Mystic Slippers
Jul 2002
Registered
|
Review: Changing Lanes (2002)
Changing Lanes (2002) Review by John 'Jellybean' Benitez.
You know those movies everyone says is really good and you think "ooh, i must watch that!"? You know, the kind of movie everyone says is great yet you missed it at the theatre. Then you decide you'll rent a copy but that never happens. Eventually you see the movie on store shelves and think fuck it, everyone says it's great i'll buy it and watch it. So you buy it, take it home and months later you still haven't bothered watching it. Eventually a day comes when for no apparent reason at all you decide to watch it, then it turns out to be the biggest let-down you've had in a long while. This is one of those movies.
Changing Lanes documents 24hrs in the lives of Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) and Doyle Gipson (Samuel L Jackson) and how their day is affected by a minor car accident one rainy morning in New York. Things are not what they seem as the 'chance meeting' only stirs up hidden fury between the two. What starts off as a minor incident of easy resolve quickly turns in to a tit for tat battle of fury. Although in it's marketing blitz this movie documents it as 'road rage', though that's strange because there is no 'road rage' in this movie whatsoever.
After some rather attractive opening shots of cars played out to a doubly sexy soundtrack (by David Arnold no less) the movie wastes no time at all, throwing us in head-first and getting the accident out of the way. From there the movie just keeps on building the pace and you find your in agreement with yourself that this movie is rather good.
The acting is above average. Not great though, i feel Affleck was a little too weak in his role and in Jackson's moments of anger i felt i was suffering some sort of LSD induced flashback to his role in Pulp Fiction. The camerawork and soundtrack were both top dollar though and did add the correct portions of mood and made sense to the viewer.
Reaching a peak around 3/4 of the way through the movie everything falls apart. It's like somebody had tied the director's shoelaces together, it just fell flat on it's face. I was expecting a real temper fuelled, bursting to the seams with violence finale. But the movie suffered some sort of bout of amnesia and got all artsy and confused. In the last 20mins or so i spent more time looking around the room and fiddling with my watch than i did spening it looking at the screen. I got bored. I wanted it to end. I was glad when it did. The ending was not predictable, but it was boring. This movie could have done with a better script and a better ending.
I don't like this movie. At first i didn't know why, then about 20mins after finishing watching it it dawned on me. I didn't like this movie because it tried too hard. It tried to be something it wasn't. What started off as a movie with great potential eventually just fell apart in one spectacular heap.
Not so much a cold turkey, more a turkey reheated in the microwave.
Final Score: 5/10 ''I haven't eaten a thing all fucking day and i'm starving. So i'm gonna order ok?''
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0264472
Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged
|
11-06-2002 11:05 PM
I didnt mind it at all. At some parts it was on "ok", but I really enjoyed it. Kept me entertained for an hour and a half 
the only good part of Titanic is the the 2nd half (when people where getting cut up and shit. /me loves action) , and Changing Lanes was worse then Fear Dot Com...wait no it wasn't. 
