Review of Cape Fear (1991) by Brandon W — 30 Sep 2010

Cape Fear is directed by Martin Scorsese, and it stars Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, and Robert De Niro in a thriller about a convicted that got out of prison, and is going after his lawyer and his family after being in prison for many years.

When going through my DirecTV list, I saw that this movie is in the bottom and had been there for probably a year or so, and I wanted to watch this to be done with it so that I can finally delete it. So for that matter, let's get to the matter of why I like it, but don't think it's one of the director's bests.

The acting is great, especially Robert De Niro as the villain as he is intimidating, while also acting charming and innocent that you can see how people can be fooled by him. The style at first really caught me off guard and I wasn't quite sure whether I like it, but it doesn't do it that much, and it does fit into the film, even if I wasn't on board with it at first.

The writing by Wesley Strick is not that bad as there are smart moments from the villain, but that's only because the main characters do so much dumb stuff that it's a miracle that they weren't in a more horrible situation until the end.

The direction is really good, and the characters are decent at best. The climax is the best part of the film as it's a different setting that I usually see in a thriller, and it's the only times that the characters actually do something smart.

As a remake, it's better than I expect, and with a talented director, you expect something that's actually trying to be a good movie, which this is in all actuality, but not as great as Cape Fear wanted to be.