A newly wed couple (Steve Zahn & Milla Jovovich) on vacation in Hawaii learn that a psychopathic couple is murdering tourists on one of the islands. As they set off onto a trail to find some nice scenary, they run into a couple (Timothy Olyphant & Kiele Sanchez) whom accompanies them on the trail. Could this couple actually be the psychopaths?!?! or just another couple??? Thats the basic premise of A Perfect Getaway. This is really an interesting film because it almost seems as if David Twohy, the writer and director, was self aware about the ridiculousness of the material while making the film. A Perfect Getaway is loaded with really odd references - One of the newly wed's is a screenwriter for example, so there are stretches of dialogue all about screenwriting and structure. Its really odd and almost self-aware. As the two couple's learn about the potential psychopaths, there are multiple references to Natural Born Killers and other random references. What is so interesting is that all this odd, goofy commentary may be all intentional, with Twohy ultimately more interested in writing an elaborate Farce. Then again I might be giving him way too much credit. Perhaps the reason they weren't taking it so seriously has to do with a big twist towards the end of the film which really is laughable at best. Without giving anything away, its one of those twists that is completely unmotivated and out of left field. I personally think the best twists are the ones that could be figured out, if you pay very close attention to earlier details, but none of those are present in the slightest. Its just feels like the writer was like, "OH, this would be a crazy way to change things up!". Anyway, Timothy Olyphant does do a great job of carrying this film for me. He basically plays an ex-soldier of some sort who comes off as a bit mental and spends most of his time talking about all his crazy stories. It's a great performance because Olyphant really makes you unsure about his character's intentions while being incredibly entertaining while doing so. I do have some problems with David Twohy's direction of action scenes. Much like his previous film, The Chronicles of Riddick, the action is poorly edited and confusing. In the end, I cannot deny that I enjoyed the film - It's well paced and kept my attention throughout. The twist just drove me nuts and the very end involving Milla Jonovich's characters' inner turmoil made no damn sense, being completely underdeveloped and tacked on. The bottom line though is I can't be sure of David Twohy's intentions but if this whole silly film was intentionally that way, the film is actually quite genius. 7/10
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
|