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ARLINGTON ROAD review

Published at:  Oct 24, 1998 2:54:05 AM CDT

ARLINGTON ROAD

Well hell... here’s a movie. I was planning on
reviewing ENEMY OF THE STATE today, ya know,
catching up. However, after I was finished with
SOLDIER this afternoon, and after I wrote my
review, I got a call from a fella here in town that said
I had to see a film he had. He said it was called
ARLINGTON ROAD.

Now I’ve run good reviews and bad reviews of
the film, but this fella was raving about it. Saying it
was the best conspiracy film ever. He told me it
would ‘make me think’.

Well that’d take a miracle, and since my brain
was in atrophy after watching the wrenching piss
bucket that was SOLDIER, and having room before
THE WARRIORS, I decided what the hell.

About thirty minutes later the fella showed up at
my house and took me to his place. I told Dad to get
Joad and Johnny Wad, and to gather em up at the
Drafthouse, I’d meet them there.

The fella. Sheesh, I don’t run into too many
straight and narrow types but this fella made
Robogeek look like a long haired hippie. But he had
this look in his eyes like... Kevin McCarthy at the
end of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

I’d never heard of the director or the writer.
However, Jeff Bridges, our childhood hero FLYNN
and THE DUDE, well he’s one of my favorite guys
on screen. To me, he picked up on what Harrison
Ford was doing in the mid-eighties and decided to do
it. You know... Take something like WITNESS,
FRANTIC, PRESUMED INNOCENT, WORKING
GIRL, MOSQUITO COAST, etc... Working with
wonderful directors in varying parts. As a result I
love everything the man does, well... almost.

Then TIM ROBBINS has just been amazing in
the nineties. Joan Cusack is just a weirdo sweetie that
strikes that giggle chord in me. And well... that’s
pretty much all I knew in this film. Well except for
Angelo Badalamenti. He’s our conductor of our
subconcious in the land of Lynch, and he does a
wonderful job there... and here.

I have to say I did not see this in ideal conditions.
The guy didn’t have surround sound. He had a tiny
friggin TV (under 20 inches) and well... I just wanted
anything to keep my mind off the shitfest that was
SOLDIER.

He popped in the tape (friend worked on the film
allegedly) and BAMMMMMMMMM...

This film is set in a parallel universe about 3
inches to the left of us. It builds off the events at
Ruby Ridge and the Oklahoma bombing.

In our world today we have a very precarious
mental state of safety. You turn on the nightly news,
and we hear about local deaths, weather, global
deaths, sports, political stuff and then finally
entertainment. There are those of us here in the world
that put it all together. That see conspiracies all about
them.

One of my favorite pasttimes is to get my friends
together and see if I can weave together enough fact
and fiction to just scare the shit out of them. And if
they somehow begin falling for it, I do the ol April
Fools bit.

But still I love putting events together. Stuff like
Clinton’s people announcing the balanced budget
followed by the breaking of the Monica Lewinsky
story 6 hours later. Stuff that makes ya go...
hmmmmmm.... Or scientist announcing an asteroid
coming to hit earth in 40 some odd years that could
end life as we know it, followed by other experts 24
hours later saying it’ll miss us by a few million miles,
but the original guys never saying the same thing.
Stuff that makes ya go hmmmmm...

Now that’s your big world wide government is
trying to fool the masses stuff. But more of us are of
the Jimmy Stewart looking out our window into the
lives of those around us. It’s to make up for the lack
of interest in our own lives.

I remember a few years ago, my father and I were
convinced these neighbors were drug dealers. We
just knew it. Then suddenly the house was never
busy, the front door slightly ajar, and noone was ever
around. For two weeks Dad and I thought about
going in. To see what we would see. But having
heard about drug people attaching explosives to their
shit... well we decided not to. A couple of days later
the DEA, FBI and the local law people found
$2million in cash and $4 million in coke. You should
have seen the look on our faces. We two Sherlocks
were walking around like the Holmes man. Holding
our heads high.

But 2 years ago when I bomb was found in a
house 4 houses down, and it was detenated by the
bomb squad.. Well that scared us. What scared us
more was the fact there was no mention whatsoever in
the papers about it.

