What a confused movie this is. Is it a comedy? A Pulp Fiction wannabe? A John Hughes Eighties High School movie? It tries to be all three, but in doing that it fails to be what it needs to be: a good movie.
It's very Pulp Fiction-ish in its use of "witty banter during extreme gunplay." The John Hughes element is obvious...Cusack could even be the same character from Better Off Dead ten years later. In fact, THAT would have been funny, but I digress.
If it's an action movie, I think Cusack and Aykroyd are miscast. Maybe not Cusack so much, but Aykroyd just sucks. As in most action movies, the characters use their guns like hoses and only reload after 50 shots have been fired from a pistol that holds 10 bullets.
The romance is not convincing. There's just no chemistry between Driver and Cusack, and not much time is spent on them. Nor is enough time spent with Cusack's old school friends and enemies, which could have been fodder for a better movie.
Particularly shocking is the violence in this supposed comedy. (SPOILERS) Cusack's encounter with the "ghoul" in the school ends disturbingly, in my opinion. And I have no problem with violence...Pulp Fiction was great, but of course it wasn't marketing itself as a comedy! And the gunning down of the two NSA agents at the end just makes no sense and didn't seem to even fit with where the movie was supposed to go.
The movie could have been FUNNY if Cusack's character was a bumbling hitman, not an expert assassin. But hey, that's just my opinion.
It's very Pulp Fiction-ish in its use of "witty banter during extreme gunplay." The John Hughes element is obvious...Cusack could even be the same character from Better Off Dead ten years later. In fact, THAT would have been funny, but I digress.
If it's an action movie, I think Cusack and Aykroyd are miscast. Maybe not Cusack so much, but Aykroyd just sucks. As in most action movies, the characters use their guns like hoses and only reload after 50 shots have been fired from a pistol that holds 10 bullets.
The romance is not convincing. There's just no chemistry between Driver and Cusack, and not much time is spent on them. Nor is enough time spent with Cusack's old school friends and enemies, which could have been fodder for a better movie.
Particularly shocking is the violence in this supposed comedy. (SPOILERS) Cusack's encounter with the "ghoul" in the school ends disturbingly, in my opinion. And I have no problem with violence...Pulp Fiction was great, but of course it wasn't marketing itself as a comedy! And the gunning down of the two NSA agents at the end just makes no sense and didn't seem to even fit with where the movie was supposed to go.
The movie could have been FUNNY if Cusack's character was a bumbling hitman, not an expert assassin. But hey, that's just my opinion.