Sunday, January 31, 2010

Pushed To The Edge In Boston

Tom Craven is a Boston detective and single father to daughter,Emma, who works at some nuclear research facility where suspected shenanigans are going on.
I've never seen Conspiracy Theory, but I've heard this one is a lot like that one.
And this one is typical Mel Gibson style action.

But I have seen Braveheart, and the parallels are common: some stubborn warrior-type dude gets an angry hair up his ass when his One Love is murdered at the hands of some powerful higher-ups...
... spurring him on a quest for justice,truth and vengeance, where his Love appears to him in periodic visitations.
(Come to think of it, this is a common theme that appears in many of Gibson's roles)

Edge Of Darkness contains a few plot twists that inevitably lead to where you think they will, making this not at all that great of a thriller, and an average one at best. And despite the heavily-aired trailer that is punctuated with some really cool violence and all that, the real mayhem, the stuff you came to see, doesn't really begin until an hour into the film, but it's good stuff. Not much gunslinging til near the end, and mostly strong arming and fist throwing. Nothing particularly over-the-top that would require a suspension of belief.

What I think inspired the writers to create this one was an over abundance of cool 'Dirty Harry' type lines, and they needed a screenplay to work them into.
Stuff like :
"But they're armed and dangerous!"
Whadya think I am.
or...
You need to decide whether you're hangin on the cross of bangin in the nails.
or...
Make my day. (ok, that's not really in the there, but it could be.)

Yeah, stuff like that. But it all works.
The wrap: it's a good film that provides effective bang for your buck.

1 comment:

tully said...

That's all well and good, but in these times of economic uncertainty, what this nation needs is Lethal Weapon 5. Historically no movie has done better to ward off recessions. Four Lethal Weapons made in the late eighties and nineties...maybe if he hadn't gone all romantic-comedy and Jesusy on us in the 00's, we would have turned this thing around by now. And let's face it, for all it's virtues, Apocalypto accomplished nothing!