This film was a riveting, sometimes bone chilling, satire on our media saturated culture. Although it is hardly the first movie to make these points (one review I glanced over prior to viewing had already compared it to Natural Born Killers), I would say it's very effective.

The not-so-subtle message is that America has become a place where personal responsibility means nothing. No matter what you do, it's how things are "spun" in the media that matters. Ratings are everything. Money is God. Violence sells. Murderers are celebrities.

As the end credits rolled up, I couldn't help but think how deeply this media saturated, tv-centric mentality has permeated our world, infecting everything. How, over the years, even my own brain has succumbed to the degree that on some level, I believe that if an event does not happen in front of a mass audience, it has no fundamental significance.

That's why I'm typing this right now, isn't it? A movielog, created for the purpose of broadcasting what I've seen to the world, all in the hopes that somehow, the fact that I viewed such-and-such film on such-and-such date will go "over the airwaves", and by doing so, lend meaning to this existence which I fear otherwise has none?

If a tree falls in the forest, and there's no video camera to record it, and no web journal on which it gets discussed, has the tree truly fallen? If so, does it even matter?

If I try think too much or too deeply on these matters, I have a serious tendancy to revert to a severely disturbed state. Thus, it's best to tell myself to snap out of it, munch on a little Arby's, and enjoy life for whatever it may be.

[Bitscape's Arby's was completely consumed before this movielog entry began, so there's not really anything to munch on now, except the ice at the bottom of the cup.]

Getting back on topic.

If you've seen the trailer, you know the premise. If not, consider what's ahead to be (very) mild spoilage.

So a couple of foriegn guys from Eastern Europe come to America, and manage to slide their way through customs. One has a nasty temper, and the other a fixation on movies and photographing everything he sees. Reading popular magazines and watching daytime tv, they learn that if you do something hideous, publicize it in the media, and then make a big show out of what a victim you are, such behavior is not only allowed, but rewarded! "In America, nobody is responsible for what they do."

Armed with this knowledge, they go on an ever-escalating spree of criminal activity. The ill-tempered one performs the violence, while his partner captures it all on video. They will be stars, famous, and make millions!

In a predictably sick way, this obsurd sounding scheme does indeed work as they planned. Something that should be utterly ridiculous really doesn't sound that farfetched when put in the context of our scandal-hungry media.

On the other side of it, Robert De Niro does an excellent acting job as the media-friendly cop, who, along with doing his job as detective, always makes sure to dangle juicy tidbits in front of the camera. If his picture gets on the front page of People Magazine, all the better. Even so, he comes off as a fairly sympathetic character in the movie.

Edward Burns plays an arson investigator who inevitably crosses paths with De Niro. The partnership they form could almost put this movie into the buddy cop genre. At least that part of it. Note that that's not a complaint. It's all in the chemistry. All in the chemistry.

Kelsey Grammer plays the tabloid "news" reporter in all this. I suppose the standard reaction to his character would be to say, "What a scumbag." Still, I did not leave the movie hating him. He's another guy, doing his job, and doing it well. Perhaps that even adds a little more to the creep aftertaste factor. He plays it with all the charisma you would expect from a top network news anchor.

Twisted and insane, the whole thing is. Twisted and insane.

I recommend this film.