Later I met the Bomb Squad guy, and he told me
that he goes on about 4 calls a day. That’s a shit load
of bomb scares. He told me most have something.
Ya see, that crap doesn’t appear in the papers cause...
well it just doesn’t make locals feel good about
themselves. They don’t want to stir the natives. Or at
least that’s what the paranoid in me says. Of course
there is the ol saying that unless a bomb goes off...
well it ain’t news. And that is pretty damn sickening
if you ask me.

So when something like the Oklahoma City
bombing or the Atlanta Abortion Clinics or the World
Trade Center stuff happens. Well they’re isolated
incidents caused by individuals or limited groups.
Everyone is either dead or in jail quickly thereafter
and we regular folks can go about our lives feeling
good.

THIS MOVIE SCREWS WITH THAT
SECURITY.

It unsettles. Have you seen FAILSAFE? How
about CHINA SYNDROME? SILKWOOD?
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR?

The above are HORROR films. Truly horrifying.
Now I don’t know for sure, but the negative reviews
may be coming from people that... just don’t like the
questions and the issues brought up by this film.

As it is right now, we live in a world where we
don’t look into who our neighbors are. We don’t
want to know. Jeffery Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John
Wayne Gacy... they were neighbors to someone.
Someone saw them everyday, and thought they were
good neighbors. Hell, my grandfather was good
friends with Charles Whitman. Whitman was a leader
in my father’s Boy Scout unit that my grandfather was
Scoutmaster of.

The day before Whitman did what he did in
Austin, he paid a visit to my Grandfather and offered
to buy his M-1 carbine. My Grandfather instead told
him of a shop where they had one just like it. He
didn’t think about it. Gramps (my name for my
Grandfather) just assumed Whitman would go
hunting with it, just like he did. Needless to say, the
next day changed my Gramps’ palor a bit.

People seem innocent to innocent eyes and guilty
to guilty eyes. And this movie makes you wonder
why your answer machine missed a couple of
messages. It makes you wonder why two extra cars
are at your neighbor’s house. It makes you wonder
why when you bump into them at a grocery store or at
a mall. It makes you wonder.

The film, I feel is one of the unsettling pieces of
paranoia I’ve seen on film, and makes ENEMY OF
THE STATE look soft. Do not read any more
reviews for the film. If someone says they saw it,
move away from them. You don’t want to know.

Suffice to say, the movie will cause a reaction in
you. Either you will come away loving the fact the
movie got ya. That you don’t want to go home. That
you want to lock your family up and take them to a 50
acre ranch in Montana. OR you will hate the film
with a passion because it made you feel less safe than
you did two hours before.

Once again Tim Robbins just nails a
performance. He’s sooooooo good in this. And I just
love Bridges. Whoever this Mark Pellington is, we
need to keep an eye on him. He did a wonderful job
putting this film together. But I suspect a big buttload
of praise should be heaped on Ehren Kruger’s
shoulders. His screenplay just terrifies.

Like PLEASANTVILLE the movie sort of tears
the fronts of houses off to show what lies inside. I’m
not going to go further than that right now, because
well the movie won’t come out till January of 1999. I
wonder if they are gonna hedge their bets with a week
in L.A. and N.Y. Hmmmmm....



    + Expand All

    Readers Talkback

  • Oct 24, 1998 7:06:38 AM CDT

    Arlington Road's director...

    by derrick

    ...is none other than Mark Pellington, the man who helmed Pearl Jam's Jeremy video. He's got a bunch of videos under his belt, but is best known for that one. He is just one of video directors turned movie directors in the vein of David Fincher and Michael Bay. Look for features from Mark Romanek (NIN's The Perfect Drug, the Jacksons siblings' Scream, and Madonna's Rain and Bedtime Stories), Hype Williams (numerous hip hop/R&B vids.) and Spike Jonze (Beasties' Sabotage.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 26, 1998 12:29:07 AM CST

    re: This movie's director

    by angelramblings

    He also directed last year's "Going All the Way"-one of the most boring well directed movie's I've ever seen. He should be shot for 'Jeremy' though, he totally screwed the song.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 28, 1998 10:56:22 AM CST

