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Proveniente dai commercial televisivi, Tony Scott (Britain, 1944)
diresse un ricercato e figurativo film di
vampiri, Hunger (1983), in cui Deneuve è una vampira di 6.000
anni, amata da un vampiro di tre secoli, Bowie, malato e sulla via della
putrefazione, e seduttrice di una scienziata avvenente.
Top Gun (1986) is high-tech war-nography.
Boring, monotonous, predictable film, it does nothing but accumulate stereotypes of the war film. Thanks to the worst actors around, it manages to make even the few scenes that would make sense ridiculous and parodic. The figurativism is all at the service of the most sordid commerce.
Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
continues the saga of Eddie Murphy, a carefree black cop in Beverly Hills.
Revenge (1990)
Days of Thunder (1990)
The Last Boy Scout (1991)
True Romance (1993) is an atmospheric film, scripted by Quentin Tarantino.
The Fan (1996)
Tony Scott finally made a major contribution to cinema with
Enemy Of The State (1998), a political thriller scripted by
David Marconi and photographed by Dan Mindel.
The mandatory Hollywood-ian happy ending ruins what is otherwise an impeccable
clockwork, full of suspense, that focused on the immortal theme of the
innocent everyman caught in a giant conspiracy by much more powerful forces
and on the theme of the underground independent who manages to outsmart the
establishment.
It's an old-fashioned action movie but the emphasis shifts from the car chase
and the duel to the cameras, microphones, satellites and so on that create
a vast system of surveillance.
The film opens at a lake where an influential politician,
Hammersley,
is walking his dog
but is confronted by a fellow politician, Tom Reynolds, who wants to convince him to vote in
favor of a bill authorizing the national security agency (NSA) to spy on citizens. The politician is honest and cannot be corrupted.
Reynolds coldly orders his men to kill
Hammersley and to make it look like he had a heart attack and drove his car
into the lake.
We then see Black lawyer Robert Dean at his office working on the case of
mob boss Pintero, who runs his business from a restaurant.
Robert then meets an attractive woman, Rachel, who passes him a videotape
in exchange for money. She is his ex girlfriend but now simply provides him
information for his cases, information that comes from a mysterious
investigator, code-named "Brill", who can be contacted only through Rachel.
Robert takes the videotape to Pintero's restaurant and shows its contents:
it shows evidence that Pintero is violating the terms of his parole and could
therefore be sent to jail for a long time. Pintero is not scared: he threatens
Robert if Robert doesn't reveal who mades the tape.
The FBI, who is investigating the mob, is watching and recording everything that happens around the restaurant.
Meanwhile, the media are flocking to the lake where the police are rescuing the
car and the body of Hammersley. One of Reynolds' henchmen is there to make sure
everything goes smoothly and notices a ranger picking up the videotape of a camera that was accidentally pointed to the murder scene. He guesses that the videotape contains evidence of the murder and informs Reynolds. The ranger is simply
checking migration patterns of birds, but Reynolds' entire high-tech team
is mobilized to obtain the videotape.
We see that Reynolds operates from a bunker and understand that he deems the bill crucial to the security of the nation. He is convinced that this is an emergecy because there are many enemies ready to strike the USA.
At his home the ranger watches the videotape
while listening to the news of Hammersley's death and realizes that
Hammersley did not die of a heart attack but was murdered. He calls his
activist friend and gives him the news but while making a copy of the videotape
Reynolds' henchmen surround his apartment. The ranger realizes that he is
in danger and flees on the roof after inserting the videotape into a videogame
console. The agents chase him through
the streets of the city.
Eventually the ranger happens to run into Robert
who is shopping for Christmas gifts and drops the console into Robert's
shopping bag. Robert doesn't have time to see what is going on because the ranger
runs away and gets killed while trying to escape from his chasers.
Robert has a wonderful wife and a little boy. He returns home and hides the
bags with the Christmas gifts, unaware of the videogame console, just puzzled
by the weird encounter with the panicking ranger.
Robert's wife is watching an interview with the politician who sponsored the bill and is suspicious of the government.
Using their high-tech tools, the NSA figures out that the ranger passed the
videotape to Robert.
Two of Reynolds' henchmen show up at Robert's house and ask him
questions about the ranger, insisting that the ranger must have given Robert
something. Robert is honestly unaware of the videotape and eventually kicks
them out. He then searches the shopping bags but doesn't find
the videogame console, presumably because his son took it.
Reynolds orders his team to destroy Robert's credibility. By accessing government databases, they figure out that Robert had an affair with Rachel.
They install tracking devices in multiple items belonging to Robert,
and install microphones and cameras in his own house.
