Review of Falling Down (1993) by Braden J — 27 Jul 2009

I've learned that I'll watch just about any movie that stars Michael Douglas, good or bad, and "Falling Down" is no exception to that rule. Directed by Joel "I destroyed Batman for almost a decade" Schumacher, "Falling Down" is one of the most interesting films I've watched in some time.

Douglas stars as "William", a recently unemployed and divorced defense industry engineer whom is having a bad day. His bad day consists of him losing his anger, but this isn't the kind of "go on a Hulk killing smashing spree" anger, but more of a quick and violent anger. Through his struggles in this nearly two hour film, you begin to have a love/hate relationship with this character. On one hand, a lot of the things he's arguing and standing up about make sense, but on the other side of things, he's not going about this in the most civilized of manners.

There's some great supporting performances from Robert Duvall and Barbara Hershey that shouldn't go unnoticed, but it's Douglas who's the star of this film. It's crazy and it's twisted at times, but "Falling Down" is one of the better films of the 1990's.