    you must have seen a different movie

    by gr8g0ry

    Arlington Road scared me, but not because I felt any "less safe." It scared me because it is preposterous, without a shred of logic behind it and designed merely to titillate, NOT to give pause for reflection. Be serious! Your boosterism has turned very peculiar lately, and not for the better. Some screenwriter named Towne who is SUPPOSED to be good? Mark Pellington? Without spoiling anything, let me just say I stood up and applauded when a certain person met their demise. There hasn't been a lower IQ on a screen character since Forrest Gump. The ending was "cool" though.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Nov 01, 1998 9:25:34 PM CST

    Arlington rode writer

    by jeff

    Ehren Kruger, this is a name we should come to appreciate. And soon, to anticipate.
    I have a friend who's brother is a VP at Warner and he mailed us the script to Arlington rd. Kruger won a Nicholl Fellowship award in screenwriting, at the academy of motion picture arts and sciences.
    Basically what a fellowship means, is that this script was so good, he's gonna get paid the big dollars to re-write scripts and write new ones. In fact, if I am not mistaken, this guys brother told us that Ehren Kruger has been signed on to do just that. So for all you budding screen writers, if you get one this good, chances are that you too will be making the big bucks and on your way to super stardom.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Dec 05, 1998 6:30:20 PM CST

    why you should already know Mr. Pellington

    by perfecttommy

    Won a music video award for 'Jeremy' video. Directed 'Going All the Way' with Ben Affleck and that skinny kid from SPR (also Rose mcGowan and Amy Locane get naked... reason enough to take a peek)
    GATW was a well directed (if a little slow) film-- for low budget i think. affleck was awsome, he's really different in that movie

    Reply to Talkback

  • May 07, 1999 3:56:26 PM CDT

    Going All the Way

    by smilin'jackruby

    "Going All the Way" was an impossibly bad piece of shit and Rose McGowan gets a lot more interestingly naked in other features, so don't bother with this one. I must admit, there were some intriguing character points to the Ben Affleck character, especially when he seems to truly want to become a visual artist, but the movie never, ever cashes ANYTHING in, so it totally blows. I have been looking forward to "Arlington Road," however, as it's always nice when one of the scripts that actually makes it through the Nicholl competition finds its way onto a screen.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 11, 1999 10:03:31 AM CDT

    i'm afraid...that it wasn't a good film

    by andrew

    i walked into this film under 2 pretences. 1)friends in town wanted to see the movie and i wanted to spend time with said friends. 2)i was convinced by the pedigree of the film. Tim Robins is a favorite actor of mine. Jeff Bridges knows how to pick roles and is very likeable in those roles (but let's be honest that he doesn't always go through a metamorphosis on screen) and i thought _John_ Cusack was in the film (not to belittle joan, who is very wonderfully eccentric and a welcome player in any movie).

    In the end i did not like this film. i found myself audibly giggling at the movie, and its not a comedy. some of the scenes are sadly very contrived, and over the top in their portrayal of characters and situations. The editting is excellent. The cinematography and shot selections were good, though sometimes suffered from music video staples. The actors were decent. i did not dislike anyone's performances, but i don't think the script gave them any genuine places for me to connect (though there were many obvious places where i was supposed to). In the end, i wasn't happy with my celluloid afternoon, and it is only the ending of the film which made it memorable.

