daryl-3

In a time when the movies were offering us such drivel as ID4, The Arrival came and went virtually unnoticed. The only thing that remotely intrigued me about the movie was a script by the scriptwriter of the Fugitive. I went to see this movie out of boredom one Sunday afternoon. I was completely enthralled. Imagine finding a script that didn't insult my intelligence...(Well, okay, one time I had to take issue with one unreasonable situation, but that's remarkable in today's film world) The aliens in the Arrival may not have had the heavy firepower of the aliens in ID4 but they were smarter, craftier and made for a much more satisfying film. People complain that Hollywood only makes intellectually insulting films these day...(ID4? Godzilla? The list goes on and one) but sadly when someone makes one as challenging as The Arrival, no one seems to notice.

Every once in a while you see a movie that most everyone overlooks but it still strikes a cord with you. Without A Clue is a such a movie. It starts with a clever premise, Watson is the brains behind the bumbling Holmes, and while the actual criminal investiation in the movie isn't exactly a big stretch in deductive reasoning, what makes this movie worthwhile are the solid performances of Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley. The professional reviews linked with this movie would have you believe this movie isn't worth the bother, but that's not true. Caine and Kingsley seem to be having the time of their lives in this movie. (Granted Kingsley has the less flashy role but he still fills it with a great deal of subtley that the likes of Roger Ebert and his ilk must have missed) The quote page has some great excerpts from this funny movie, but there's so much more to it than just that. This one ranks as a guilty pleasure of mine, maybe not one that sits in everyone else's video collection, but it definitely holds a place in mine.