The Alarmist (1998)

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This movie is about a novice security-system salesman (Arquette) who has an affair with one of his clients (Capshaw) and, when she and her son are murdered, comes to believe that his effluvial boss (Tucci) did the deed. This conviction comes to him after he's visited by Capshaw's spirit who advises him, "Get the bastard." And, indeed, the talkative Tucci is not a palladium of morality. He kicks in doors to create incidents which in turn create fears in Los Angeles neighborhoods. And when he learns of a rich potential client's home being empty for a while, he's not above committing burglary. So when Capshaw and son die, Arquette -- enraged, half insane -- kidnaps Tucci and takes him to a deserted spot in the desert. Just before shooting him, he discovers that the real killer has been captured. He and Tucci make up and agree to work together again.Each of the individual scenes is pretty keenly observed. Nice little everyday details, amusing in their familiarity and even funnier when they stretch the envelope. The whole thing doesn't hang together very well. There's a major weakness in the plot -- Arquette's vision. Nothing has really prepared us for it. Arquette has never been crazy or anything other than a bit self conscious. And then in thirty seconds of screen time he turns delusional. Tucci's earnest logic -- he admits to being full of crap and a thief but he had absolutely nothing to gain by Capshaw's death -- makes no difference to Arquette, whose mind is made up. I know. This is beginning to sound like today's political arena.The movie is shot mostly in a classical style with little in the way of directorial dazzle, though there are a couple of overhead shots that are inconsistent with the rest, and one or two scene in something like step motion that don't belong there.As the central character, Arquette is given to over display but is otherwise unexceptional. The story is more or less held together by Stanley Tucci's performance and his mustache, a combination of British military and Groucho Marx. He's a splendid actor of considerable range. (Catch him in "The Big Night.") There is a lengthy sequence towards the end that has Tucci tied up on the desert floor and Arquette waving a pistol over him, about to kill him, and it's all made bearable by Tucci's response to the situation. He switches in an instant from squealing with terror to blustering self defense.Kate Capshaw gives another convincing performance. She's no longer the glamorized hero of adventure movies in which she's confronted with a dish of monkey brains. She's aged somewhat. She's beautiful, very sexy, and gives the best performance I've seen her in.It's not a poorly done film. Despite its weaknesses, it has its genuine moments. One of them is when Arquette is sitting in the living room, trying to sell his security system to an elderly couple, when the old dude suddenly leaps up and shouts that he has his OWN security system and breaks out his armory -- M-16, AK-47, a .357, a .454, and some grenades. ("Maybe it's excessive," says the beaming little old lady who is his wife -- remonstrative, you know, but proud too.) The ending is completely incredible. It's like having a plug in your front tire, trying desperately to keep the air from escaping. And there's an unnecessary epilogue that I suppose was intended to be funny.

How anyone can say anything bad about this film shocks me.It is what indie films should be. Funny, unique, amusing, well made, off-beat. Why did the studio bury it? I guess it's hard to sell a film when you knock off one of the main characters early in the film. But I think Dunsky (the writer-director) just did WHAT NEEDED to be done for the integrity of the film.Tucci is at his best when he is under Arquette's pressure. And watch out for Mary McCormack (Mrs. Howard Stern in PRIVATE PARTS) that lady can act!This movie was at many major film festivals and got some great reviews (that I dug up). Siskel and Ebert loved it (on their TV show only - for some reason they never wrote up a review of it).SEE THIS MOVIE but don't expect a juvenile comedy off the shelf from a major studio. Expect to be surprised and you'll have a good time.

Dark, humorous, quirky and melodramatic. The mix of this movie may not gel and disappoint some, but on the whole I found it fun and entertaining. Dave Arquette, Stan Tucci and Kate Capeshaw give fine performances in this very offbeat movie that starts dark but ends with a comedic twist. Perhaps the plot could be better but there's plenty enough to give viewers amusement and chuckles. A strange one you'd either hate or enjoy. For myself, I found it on the plus side.

There's really not that needs to be said about this movie, except perhaps that it is little more than an unbelievably average attempt by all parties involved, from scriptwriters to actors to the film crew Stanley Tucci within a tight timeframe, and this was the only project on the shelf. But how any producer could look at If there's one good thing I can draw from this movie is the increase in respect I offer towards the Cohen brothers; even in their weakest attempts, the characters themselves remain interesting and unique due to a successful blend of writing, acting and directing.Why Evan Dunsky was handed this film to both write and direct is beyond me. One must imagine that the producers had to use Dunsky's record and see "My Demon Lover" as his career highlight is beyond me.My guess is that Dunsky is stuck filiming commercials for the collect-calling companies, as his only use for David Arquette is to count the angles at which he can capture his smirks. Still, credit does go to Dunsky for making a feature length piece that is easier to watch than those 30-second commercials.The rest of the cast is utterly forgetful; no surprise, as their characters are bland and without the ability to utter anything that might deamnd out attention.The movie's strongest points lie in what starts out as the plot for the film -- residential alarm and theft-detection salesmen -- and the small tributary tales that grow from it. Unfortunately, many of these branches are severed quickly (most simply dry up and disappear) while the heart of the plot meanders onward.As this film originated as a play, ultimate judgment must fall on Dunsky. His screenplay adaptation is as snappy as a train-of-thought piece written while on Riddelin, his direction little more than a poorly-lit theatre production taken outside and put on film. in this case, with the Dunsky behind both the typewriter and camera, it's easy enough to point the blame. Still, this movie did not fall victim to the channel flip... perhaps it was because I was too busy counting the 20-odd members of the Arquette family involved.