Falling Down (1993)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Excellent but underrated film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This one has many things going for itself. First, let's start with the beginning of the film: implied cinematography, exasperation reaching its pinnacle of the main character himself immediately introduced to the audience rather than a whole introductory sequence making cinematic small talk with its public to establish how things go from daily routine to disaster. We get to know the character as the movie develops, and other secondary characters intentionally or unintentionally uncover who he is; no need for the film to stop and spell out who lead character Michael Douglas is and why he's the way he is, the film instead grows into the explanation in and of itself with each poignant scene building a crescendo overtime and unravelling its plot.Another thing is Michael Douglas is one of the most underrated lead actors of the 90's as he's often considered for everything else but his acting (son of Hollywood superstar Kirk Douglas, being a producer, etc...), and is excellent yet again here. He's totally committed to the role, plays it like his character was real down to the smaller details: for example, he easily could've played his character displaying too much confidence but he manages to convey that he's middle-class and a goodie two shoes gone rogue, the ambiguity and fracture of his character transpires which makes for a pleasant and enticing, nuanced viewing.Another thing is it's very well paced. As explained in the first paragraph, the opening scene blitzes right past the viewer and constitutes one of the smoother intros for its genre/for its time, but as the film advances it never seems to go off track or lose momentum, it just keeps building in intensity and keeps focus on what it's trying to say and what it means to be as a viewing experience. Totally coherent. If you don't like it 30min in, you probably won't like it at all; conversely, if you like it 30min, you'll like it til the last bit.Lastly, the film manages to do really well at surely the most important thing in cinema: be as much entertainment as it is making a commentary on a particular social/political/philosophical issue. It isn't another neutral, mindless 90's action flick starring what's his face: it takes a stand and points out the terrible dysfunction of modern America, but balances that with the entertainment value. You don't want to have to sit through some politically biased tripe for 2 hours either, you want to watch a good movie.

Michael Douglas plays a working-class man, pushed over the edge by the stress of modern life, family problems, work difficulties and a whole slew of mental issues. He's basically on the warpath from the beginning, storming away from a traffic standstill to find (or instigate) a frothy, furious conflict with every step. Douglas's unnamed vigilante might play as somewhat sympathetic at first, or perhaps that was the intention, but as the climax approaches and more details are filled in, he's among the last to realize that he isn't this story's hero. Robert Duvall works a parallel route as the desk-bound former police detective, trying to get through his last day, who almost unconsciously cracks the case and throws himself into harm's way. There's a lot of subtlety and context here, which seems lost in Joel Schumacher's hammy, literal direction. Duvall's coworkers tease him relentlessly about dying before retirement, an obvious crack at the well-worn cinematic trope, but it plays as dumb and blunt rather than witty and clever. The rampaging madman is treated with strange admiration, marching through a hail of bullets like a superhero where he should have seemed detached and unhinged. I don't think Schumacher completely understood the story he was telling. With an excellent leading performance from Douglas and a sharp, surprisingly relevant script, it's a shame this didn't turn out better than it did.

Getting straight to the point with this review, the performances are well-acted, the acting is not the problem, it's the story. This entire movie is negative, from start to finish we see nothing but the main character falling into negative experiences one after the other. The majority of the people in this movie including minor and major characters are angry for no reason other than the humid weather playing a part, i'm sorry but hot weather is no reason to become angry, if the weather gives you a bad temper then stay at home.Michael Douglas's character was not a nice guy, it is verified during the family video scene, he was controlling and the scene where his mother explains a part of his personality also verifies him not being a very nice person, so why should we as viewers even care about this guy?! I don't know where the director was going with this movie, for a so- called deep film there is no message, if they were trying to get across that people can have mental breakdowns - then that's a pretty weak screenplay.This Flick also has a sad element of the main character constantly talking about "going home" to a place where he is not wanted. It's clear that his career, his wife and child were all he wanted and now that he lost them, he feels there is nothing left, which is not true, you have yourself and you have breath in your lungs, you still have hope, but this movie was not going in that direction.Falling Down is overrated, it's a very angry movie full of hate at every turn.

Many have already commented on this film, but after reading volumes of them, I have come to one conclusion - by sorting chronologically, it is quite apparent that the basic story line seems to even more applicable now than it was nearly 25 years ago. Society has become more polarized than ever (especially over the past 8 years), and the ever-increasing daily frustrations suffered by many are reflected in the ratings - the more recent ones are overwhelmingly positive (8-10).For the record, I find the message powerful....as society becomes more and more disjointed and divisive, my fantasies continue to move beyond money, fame, and love, into dreams of getting even with the self-important assholes of the world.