What a Train Wreck

Rating: 1/10 (22 April 2005)

I gave this film one star because I couldn't go any lower. Those were two hours I can never get back. I like a lot of Tony Scott's movies but he missed it on this one. The story had great potential and the actors were the best. The direction ruined this movie. The camera work was ridiculous; constantly speeding up and slowing down; stopping and starting; cutting to bad angles. I'm sure he was trying to be artistic but it started as annoying and went quickly to aggravating. And the subtitles...what was the deal with those? It looked like his kids got him some subtitle software for Christmas and he just had to use all those cool effects in the movie. It turned out to be childish and insulting. Let's take an example: One of the Mexican criminals gives a speech, mostly in English. Every time the character uses a Spanish word, they subtitle it, like I am too stupid to understand the context of the speech. When one of the characters slurs his speech, Scott subtitles that, too. Direct it right and you won't need the subtitles. The subtitles fade in and out, they blur, they overwrite each other. Just stupid. While I'm at it, was the mother supposed to be Southern? Some of the words she spoke with an overdone, deep South accent but the rest of the time she sounded straight out of California.
You might look at my profile and think that I am too old to get it. No. The fact is, this movie was just bad. I watched it with my 16 year old son, who has a much higher tolerance for lousy movies. C'mon. He loved "The Fast and the Furious" and "XXX." Even he hated it. If you watch this movie, you have only yourself to blame.