Only Dove's uncle, retired Boston police officer Max O'Bannon, is aware of his past and encourages Dove to retire early, feeling he has done his penance. Devastated, McGivney moved to Boston and took on a new identity, hoping to find atonement in saving others by defusing bombs. He had been friends with Gaerity, but when Gaerity tried to set off a bomb that would have killed numerous civilians, he interceded, ending in the death of his girlfriend (Gaerity's sister), and leading to Gaerity's imprisonment. Dove hides that he is really Liam McGivney, a former member of a Northern Ireland terrorist cell. In Boston, Lieutenant James "Jimmy" Dove is a veteran member of the police force's bomb squad, on the verge of retirement and helping to train newer recruits. Still, the stunts and bomb-diffusing excitement (including an earth-shattering fulmination toward the finale) generally outweigh the contrivances and editing problems.Irish Republican Army fighter Ryan Gaerity escapes from his cell in a castle prison in Northern Ireland after turning a toilet into a bomb, killing a guard and his cellmate in the process. But surely the most nonsensical aspect is Gaerity’s senselessly complex Rube Goldberg booby trap in his hideout. has a very brief role as a class member).Ī subplot to discover Jimmy’s connection to Ryan and the strained relationship between the newlyweds doesn’t help the focus, while several questionable elements, such as how Gaerity could so easily don the guise of a janitor to sneak into the police department, or how he could gather the information necessary to sneak into Dove’s home and other private locales of city officials, detract from the script. The rest of the cast is adequate but not sensational (notably, Lloyd Bridges, Jeff’s real-life father, plays associate Max, and Cuba Gooding Jr. But he’s no Dennis Hopper from “Speed,” released just a few weeks earlier, with a coincidentally similar theme and far superior pacing. And there’s certainly increasing tension generated from the limitless potential triggers for blasts – turning a key, plugging in a phone cable, pulling a light cord, igniting an oven, and even opening the refrigerator door.Ĭoming from his Academy Award win for “The Fugitive,” Tommy Lee Jones reverts back to playing the villain, as in “The Package” from 1989, with a thick accent and exaggerated efforts to appear uniquely maniacal. Adding to the aural confusion are perhaps too many scenes of small talk, merrymaking, and backstory explanations that stretch the running time, though jarring musical cues and ominous strings routinely break up the leisureliness to effectively warn of impending explosions. A varying soundtrack, featuring a wide array of artists, proceeds to pop up at inconvenient moments. It begins with deceptively calm female vocals and Irish-sounding music by Alan Silvestri, betraying the eventual subject matter solely by the large font of the title words flashed across the screen. But Jimmy’s honeymoon in Costa Rica never gets off the ground due to the death of longtime pal Blanket (Ruben Santiago-Hudson), the victim of a custom bomb that could have only been constructed by a professional hellbent on chaos and revenge – an expert who is killing off Boston’s bomb disposal members one by one. Retiring from the field gives him an opportunity for a joyous wedding and to train cocky replacement Anthony Franklin (Forest Whitaker). At dinner, he proposes to Katie, insisting that he won’t regret removing himself from the spotlight for the safer – though possibly less fulfilling – new position. Keeping his cool, despite having flashbacks to a prior, failed, wartime disarming attempt years earlier, Dove manages to once again save the day and look like a hero on television.īut Jimmy secretly can’t stomach his career choice and puts in for a simpler teaching job. But Jimmy’s revelry is interrupted by the police department, which calls him to the MIT computer lab where a crazed student has hooked up the trembling Nancy (Lucinda Weist) to a desktop rigged with C4 – forcing her to frantically type before the hard drive fills up and detonates. Meanwhile, in Boston, former beat cop turned bomb squad lieutenant James (“Jimmy” or “JD”) Dove (Jeff Bridges) surprises little Lizzie (Stephi Lineburg) and her mother Katie (Suzy Amis) for the child’s birthday party. N the Castle Gleigh Prison of Northern Ireland, Gaelic-speaking inmate Ryan Gaerity (Tommy Lee Jones) uses the arrival of a new cellmate to orchestrate an explosive jailbreak.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |