Arlington Road (1999)

ridiculous rating

Let's be realistic.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Worst movie I've ever seen! Good atmosphere but the ending was totally a disappointment! Why does this abomination have 7/10 stars? I could write a better scenario than this! It was building tension and in the end the bomb was in the car? Really? REALLY? Was Erchen Krouger high while he was writing it? Don't watch it... You'll just waste 2 hours of your life.

One often believes that good deeds done by a person are rewarded in some form or another. This belief becomes more strong when two people involved in an exchange of good deeds happen to be neighbors. This observation is the basis of 'Arlington Road', a thriller which has some nice moments of a strong beginning part, an average middle section and a weak ending. For a fast paced thriller, director Mark Pellington has extracted superb performances from all actors especially its lead stars Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins as neighbors who were beginning to become good friends until some sudden unexpected events impacted their friendship. 'Arlington Road' is also the perfect family film which gives viewers ample idea about the vulnerability of an ordinary man who is used as bait by people who claim to be friends. Apart from questioning the validity of friendship in a fast changing uncertain environment, this film also questions the reasons one might have behind trusting/mistrusting neighbors.

A bleak, pessimistic little thriller of a film, which failed to be a blockbuster but wowed audiences no less. A top notch cast, a clever story and oodles of suspense help to make this a much underrated gem of a film, much like the previous year's BREAKDOWN, with Kurt Russell.The plot is a pure product of the '90s, following in the same government conspiracy steps as stuff like ENEMY OF THE STATE. Jeff Bridges, as the paranoid, wacko hero, bears more than a passing resemblance to the X-FILES' Fox Mulder, with both guys having their own conspiracy theories (and nobody believing them). The structure of the film is very good, with the first hour moving slowly and being the basic set-up, then the next half hour moving up a notch into a fast-moving race against the clock to find out the truth, until the last twenty minutes which turn into sheer adrenaline pumping horror.The cast are all great in this film, with the acting honours going to Tim Robbins (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) who does a great portrayal of an apparently innocent man who turns out to be a terrorist and a murderer. Jeff Bridges is solid as the nutty, on the edge teacher whose theories grow more and more outlandish as time goes on, and we really feel for him by the time the credits roll. With able support from the two female leads helping to give the film a well-rounded feel in the acting stakes, as well as a realistic turn from the guy playing the FBI man, the acting really can't be faulted for this film.It's the direction, though, which makes everything excellent. The plot twists and turns and little, unnoticeable things turn out to have major consequences. Thankfully, for a change we aren't always one step ahead of the main character, we too (as an audience) are surprised and shocked by the events which occur. There is also a commendably hard edge to the film too, with many 'good' characters dying, it's not often we see a young boy being graphically gunned down in cold blood.There is little in the way of action until a top-notch car chase in the last twenty minutes, which is edge of the seat stuff, but then there doesn't need to be either. Disturbingly brilliant, this is a film which will make you think just who could be behind the door across the street. It left me feeling exhausted, disappointed and yet satisfied at the same time. The highest recommendation.

1.Slow-paced: not really in a good old fashion story-unraveling way. Just slow 2.Irritating main character: hysterical, insufficiently smart or logical for a university teacher that teaches the subject he so miserably fails at for the whole movie 3.Bad acting: yea, really. all the good actors didn't do well in this one. 4.Dumb ending: the bad guys master plan must have been based on 99% luck and 1% thinking, again: dumb On the positive side I must say I kinda got into it for about 2/3 of the movie (a slow 2/3). After that it was downhill.So is it still good in 2014? No, it is not. I feel that the series like The Killing, Dexter and some movies that I don't recall at the moment raised the bar for criminal thrillers.