BEFORE: I've got a completely free weekend, for the first time in probably a month. No screenings on Saturday, and Sunday there's a screening of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" and I could go to see it, but that would involve going to the theater on my day off. Also, I don't know for sure how I'm going to link to it, so maybe I should wait and just watch it on Disney Plus in about three months. I still haven't seen the third "Ant-Man and the Wasp" film, which I think is going to start streaming later this month - maybe I can try to link to that one in June or July. Or maybe I need to save it for October - it links to about 6 horror movies that are on my list, it could be a big help stitching some small chains together to make a larger, month-long chain.
Michael Caine carries over again from "King of Thieves".
THE PLOT: After getting electrocuted by the fuse box at home, Graham gets ideas concerning his nagging wife and the guy who got promoted over him at the office.
AFTER: What is up with this movie? I don't know what I was expecting, but it sure wasn't THIS. This is a film about a man who tries to save a homeless man from falling on the subway tracks, (or he pushes him, but that's a bit unclear) and then he gets the taste for murder. In fact, he comes to see it as the solution to all of life's little problems. His wife is obsessed with exercise equipment and nags him about getting the fuse box fixed - well, then, I guess she deserves to die? And he feels he's due for a promotion at work, only he gets passed over and someone who worked under him is now his boss - well, he's got to go, too.
The suggestion is that this all comes about because he gets an electric shock from the light fixture in the basement - he stupidly hung on to a metal pipe while he grabbed the hanging light bulb with the short in it. Man, everybody who's ever fixed a blown fuse in their basement knows not to touch metal when they do that, then they become a conduit for the electricity. But getting electrocuted does not turn people into murderous psychopaths, that's not how electricity works. OK, maybe he felt more alive for a few seconds, either because he was filled with energy, or because he cheated death, perhaps both, but again, the math doesn't add up here. Oh, he got a shock, so now he kills people. WHAT? It's both lame and illogical storytelling.
Wikipedia describes this as a black comedy, but I didn't find anything funny about it, not in the slightest, so I guess that description is a bit open to interpretation? I don't know, murder usually isn't funny at all, unless it's done WAY over-the-top, like in "Murder by Death" or "So I Married an Axe Murderer". If you just keep it small like this, it's just a guy killing people, either to get ahead or because he just plain likes it. Either way, it's not justifiable behavior, and in fact it's dangerous because this could give other people ideas. What if someone discovers this film 200 years from now, and looks back on the humans of 1990, and draws the conclusion that we were a violent people who killed other people to advance our rank or get ahead in the world?
After he kills his wife, Graham pretends to grieve for about a day, then he gets an apartment in Manhattan so he can focus on work, and also start a relationship with a female co-worker. Umm, she really should no better than to go on a dinner date with a man whose wife died just a few days ago. Even if she's got a thing for him, maybe wait a month or two because he's supposed to be grieving? The fact that he doesn't appear mournful should be a GIANT red flag right there, if his wife died he should be taking some time off, that would be expected. Nope, I guess he feels you've got to get right back on that horse after you get knocked off.
It's also a bit tough to say if Graham starts seeing Stella because he's genuinely interested in her, or if he just needs an alibi for killing his new boss. One night while drinking wine, Graham drugs Stella's drink so that she'll pass out, and then while she's sleeping, he drives back out to Long Island and rigs his boss's boat with explosives. One quick drive back to the city, and he's got a witness who says he was in her apartment all night, even though she can't quite remember what they did after drinking the wine. Man, giving a ruffie to your girlfriend is extremely vile behavior, even if you do need to use her as an alibi.
Unfortunately for Graham, there's only ONE detective on Long Island, apparently, and he's assigned to investigate the deaths of both Graham's wife AND his boss. He can't really prove anything about the boat that blew up, because, well, it blew up, and he's got suspicions about Graham's wife, too, but he can't prove anything outside of faulty wiring, and anyway, Graham had his wife cremated, so no evidence exists.
The skyscraper with this marketing firm's office was supposedly in Manhattan's financial district, but there were definitely some scenes shot in Midtown, like in Grand Central Terminal. I guess it makes sense if Graham lived on Long Island at first, he'd take the LIRR in to Grand Central, and then maybe take a 6 train from there down to Wall St. or wherever. But then he's seen walking past McCormick & Schmick's, which is a steakhouse up on Third Ave and 49th Street, so that doesn't make any sense. Then it's back downtown to the Fulton St. subway station, and past some buildings on Exchange Place. This makes no sense. Most people work and eat lunch in the same NYC neighborhood, it doesn't work to go jumping around through different neighborhoods on a a work day. Also, he rents an apartment at Wooster and Grand, but rents a car from a garage on East 87th St. and Lexington? That's not very likely, either.
All I know is, I'm not happy right now, watching a movie where a character is in line for a new job but then gets passed over. I'm probably too superstitious about this, but I have a job interview next week, and I don't need this kind of mojo right now, I don't want this to happen to me! I promise to not go out and start killing people if I don't get the job, OK?
Also starring Elizabeth McGovern (last seen in "The Handmaid's Tale"), Peter Riegert (last seen in "We Bought a Zoo"), Swoosie Kurtz (last seen in "Get Over It"), Will Patton (last seen in "American Honey"), Jenny Wright (last seen in "St. Elmo's Fire"), John McMartin (last seen in "No Reservations"), Barbara Baxley (last seen in "Nashville"), Haviland Morris (last seen in. "Adam"), Philip Moon (last seen in "Cadillac Man"), Kent Broadhurst (last seen in "The Dark Half"), Zach Grenier (last seen in "Shaft" (2000)), David Schramm, Sam Schacht, Mia Dillon (last seen in "All Good Things"), Alice Haining, Patience Moore, Darrell Wilks, Welker White (last seen in "Bad Education"), with cameos from Christopher Durang (last seen in "Mr. North"), Mike Starr (last seen in "Freejack"), Samuel L. Jackson (last seen in "Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard"), Jonathan Freeman (last seen in "The High Note").
RATING: 4 out of 10 games of three-card-monte
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