Mathew Buck: Film Brain

Parting Shots

Film Brain

Film Brain: So remember, if you kill bad people, you'll be celebrated as the hero that you are - by CHILDREN no less! I think I've found a film that's morally repugnant than Seven Pounds.

Jill: He was fine at first. I even got my parents to give him their savings. They lost everything. My father committed suicide.
Film Brain: The laughs never stop coming, do they?

Film Brain: Finally, a movie that celebrates the cold-blooded slaughter of your enemies. You can see how this might have worked. I mean, the concept has this sense of wish fulfilment. It's hard to get past the bad taste it leaves in the mouth, and the execution here is terrible. It's badly directed and edited, and it looks and feels cheap, wasting most of the cast. The supporting cast only have one or two small scenes to set up their asshole-ness, and then get killed off in ways that aren't funny, as much as the score tells us so. The whole thing, especially the score, looks like it's escaped from the 1970s.

Film Brain: Parting Shots grips you right from the very start.
Doctor: It's cancer, Harry.
Film Brain: That's literally the first line in the movie. Set phasers to laughter.

Film Brain: Jesus, this is meant to be a fast, witty exchange, but the way it's directed, it's slower than a turtle taking a shit.

Film Brain: You know, when you make a movie about shooting dead your enemies, you might want to afford a gun that fires to spare Ben Kingsley the indignity of being killed by a gunshot sound effect.

Harry: You come here, you wreck my house, I'm a dying man for Christ sake. You have no honor, no respect, you certainly have no evidence. Get out!
Film Brain: I wasn't aware that if you just shouted to the police "get out" they'd do just that. I'll have to try that sometime.