garage sign with Chinese character on it. LA is enormous!!!!! how the hell did he find it? especially since we track the agent walking up to it and you can see that it would be IMPOSSIBLE to casually see it.
how come the bad guy knows when one of his contacts is being watched by the two agents, but yet doesn't even know who they are when they go into business with him. how come the head agent happens to be sleeping with the stripper/prostitute who is the only person in town who magically always gets the information? oh gawd i am getting an ulcer from the utter mediocrity that this movie is.
argh, it only gets worse. the direction is so bad. what the hell happened to friedkin? was he really a two trick pony? he throws in scenes that are completely unnecessary. why does dafoe need to be naked (gonads protected by a grocery paper bag) throwing money into a fire with a strategically placed naked lady in the background? Why does the guy talk non stop about BASE jumping (especially when it doesn't fit into his character whatsoever). Was it new and friedkin wanted to be hip? how the hell did the guys know to stop on the bridge and find the guys below?
Best direction point: Why would the prison murder attempt be done in broad daylight and so obviously that the mark escapes? I mean shoot, Turturro is able to get away from FOUR big black dudes. Couldn't freidkin be more inventive in shooting the scene? he view of the attempt is two guys with enormous 'fros walking menacingly, scowling straight at him. they they jump on top of him, and still cant stab him. a high school kid could think of a better way to come up with an attempt. and, 90% of the way in, all of a sudden there are titles on the bottom of the screen, declaring the day and time. how odd is that? there hasn't been ANY in the ENTIRE movie. So why now?
Look, every movie can have holes shot through it, but these aren't holes, they just don't make sense and are the result of horrible, horrible writing and directing. this movie isn't a sci fi movie, it isn't asking you to suspend disbelief. It just makes no sense that a guy gets killed even though his place is under surveillance and then a cop car comes up to his house, turns off his headlights while still up the block, pulls into the driveway, and then RUNS into the house and discovers the dead body. Why? it is 4am so the guy's secretary didn't find him dead (shoot, the agents watching him are still asleep CUZ it's dark outside) and the guys used a silencer to kill him. Who called it in? why the the cop show up? turn off his lights before he pulled up to the house? Why did he run in?
In fact, what the hell does this have to do LA? This movie could have been placed in a "town" of 10,000 people. why live and die in LA?
I have *NEVER* vented like this. But I have never been tormented by such crap that is supposed to be an 'A' movie.