The following day Rachel is fired by her company and Robert is fired by his
law firm following a newspaper article that publicizes their affair
of four
years earlier and implies that Robert is involved with the mafia, using
pictures taken by the FBI in front of the restaurant.
Robert's wife is furious that he never told them of working
with previous lover Rachel and kicks him out of the house. Robert can't even
check in at the hotel because all his credit cards don't work anymore.
Robert is convinced that it's Pintero who is causing all this trouble to his
private life.
And so Robert asks Rachel to set up a meeting with Brill, the informer.
Robert doesn't know that the secret service is listening on everything
that he is saying. She does so but at the appointment Robert is picked up
by a taxi driver who pretends to be Brill and pretends that they are
being followed. The taxi driver keeps asking him what the ranger gave him
and Robert keeps replying that he didn't get anything.
Eventually Robert realizes that it's a trap and gets out of the taxi.
Then a man, the real Brill, kidnaps him and takes him into the elevator of a hotel.
Brill, pointing a gun at him, tells him to shut up and searches him,
finding transmitters all over his clothes. Brill takes him to the roof
but realizes that Robert's body is still transmitting his signal and
therefore abandons him. Brill tells Robert that the mafia doesn't use
these devices: it's the government that is after Robert and Brill doesn't
think Robert can survive another day. Robert is speechless: Brill tells him
that they want something that Robert has, but Robert can't think of anything.
A helicopter soon appears.
Robert flees for his life, chased by multiple agents. Robert strips
almost naked to make sure he gets rid of all the "bugs", and does so in
the hotel room of two Chinese guests who are both amused and terrified.
He acrobatically escapes from the window and manages to lose the agents in
a tunnel after running recklessly through traffic.
Robert is desperate. He understands that the ranger must have given him something in the shopping bag. He returns home and begs his wife to believe him.
He searches the shopping bags and realizes that his son must have taken something from it, something that the secret services want. He meets the son at school
and the son confesses and hands Robert the videogame console telling him that
it's broken: it doesn't work. He then visits Rachel but finds her death, with
clothes of his spread all over, obviously meant to frame him for the murder.
Robert tracks down Brill and tells him that Rachel is dead. Robert begs Brill
for help showing him the console that the agents want, but Brill is too scared of the government and doesn't want to be involved. Then he thinks again and
takes Robert into his car.
Unfortunately, Brill stops for a second at a store
and Robert makes a phone call from a public phone to his wife, thereby
revealing his location to the secret agents who are monitoring all phone
calls to his wife.
Within minutes the agents storm the store and confiscate the videotape that
shows Brill's face, and back at Reynolds' bunker they find out that Brill
is a former NSA agent. Satellites show them the route followed by Brill,
who has taken Robert to his building, an abandoned building that he has turned into a high-tech communication system.
Brill tells Robert that the NSA ruined his career and that his partner was
Rachel's father. Brill watches the video that is hidden inside the console
and realizes why the secret agents want it: it shows that
Hammersley was murdered.
Reynolds' agents storm the building. Brill flees, taking Robert only
because Robert has his cat, and then blows up the building.
They drive away chased by the agents. The car catches fire and the video
gets destroyed. Brill decides to attack back and starts persecuting
Reynolds the way Reynolds did it to Robert: Brill blocks his credit cards,
and then videotapes a sexual encounter between Reynolds' allied politician and a secretary. Brill even installs a camera in Reynolds' own house.
Now it's Reynolds who realizes he is being followed and sabotaged.
Reynolds' bosses find out that someone has been running a secret operation without authorization and Reynolds' career is now in danger.
Brill decides to negotiate with Reynolds and sets up a meeting to get a
confession on tape. Brill wears the clothes of a city cop.
Robert records the conversation from a building nearby but Reynolds never
says anything to incriminate himself: he gives Brill a lecture on why it's
important for the government to spy on its citizens. Robert realizes that
Brill has a second goal: he wants the NSA to pay him a lot of money to
compensate for the unfair way they fired him.
Reynolds' henchmen
realize that someone is taping the conversation. Brill and Robert flee,
but they are both captured. Reynolds demands where the videotape is and
even shoots Brill on his hand when he refuses to answer.
Robert gives them the address of Pintero's restaurant, knowing that
the restaurant is being monitored by the FBI.
Robert leads Reynolds and the agents into the restaurant, while Robert pretends
he needs to throw up so that they let him out of the car where the FBI can
see a bleeding city cop, i.e. the FBI thinks that the mob captured and tortured a city cop.
Robert introduces Reynolds to Pintero and they exchange threats over the videotape, which means two different things: Pintero, surrounded by his gang, is talking about the videotape that incriminates him (Pintero) while Reynolds, surrounded by his agents, is talking about the videotapes that (Reynolds).
When an agent tries to storm the place, a shootout erupts during which everybody gets killed except for Robert, who is hiding under a table.
