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Distributor:
Warner Home Entertainment
Region 1 | NTSC
Available to buy
Director: Richard Donner
Extras: Yes
ANYONE
IN IT WE KNOW?
Bruce Willis, Mos Def
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WHAT’S
IT ABOUT THEN?
Bruce
Willis seems to have been
playing the washed up, aging
wannabe hero now for even longer
than he was playing the real
thing. After breaking out of
television with 1988's Die Hard
and becoming one of the big
names of the action movie world,
his best roles since playing the
washed-up boxer in Quentin
Tarantino's superb Pulp Fiction
back in 1994 have all been very
similar.
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Be
it the confused time traveller
in Twelve Monkeys or the aging
cop in last year's Sin City,
Willis does "middle aged
man who wishes he was still
young enough to make a
difference" like no other.
Here, once again, Willis is in
instantly familiar territory for
anyone who's seen a few of his
films.
In
fact, at first glance it could
almost be a remake of 1995's Die
Hard With A Vengance, so similar
does it seem. Whereas that
earlier film saw Willis' tired
and fed up cop team up with
Samuel L Jackson's streetwise
and smart-talking black civilian
in a mad race against time
across New York, here we get,
erm, Willis' aging cop team up
with rapper Mos Def's streetwise
and smart-talking black civilian
in a mad race against time
across New York. The fact that
the plot is so familiar is
emphasised even further by the
fact that the director is
Richard Donner, the man who made
the Lethal Weapon series.
This
is the man who mastered and
popularised the black/white
"buddy cop" genre in
the wake of 1982's Eddie
Murphy/Nick Nolte black
criminal/white cop buddy movie
48 Hrs. The racial differences
between the two leads in all of
these films seem largely to be
included simply to present extra
opportunities for cultural
misunderstandings, usually
presented in vastly
stereotypical - and often
borderline racist - ways.
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Yet
here the race of the two
protagonists seems almost
entirely irrelevant - it is
purely their different social
backgrounds, cop and informer,
and most of all age difference
that makes them unlikely
partners. Perhaps Donner went
for a black/white partnership
merely for old time's sake? As
Willis goes up against seemingly
the entire New York Police
Department in his attempt to
protect the life of Mos Def's
key witness from corrupt cops,
this is certainly familiar
territory. Anyone expecting
profound insights into the human
condition or a radical new style
of filmmaking should certainly
look elsewhere. But for those of
us who like a decently-made,
fairly brainless action thriller
from time to time, this team-up
of two of the late 80s' most
bankable action filmmakers is a
bit of a guilty pleasure. This
is almost an ideal film for a
lads' night out, so expect
plenty of lagered up
30-somethings reliving their
youth should you choose to go
and see this on a Friday or
Saturday night. All it would
take to make it better is some
zombies and a free curry chucked
in with the ticket. In other
words, with some nice action
sequences and plenty of
adrenaline, this is nicely
silly, hardly a masterpiece, but
fun.
ANY
SPECIAL FEATURES?
Alternate
ending and deleted scenes.
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