Review of Arlington Road

Introduction

This was quite a tricky one to review for me. I hadn`t seen Jeff Bridges in anything for quite a while and usually rate both he and Tim Robbins highly, so after reading the dust-jacket blurb which was littered with words like "TENSE" and "SPINE-TINGLING" I was quite looking forward to dusting down the very edge of my seat and preparing to perch precariously thereon.
But..

Video

Yes, agreed, there is some tension in this movie, some of it occurs where the director wanted it to, but I`m afraid that, for me, most of the "OH MY GOD - LOOK OUT!", moments occured whenever Micheal Faraday`s girlfriend turned her face into profile and I thought her nose was going to knock Faraday off of a bridge, or into the road, or something equally as dangerous. It`s for cast members like this that wide screen was developed. I had to freeze frame her in profile just to re-assure myself that they hadn`t used some kind of Hollywood prostetic nose for added effect.
I`m not sure the director (Robert Gossett) intended this to be the case, but it certainly worked for me. Those romantic interlude scenes must have had audiences ducking for cover in the cinemas.
The story itself is the "New neighbours arrive and they`re a bit odd, hang on - something doesn`t add up - s***, they`re mad serial killers and they`ve got my son/wife/dog/mercedes", type of thing which has been done before, which doesn`t of course mean that it shouldn`t be done again, but if it is, then I reckon it needs to be done better, but that`s just me, and this wasn`t.
Plot resembles a colander in a mad power drill maniac movie, some particularly annoying examples of which are:
1) Bridges doesn`t immediately call the police when his son is kidnapped, oh no - instead he goes over to the neighbour`s house, asks for him back, is told to go away and does, empty handed. Now my son can be a little s*** at times, but even I would draw the line at meekly leaving him in the hands of psychotic terrorists, unless...no, definitely I wouldn`t leave him.
2) The Ford Mondeo saga. I`m going to buy one of these cars, in fact you need to watch this movie just to see how good they are. Ford should use it in an ad campaign. Bridges has three minor accidents whilst giving chase to the bombers and two VERY major ones (he hits a van at 40 and a bus at 60) and the car is COMPLETELY undamaged. I might rent one and try this before actually buying one.
3) The "Twist in the tale". Unfortunately Gosset ain`t no Hitchcock and the twist is more like a slight kink you can see after about 30 minutes.
4) I don`t know whether to tell you this one as it`ll ruin the ending if you don`t guess it. Oh sod it - look away now if you don`t want to know, just pretend it`s Tom Hanks on your monitor.
The Bomber`s supposedly meticulously planned (for months) destruction of the FBI building involving loads of people, lots of money and some very scary haircuts, comes to rely in the end on Faraday unknowingly driving a car full of C4 through the security barriers, past the armed guards who are trying to stop him, whilst chasing a van which has hitherto done it`s utmost to lose him and has caused him to have 2 serious RTA`s, each of which should have destroyed the car already. Yeah, it was supposed to look like he did the whole thing on his own, but come on for Christ`s sake - wouldn`t you make sure the actual delivery of your bomb was a little more likely than say, 1 chance out of 100?
Call me Mr. Picky, but they just don`t make `em like they used to.

It`s got Anamorphic Transfer written on the box.
Seems quite good, but then I don`t know what one of those is, so it may be the worst one ever. Sounds like something my daughter might rub onto her arm.
I DID notice that freeze-frame shots are blurred, ala VHS, and this didn`t seem right.

Audio

DD 5.1 was as impressive as ever. soundtrack is available, apparently, but I didn`t actually hear any songs in the movie, so it must be a very dull CD.

Features

Nope, unless your German or deaf, or both.

Conclusion

Get "Cape fear" or that other one with the bloke (Micheal Keaton) in it who moves into the basement flat of a couples home and is quite evidently mad as a box, the name of which I don`t recall - I`ll dig it out.