Ricochet

This is a typical Denzel Washington film: well-acted, rough language, a racial theme and an involved story that holds your interest. A lot of his movies fit those categories.

Washington plays a preacher's kid and its nice to see he has such respect for him.So many times, Hollywood portrays fathers and especially clergymen in a bad light. John Lithgow is the villain and is such a crazy over-the-top loon he's fun to watch. There are no lulls in this story, yet the action scenes weren't overdone.

It gets predictable in the end but I like the analogy in the film to the classic movie, "White Heat."

I was sorry to see a few things: once again, white people are all the bigots; Lindsay Wagner, television's nice lady of the past, now using very profane language here and looking hard.

Overall, this sometimes looks like a "B" action film more than a classy one but it's still an interesting crime film that sports a few different angles. It may not be one of Washington's better-known efforts, \but it is still entertaining.

Denzel Washington, a policeman in law-school is playing basketball with the neighborhood toughs.

He achieves fame by bringing down a drug dealing character, played extremely well by John Lithgow, who by his acting of a psychopath, put a new dimension into his acting abilities.

Washington has it made as the years pass. Lithgow plots revenge while incarcerated and breaks out violently at his parole hearing.

He turns the tables on Washington in several ways including the killing of his friend and fellow officer, nice played by Kevin Pollak. Washington is blamed for the killing. He kidnaps Denzel and shoots drugs into his system and provides him with a prostitute.

The two eventually tangle on top of a high area before the obvious ending occurs.

A good story allowed to go awry by crazy staged events.

It's so bad, it's good? I don't even know how to explain the absurdity going on in this movie. From the power guy/bad guy having cake with the babysitter to everyone believing a dubbed video of the protagonist passed out screwing a hooker is real. Everyone close to him IMMEDIATELY turning on him for absolutely no reason whatsoever to god knows what because I haven't even finished this train wreck. I don't know if someone really wrote the most terrible script in the world or half this movie got left on the editing room floor. God it's bad.

When the name Russell Mulcahy is brought up for movies, fans will remember him for two well-known properties. The one fans will most fondly remember is Mulcahy's first entry in movies, that being Highlander (1986). The other widely recognized character that Mulcahy made a movie on was in The Shadow (1994). Of course in between those was Mulcahy's biggest blunder which was Highlander II: The Quickening (1991). That same year though Mulcahy also directed this movie featuring a different up and coming star. A young Denzel Washington was making his way through movies leaving a generally memorable impression on the characters he took on. At the time, the last big film that Washington got people's attention in was Glory (1989). He wasn't a lead, but his supporting role still played a very big part to the story.

The plot here is about Nick Styles (Denzel Washington), a cop who sky rockets to a high promotion after foiling the plans of Earl Talbot Blake (John Lithgow). Upon this moment, Blake makes it his mission to ruin the life Styles built for himself after he breaks out of prison. When he does, Styles is already the district attorney and has a wife Alice (Victoria Dillard) and kids. The original story was written by Menno Meyjes from The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Fred Dekker of House (1985) and Night of the Creeps (1986) fame. The screenplay was then adapted by Steven E. De Souza who wrote for Commando (1985), The Running Man (1987) and Die Hard (1988). Together, these individuals produce a very mindless action thriller. There is entertainment value to be had, it's just not a story that is game changer in the genre.

A lot of what makes this viewing experience a fluff show are a few things. One thing is that there are moments that are meant to be lighthearted. The dialog just makes it sound like it's trying to be a buddy cop movie. Even though Styles' partner Larry (Kevin Pollak) isn't the funniest if the laughter is relying on him alone. Some of the lines Blake says are also typical villain-esque, like "you're fired". There's also the issue with proof blindly being disregarded by people that any sane person could have figured out. It's like when there's an obvious change to something that's clear as day and yet no one can see that change. It looks stupid that anyone could fall for such an obvious callout. Then there's just the unrealistic events that happen in various spots. Two guys sabre fight in the middle of jail mess hall. Okay...who gave the inmates the approval to do that? It's things that take place such as this that question how much in the real world would this happen.

Apparently there is some valid connections to it though. Actress Mary Ellen Trainor plays a new reporter by the name of Gail Wallens. She also played that same character in Diehard (1988),...so a Diehard expanded universe? Strange; guess de Souza was kind of thinking for the long term? Aside from these flaws there are still good parts to the feature. All the actors provide what they can. Denzel Washington is still that likeable protagonist very few if anyone would want to see harmed. John Lithgow as Blake is a decent villain. He certainly can make his presence known and definitely shows no mercy for whoever he has in his sites. Lithgow would later play Lord Farquaad in Shrek (2001). There are appearances from other actors like Ice-T, Lindsay Wagner, John Amos, John Cothran, Lydell M. Cheshier, Sherman Howard also known as Bub from the original Day of the Dead (1985) and even Jessie Ventura.

The action and violence on scene is not abundant but when it's there, the viewer won't miss it. Some of it is actually pretty gruesome which is why it clashes with the comedy bits. It's not a dark comedy. The camerawork fits well with in the picture though. Shot by Peter Levy who worked on A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) and Predator 2 (1990), the shots are correctly taken with no real issues. For the film score, Alan Silvestri took the job of composing the music. While the album for it contains only a third of the entire run time, the tracks work to the films credit. Several of the cues have similar sounds to that of prior works like Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). There are lots of horn blasts and timpani rumbles. Not the strongest composition but still a fun listen.

Premise wise the story is fine, but the details within it, tone of certain scenes and hyper violent action makes this more of a fluff piece. Maybe consider it Diehard (1988)-lite since it's in the same universe? It has good acting, action, camerawork and music.

Nick Styles is a cool cop who whilst on the beat with his partner captures and embarrasses on live TV, ruthless crime maniac Earl Talbott Blake. Styles goes on to achieve fame and lands the job of Assistant District Attorney, whilst Blake is sent to prison from where he plots a mission from hell that will destroy Styles life wholesale.

Whilst not amounting to more than your standard revenge thriller, Ricochet does have grizzly devilment within its plot to make this a recommend for those who enjoy the popcorn thriller. John Lithgow is always great as a loon bad guy, and here he is a cackling grinning maniacal maelstrom of hate, and some of the lines he gets to deliver are icy madness personified. Denzel Washington is routinely good as Styles, handsome and believable as the cop done good who gets his life flipped upside down by the revenge thirsty Blake. The film is tight on action (including a couple of gross scenes for those inclined), no little suspense, and a wonderful homage to White Heat into the bargain.

It's no award winner, it's for those who like to be entertained with a bowl of no brain popcorn on their laps. See this if you enjoyed Lithgow in Cliffhanger, or purely if you like Washington period. 7/10