moonspinner55 Review of 2 Days in the Valley

2 Days in the Valley (1996)

Derivative in style and content, but an OK curiosity item...

[5/10 · 10 June 2008]

Writer-director John Herzfeld has assembled a first-rate cast for his tangled tale involving thieves, killers, and their victims in modern-day Los Angeles. Aping both Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and Bryan Singer's "The Usual Suspects", Herzfeld gets in some good, quick lines that raise a laugh or two, but the overall feel of the film seems like cinematic backtracking (it is knowingly recycled). Stand-out performances come from Danny Aiello as a contract killer, Charlize Theron as a femme fatale, and filmmaker Paul Mazursky in a rare acting turn playing a suicidal movie director. Herzfeld's screenplay is florid and sordid, and it's all rather fun on a minor, non-think level, yet his direction is far superior in its smaller moments than in the grand flourishes. Any time there are more than two people on the screen, question marks tend to visibly arise--and then it's every actor for himself. ** from ****