Recap: FBI-agent Joe Devine has an idea. It's an unorthodox idea that might lead directly to the arrests and conviction of several key mafia members. He just needs to produce a movie. He recruits Steven Schats, a struggling writer/director. It's not hard either to convince or to lead poor Steven, who thinks he might finally get his chance, to film his Arizona-set movie in Providence. A landfill is rebuilt to Grand Canyon, a rental storage converted to a cave and so on. And then the nominated Emily French appears and wants the leading role. Everything seems to go great, and Joe likes to produce the movie. But his bosses at FBI are not convinced he really has to make the movie to get the bad guys...
Comments: A great story, based on a true story none the less. It is a shame that nothing better than this came of it. Sure there are some odd moments or peculiar things that happens, some witty dialog but they are far between. Moments to laugh about even scarcer. And when it is finally starting to get interesting, when they start to shoot the movie (think about potential complications with a garbage Grand Canyon, or mafia involvement in the movie like casting known hit men and so on) and one thinks that the fun is about to start, the director of the FBI shows up and cancels the project. End of movie.
I don't think there are any poor performances from the actors, I just think they never got a chance to do anything. The cast includes totally wasted talent. Funny Shalhoub is cast as a serious mobster, Broderick's character never got any chance to evolve, Flockhart who plays Stevens hysterical girlfriend might have done well with more space, and I think Liotta appears in just two scenes. The only actor that delivered about what I expected was Baldwin, that calmly played agent Devine in a nice way.
No, I expected more from this. A lot more. I think both cast and story was totally mishandled. A documentary of the real event might be funnier...
4/10
Comments: A great story, based on a true story none the less. It is a shame that nothing better than this came of it. Sure there are some odd moments or peculiar things that happens, some witty dialog but they are far between. Moments to laugh about even scarcer. And when it is finally starting to get interesting, when they start to shoot the movie (think about potential complications with a garbage Grand Canyon, or mafia involvement in the movie like casting known hit men and so on) and one thinks that the fun is about to start, the director of the FBI shows up and cancels the project. End of movie.
I don't think there are any poor performances from the actors, I just think they never got a chance to do anything. The cast includes totally wasted talent. Funny Shalhoub is cast as a serious mobster, Broderick's character never got any chance to evolve, Flockhart who plays Stevens hysterical girlfriend might have done well with more space, and I think Liotta appears in just two scenes. The only actor that delivered about what I expected was Baldwin, that calmly played agent Devine in a nice way.
No, I expected more from this. A lot more. I think both cast and story was totally mishandled. A documentary of the real event might be funnier...
4/10