The FBI storms the restaurant and Robert is finally free. Meanwhile, Brill has walked away taking advantage of the confusion.
Robert is cleared of all accusations and given his life back. Brill has disappeared. One day Robert's TV set shows a Caribbean beach with the message "Wish you were here" and Robert realizes that it's a message from Brill.
Crimson Tide (1995), scripted by Michael Schiffer, is an apocalyptic
thriller set during the Cold War
and yet another war film to exploit the claustrophic atmosphere of the
submarine (Das Boot, The Hunt for Red October).
Russian rebels are attempting to stage a coup against the moderate Russian
government and have taken control of a Soviet nuclear base, potentially a
deadly threat to America. The president of the USA issues a state of alert and
a nuclear-armed submarine, is dispatched to sea to be ready for a
preemptive strike.
The wise lieutenant Hunter (Denzel Washington) is second in command to
hard-line, racist, sexist captain Ramsey (Gene Hackman) who is
nearing the end of his active duty without having accomplished much.
A man gets killed during a drill because the captain ignores a fire on board.
It is the beginning of a confrontation between two different ways of conceiving
and practicing the service.
They receive the order to launch a nuclear strike and Ramsey does not
hesitate to prepare the missiles.
During an exchange of torpedoes with an enemy submarine,
the communication equipment is damaged and
the American sub is cut off from its chain of command.
The submarine has not received confirmation and Hunter believes that a
subsequent message, that was received incomplete and therefore not deciphred,
was the cancellation of the order.
Ramsey wants to launch the missiles without any further ado, but
Hunter wants to get in touch with command first.
According to regulations, the captain cannot shoot the missiles without his
lieutenant's approval. Ramsey attempts to relieve Hunter from duty, but
instead, Hunter leads a mutiny against him and delays the missile launch
until communications can be restored.
There follows the usual boring scenes of war, with the submarine hit by
more torpedoes and hitting back, the sailors first exulting and then despairing.
The submarine gets damaged and one of the sailors goes to captain for advice.
The captain asks him to recruit more men and in a twinkling of an eye a
counter-mutiny restores him in command. Needless to say, he immediately
orders the launch of the nuclear missiles against Russia.
The communication man is still faithful to the lieutenant and releases
him and his men. The submarine is now the theater of a small-scale civil war.
Hunter and his men try to delay the firing of the missiles until the
communication man can fix the radio.
The radio fixed, it turns out Hunter was right, the rebels have surrendered
and there is no nuclear war.
And the spectators can leave the theater, safe and just a little bored by
how predictable the ending was.
Spy Game (2001) is a spy thriller.
Man on Fire (2004), the second adaptation of A.J. Quinnell's 1980 novel
after Elie Chouraqui's Man on Fire (1987), is a melodramatic gangster
movie. The protagonist is a suicidal man who feels guilty of all the killings
he has committed and is redeemed by the affection of a little girl. She gives
new meaning to his life. He becomes a killing machine again when she is
taken from him. So it is also a psychological film. Unfortunately the ending
is not very plausible, and all the biblical references are a failed attempt at
a story of religious redemption.
The film opens with footage of kidnappings in Mexico: the capital is suffering
from a wave of kidnappings, and the police are often complicit.
Creasy comes to a border town to meet his
his old brother-in-arms Paul who has started a reputable business protecting and escorting businessmen and now lives a nice life.
Creasy instead never recovered from his past: a former marine and CIA operative,
he lives with a sense of guilt for all the killings he has done, and has become
an alcoholic. He confesses that he is jobless.
Paul introduces him to a wealthy Mexican City couple who is shopping for a new bodyguard, Samuel and his wife.
Creasy is interviewed at their big villa and is immediately selected: his
austere and silent attitude wins the wife's trust.
He is charged with escorting their little daughter Pita to school, a trip that can be dangerous for the daughter of wealthy parents.
He begins his job but quickly gets annoyed by the little talkative girl who
wants to become his friend and is curious about his past. He almost resigns
telling the mother that maybe they should hire someone who is more sociable.
Creasy has hallucinations (or bad memories) and is suicidal: he points
a gun to his head and pulls the trigger but the gun misfires.
One day, while driving Pita and mother, he notices a car following them and
asks Pita to take down the plate number: she writes only 5 of the 6 digits in her diary.
Slowly Creasy begins to bond with Pita. He becomes her swimming trainer and leads her to win a competition. He helps her with her homework. She makes him smile
and he quits drinking.
One day he takes her to her first piano lessons, after teaching her a trick to
upset the piano teacher so that she'll be able to go back to swimming.
While waiting outside, he notices police cars blocking the street.
He senses that something is wrong and in fact a car tries to grab Pita when she walks out of the piano school.