    **************************
    and now for some spoilers
    **************************
    i was immediately engaged in the film by its opening. the directing was very effective here and it was a strong point of entry into the story, it did well later to progress the plot as well.
    i was then very strongly disengaged by the credit sequence. i felt like i was watching a horrible music video on mtv. video-post effects, bad music with silly sound effects. it put me in a very skeptical frame of mind that the film would offer anything other than an uninspired, undimensional, pop-culture view of any subject matter.
    I thought the set-up was fine. i could "buy" most of the characters, their backgrounds were sufficiently fleshed-out. again, i think some very obvious directions were taken with character motivations, but i wouldn't flunk a film for it.
    Bridges' performance of passionate teaching sums up my faults with the actor. He gets loud to be passionate, but remains flat. I think it works once. i myself have a very flat affect and understand monotone rage, but when i see him do it from film to film i begin to step away from the film and notice Bridges.
    i enjoyed the way the girlfriend's murder was handled. Imagining Joan Cusack engineering her death was much better than showing it could ever be.
    The ending. It's the ending which pretty much makes this film, it really made me forget that i had giggling uncomfortably for most of the film at lame over-the-top visuals like a mother holding a baby in one arm and a shotgun in the other, or at poorly handled Suburbia-as-evil sequences. It was truly a surprise. But then instead of giggling uncomfortably, i was laughing uncomfortably. The reason the end is a surprise is because it is absurd. It doesn't make any sense for the militia group to count on Bridges acting wholey irrationally, getting back into his wrecked car to chase a van that left a long time ago, busting through a checkpoint, and jumping a steel barrier. i understand why the character would try and stop the van, but i don't understand why terrorists would expect him to be as successful or unrelenting as he was.
    And on a final note, i do not like the way the film, inadvertantly or not, justifies the way the FBI goes about business. At first we are treated with anti-FBI sentiments regarding the wife's death and the single-bomber theory, but the twist ending makes it appear that the FBI genuinely believes in the single-bomber theory and all evidence actually points to it and it's not just public placating propaganda.

    X-0-4

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  • Jul 12, 1999 5:34:40 AM CDT

    Jeff Bridges & Tim Robbins

    by w. leach

    I haven't seen ARLINGTON ROAD yet, but I plan to, due to the participation of two of my favorite actors (and Coen alumi), Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins. While I've been a fan of Robbins since BOB ROBERTS, Bridges took a little longer for me. In fact, it wasn't until I saw THE BIG LEBOWSKI last year, that I added Bridges' name to my cool book. I'm still debating with friends which is the better Coen Bros. film: FARGO or THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Both are undeniably brilliant of course, but if we were to choose just one...anyway, Bridges is a fine actor, who conveys that everyman attitude better than most other actors today (including the aforementioned Harrison Ford). This movie does look interesting, but I feel as if I've already seen it, due to the trailer. Yes, ARLINGTON ROAD features a trailer that basically gives away EVERYTHING in the movie. Damn. I like to be surprised. I've seen the trailer theatrically about two times, and I've seen it on TV numerous times now. And every ad gives away things that I'm sure were meant to be a secret. Now I haven't seen "The Big Three" movies of 1999 yet (and really don't plan to, either): THE PHANTOM MENACE, AUSTIN POWERS, and BIG DADDY, but I felt that I already HAVE seen them, because of the endless trailers, previews, making-of specials, products, etc. These imges have been so imbedded in my brain, I can actually quote the dialogue, without having seen the complete product. When that happens, you know you're in trouble. I've seen so many AUSTIN POWERS products and commercials that I feel like Alex in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE after he's been desensitized to violent and sexual images: I feel like I have to puke every time I see Powers' grinning visage. But what was I talking about here...oh yeah...I'll probably see ARLINGTON ROAD...

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 12, 1999 6:00:33 AM CDT

    Awesome!

    by abomb1210

    Well I don't know about everybody else...But come on, this movie was awesome!! Im reading some of the posts ~ and some of you must have been smoking crack before you went and saw this movie!!! Tim Robbins, Jeff Bridges, Joan Cusak, and even the little kids in the movie, nailed there parts to a "T" ~ It was a very good movie!!

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 12, 1999 6:47:12 AM CDT

    Too bad they gave it away

    by chronic

    I was very sceptical about seeing this movie. I'd seen about 3 different full trailers for the movie that seemed to give away the entire plot of the movie. There was a moment watching the movie when Tim Robbins' character began to cast doubt on our collective conclusion of him. But then I remembered events in the trailer that hadn't occured in the movie yet and all doubts dissapeared. It's just sad that a well done movie has to be completely screwed over by the marketing department.

