Or as I like to call it, Voice-over: The Movie.Now, I'm not going to go all the way and say that this is complete drivel, because it's not. It does, however, seem to be the classic case of a filmmaker (Guy Ritchie) overreaching his storytelling abilities, or not knowing how best to use the talents that he (or she) has. That's the nicer way of saying that Revolver is a clusterf*ck. A mess of a movie, but not in a good-mess way like Southland Tales - instead the bad, boring type of mess, where it feels like nothing really happens, but you've been dragged along on a cross-country trip to watch that nothing happen.
Jason Statham and his wig play Jake Green, a con man fresh out of seven years in prison, time served for (or because?) of a casino overlord played by Ray Liotta. Or at least he's fresh out for the first minute of the film. Then, it jumps ahead in time two additional years, for the sole purpose of later feeding us the knowledge that Green has amassed himself "more money than [he] could ever spend" during that time. Of course, that's not good enough for Jake - he wants revenge on Dorothy Macha (Liotta, and yes, his character's first name really is Dorothy).
From there, the film spirals into a complex soup of cons, chess, 12 dollar bills, rare blood diseases, random animation, gratuitous nudity, a dash of over-the-top violence, tanning rooms, Liotta ass, Liotta pockmarks, and Liotta bad acting, all tied together with more voice-overs than you've likely heard in a year's worth of film watching. What is it that they say about voice-overs? That they're the crutch of a bad writer?
The rampant use of voice-overs gets somewhat of a pass by virtue of the twistified ending (as do some of the other whacked-out elements of the plot), but it's not that good of an ending - not one good enough to make you wonder why Ritchie and Luc Besson were not only involved in this, but responsible for it. It may not be worse than oh-so-many B-level crime dramas out there, but it's got to be one of the worst when you factor in the "talent" that made it.
Fletch's Film Rating:
"I want you to punch me as hard as you can."
In case you couldn't tell, Revolver was the LAMB's Movie of the Month for October. See more reviews of it, and other MOTM's here.
5 people have chosen wisely: on "LAMB Movie of the Month: Revolver"
Gratuitous nudity? Going into the queue!
There was nothing good about Southland Tales. It was all clusterfuck, with few rewards.
Nothing good at all, Paul? C'mon, even if you hated just about everything, you gotta love the usage of The Pixies' Wave of Mutilation.
But I liked a lot more about it. It was so gonzo, so off the deep end, that I eventually came around to it. Even bought it at Blockbuster.
I agree with Paul about Southland Tales. Hated it.
I think the only redeeming quality was Miranda Richardson sitting in a room dressed in all purple (including purple nails), eating Cheetos and watching live security feeds all day...for no apparent reason. But I heart Ms. Richardson.
I STILL haven't seen Southland Tales, agh! Worst part, it's sitting on top of my TV as I type.
I can understand Ritchie's involvement in this mess, but how did Besson let Revolver turn into such a cluster?!
Also, I can tolerate Liotta overacting, as I've said before, but the ass and pockmarks were bothersome.
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