Review of Revolver (2005) by Chads. — 18 Mar 2008

This filmmaker is no Quentin Tarantino. He's no Steven Soderbergh either. You just know that "Pulp Fiction" rocked his world. "The Limey", too, probably. But as the saying goes: he knows the words but not the music.

In "Revolver", we see homage being taken to the brink of plagiarism. During a sequence in which Jake(Jason Statham) and his partners-in-crime(Zach and Avi, played by Vincent Pastore and Andre Benjamin, respectively) rip off the drug dealers and their buyers, this filmmaker dramatizes the more violent moments with splices of animation like Tarantino did in "Kill Bill: Volume One", while utilizing a jazzy score and non-linear editing style that's strongly reminiscent of "Out of Sight".

And then there's the matter of Jake's interior monologue, which evidently seems to have gotten on the filmmaker's nerves, as well. After "Revolver" curbs Jake's incessant chattering, for some godforsaken reason, we now hear Macha(Ray Liotta), Jake's nemesis, in deep thought.

I thought Jake was schizophrenic. I'm probably not the only one. As the end credits roll, a second film, a documentary short(this film is so incoherent, it needs an appendix to clear things up) of talking heads, men with PhDs in psychology who explain Jake's condition in laymen's terms.

Let's just be grateful that this filmmaker doesn't throw in everything but the kitchen sink. Zach and Avi aren't figments of Jake's imagination, or for that matter, dead. Their true identities, however, seems equally banal, so easy was it to predict.

"Snatch" was okay. "Snatch" made sense at least, even when Brad Pitt didn't(his thick regional accent was worthy of a citation by Ken Loach for authenticity). "Revolver" doesn't make sense.

"Revolver" is just another crime film in the post-"Pulp Fiction" era that courts edgy laughs from violent situations.