Formerly "A Movie A Day" :/

Monday, November 2, 2009

Falling Down - 1993 - Dir. Schumacher

A movie I had been meaning to see for years now. I think my interest in the movie depending on whether or not I could remember that Schumacher had directed it. Although, I must say, Schumacher was a better director when he couldn't get rubber nipples and afford to get his shots by basically HURLING THE CAMERA at the action and then editing the hurls together with music. I mean, I'm not saying Schumacher had a delicate touch with this film, but its certainly restrained in context. The movie follows Michael Douglas who is already basically having a mental breakdown when the film begins and his little stroll through LA which consists of him having different kinds of freakouts with different kinds of weapons. I think Ebert points out that Douglas never really has a release in the film, despite his acts of destruction. He's just a big sad sack. I did like Douglas's collection of weapons as he moves through the city. I thought that was a fun little touch. Duvall was great in this. I dunno what it is, but since Network, I've been ALL ABOUT Duvall. He throws such neat little touches into his character in the film and I was more interested in what he was doing than Douglas a lot of time. The movie is basically what you would expect from a "Guy goes nuts and starts shooting" movie. Off-hand, I don't know if I felt like I got too many different layers out of the film. There's certainly interesting contrasts between Duvall and Douglas in the film, but by the end, I'm left wondering what exactly I was supposed to draw from the movie. Maybe I'm selling Schumacher short by assuming he didn't want to let us come to our own conclusions. Although, he did direct Batman & Robin and I will never, never forget that.

Well, now he can buy a real FLY pair of specs, right? M I RITE?!

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