It gets three
stars for (mostly) the car chases and the
quality of menace that O'Neal manages to put
into the two affectless, almost unaccented
words "Go Home".
You know you're in for someone's ego-trip
attempt at The Great American Existentialist
Film when the characters have no names, just
labels -- "The Driver", "The Player", "The
Cop", etc.
It becomes more obvious when every other bit
of dialog is a dry, "clever" bit of cynicism.
And it's right there in your face when the
major plot revelation in the film is that
people don't always do what they "always do".
It's far from awful -- Hill is a decent if
overrated writer/director. I mean, he's
working the same vein as Leone, Peckinpah and
Siegel, just not in as rich a part of the
lode.
Well worth seeing for the transitory fun of
the story and the incredible driving sequences
-- comparable to the original "Gone in 60
Seconds" or "Vanishing Point" and superior to,
say "Bullitt". But most people i've known who
have kept the tape, kept it so that they can
watch that Mercedes in the garage, the chase
inside the warehouse or the other driving
sequences, not to revel in the story. |