    They could have easily given some quick glimses and shown Jeff's character researching his neighbor out of paranoia. That would have gotten me to the movie. They also didn't need to plug a drama piece like this 6-7 months in advance of the movies release. Star Wars, Armageddon, these are movies I want to hear about well in advance of a films release. Those are event movies. This, while well done for the most part, could have stood alot less hype.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 12, 1999 4:08:32 PM CDT

    Harry! You Eediot!!!

    by nihilon

    If you hadn't been such a coward, you coulda walked in that house and walked back out $2 million richer. Then again, you and your father may have ended up like Bill and Billy Bob in A Simple Plan.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 12, 1999 4:36:47 PM CDT

    Dark Horizons' & MovieCrypt's "Road" reviews...

    by encelladus

    Garth over at DarkHorizons.com and I talked over email about how we disagreed on this one; he was much less impressed than Harry or I. According to Garth, this movie wasn't well received at all overseas, which I thought was a bit odd. We both agreed, however, that part of it must be that average Americans have this illusion about how safe everything is until until something horrible happens that crushes that notion. Terrorism overseas is often taken more seriously and as a constant possibility, so a movie as fictionally realistic as "Arlington Road" is going to provoke one of two reactions in an average American: complete awe at the possibility that their government can't stop extremists this well organized, or laughing it off as impossible instead of dealing with what the rest of the world already accepts as a reality. Wake up, everyone... welcome to real life.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 12, 1999 8:12:16 PM CDT

    This movie

    by layla

    I saw this movie tonight and I can honestly tell everyone with a straight face that I thought it sucked. I can't believe Robbins and Bridges did this crappy movie. I thought those guys had balls. I used to have the ultimate respect for these two cool guys, but now I am considering my once strong position. Don't get me wrong I understood this movie, but I thought what the hell are two great actors like Robbins and Bridges doing in crap like this?

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 12, 1999 10:53:00 PM CDT

    ARLINGTON ROAD is alive!

    by surfwolf

    Arlington Road. Truly "The first rate horror film that I did not expect." A film that I was VERY impressed by. Tim Robbins, has to be right up there with the shark from JAWS. That first scene in JAWS when the water looks so calm & inviting...placid almost and then BAH! BOOM! "See ya'! Wouldn't wanna be ya'!" The bite in this meditative preformance from Robbins..is structured as well as a steel trap in the woods before laying hold to some poor creature's paw. But in this movie..the poor creature is Jeff Bridges. Who you just want to grab by the neck at times and scream,
    "We're with ya' buddy! You're not alone in this!" His sleep deprived angst is enough to make me get a good 8 hours everynight from now on. Joan Cusack, is always welcomed and very much at home in the part of Robbin's equally as chilling wife. There is one scene that she delivers and during it she made my blood run cold here in Arizona in the middle of July. Fewer words were never
    spoken and I'm still thawing out!
    So what frightens me about this film by director, Mark Pellington? The essence of it's hatred can be found on every street, in any school, on any daily newscast, in the rubble of the Oklahoma City bombing and in the kitchens of many suburban Americans. But then again I have always known this fact of life. I use to live in a small village in upstate New York and this town had a year long population of about 5,000 people. A good friend of mine...who had grown up there..desperately wanted to be a police officer in this "peaceful little community" in the midst of the Adirondack Mts. (Near Lake Placid. The REAL LAKE PLACID!)
    Well, he did just that. He became a police officer in thsi sleepyn little haven and within a year.. he left town. He had become a very disillusioned young man who had looked into the horror that was breathing life into the homes that he had visited often as a child. Lurking behind the front doors of this serene, complacent village.. where he had been raised...were domestic violence calls, rapes, frequent child abuse and a variety of other things that he found WAY too horrifying to deal with. His whole bubble had burst. People who had been his teachers at the local
    high school were beating their wives, folks he had known throughout his life were stealing
    and abusing their loved ones. His life crumbled completely because of this. The illusion was no longer real. This is at the core of what we experience in ARLINGTON ROAD.
    Upon exiting the theatre...(which was PACKED!)..all my ears
    could pick up from audience members were two names.."Ruby Ridge" and "Oklahoma City." This film provides a serious look into the deep dark souls of those who choose to champion such hideous causes.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 13, 1999 12:18:16 AM CDT

