|
|
|
REVIEWSPREVIEWS: Duplex
Duplex has a smugly simple plot. Novelist Alex (Ben Stiller) and magazine layout artist Nancy (Drew Barrymore) are a couple on the lookout for a heavenly home that will deliver them respite from their hectic lifestyle. Fortunately, they come across a roomy duplex, with an apparently sweet old lady, Mrs Connelly (Eileen Essel) as their upstairs neighbour. Hoping against hope for the old bag to kick the bucket so they can have the entire house to themselves, the couple is miserably disappointed to discover that not only is longevity granny’s forte, she also manages to drive them up the wall with her growing demands.
The movie represents the class of films that don’t merit a watch, if it weren’t for the stellar cast that supports an exaggerated plot and dicey dialogue. Despite a repository of talent at its disposal, Duplex fails to make an impression. Crude dialogue is forgotten the moment it is awkwardly delivered.
Failing to ‘move in’ at the box office, the only good thing to come out of the movie is probably Barrymore’s amusing performance.—-Taimur Saleem
Out of Time
.jpg)
Fancy a police thriller without the usual trigger happy thugs, escaped convicts on the run and multiple homicides? Carl Franklin’s latest flick, Out of Time serves up just that. Starring Denzel Washington and Eva Mendes, the movie shows just how vulnerable a man is when in love.Though everything seems to be going well for Matias Lee Whitlock, the respected chief of police in a small Florida town, things soon take a horrible U-turn. After borrowing money from the evidence room to run away with his girlfriend Anne-Marie, he is shocked to find out that she has been burnt alive, the victim of a possible homicide. Realizing that as the main beneficiary of her life insurance policy, he would be the only one to gain from her death, Whitlock faces a desperate race to not only keep their secret relationship from being unearthed, but also to find her killer and tie up all the ends before he is accused of wrongdoing. However, he soon finds out that he has been the victim of a set up, as Anne-Marie was never killed!
Despite the fact that the story-line itself is original, it fails to generate any real suspense. However, the standard of acting throughout the movie remains good, and together with the fact that the middle of the film provides intriguing viewing, makes the flick a great way to kill two hours on a dull Sunday afternoon!—-Amyn Bhamani
|
|
|
|
