Easily. Even though it is hard to pick a specific reason why this is so good (there are way to many...), its what's left unsaid that makes this movie. It's not what you say, its how you say it, right? (Loose paraphrase, I know.) How this only got a mid-six rating is beyond me. Just my two cents.
shareEasily. Well said about the unsaid in this movie. It's what is left to the imagination of the audience and the way it requires its audience to think. It's also the level of performance and the wonderful, wonderful dialogue. Without a doubt this film has my favorite lines. Just read the quotes on the home page of this board.
Add to that the absolutely funniest opening sequence ever filmed, much less in a drama, and you just can't lose. I think a lot of people rate films on this site based on personal bias for or against a particular actor or director, etc., without actually having seen them. Also, regretably, there are so-called movie fans who are unduly influenced by the financial success or failure of a film.
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
Forget Top 250. This has got to be in my top twenty of all time. This is probably my favorite "action" film ever made. In my humble opinion, it rivals "Heat" as one of the most inventive, bad-ass, and multi-layered action flicks ever.
Longbaugh and Parker seem tired of the lifestyle, weary of gunfights and magazines and bullets. They do this because, in their eyes, this is their only chance to ever get out of simple self-sustenance. We the audience sympathize with these guys, despite the fact that they "rob, maim, and murder" others. They punch women. They torture. They kidnap. It's a real marvel that director McQuarrie pulled such a feat: to make the viewers empathize and even come to root for such amoral, unrepentant creeps.
The action setpieces are amazing, as well. The bizarre car chase, the perfectly choreographed bagmen shootout, the initial kidnap plan...
This is an amazing movie, and it's a real shame that masterpieces such as this so often get swept under the rug, while Michael Bay movies rake in hundreds of millions of dollars.
Well said, theendisnear. "This is an amazing movie, and it's a real shame that masterpieces such as this so often get swept under the rug, while Michael Bay movies rake in hundreds of millions of dollars."
I can't remember when I heard him say it, but Ryan Phillippe once said in an interview that often when he is introduced to a rapper or a professional athlete that they can quote whole dialogues to him from this movie. It has a enormously loyal fan base. Well I neither rap nor play pro sports but I can quote from it also because I've watched it, and enjoyed it, so often. It improves with mulitple viewings. I usually despise violent films and am quickly bored by "action" flicks. This is simply a rarity of filmmaking.
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
One of my favorite films - it's like the Godfather, you can watch it over and over and still find new things.
I LOVE the relationships and how much the filmmakers allow us to understand things on our own. It took me many times wathcing it to get many of the details but I was hooked from the first viewing.
And I agree with you - great opening scene - great eveloping structure - I love the voice over.
My favorite action film as well.
Hell, it's in my Top 10.
Anyway, I am dead.
Yours truly,
Hatchet Jack
My top 10 too.
I remember about 8 or 9 years ago was bored one weekend and rented it. Thinking it was going to be a brainless shoot'em up. I was shocked after the opening scene. Totally blew me away.
"It's not really a brains type of operation" so great.