mdf@osu-eddie.UUCP (Mark D. Freeman) (02/22/86)
Quicksilver leaves unanswered questions. The lead character goes from being a
very successful stock broker to being a bicycle delivery person. He has a
girlfriend. Was she with him through his career change or did he meet her
later? Do they live together, or does she just practice dancing at his place
because he has a lot of empty space in his apartment? Do they break up during
the movie, or does she get captured by aliens?
Part of a successful movie is making you care about what happens to the charac-
ters, even the less important ones. When they get you to care, and then just
leave you hanging, it takes something away from it all.
The girlfriend is a dancer. However, the only time we see her outside the
apartment is when she is (obviously at ease) at an art gallery showing. ???
This is all petty details having nothing to do with the main part of the film,
but that's just the kind of mood I'm in.
The female lead (not the girlfriend mentioned above) gets a syndrome familiar
to most horror-movie buffs towards the end of this movie. The dreaded
"backwards walking wimpy woman syndrome" (BW3 for short). A normally street-
wise human being who handles herself very well earlier, starts doing very dumb
things later on that are out of character. ("Let's see, the axe murderer is
behind this door, so I'll turn out all the lights and walk backward through
the doorway while shrieking." Makes sense to me.) In this instance, she is
being stalked by someone out to kill her. She is with a group of male friends
who are defending her. Naturally, she runs into the dark streets alone so
the murderer has a better chance of catching her. You want to scream at her,
"WAKE UP, IDIOT!"
The movie does well with the issue of having to face your inner demons, fears,
and previous failures in order to get ahead. Sometimes you can rationalize
being happy in a situation that's safe, but all you are really doing sn tread-
ing water. (Great line from the film: I thought only us Jews do guilt.)
My main flame is for the idiots who pick which scenes to put in the previews.
They give away a key plot element in the ones I've seen on TV. (Car falling
off unfinished bridge.) Obnoxious and unneeded.
Worth the $4.75.
--
< < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < <> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
Mark D. Freeman mdf@osu-eddie.uucp
StrongPoint Systems, Inc. mdf@osu-eddie.arpa
Guest account at The Ohio State University !cbosgd!osu-eddie!mdf
I speak, therefore I disclaim everything I say.
< < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < <> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >bright@dataioDataio.UUCP (Walter Bright) (02/25/86)
In article <1368@osu-eddie.UUCP> mdf@osu-eddie.UUCP (Mark D. Freeman) writes: >The female lead (not the girlfriend mentioned above) gets a syndrome familiar >to most horror-movie buffs towards the end of this movie. The dreaded >"backwards walking wimpy woman syndrome" (BW3 for short). A normally street- >wise human being who handles herself very well earlier, starts doing very dumb >things later on that are out of character. ("Let's see, the axe murderer is >behind this door, so I'll turn out all the lights and walk backward through >the doorway while shrieking." Makes sense to me.) In this instance, she is >being stalked by someone out to kill her. She is with a group of male friends >who are defending her. Naturally, she runs into the dark streets alone so >the murderer has a better chance of catching her. You want to scream at her, >"WAKE UP, IDIOT!" I found myself rooting for the bad guy here, as the woman was so stupid she deserved it (natural selection). However, I am used to seeing horror movies where the monster can only move at a retarded shuffle. The heroine runs away, and inevitably trips and falls, and the monster catches up. At the end, the woman is going into training to be a paramedic. Would you want a paramedic working on you who becomes hysterical in difficult situations, and is also terminally stupid? Why didn't the car blow up when it hit the pavement? 9 out of 10 hollywood crashes result in an incredible fiery explosion (in real life less than 1 out of 100 car crashes result in fire). In fact, I get really tired of sequences where the car crashes, the dazed hero wakes up, struggles out of the car, runs away, and hits the dirt just as the car disappears in an incredible fiery explosion (yawn). The bike tricks are the high point of the film. (Though it's obvious that they are using special bikes, not the ones they use for delivery purposes.)
ccastkv@gitpyr.UUCP (KEITH VAGLIENTI) (03/06/86)
You're quite right. That girl had no reason to act the way she did. Let's
face it, before she ran off all that had happened to her is that Gypsy had
tried to force her to whore for him, then tried to rape her, then beat her
up in front of several people who just sat there and watched, and who then
began to gun down her friends when they tried to protect her. This is the
same Gypsy that killed Voodoo and who everyone is afraid of and are always
telling her to keep away from. I also believe the Challenger mission was a
success.
Let's face it, anyone in that sort of a situation would panic. People who
panic don't think, they just act. If you don't think you'd panic in the
same situation then I think you have an odd view of reality. In any case, if
*I* was in that situation and I DIDN'T panic, I like to think I'd take off
running, like Terry did, so that Gypsy would come after me and stop shooting,
and possibly killing, my friends.
--
Keith Conrad Vaglienti
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!ccastkv
In no way should my remarks be considered to reflect the opinions and/or
policies of the Georgia Institute of Technology nor GIT's Office of
Computing Services. Put another way, its-a not my bosses fault, monkey boy!