Watched: Falling Down

So, Joel Schumacher is a hack. Right? Can we all agree on that? And when he goes for silly or fun, the results can sometimes be palatable (D.C. Cab, The Lost Boys, Batman Forever, Phone Booth), but then he tries to make serious drama and it just comes off as ridiculous (this movie, 8mm, Flatliners, ST. ELMO'S FIRE, The Phantom of the Opera). And make no mistake, this movie definitely considers itself as having a point to make, although what it is somehow gets muddled in its laborious 2-hour runtime. That the white man must take back... something? That unemployed defense weapons experts are dangerous? That if your husband hasn't beaten you but is just kind of an asshole you should not get any respect from a police officer nor do you deserve a restraining order? That fast-food joints should serve breakfast whenever the customer wants it, and Korean store-owners should price things how Americans see fit? Yeah, this movie had something to say alright, and it says it through caricatures and stereotypes.

While the first hour is filled with race baiting to the max (The Mexicans are gangsters! They can't let the nice white man be on his way! The skinhead biker store owner is a Nazi fetishist! The Asian shopkeep is a cheap jerk!) the second hours allows for at least a BIT of grace, courtesy entirely of the fine performances from Duvall and Douglass. Duvall's speech towards his fellow officer, explaining finally why he's willing to quit the force for his wife and the resulting revelation that perhaps their infant daughter's death was a little shady, that her mental condition is not exactly stable; Douglas's equally harsh revelation that after a long day of seemingly rebellious fighting back that he may have in fact just been another kind of bully, a bad guy... these are probably the only two worthwhile scenes in the whole movie. Everything else is just Schumachery, over-the-top histrionics in-between deeply lulling periods of extremely boring exposition.

But what does it say about me that I've, without intention, seen so many of this man's movies? If he's a hack, I'm definitely a sucker.