Don't Say A Word 
Review, The Fast and the Furious: Review & The Last Castle: Review
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Don't Say A Word: Review, The Fast and the Furious: Review & The Last Castle: Review
Monday 04.29.2002
alice ttlg || 11:17 PM || trackback
I went on a movie binge the other day, it's a shame that two of the three were hardly worth watching.
Don't Say A Word was far too predictable to have any real suspense. The best bits were all in the previews before it opened at the theatres, the couple were far too comfortable, too nice an apartment, to really care about them and the broken leg gimmick with the wife was kind of silly. Cutest thing in it was the kid but she didn't have enough screen time to even make that work. No-one really had enough screen time, too little of each character and they just never became flesh and blood.
The Fast and the Furious, I was hoping this would be good but while the car races and chases were truly amazing, better than Bullitt all those years ago that set the standard, but again, the people really lacked something. I hear that Vin Diesel has dropped out of the sequel and that means the director is gone too since he said he'd only do it if Vin did. Apparently now it will center around the undercover cop going to work in Miami to bust a street gang and get his badge back.
The Last Castle, a fine performance by Redford and I rather liked that they gave so few details of the reasons for him being sent to prison in the beginning, making it less about why and more about where he was. The prison warden was over the top tho and from the beginning it was far too predictable that he'd get his just rewards, the villain always does. But the dialogue was good, the military aspect of the prison was well handled, this certainly wasn't Oz!
But I can see why it suffered at the box office, simply a victim of circumstance, premiering just a couple months after 9/11. While it actually endorses the military ideals of honor and sacrifice, being set in a military prison and about the overthrow of the superior officer, it's just a bit too close to being anti-military for this time. Damn shame, too, Redford is still one of the best actors around and his performances, both in front of and behind the camera are always worth watching.
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