    Could'a been better

    by muskrat

    There was a lot I liked about "Arlington Road", but somebody should have taken a better look at the script. F'rinstance (no spoilers here), it isn't as easy to sneak up on somebody in real life as it is here, and the several scenes in which somebody is surprised who should have been paying more attention to their peripheral vision are just cheap dramatics, unworthy of anyone connected with this film.
    Second, stuck with one of the dumbest girlfriends of all time (well, he was grieving over his late, probably smarter, wife), Jeff Bridges' character should have known to keep his feelings about the neighbors to himself after hearing her first reaction. There were clearly too many things that could have gone wrong. And third, how many people would have carried on that little conversation with the FBI agent, knowing that he was very likely being watched?
    Unlike Warren Beatty (you figure out the reference), Jeff Bridges' character almost deserved what happened to him. The sad part is that all of this was the result of sloppy writing/directing. It could have been so much better...

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 13, 1999 4:31:21 PM CDT

    tfgr

    by cerberus

    at this point, I don't think there is anything left to spoil, so...

    No, Arlington road wasn't a great movie but it was entertaining and the ending was great - except for Robbin's Hollyood "Boom" line. I'm surprised a Hollywood film was brave enough to go with that ending. Those last few seconds I was trying for figure out how Jeff Bridges would save the day. I never saw that huge explosion coming (although, if I had thought about it more, it was strange that a whole Hollywood movie had gone by without one.)

    I'd also like to add, to all those who quibble about the problems with sneaking up on people and getting Bridges to deliver the bomb: It's just a movie, enjoy it. Jesus... I could offer what I feel are very viable explanations to those quibbles, but I'm sure if I did someone else determined to trash the movie will pick away at them. oh well

    Reply to Talkback

  • I saw "Arlighton Road" and sure it kept me entertained for a couple of hours but when I left the theater I had more questions than I had answers. And not in a good "Usual Suspects" kind of way. The one that bgged me the most was that we never know Tim Robbins' polotics are. Terrorists use bombings and other acts of violence to draw attention to their polotics. They want people to listen to them. And William or Oliver, whatever his name is, seems to be doing all of this for revenge. And that ending was pretty ballsy for a studio flick but it contradicts it's self. Tim Robbins said that they leave nothing to chance, yet how did they know Jeff Bridges was going to drive that car into the building? Well? Well??? On the other hand I dug the lighting techniques - kind of a retro '30s look.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 13, 1999 8:12:11 PM CDT

    DO NOT WATCH THE COMMERCIAL!!!

    by bappyboy

    Like most trailers these days they show you way too much of the film and then expect you to pay $8.50 for the longer version. The longer version is worth it. But try your best to go in knowing as little as you can about it. This is one of those movies that best serves if it is allowed to take you on its intended journey, without having it tainted by some executive who doesn't trust his advertizing and has to show more to get people in to see it.
    Go see it because it has three acomplished and skilled actors who each have impressive track records.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 13, 1999 9:23:03 PM CDT

    "Arlington Road" was a MAJOR suckfest

    by biglebowski

    Wow, you know I never use the word "suck" when reviewing a movie, but this movie truly SUCKED. Not only did it sucked, but it made the great acting abilities of Bridges and Robbins SUCK even more. WARNING: This movie sucks so much, you'll wish you'd stayed at home and just watched the commercials for free instead of sitting through this exactly 2 hour sleep fest. BLEH! This movie sucked balls. I didn't get it. And i wasn't drunk or high on ANYTHNG, so believe it from me, it REALLY sucked. Sorry for overuse if the word "suck," but this movie was plain aweful...oh well, all movies can't be EYES WIDE SHUT....too bad though, i love Bridges. He IS the Dude, and will be The Dude forever in my mind. Oh well...IT sucked. Snorefest. "And thats the tooth."-Lisa Simpson

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 13, 1999 9:27:59 PM CDT

    One more thing..

    by biglebowski

    First of, sorry for spelling in that last TALK BACK, i was so in the mood to rip that film apart...anyway, what Harry said isn't true, i ussually agree with him, but this movie WON'T make you feel unsafe, not in the slightest. It WILL make you sleepy, a little mad, bored and just plain upset with this suckfest...so you can write me back saying i didn't explain why i didn't review the movie, and just used the word "suck" a hundred times, but see the movie before you do, you'll see what i mean. and if you still hate me, well then just "shut your fucking face, uncle fucka!"

