Ricochet

Just fucking weird guys.  I mean I could go through this the normal way but there are so many bizarre things I want to touch on that I’m gonna do something different this time.  I’ll make a laundry list of stuff that’s actually in the movie and you can decide for yourself if it sounds like something you might dig.  Let’s give it a shot:

               

The opening credit sequence is a throwback to Hitchcock with thin vertical lines constantly forming and images of a person holding a gun in silhouette in the background.  The lines eventually turn to reveal the title “Ricochet”.  The score is by Alan Silvestri and is very Predator 2-like which tends to make this intro even more Hitchcock-y by almost mimicking the very start of the main Psycho theme.  The end result is that it looks and sounds really awesome.

               

Nick Styles (Denzel Washington (Virtuosity, He Got Game)) and Larry Doyle (Kevin Pollack (Grumpy Old Mens, End of Days)) play street hoops for bills against Ice-T (Surviving the Game) and his huge partner (Lydell Cheshier (The Cable Guy)).    
    

Styles “charms” a woman (his future wife actually) by asking her out on a date repeatedly even to the point of writing her up a fake traffic ticket (he’s a cop) until she relents.  Styles comes off as an arrogant dick throughout the movie in my opinion.

John Lithgow (2010, The Pelican Brief) plays the bad guy, Earl Talbot Blake, which seemed to be something Hollywood thought was a good idea for a while.  He also played the villain in Cliffhanger and Raising Cain around the same time.  I don’t get it.  He can sure act like an asshole but he doesn’t have the right look at all.  I don’t buy him as a tough guy which he is definitely supposed to be here.

Styles undresses down to his underwear to neutralize a hostage situation where Blake is holding someone at gunpoint.  I guess…sure.  It works!

Pollack’s character is supposed to be a somewhat hardened cop that can beat up and run down bad guys.  Yea, I think he was miscast too.

There’s a gladiatorial type fight between Blake and his cellmate, Jesse “The Body” Ventura (Predator, The Running Man).  They get phone books taped to their bodies and use homemade sword/staff weapons to slash at each other.  This fight takes place in prison by the way with only prisoners gathered round to watch.  My guess is that it would be hard to keep something like this quiet so either the guards/warden are getting paid off or no one cares.  Either way it sure is gonna be hard to explain away a dead Jesse Ventura with phone books strapped to him and a giant hole in the middle of his chest if anyone starts asking questions.  Oh sorry, spoiler on that last sentence.

Some prison guards get horribly mutilated with power tools.

This is really a revenge story so what Blake does to retaliate against Styles is shoot him up with heroin, coke and also gives him gonorrhea.

There’s footage of a totally strung out Styles having sex with a prostitute.

Styles drunkenly talks to himself about how shitty of a person he is.

Blake leaves Styles footage of himself brandishing a hatchet over Styles’ two little sleeping girls.  He even pulls his arm up to take a swing but turns the camera off just before.

Denzel is shirtless a lot in this thing.  And I mean A LOT.

Styles negotiates with Ice-T and his crew to not distribute drugs in the community.  Ok, I say “negotiates” but really Styles brings in a grenade and threatens to kill everyone in the room if they don’t do what he says.

Story by Fred Dekker (Monster Squad, Robocop 3), screenplay by Steven E de Souza (48 Hrs, Commando, The Running Man, Die Hard, Die Hard 2).

Mary Ellen Trainor (Romancing the Stone) plays reporter Gale Wallens.  That’s the same character she played in Die Hard.  So I guess the filmmakers are saying that this movie takes place in the same universe as the Die Hard pictures.  Wow, who woulda thunk it?

Styles and Blake arm wrestle…twice.

Blake has a bunch of great lines, here are some of my favorites:

                “The last time I held a gun in this hand a young man took off all his clothes for me.”

“…I’d pay a visit to your house…to fuck your wife and your daughter, hell maybe even your dog.” (smiles and laughs)

Guard: “The parole board’s ready Blake, I hope you remembered to floss.”

                Blake: “I did, with your wife’s pubic hair.”

I can’t get over how odd so much of this movie is.  Sure it’s not Videodrome or El Topo weird but there are a lot of questionable, yet interesting, choices that were made.  Like Kevin Pollack does his William Shatner impression at one point and one of Blake’s eyes is faded and discolored without explanation of why that is.

If any of the shit I listed above floats your boat then you should definitely check out this whacked out revenge thriller.