Reviews

The description of this film (a police officer encounters a woman with a sword running around killing people) sounded dumb, but despite my better judgment, I wasted an hour and a half on this schlock. This film is by parts horror, suspense, and drama, and sadly fails at each one. The protagonist is Jakob, a somewhat mild mannered cop who is trying to deal with the rash of wolf attacks/sightings in his small town. He puts out meat for the wolf in an attempt to keep the wolves at bay (which as one man points out is stupid since what will happen when Jakob ceases to put the meat out). Little does Jakob know, but his putting out the meat has somehow summoned a man who dresses as a woman and has a long samurai sword with which he slices and dices up half the town it seems. Compounding the stupidity of the plot is the fact that Jakob gets a package in the mail which he nerves opens until he gets a phone call from a mysterious stranger who tells him the package is his. Jakob delivers the package in the middle of night to, you guessed it, the man/woman and the package contains the samurai sword. Half hour is spent with Jakob as he chases the sword wielding he/she (all without any other cops responding). The taunting dialog seems to suggest that at some point there will be some interesting revelation: maybe the samurai is Jakob's alter ego or something? But in the end, the denouement spirals into some homo erotic type of ambiguous ending that makes no sense. Anyhow, save yourself the time and agony and pass on this one.

David Mamet writes slick,psychologically dense drama. GlenGary GlenRoss, Redbelt, House of Games, etc. Heist is in the same vein as his other movies: complicated plots with even more complicated characters in them, in which nobody's motives are what they seem and nothing is as it appears.

Slight spoiler

The movie is about a robbery gone somewhat south. Gene Hackman, who is in charge of the crew, has to do another assignment for a crooked low-life played beautifully by Danny Devito (they should have a separate Oscars category for him called "Sarcasm"). Crosses, double crosses, and triple crosses ensue, laced with the cool witty dialogue and psychological insights for which Mamet is so well known. The casting is perfect: everyone is spot on although I thought the character that played Jimmy Silk was a bit thin. The ending will stay with you, and as Gene Hackman drives away you'll realize that he really "isn't a man who ties his shoes w/o a backup plan." It is the type of movie you almost need to see twice and even then you'll wonder who knew what and who did what intentionally.

I heard many positive reviews, and was very anxious to see this movie. The beginning, which focuses on the protagonist, Rex and his girlfriend, Saskia, is somewhat annoying (as his girlfriend is a bit of a flake and acts pretty dizty). As you probably know "the vanishing" refers to the abduction of Rex's girlfriend, and this part is pretty good. The actor playing Rex is pretty good and turns in a believable performance as a distraught lover.

warning ... spoiler

Then the film focuses on the abductor, a man named Raymond. For reasons that are somewhat unclear, he has decided (after saving a woman) that then he has to start killing them. In any case, he is a methodical person and begins to plan out the abduction part carefully, rehearing each step and trying out various means to get women into is car (so he can put them asleep with ether). This part is somewhat interesting, but the guy is apparently so creepy, very few women will get into this car, and so he has a lot of dry runs.

major spoiler alert

And now we come to the end. Rex, after *3 years* is still obsessed with knowing what happened to his girlfriend. Now this part is just plain stupid. He obviously knows she was killed: apparently he wants to find out how. This is not the thinking of a healthy normal mind. To this end, he puts out posters everywhere, goes on TV, etc, asking for the person to come forward, and Raymond, who has been toying with him to meet for awhile anyways, eventually does confront Rex and promises Rex he can enlighten him as to his girlfriend's fate. A long car ride ensues, and at the end, Raymond gives Rex a drink, and it comes out that there is a sedative in the drink. Raymond tells Rex the only way he will "show" him what happened to Saskia is if Rex goes through the same thing she went through. In other words, it is *very* plain that he is going to murder Rex too. And what does Rex do? He drinks it and wakes up in a pine box buried six feet under. I am sorry, but the stupidity of the ending simply vitiates the majority of good work that went into the majority of the film. All in all, it is not a bad film and the ending is quite terrifying (the feeling Rex has in the casket is very realistic), but still a big disappointment. I think they could have done better

The film was at best a mish-mash of ideas. First, it tried to add an element of horror, by showing a man in a black robe called Malacai, which never materialized. The ending really didn't make sense, and the acting was uneven. While the head doctor and the mental patient were good, Kelly Overton, the lead actress was pretty weak. She did not talk or act in the least like a medical doctor, and so this automatically gives away the plot of the movie: she's not the doctor, she's the mental patient! (Like we haven't seen *that* before.) The reason for institutionalization and the way she is "cured" are stupid and not believable (even for a movie). I mean if you're tired on a Friday and want a mildly entertaining film, this might fit the bill. Just be prepared to be slightly disappointed.