ASE

 

hain
Reaction

e top ten reasons not

0 see Chain Reaction:

10. Morgan Freeman. He’s a good
tor, but lately his choice of scripts
had me pining for his days as
asy Reader on The Electric
ompany. A few of his flicks have
one on to become overrated
honsters The Shawshank
edemption.and Seven come to mind
while a few have been duly noted
is the turkeys that they are (Moll

   
   
    
  
     
     
   
       

 

its in the latter category, and
Morgan’s hampered even more by a
haracter that is so morally
mbivalent we’re never sure if he’s
he best of the bad guys or just the
thadiest good guy. Like Morgan
ares, as he cashes his latest
baycheque ...

landers, anyone?). Chain Reaction’

9. A sheer lack of originality.
Chain Reaction not only feels like
a shameless ripoff of The Fugitive,
it has none of the character and none
of the creativity that set that film
apart, even though it has that film’s
director (Andrew Davis). Shame on
him; he should know better.

8. Keanu Reeves. Normally that
would constitute a “Nuff said”, but
ever since he lucked into the lead
role of Speed, he’s been touted as a
viable action star. He isn’t, though
Chain Reaction keeps him running,
dodging, fighting, hiding, and so
forth that we almost never have to
watch him “act”. Almost.

7. Fred Ward. He seems to think
that, by playing the FBI guy on
Keanu’s tail, he’ll get an Oscar the
way Tommy Lee Jones did for
pursuing Harrison Ford in The
Fugitive. But where Jones made his

character interesting, Ward comes
across as just plain dumb.

6. The rest of the FBI. They start
a nationwide manhunt and risk the
lives of who knows how many
people based on obviously bogus
evidence — and then they thunk
themselves on the heads and go,
“Hey! This is all just too obvious!”
Well, duh ...

5. Then again, the bad guys at C-
Systems aren’t all that clever
themselves. They break into a house
to shoot our hero, so I suppose they
need the guns, but what’s with the
tacky membership cards? Keanu
knocks ’em out, searches them, then
declares: “These aren’t policemen!
Policemen carry badges, wallets,
pictures of their families!” Check the
other pocket, Keanu, maybe you’ll
get lucky.

4. Such earnest self-importance.
As if the film weren’t boring
enough, the script (credited to no less
than five writers!) loads it down
under a maudlin message-movie

 

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oo
wit th
RITING

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Ever thought of becoming a professional
writer? Why not put your natural writing
and communications skills to work for

PRFU 100 - 050 (Thursdays 7-10pm) is
an introduction to the writing profession
open to all Douglas College students.

| You'll learn what it takes to be a
professional writer--how writers write,
what happens in the workplace, and how
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“ PFRU 100 is transferable to UBC, UVIC,
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Formore information about this program
call Hal Gray at 527-5292.

IX \ Douglas College

   

 

 

 

 

 

miasma. The world is
overpopulated! The people must
have a cheap energy source! It must
be made freely available! No one
must own the rights to it! Yeah, right.
If Hollywood spread its scripts as
broadly and thinly as these scientists
treat their findings ... why, every film
would be as derivative and watered
down as Chain Reaction.

3. Keanu Reeves. His pompous,
wooden theatrics deserve a second
mention.

2. More insipid use of the Internet
and telecommunications. As if The
Net, Mission: Impossible, and
Independence Day weren’t idiotic
enough. Do screenwriters actually
know how to use their modems?
Before an assassin clamps a bag over
his head, the idealistic Dr. Alistair
Barkley (Nicholas Rudall) tries to
send his top-secret formula out to the
world over the ’net — like there isn’t
enough wasted bandwidth out there
already. And when Keanu sends the
bad guys’ entire mainframe to the
FBI’s fax machine, nobody at bad-
guy HQ ever stops to think, “Hey!
Should we turn off the fax
machine?”

1. It’s the dumbest, most boring
action film in a summer rife with
dumb, boring action films. If any
summer needed a late-August
rescue from the brain-dead fare, it’s
this one: from Broken Arrow to
Twister to Mission:Impossible to
The Rock to Eraser to Independence
Day, every major action film has
padded its few minutes of oohs and
aahs with about two hours of
terminal boredom, though the better
ones (as these things go) have given
us charismatic stars to distract us
from the fact that their parts, as
written, are absolute shite. Chain
Reaction hasn’t got the charisma,
and it hasn’t got much action. It’s
just a big flat dud.

Peter T. Chattaway

A Delicious Way to End Your Nite

It's Late Nite. You're hungry for the taste of Boston Pizza.

Supercop

Jackie’s second
major theatrical
release kicks your
ass and it tickles!

Jackie Chan’s second film
introduced to North America
appears to be a graduation from
the enjoyable Rumble in the
Bronx.

Chan is a Hong Kong ‘supercop’
who, with the co-operation of the
Chinese military police, must help
a prisoner escape in order to
follow him to his crime lord’s
hideout.

Supercop enjoys a better
production quality that I felt was
lacking in Rumble. Better film
stock and (entertaining?) voice
overs made up for the badly done
ones in Rumble.

Chan seems to concentrate more
on story in this film and better
characters. As a result you get
plenty of action but less laughs.

Joining Chan and sharing his
limelight is Joan Chen. Not only a
martial artist extrordinaire, she
also performs all her own stunts as
well. In one sequence she learned
to ride a motorcycle in order to
launch herself onto a moving train.

It great fun for all. Go and see it.
Spend eight bucks!

Darin Clisby

So come in and enjoy

anything from our menu, late into the night.

Boston Pizza Late Nite.
The stuff dreams are made of.

1045 Columbia, New Westminster
~ Come And Get It All.

 

The Other Press August 1996 11