I don't normally write reviews on here, but after seeing that nearly all of them praised the movie, I couldn't in all good conscience keep quiet. So, here we go:
Who gave Tony Cinciripini a budget? Surely they'd read the script before handing over the money! This film is quite gob-smacking in its incompetence. The dialogue is so horrendous that none of actors have the slightest chance to even remotely act (with the exception of Arquette who's allowed to do the drug-addict thing, and Jolie who's allowed to angrily cry on two occasions). The plot is utter nonsense – it could make sense if it was an 8-hour miniseries that not only allows you to get to know the characters but also gives the film a chance to have something akin to pace. However, at just over 1½ hours, this lack of pace and runtime means we get horribly jarring shifts from an emotional scene to sex to bonding to someone waving around a gun with nothing in between. Add to that some wholly inappropriate music (don't have slow, moody pieces during action scenes!) and an editor who has found the slow motion button but doesn't know when to use it, and we have a full-on car crash of a film. The entire onus has to be on the director / writer. He wrote the terrible dialogue then obviously told the actors how to play it, a large part of which is that if you're not the one talking you have to freeze in place and don't do the slightest thing that might distract them from remembering their lines. Oh, and let's forget about such things as explanation – towards the end (SPOILER) Jolie's character does the following: dumps Patty, apologises to Johnny for wanting to kill him, argues with Liz, tells Johnny she's pregnant with his baby. Erm...what? How did that suddenly happen? A more pertinent question would be – how did any of this happen? Only Arquette was even remotely famous back then, so you can't say that it got released purely on the merits of starring Angelina Jolie. For this film to get made in the first place defies belief. Uwe Boll, Jalal Merhi and Edward D Wood Jr would all tie for The Most Incompetent Director award for sheer consistency, but as an individual prize, I'd have to award it to Tony for this.
Who gave Tony Cinciripini a budget? Surely they'd read the script before handing over the money! This film is quite gob-smacking in its incompetence. The dialogue is so horrendous that none of actors have the slightest chance to even remotely act (with the exception of Arquette who's allowed to do the drug-addict thing, and Jolie who's allowed to angrily cry on two occasions). The plot is utter nonsense – it could make sense if it was an 8-hour miniseries that not only allows you to get to know the characters but also gives the film a chance to have something akin to pace. However, at just over 1½ hours, this lack of pace and runtime means we get horribly jarring shifts from an emotional scene to sex to bonding to someone waving around a gun with nothing in between. Add to that some wholly inappropriate music (don't have slow, moody pieces during action scenes!) and an editor who has found the slow motion button but doesn't know when to use it, and we have a full-on car crash of a film. The entire onus has to be on the director / writer. He wrote the terrible dialogue then obviously told the actors how to play it, a large part of which is that if you're not the one talking you have to freeze in place and don't do the slightest thing that might distract them from remembering their lines. Oh, and let's forget about such things as explanation – towards the end (SPOILER) Jolie's character does the following: dumps Patty, apologises to Johnny for wanting to kill him, argues with Liz, tells Johnny she's pregnant with his baby. Erm...what? How did that suddenly happen? A more pertinent question would be – how did any of this happen? Only Arquette was even remotely famous back then, so you can't say that it got released purely on the merits of starring Angelina Jolie. For this film to get made in the first place defies belief. Uwe Boll, Jalal Merhi and Edward D Wood Jr would all tie for The Most Incompetent Director award for sheer consistency, but as an individual prize, I'd have to award it to Tony for this.