BEFORE: Ah, it's good to be back in New York City. The sights, the smells. Who wanted to stay in the boring old Caribbean anyway? Am I being sarcastic enough?
Linking from "Red State", John Goodman was also in "The Princess and the Frog" with Terrence Howard.
THE PLOT: A woman struggles to recover from a brutal attack by setting out on a mission for revenge.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Law Abiding Citizen" (Movie #973)
AFTER: When I was in college and taking a writing course, my professor made me keep a daily media journal of everything I read and watched (turned out to be good practice...). But after a week or so he complained to me that I was just writing about my routine - read the Daily News in the morning, watched "Jeopardy!" at 7. Oh, I hadn't realized he also wanted it to be interesting. So I changed it up, wrote about the differences between Star Wars and Star Trek, or reactions to particular TV shows.
This film is about a radio journalist who reports on walking around New York City - is that even a thing? Most people just walk to GET somewhere... But I suspect her radio shows were starting to suffer from the same problem - most walks around the city probably sound exactly the same. Umm, she does know we've got video cameras now, right? Somebody tell her she's working in a dying medium.
She then is the victim of a vicious attack by a street gang, while on a walk with her fiancé and dog. It's a terrible set of circumstances, I don't mean to downplay the severity - but it has one upside, her radio shows do get more interesting, as now she can talk about the fear lurking around every corner, or the danger in traveling down an unfamiliar, or perhaps all-too-familiar, street.
There's a bit of a disconnect when she calls New York "the safest big city in America". Umm, then how does she explain the people who attacked her? Plus, after she buys a gun to defend herself, the fact that there's no shortage of people for her to shoot? She finds killers, thieves and rapists pretty darn easily, yet still maintains it's a safe place to live.
I think the answer lies in the fact that the crime statistics are skewed. What's dropped in NYC is the number of REPORTED crimes. I suspect that nothing's happened to actual crime, except the fact that it's been pushed out of Times Square (not counting rude costumed Muppet characters). It wouldn't be unusual to hear a city cop say, "Oh, sure, you can report the theft, but that rarely leads to an arrest. Plus, you had your wallet in your back pocket, so isn't it really YOUR fault?"
Think about it - the same people who are telling us that New York crime is down are the same people who look good when crime is down, from the mayor and police commissioner on down to the beat cop. There are many ways, however, that the statistics could be influenced without increased police work. Legalizing abortion, for example, cut down the numbers, and some theories also say then led to some potential criminals in poor neighborhoods never being born. Sure, tougher gun laws, more security cameras and increased police presence all have had their effects, but at the same time, it was reported in 2010 that police have indeed been fudging the numbers, by re-classifying major crimes as minor offenses.
So, when I see it reported that there were only 414 murders in New York City in 2012, it leads me to wonder how many murders were just written up as "littering with a dead body". And 960 murders reported in 2001? Something's not right, because I know for a fact that almost 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11. Is someone seriously suggesting that those deaths don't count, because of some terrorism exemption? Look, you can put those numbers in with an asterisk if you like, but for Pete's sake, put 'em in.
NITPICK POINT: I've never bought a gun, never wanted to buy a gun. But the main character here goes straight from "I fear the streets" to "I need a gun." Most likely, people would go through some interim stages such as "I'll just never go outside again." Plus, immediately after being depicted as overly jumpy and cautious of everyone around her, she follows a guy she just met into a back alley to purchase a weapon? She sure got over her fear of strangers quickly.
Also starring Jodie Foster (last seen in "Nell"), Naveen Andrews (last seen in "Mighty Joe Young"), Mary Steenburgen (last seen in "Nixon"), Nicky Katt, Zoe Kravitz (last seen in "It's Kind of a Funny Story").
RATING: 5 out of 10 parking garages
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