Review of Falling Down (1993) by Bob L — 03 Sep 2011

My memory of this is actually better than the reality. Watching this again after quite a few years, I realised I'd forgotten what an asshole Foster (D-Fens) is. Douglas does a superb job of fleshing out the psychosis we all get a hint at when under stress, but quite frankly the characterisations here don't seem to justify the actions.

Unlike Taxi Driver, that has a slow build, jumping straight to the crack up makes the whole effort seem gratuitous. Even the drive by sequence seems clunky, as if handled by a film student, but I've got to say Duvall (sadly underused) and Douglas really make the most of their roles and make this lame script actually more entertaining to watch than it should be.

Seeing this, it's also befuddling how Schumacher could have screwed up Batman like he did. Good, but should be a classic, badly let down by poor plot devices and some very cardboard characters.