Movies 2006 #41

Un Flic: the first 70 or so minutes are really pretty good. Alain Delon is as cool as he ever is, the drama is pretty tight and Catherine Deneuve is Catherine Deneuve.

And then there’s this bizarre scene that uses a model train and a model helicopter and tries to pass it off as the real deal. Now I’m normally not one to nitpick special effects (I give them their due for their time period and will overlook many faults if the film is good,) but in this case the look of the thing was so outrageously awful I just couldn’t help myself. Ed Wood style. It just ruined the film for me. It did pick up somewhat after that, and the ending was excellent, but that one bit was just too corny for words. Too bad because I’m a fan of Melville’s work and I was hoping this would be another to hang on the mantle.

One note about Melville- as if he could go up any further in my esteem, I found out last night that he took the name Melville as an homage to Herman Melville. How incredibly cool is that?

Well, okay, but if you were a Herman Melville nerd like I am, it would be really cool, then, right?