Post by ronnierocketago on May 6, 2009 2:58:07 GMT
NARROW MARGIN (1990) - ***
No offense to my comrades at FilmCinemaMovie, but I laughed my fatass off when some members dismissed David Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES as "pedestrian." Context is everything, especially when knowing where true cinema pedestrianism resides. Shit guys, try some Peter Hyams for a start.
You know how when a new project is announced, you immediately check out who is directing? If its say David Fincher or Terrence Malick, you're pumped up and intrigued to see what new cool shit those masters want to show us. If it's say Michael Bay or Stephen Sommers, Red Alert![/i] and you go hide in the panic room. Then there are those directors that neither excite or give you pause. Such types either have history of being quality and garbage, and are rather unpredictable. Think Joel Schumacher or Barry Levinson. You may hope or shrug them off, but for any of their new movies, you sometimes have to roll the die, hope for the best.
This describes Writer/Director/Producer/Cinematographer Peter Hyams. From what I've seen of his filmography so far, I haven't yet found that one darn good movie that I have the urge to pimp out to the Internet, though ArkadyRenko swears to me that Hyams' outer space western OUTLAND fits the bill. No, he is a solid filmmaker for the most part, a guy who shoots decent entertainments that never really challenge your intellect or challenge the genre, whatever it be conspiracy thriller (CAPRICORN ONE), time travel (TIMECOP), sci-fi adventure (2010), and buddy cop (RUNNING SCARED). If anything, he seems to embrace genre much like Walter Hill, if not as slick and ambitious or memorable. Now that is a bad or anything, I mean shit not even Rob Cohen can aspire such heights. Also Hyams produced THE MONSTER SQUAD. Give him credit there at least.
Anyway, this will sidetrack for a tick but trust me I've got a point here. Look at all these remakes these days, and those just recently announced. RED DAWN, VIDEODROME, HALLOWEEN, FRIDAY THE 13TH, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, THE FOG, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, ROBOCOP, THE WILD BUNCH, THE HILLS HAVE EYES, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and so goddamn on. But you all notice a pattern here?
They all are famous titles in varying degrees, which is probably why they provoked massive reaction (mostly negative) when they went public. Personally I can't wait for that STAR WARS remake with Zac Effron for Luke Skywalker, Ellen Page for Princess Leia, and Seth Rogen for Han Solo, with Zack Snyder as director. Why him? Because STAR WARS is like too antique in FX storytelling, and a whole new generation needs to see what happens when WARS meets green screen, because like nothing could actually wrong with that. I mean just look at Snyder's WATCHMEN.
When that inevitability happens, the Internet would explode and force us to survive through like a digital dark age or whatever apocalyptical scenario this side of THE TERMINATOR or THE MATRIX or whatever movie with THE in the title. THE ROAD WARRIOR doesn't really count for there were no computers involved, despite being better than those two. Doomsday aint supposed to be fair, you know?
OK, my point here is that Hyams in the late 1980s wanted to remake a classic, but one that most folks wouldn't remember too well. Since this was before the Internet, there were no cries of childhoods being raped when he picked the 1950s B-thriller THE NARROW MARGIN. Since I guess he feared the rapture too, he didn't carry over the THE for his remake. No not reboot or revisioning or whatever the fuck Hollywood calls it these days. Back then, it was just a plain old fashion remake, nothing more or less.
NARROW MARGIN starts off good with Anne Archer (First Lady on THE WEST WING) going on a blind date arranged by her girlfriend, who maybe should have told Archer that she's dating a mob lawyer (J.T.Walsh) because you know that would have been courteous. Anyway, while she's washing up in his hotel room, his client Harris Yulin walks in and is pissed that his own attorney is ripping him off. The villains gives off this whole diatribe about how his lawyer has to repay with interest blah blah and he'll live. Then Yulin gets up and is in the doorway when he turns around and says "Oh, by the way...I lied." Bang, right between the eyes, and I laughed hard.
