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Domsez Youtube |
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Niko Vs Kid Galahad @ DVDfever Youtube |
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Aug 28 2008
DVDfever co uk
The War Machines Just £12.98! 
Heroes: Complete
Stuart:
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Dom Robinson reviewsDomino"I am a bounty hunter."Distributed by
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Domino
is a movie "based on a true story... sort of" about Domino Harvey, a Ford model-turned-bounty
hunter as she got fed up with the pretentiousness of Los Angeles high-society and didn't want to become
a typical "It girl". (Oh, if the likes of Paris Hilton, and any of the Hervey/Harveys - whatever they're
called - would get the hint!)
Keira Knightley (right, in character), most recently having portrayed a totally different character in a remake of Pride and Prejudice, plays the titular character and is arrested by the FBI at the start and tells the whole story in flashback to agent Taryn Miles (Lucy Liu). She hooks up with established bounty hunter Ed Mosbey (Mickey Rourke, continuing his welcome comeback), Choco (Edgar Ramirez, in his first Hollywood movie) and the driver of their huge armoured vehicle, Alf (Rizwan Abbasi, who's featured in episodes of Touching Evil, Taggart and stars in BBC Scotland soap River City). After proving their worth, they gain interest from TV exec Mark Heiss (Christopher Walken), sort-of ably assisted by Mena Suvari (below-right), always hot and looking particularly so here as secretary Kimmie, who wants to produce a new reality TV show, Bounty Squad, hosted by Beverly Hills 90210's Brian Austin Green and Ian Zierling, the latter of whom's, I found out here, first name is pronounced "Eye-an", not the usual "E-an". Given that Domino states early on that "the 90210 world is not for me" you can imagine her reaction to seeing that pair tagging along. |
As Domino, Ed and Choco go about their business, they're led by Claremont Williams (Delroy Lindo),
who Keira alights to as their "Charlie to our three Angels" and get most of their info from the Los Angeles
DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles). There's a lot to take in during Domino and if I was to go into
it all, it would probably take longer to describe than it would just to watch it, as well as possibly giving
spoilers along the way, but suffice to say there's a heist, carried out by a gang dressed up as "The
First Ladies", of $10 million from an armoured truck belonging to Drake Bishop, owner of the Stratosphere
Hotel and Casino, a man who loses an arm, a sick child, Macy Gray and it all cuts about in an attempt to make sense.
Well, it can be followed but it's still a disappointment and makes me feel that, perhaps, Tony Scott
thought he'd go for his 'Reservoir Dogs' as we have a violent movie that starts from a certain point, then
covers all the back story and, once we're up to date, we continue on.
It's like a flashy MTV video, but lasting for two hours instead of four minutes, and Keira really can't act. She tries to give an air of slutty American sassyness in a posh, English girl but completely fails to pull it off, partly because of her lack of conviction and her irritating accent. Maybe it's the kind of role she should've attempted in about 10 years, after she'd at least have been able to develop her range. Someone more spunky and more capable of acting would be Keira's Bend It Like Beckham co-star Parminder Nagra, although she looks even less like the real Domino as she's of Indian descent, but then when did Hollywood ever let facts get in the way of telling a story? U-571, anyone? |
Keira's eye make-up makes her look like she's borrowed it from Frank Sidebottom, such is the 'stand-out' look that she's got... and 'stand-out' doesn't mean outstanding, but a far away look in her eyes. Later, as the bounty hunter's fortunes take a turn for the worse, musician Tom Waits turns up to waffle some spiritualist bullshit and take the film to a new low; and on being filmed for a reality TV show for a week, Jacqueline Bisset, as Domino's Mum, says, "I beg you not to get involved with this drivel." Hmm... There's also an inconsistency early on - the induction seminar in how to be a bounty hunter is just a scam for Ed, Choco and Claremont to get away with $99 apiece from the 50-or-so people who turned up, so why did they return to the same venue later on for a 2003 Bounty Hunter of the Year Award ceremony? And why would anyone therefore take them seriously? If Richard Kelly's into writing such nonsense that doesn't link up - and drags on for far longer than it has any right to - then perhaps he should write current episodes of Eastenders(!) And if you've seen True Romance, then what happens at the end of Domino is - in structure as things come together - a carbon copy of that film's culmination. Tony Scott: you're getting lazy. |
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2006.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier. PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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Don't get me wrong as I love films with an overblown style where it counts, and many of Tony Scott's
movies have done that perfectly, e.g., and in order of production, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop 2,
Revenge, Days of Thunder, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance and Crimson Tide, but here
it really doesn't work as it transcends all those in over-egging the pudding and spoiling the souffle.
Scott started to slip with The Fan, while Enemy of the State would've been better without
Will Smith in the lead.
All that said, there are some good things about this DVD release - in the audio/visual department.
The picture and sound are superb. There's not a single glitch to be found on the 2.35:1 anamorphic
widescreen image, which will really suffer when cropped to 16:9 for eventual TV broadcast (when will
TV execs learn that the general public are used to such an image now and won't complain about "black
bars", given the abundance of DVDs in the same ratio as well as the same effect being applied to many
music promos.
