Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A sharp jab at corporate culture..., February 18, 2005
Here's an ultra-clever piece of work that deserves more than its current obscure status. Based on Rigoletto, this whipsnap of a movie casts Bill Pullman as the title character with the improbable last name of O'Lette (just to make sure you don't miss the reference), a nasty SOB with a megabucks Wall Street job who treats people like slime and at the same time has to grovel to a boss 20 years his junior. The boss, Duke (beginning to get the picture here?) is an immature rich kid jerk who lusts after Rick's daughter, and is married to a dimbulb woman almost as dense as he is.
Enter Buck, with whom Rick went to business school, and who has a business that speciailizes in reducing the earth's population--one person at a time. He promises to wipe out whomever Rick chooses for a mere 10 grand. Rick has a pretty good idea of who that would be. And of course, this being an opera-based neo-noir tale, things don't exactly go according to plan. Reminiscent of Fargo and Shock to the System--in fact, you could say this is a pretty nifty fusion of those two edgy films--Rick's smarts (that is, the film's intelligence, not the main character's) shines through in almost every scene. A few small missteps here and there, but nothing serious, this is another film that has a lot of fun slapping you in the face and watching your reaction.
Hurts so good. Nice piece of work from writer Dan Handler who wrote the Lemony Snicket thing; looks like he specializes in nasty characters who get their come-uppance and then some. I especially like the back and forth of the one-syllable names at the bar--"Rick", "Mick", "Buck", "Jack", "Duke"--very snappy, as though the F word is being hurtled from one guy to another (yeah, it's a guy thing) ceaselessly.
Definitely recommended. If you like Shock to the System, Fargo, Office Killer, and probably one or two other black comedies I can't think of the names of right now, you'll dig this one.
Snappy.
|
|
|
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, Dark, and Emotional!, November 11, 2004
Not many people saw this movie, and I had to journey into the city of Manhattan to watch it. I was glad I did that, because I was treated to one of the best films of the year. "Rick" is the darkest movie that I have ever seen, and it's a shame that it wasn't distributed to more movie theatres. It stars Bill Pullman, as one of the most unlikeable characters ever created. Rick O'Lette is a mean, mean man, who treats everybody that is under him as if they are stupid. This movie takes place in Manhattan, and it takes place in the sneedy corparate world, where everybody is in it for the money, the fame, or the glory, and they will do a anything for get revenge or to get to the top. It's a drama that could work as a comedy, and there is only one character that we could root for, and hope that nothing happens to. Everybody else, until the end of course, you couldn't care less about, and it's nice to see a refreshing change of pace in movies. It's hard to guess if the mainstream audiences will like this movie, because it's like nothing that they've never seen before. The ending is grim and sadly unfortunate, and it's totally different than what I see in my theatres.
As I said already, Bill Pullman plays Rick O'Lette, but everybody calls him Rick, and not Mr. O' Lette, or "sir" or anything else. In this world, it seems that he is the only one that makes sense, sometimes, especially when the secretary of the building, Laura, is selling candy bars for his child's school, and they are all ten dollars a bar. He is the only one that seems to realize that it is incredibly stupid to buy one of them, and he is the only one that is not eating them all day. Also, in this world, others think that they know it all, especially when Rick interview, Michelle, comes into the building, and Laura give her the directions to go there, which involved going straight, making a left at the fax, a left at the coffee machine, a right at the printer, etc. Rick treats her horribly, and doesn't give her the job, something that comes back to haunt him. Later, him and his boss, who is much much younger than he is, go out for a drink, and it turns out that the waitress is Michelle. He gets her fired, and she puts a curse on him, stating that he is a horrible person, and he will pay for the way that he treats people. His boss, Duke, goes back to the office to "work," when he is really have anoynomous internet sex with some girl over the internet. His screen name is BIG BOSS. He doesn't know that he is doing it with Rick's high school daughter, Eve, who is not actually participating in the sexual act, but just amusing herself, and whoever it is that she is talking to. Eventually, Rick meets Buck, who kills big corparate imagines for money. Rick hires him to kill Duck, mostly after he finds out what he may or may not be doing with his daughter. He gives Buck the key to his storage space to dispose of the body, and when the night of the office Christmas party comes, also the night where the murder will take place, Rick could begin to have second thoughts. . .
I didn't expect the ending of "Rick" to be what it was, but it had me thinking about it for a while afterwards. The only character here that you care about is Eve, because you could relate to her, and also because she is the only nice one. She is the only person that Rick cares about, and after his wife died, he does everything that he can to make sure that she doesn't leave him too, but she is becoming distant. It's the only spark of emotion Rick's character has, and this movie plays with his emotions. He is changing as these things around him unfold, and by the ending, you either are glad about what happens, or very upset, depending on the way that you feel about Rick. I'm not going to reveal the ending, but I want to shroud it in mystery so you'll see it for yourself.
I love the wonderful dark. grim, feel of this Manhattan. It's so unlike the Manhattan that I am in often, and it brings such a dark look to these characters, and this other world. "Rick" makes it own universe in a world very much like our own, but we just don't see some of the things that happen are so stupid. "Rick" does exaggerate some of these stupid things, but makes it hilarious because nobody, except Rick, notices. I love this movie, and I want to buy the DVD, but am having problems finding it. I recommend this, and am calling it one of the best films of the year.
ENJOY!
Rated R for sexual content and language.
|
|
|
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Oh, Sandra Oh! A new Bill Pullman, December 16, 2004
Sandra Oh has IT. The girl can do comedy and drama. As a woman degraded, she casts a witch's curse that propels this pop Rigoletto in which the soundtrack is a sensuous mix of Christmas carols that underscore the psychological drama directly as well as ironically. (I'm buying the soundtrack next!)The script with it revealing cliches of office dialog and 4-letter names that are used like 4-letter words is music to my literary ears. Too many producers forget that a film begins with writing. The last, but not least revelation, was Bill Pullman's self-lacerating performance that recalls the conflicted icon Jack Lemmon in "The Apartment." Having never really cared for Pullman before, I hesitated when I saw the billing. But the guy made a believer out of me with his muttering performance depicting a man who was once good, and who was whittled away by urban violence and corporate hypocrisy. Aaron Stanford as Duke, the Bigboss, gives the kind of performance that gets Supporting Actor nominations. His character is an archetype of our times, because he chatters on in halls and on line all the while he is gorgeously clueless regarding his superficiality, his wife, and his employees. For an interesting double feature, watch this film with "Rodger Dodger." Or, pair this serious film with another Christmas-driven movie for grown-ups, the hilarious comedy "The Ref."
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
DVD ~ Aaron Stanford
DVD ~ Kevin Dunn; Michael Rapaport; Zooey Deschanel; Judah Friedlander; Aaron Stanford; Ebon Moss-Bachrach; Paul Schneider
DVD ~ Rachael Leigh Cook
DVD ~ David Strathairn
DVD ~ Emmanuelle Chriqui
