He has a thing for shooting climaxes in busy stadia; thus The Manchurian Candidate's finale in Madison Square Gardens, Black Sunday at the Super Bowl, and here we have a thrilling end scene in an ice skating rink (Katarina Witt is the Olympic ice-skater featured).
Despite the Japanese myth evoking the Ronin, J.D. Zeik (re-written by David Mamet's) script is more about the action, and a delightful MacGuffin in the shape of a mysterious silver case of which, like the ones in Kiss Me Deadly and Pulp Fiction, we never see the contents. Then its about the Group, particularly a strange loyalty that exists between Robert de Niro and Jean Reno (both excellent), and inner betrayal. The team are Natasha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgaard, Skipp Sudduth and Sean Bean, with Jonathan Pryce in a murky background, and Michael Lonsdale a useful friend of Reno.
Despite the roads of Paris and Nice being strangely empty most of the time, the film features some outstanding chase / action scenes, particularly the one that does have lots of cars in it, a jaw-dropping chase going the wrong way round the Peripherique, which is an outstanding bit of orchestration, stunt work and brilliant driving, put together brilliantly by Tony Gibbs (and, assisting, Sherrye Gibbs - more later). Robert Fraisse's Steadicam team also a big asset.
Not as brilliant or powerful as The Man C, but a most entertaining thriller.
No comments:
Post a Comment