Creasy fires his gun repeatedly, killing four people, two gangsters and two
cops, but the remaining gangsters manage to kidnap Pita.
Creasy wakes up in a hospital bed, surrounded by cops who accuse him to being
involved in the kidnapping.
At the press conference a journalist, Mariana, asks the police chief why two
cops were in that street since they were out of duty that day. The police chief
has no answer but a man standing behind Mariana, Miguel, who works for the
anti-kidnapping special forces, mutters that those were corrupt cops.
All the journalists laugh.
Paul visits Creasy at the hospital. While they are talking, Miguel shows up:
he wants to transfer Creasy in a safer place because he could be killed there.
While he is lying in the hospital bed, her father and his lawyer negotiate
with the kidnappers, with the police eavesdropping. The kidnapper instructs
Samuel how to deliver the ransom. The lawyer, Jordan, asks to be allowed to
help deliver the money. They follow the instructions but somebody disrupts
the ransom drop and steals the money. One man is killed in the shooting.
The kidnapper calls to tell Pita's mother that the girl has been killed to
avenge the gangster who was killed, his nephew.
Paul informs Creasy at the hospital. When he is released from the hospital,
Creasy swears to Pita's mother to kill everybody who was involved.
Creasy asks Paul for help. Paul doesn't kill anymore but provides guns and money.
Mariana, the journalist, approaches him and tells him that she will help him as much as she can.
Creasy's only clue is the plate number that Pita wrote down in her diary.
He calls Mariana asking for help to track down the owner. Mariana is Miguel's
lover and Miguel provides her the name and address.
Creasy kidnaps the man and brutally tortures him until he tells him details
about the kidnap. Creasy kills him after he obtains a new clue.
He heads to a nightclub where he interrogates at gunpoint the bouncer, a middle
man and the woman who took care of Pita. He learns that the ringleader is known
only as the "Voice" but someone pays them by sending money to a bank account
He then blows up the night club after
forcing all the customers out and frees the most recent victim of the racket,
another little girl. He calls Mariana to come and pick her up.
He asks Mariana to find out who sends money to that bank account, and Mariana
again asks Miguel for help. It turns out the money comes from the head of
a special police force, the man who organized the botched ransom drop, and
who lives inside a compound and travels in a motorcade.
Crease walks into an apartment across from the compound and waits for the
motorcade. Then he uses a bazooka to blow up the escort and kidnaps the
officer. The officer warns Creasy that he is the head of the gang, but
Creasy tortures him nonetheless to obtain the whereabouts of the "Voice".
The officer tells him that most of the ransom money was missing: Samuel's
lawyer, who was in charge of it, took most of it.
Crease enters the lawyer's house and finds him dead in the swimming pool.
Crease also finds a sheet of paper with bank transactions that incriminate
Pita's own father Samuel! Crease confronts Samuel in front of his wife and
Samuel confesses: he is broke because his father wasted all the money before
dying, and so he and his lawyer staged the kidnapping to cash the kidnapping insurance. Pita was supposed to be held only for two days. Most of the money never
existed: the bags contained mostly white paper. But the plan was disrupted by
the corrupt officer who tried to steal the money. Then the shootout happened,
The Voice's nephew was killed, and the Voice killed Pita.
Samuel, furious, is the one who killed the lawyer.
The wife, devastated that her own father organized the kidnapping of their
daughter, asks Creasy to kill him. Creasy leaves Samuel a pistol with one
bullet (the same bullet that Crease had tried to use to kill himself), and Samuel shoots himself.
Mariana calls him back with the information about the bank account, provided
as usual by Miguel, except that this time Miguel begins to tail Creasy.
Creasy visits the owner of the bank account and finds the Voice's brother and
the Voice's pregnant wife. He is wounded in the shootout, but he helds them hostage and threatens to kill the
brother if the Voice doesn't surrender. The Voice, whose name is Daniel,
offers him a deal: Pita in exchange for his brother. Crease is shocked to
learn that Pita is alive. He calls Pita's mother, who is shocked to hear that
Pita is alive, and asks for her to meet him
at the place where the exchange is to take place.
Meanwhile Miguel and Mariana have found out the real name of the Voice and
Mariana even prints his picture on the front page of her newspaper.
A bleeding
Crease drives to the meeting point. He tells Pita's mother to shoot Daniel's
brother if anything goes wrong and then walks towards Daniel to receive Pita.
Pita is released and she briefly hugs Crease before rejoining her mother.
Her mother releases Daniel's brother and Crease is taken prisoner, but he is
bleeding copiously and he dies of his wound in their car.
At the end of the film we are informed that
Miguel's agents killed Daniel.
Domino (2005)
Dejavu (2006)
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)
Unstoppable (2010)
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