Tuesday, February 22, 2005

MOVIE MENTION: COLDBLOODED

(Not a revue, a mention.)

My cousin once asked me, “Why would you keep a movie that you’ve already seen?”

I visited friends one time and marveled that they had a VCR and only one tape which they used over and over.

It takes all kinds and I‘m a different kind. I brought with me to Bangkok more than a thousand movies and two VCRs. Blame a very low threshold of boredom.

Looking through my collection the other day I found my copy of “Coldblooded.” This is a movie that has grown on me. It’s one of those movies that I like better every time I see it.

“Coldblooded” is a sly, subtle, dark comedy almost completely devoid of jokes. Critics didn’t like it, generally, and it never found an audience, but it’s a very good movie. Quirky but good.

Jason Priestly plays a nerd who works for the “mob” answering the phone at a book. The boss calls him in one day and tells him he’s promoted to hit man. That’s funny but it’s done completely straight. Priestly, after a training period as a hit man, becomes adept but never gets over being a dead-pan nerd. He walks like a nerd. He stands like a nerd. He even sits like a nerd. I think it’s a pretty good job of acting, comparable to Peter Sellers in “Being There.”

Highlights are many. He has a pleasant, polite conversation with Michael J. Fox (who produced) and Fox’s wife before blowing them away. He pistol whips his girl friend’s previous boyfriend before inquiring about the girl’s likes and dislikes. Janeane Garafolo is very good as a prostitute who has a regular route, like a milkman, which she works with all the passion of a milkman.

The writer/director, Wallace Wolodarsky, is a multiple Emmy winner for The Simpson’s.

It occurs to me that perhaps my liking this film tells more about me than it does about the film. Naah.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home