Review of Falling Down (1993) by Clark B — 13 Dec 2010

ONCE...in a sweltering West Coast world.. ONE MAN.. stuck in traffic...with a tie and a pocket protector.. flipped his flattop lid and took it all back. COMING IN SUMMER 1993... MICHAEL DOUGLAS IS...ROBO-DILBERT!

I really liked this movie a lot when I was younger and more of a knucklehead. When it came up as an instant watch on Netflix, I looked forward to watching it again, but much of my enthusiasm waned as I realized how simple-minded it looks to me now. I must have been some kind of xenophobic jerk in 1993.

There are still a lot of funny lines in it, and it feels like it wants to say something important about society, but it mostly boils down to a series of populist and often wrong-headed complaints. Foreigners, Neo-Nazis, gang-bangers, inflation, you name it. Even golfers send Douglas into a tizzy. Truth is, this movie doesn't really KNOW what it's mad about. Often the audience is invited to identify with Douglas as some kind of folk hero - his rant in a fast food joint is both identifiable and very funny - but at other times it panders to some of the audiences baser anxieties. Those scenes are reactionary, if not outright racist, and are played with the same fist-pumping tone. I'm sure the filmmakers would bristle at that charge, Douglas' character is eventually revealed to have a troubling past which let`s them off the hook, I suppose, but "Falling Down" has at least a little twinge of fascism to it.

I'm giving it three stars because Michael Douglas' line readings are very often hilarious - it's a crackerjack performance, played perfectly deadpan, and the movie is not cookie cutter - but I'll chalk it up as a guilty pleasure. Quite guilty, actually. I don't think a person should like this movie TOO much.