Falling Down

An really good film. It was much better than I thought it would be too. I must admit I was not overwelmed with how it looked, before we put it in to watch it. Superb movie though and worth a watch. Great acting too

This is the secound time i have seen this. now im older a found son of kurt awesome. just watch him as gordon gecko.

i want to be this guy smashing things up. whats to say rent it.

Easily one of my top two favourite films ever. Some days it's this, others it's Jurassic Park.

A brilliant story of a normal guy who just snaps and has a full on violet, action packed and saddening breakdown.

This film is a perfect illustration of how one's own frustrated outbursts can suddenly turn so ugly and frightening.

Featuring Douglas' greatest performance, one of Duval's best performances, many a brilliant set piece, gorgeous cinematography, great music and human characters. This is the quintessential Los Angeles film and is Director, Schumacher's best film.

Also, note the 'falling down' references with the old London Bridge, a gravity reference and the snow globe.

You can accuse Falling Down of being a lot of things, but you certainly can't say it's not thought provoking.

It's not quite what it says on the tin - Michael Douglas isn't really a normal guy who snaps due to pressures of LA life, as the trailers and taglines would have you believe. No, his character is pretty disturbed and disturbing from the start. He is both prtagonaist and a very dislakable antagonist and Douglas's performance is superb.

To balance this we have Robert Duvall's retiring cop. He has a load of loud mouth collegues who come straight from the Hollywood School of Cliched Cops - and that's not a good thing. The cliches and stereotypes extend to the people Douglas encounters in his rampage - knife wielding hispanics, racist redknecks, Korean shopkeepers etc, etc, etc...even Douglas's wife and kids and dog come from a catalogue. Oh and Duvall is (of course) on his last day before retirement.

Another problem is the increasing implausibility - the weapons get bigger, the action gets bigger and the film starts to get a little silly. Also, there's a slightly nasty, misanthropic edge to the whole thing...as if an Eastenders wrtier has got involved in the character development somewhere.

That said, there's tension aplenty and it's got some edge of the seat moments.

And it's thought provoking!

This film was really weird and I am still not sure what to think of it. Micheal Douglas is a great actor as always and what happens to him in the film is totally plausible but I am just not sure what lesson I should take out of this. I would not necessarily recommend it.