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20 February 2008
Interesting if redundant remake.
0 of 1 found this helpful This all-star reworking of Sidney Lumet's paranoid 1964 nuclear war drama is of note primarily for the overwhelming quality of the actors involved. Regrettably, this is also the undoing of the piece; almost every scene in the first 40 minutes introduces yet another screen icon (Hey, that's Don Cheadle! And look, there's George Clooney! Isn't that Richard Dreyfuss as the President? Woo hoo!), which tends to distract from the weighty, sombre, intellectual tone to which Stephen Frears clearly aspires. It is also worth noting that this was a live TV production, a rather needless gimmick which at least affords the opportunity of watching a handful of top performers fluff their dialogue and step on one another's lines. Little more than a curio for yer self-respecting film nerd, then- but at least it is a worthy, well-intentioned, morally astute curio, rather than the excruciating luvvie-fest it occasionally threatens to become.
04 February 2008
Essential DVD of an underrated nihilistic classic.
Peckinpah's revisionist western-road-movie deserves the full 2-disk treatment, but this will do for now. Lazily misinterpreted by many critics as an ugly, misanthropic mess, 'Bring me the Head...' reveals itself to be a surprisingly thoughtful and sombre work, punctuated by moments of extreme violence and bizarrely comic dialogue. This DVD is a must-own for devotees of bleak, absurdist cinema.