Summary:
A reverse engineer whom has had his memory wiped finds himself in a deadly chase. Using an envelope of clues, he tries to puzzle together who is after him and why.
My Thoughts:
I was thirteen when this film first hit theaters, and I loved it when I first saw it. It’s fast paced, filled with ‘really cool’ sci-fi quasi-tech, there’s enough action to blow the socks off any Mountain Dew-fueled preteen, and it has more twists than a Sheepshank knot. It is, in short, exactly the kind of flick I thought was cooler than Miles Davis and Shaved Ice put together when I first saw it.
This film also thinks it’s cooler than it really is; it has a techno-poppy soundtrack, it uses dozens of weird editing techniques to make things look flashier than they actually are, and the design for some of the tech inside Allcom (the Bad Guy’s Company) is so farfetched and silly that it makes the ice fortress hideout in “Die Another Day” seem somewhat plausible. This movie is nothing short of ridiculous, but it’s also a decent amount of fun; rewatching this film last night certainly came with its fair share of nostalgia, and I actually enjoyed it far more than I had anticipated (I half expected to be ruining a childhood favorite with my rewatch). This movie isn’t good, but it certainly provides enough entertainment to warrant one watch.
“It’s time to wake up and get a life.”
Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”) is a contract reverse engineer whom, after every finished gig, has his memory wiped. He is hired by his old friend Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart, “The Pledge”) to build something larger than he’s ever built before, and three years later, after he’s had his memory wiped, he ‘wakes up’ to a world where he is being hunted, and he doesn’t know why. With the help of his friend Shorty (Paul Giamatti, “Lady in the Water”) and a woman named Rachel (Uma Thurman, “Pulp Fiction”), Jennings races to find out what he built, whom is trying to kill him, and why.
I feel sort of strange knowing that I’ve reviewed three John Woo movies for this site now (the other two being “Face/Off” and “Mission: Impossible II”), and none of the films I’ve reviewed have been his great movies (“Hardboiled”, “The Killer”)… Oh well, I’m sure I’ll get around to it eventually. John Woo is a director whom I think has a very unique voice, but it’s also a voice that doesn’t work as well with western audiences as it does with eastern audiences. Woo’s action sequences tend to be super melodramatic, with lots of explosions and car chases, and highly-choreographed fight sequences that tend to drag on for inordinate amounts of time. This particular film starts off with action sequences that actually feel a bit more grounded when compared to Woo’s other opening action sequences, but by the time we hit the halfway mark, all subtlety has been tossed out the window.
We’re reminded- multiple times- throughout the film that Ben Affleck’s character is not a super agent, that he’s an engineer- yet throughout this movie, Affleck’s character does dozens of James Bond-esque things. He rides a motorcycle into oncoming traffic, he fights people armed with handguns with a bamboo stick (like a bo staff), and he even outsmarts federal agents… Since one of the major plot points of this film is that Affleck’s character has been given a glimpse into the future, I can forgive a few small coincidences in the name of plot progression, but I have a hard time believing that glimpsing the future would improve your motorcycle and hand-to-hand combat skills; Affleck is a freaking super agent, even if Woo doesn’t want to admit it.
A lot of the dialogue in this film is very cheesy, and, again, the dialogue thinks it’s a lot cooler than it actually is. Overeager delivery paired with schmaltzy writing makes for some really cringe-worthy scenes. Uma Thurman’s character is also portrayed in a very weird way, and all of the romantic dialogue between her and Affleck is forced and unnatural sounding. Aaron Eckhart, who plays Bad Guy Man, oversells his evilness; short of stroking a cat and laughing maniacally he pretty much is a bond villain.
The film is adapted from a Philip K. Dick (the author behind “A Scanner Darkly” , “Blade Runner”, “Total Recall” and many more sci fi classics) short story, and the concept is actually pretty cool. The idea that a man has had his memory erased, but he also left himself clues to try to escape his death- that’s pretty neat. The action, while way overblown, still does have its fun moments. While I wouldn’t say this is as much fun as “Face/Off”, it does have enough ridiculous action to keep the viewer thoroughly entertained, even if what is happening tends to get a little corny.
Verdict:
This is certainly not a good movie, but I am happy to say that I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to when I first planned to revisit it. This movie’s premise is silly, the execution is pretty schmaltzy, but overall it’s still a pretty fun ride, even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense sometimes.
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