Rating of
3/4
Just how unlucky could it become
poonhokong - wrote on 04/01/11
Roger Ebert called it a "repetitive, pointless exercise in film-making", for everyparts of it comes from somewhere. Yes the plot does bear quite resemblemence to Red Rock West (1994) starring Nick Cage, but the different focus, style and direction makes it an impressive movie in its own right.
The main attraction of this movie is the town. In the middle of nowhere, a burning sun, surrounded by eagles, waiting for you to die to eat your flesh, a road that leads out of town but kills you on the way without a mean of transportation, and a broken car. Moreover, this town is a trap, and everything in it is a trap. Every decision you make is a wrong one. Get your car fixed, wrong. Go to the grogery store for something to eat, wrong. Meet a beautiful girl, wrong. Buying a bum a Dr. Pepper, wrong. Playing a juke for a girl, wrong. Talking to that girl, wrong. Accepting a man's offer to kill his wife, wrong. It goes to a point that it is funny to see how much worse could it gets.
This movie is one of those I would call a "journey movie". The protagonist goes through a journey, and you gained the experience. This one probably not the strongest piece from Oliver Stone, but I rate it higher than even Natural Born Killers.