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 19, 1999 12:47:35 PM CDT

    Jeff Bridges the terrorist!!!

    by big jim slade

    Hey, am I the only person who is beginning to get a little scared of Jeff Bridges. Blown Away, Speed and now Arlington Road. This guy like stuff about bombs way to much.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 21, 1999 7:24:14 AM CDT

    Terrorist Movie

    by forlorn50

    You know, I just loved seeing Tim Robbins play a villian. With movies like The Shawshank Redemption and The Hudsucker Proxy, he proves his acting ability. With Arlington Rd he goes even further. Joan Cusack was twisted in a weird, happy-go-lucky sort of way. Jeff Bridges was awesome as usual.
    And to the guy who said Jeff Bridges likes bombs because he was in Speed, Blown Away and Arlington Rd ... he wasn't in Speed. You're thinking of Jeff Daniels.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 21, 1999 4:47:13 PM CDT

    Remind me to miss this one!

    by darren

    I have no desire to see this one. It looks lame! That's all I have to say.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 26, 1999 4:52:27 PM CDT

    Uhhhh, Harry, are you losing it?

    by bloodp

    Harry, maybe you should stop relating every movie to your bizarre personal experiences and just watch the movie. This movie is one thing: disappointing. Bridges is o.k. But Robbins is unconvincing, and he is NOT soooooo good in this as you describe. The only good part of the film is the very beginning, the rest is just garbage. But then what can I say, you actually thought that heap of dung Blair Witch Project was good.. Geees..

    Reply to Talkback

  • Jul 26, 1999 9:29:02 PM CDT

    Arlington Ro...Row Row Row Your Ass to the theater and see this

    by the godfather

  • Jul 27, 1999 6:38:00 AM CDT

    The movie is good, but as realistic as "Top Gun"

    by hmell

    Arlington Road was a fun movie to watch. The problem comes in if you have any prior knowledge of police investigative procedures especially with regard to major arson/explosion events. I work for a government contractor charged with major incident investigation for the US Fire Administration. There is no way the investigation of "St. Louis" (in the movie) or the FBI bombing would cease until the orgin of the explosives used was determined. BUT it was still fun to suspend disbelief and suppose...

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  • Jul 31, 1999 1:12:16 PM CDT

    This Movie Is SL oooo wwwww ...!!

    by mikee

    This could have been the greatest 1/2 hour movie ever made......

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  • Mar 16, 2000 4:34:03 PM CST

    JEREMY

    by thinking...

    Pellington directed the Jeremy music video, and this explains the incredible opening sequence found in the film... This is by far my favorite conspiracy movie, as well as my favorite action movie in a long time.. VIVA TIM ROBBINS

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  • Feb 10, 2001 7:18:46 PM CST

    Entertaining but...

    by cunning linguist

    simply does not work. The acting was decent, but the ending, while unexpected, is absolutely ridiculous. It is so logically flawed that I was stunned into genuine disbelief, waiting for something to happen that would explain the ludicrous turn of events (like maybe Bridges waking up, the whole movie being a dream or some crap like that). Alas, it was not to happen. There are far worse movies, like Eyes Wide Shut, for example, but endings make or break a flick. This was a true shattering of the spine.

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  • Feb 17, 2003 1:02:58 PM CST

    Better late than Flora Rose...

    by dru

    It's going on 3 AM here in Korea- Arlington Road is the late night movie tonight. I wanted to check this review out 'cause I got curious about this director I'd never heard of. I felt kinda foolish since I'm a big Pearl Jam fan, + loved the 'Jeremy' video. I don't know what compelled Flora Rose to say he completely missed the point of the song. 'Jeremy' is 1 of the most brilliant music videos of all time. It makes me shudder. After seeing it tonight, I kinda get what everyone is bitching about. Nonetheless, it is a well-shot movie that kinda should give people the heebie-jeebies. If it doesn't... well, you haven't had enough fun in your life. Out.

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