In such thrillers, there seems to be two kinds of villains: Those who are clean, precise, just kill the poor bastard and get on with it, and those who love to fuck with their victims. I mean really, why bother with that speech if you're gonna ice him anyway? I mean if Obama was a hitman, would he bother with a teleprompter to do the job? OK maybe he might.
Since this is obviously a thriller, Archer witnessed the crime and flees over to her cabin up in the mountains. Assistant District Attorney Gene Hackman goes out there to convince her to testify against Yulin, they get ambushed, they run and escape onto a departing train, the assassins board as well, and....OK, if you've seen enough thrillers by now, you'll already have an idea of what basically happens. I don't need to treat you like you're stupid, for you're not, right? You don't need help wiping your own ass.
While MARGIN is very far from a breaththrough or revolution of the genre, I did dig how Hyams thematically did his best to streamline the plot to its barest minimal quota requrements without any fat or mindless cliches. For instance, we open at the restaurant, no build-up prologue garbage explaining who Archer is or what she does, I mean who cares?. We get straight to the date that causes her quite much trouble, nor Yulin giving the kill order. Hell when Hackman obligatory gets backstabbed by a co-worker of his, we never see him later get revenge or punch him out or whatever. The only Hyams misstep is after the natural ending, we get an end coda at the trial that was so absolutely fucking unnecessary. We don't need that bullshit.
Take John Franekenheimer's much under-appreciated FRENCH CONNECTION sequel, which ends immediately after Hackman gets his revenge against the baddie from the last movie. No epilogue, no coda, it just does what it promised, and that was that. Not every movie needs arch plotting or full circles. I mean wouldn't it be nice if he and the studio had assumed that after the last of the hitmen got disposed, that those two would survive, make it back to Los Angeles, and put Yulin away? It would also be nice if Michael Bay was banned by Federal law from making anymore movies, but we can't get everything in life, now can we? Oh and I win the lottery too, and the Republicans in 2012 lose in a Walter Mondale-style landslide. What? I might as well indulge myself while dreaming here.
Hyams has some nice touches in place of those cliches. Every other movie where the hero goes to the lead actress' home when they get assaulted by the bad guys, he saves her in the nick of time after they discovered her whereabouts, right? Well in MARGIN, she was safe until Hackman found her, and the killers just followed him. That's right, it's Hackman's fault that his buddy cop and helicopter pilot get slaughtered. But the dude means well, and always assertive to Archer of how everything will be ok, even though he's definately outmatched in everyway by these professionals.
I especially liked how for much of MARGIN, Hackman is basically being a dick to Archer because she doesn't want to testify. He goes on and on in a guilt trip about those people who died to bring her back to the city, then once she explains why she won't do it...Hackman suddenly comes off as a righteous pompous asshole, and even he knows it. This may sound rather simple, but its not so easy of a trick to pull off. Good job everyone.
This is the sort of movie you enjoy in the moment, but the immediate meh aftertaste hits back with a bitch. Like most Hyams efforts, MARGIN is alright mixed with some legit excitement, but the needless coda and many would-be awkward comedy scenes all involving Hackman hiding somehow just kills me from recommending it to everyone Sure the plot twist is obvious, and one could even pluck apart the logic of these crooks not able to find Archer anywhere on the train, but neither bother me that much.
Now what does bugs me is a moment when Hackman and Archer are at a train station, and the operatives arrive on their helicopter right next to the station and nobody seems bothered by this. This begs the question, what happened to their ride? Did afterwards complain about these rude people parking their aero-vehicle without a permit. Better yet, did the local authorities have it towed? Also, when the owners inevitably never return to claim it, how much would it go in a public auction? Now if MARGIN had followed through with that concept, my rating would have automatically gone higher.
Maybe with the federal government (under train nerd/advocate Vice-President Joe Biden) planning to upgrade and expand our country's train tracks and service, Hollywood should finally come out with a solid Train set-piece actioneer/thriller. UNDER SIEGE 2 being the best of the bunch from the last 20 years won't cut it.