I'm not even sure that this qualifies as a film. It feels like little more than an exercise in camera angles and filter effects.
I first watched this film when I was at university, simply because it was so notorious. I was impressed by the camera work but felt that the plot was either extremely weak or non-existent, making the film seem a little pointless.
The real let-down were the characters that vary from reasonable to utterly ridiculous. I am told that Robert Downey Jnr's character is supposed to be English - if that is true, why does he speak with an Australian accent? A word of advice for American actors here: if you're asked to do a British accent, try it in front of a Brit first before you make a complete fool/Dick Van Dyke of yourself. Tommy Lee Jones's character is equally ridiculous; somewhere between Dick Dastardly and Sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane from the Dukes of Hazard(!).
I tried really hard to like this film when it was shown on Channel 5 but the silly cartoonish elements and supposed comedy moments kept cropping up and spoiling the better scenes. Although I'm not a massive fan of his, I can't help but feel that Quentin Tarantino would have made a better job of this.
Worth watching only so that you can discuss 'the influence of media violence on society' with film-student-types at parties.
I first watched this film when I was at university, simply because it was so notorious. I was impressed by the camera work but felt that the plot was either extremely weak or non-existent, making the film seem a little pointless.
The real let-down were the characters that vary from reasonable to utterly ridiculous. I am told that Robert Downey Jnr's character is supposed to be English - if that is true, why does he speak with an Australian accent? A word of advice for American actors here: if you're asked to do a British accent, try it in front of a Brit first before you make a complete fool/Dick Van Dyke of yourself. Tommy Lee Jones's character is equally ridiculous; somewhere between Dick Dastardly and Sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane from the Dukes of Hazard(!).
I tried really hard to like this film when it was shown on Channel 5 but the silly cartoonish elements and supposed comedy moments kept cropping up and spoiling the better scenes. Although I'm not a massive fan of his, I can't help but feel that Quentin Tarantino would have made a better job of this.
Worth watching only so that you can discuss 'the influence of media violence on society' with film-student-types at parties.