Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

zardoz-13 Nothing good comes out of "Playing God," a pointless Faustian medical thriller anesthetized with clichés about a busted surgeon whose synthetic heroin habit lands him in with the dregs of the Los Angeles underworld. As "X-Files" actor David Duchovny's first starring role, this mediocre melodrama about redemption and retribution is less than scintillating. Actually, it is downright embarrassing. Ineptly directed and predictably scripted, "Playing God" penalizes both its rising star and moviegoers with implausible plot twists, cornball situations, and klutzy villains. Perhaps if the filmmakers had taken their straight, sober-minded drama and played it as broad comedy the film might have been more entertaining and less moronic. The Mark Haskell Smith screenplay is the stuff of which pulp fiction classics are created. Blazing shoot-outs, careening car chases, smart-aleck dialogue, eccentric criminals, and a blast-from-the-past soundtrack, featuring pop tunes such as the Bee Gee's "Jive Talking," flesh out what essentially constitutes a thin, one-dimensional character study. Under Andy Wilson's lackluster directing, these solid elements make for a soggy saga. A graduate of British TV shows such as "Cracker," Wilson never generates the adrenaline rush or visceral thrills that "Playing God" desperately needs to slam it into hyperkinetic overdrive. The filmmakers plunge their hapless hero into harm's way, but he never appears to be in real jeopardy. Wilson and Smith strive to make the murderous antics in their storyline appear surreal, but these results are hopelessly farcical. Especially annoying is Wilson's obvious video-editing style that employs geometric wipes as transitional bridges between episodes. As a doctor who has fallen from on high, Eugene Sands (David Duchovny) spends his time now getting high. What should qualify as cinematic irony in Smith's script winds up as comical incongruity. One night while he's scoring his junk in a dive of an L.A. bar, Sands witnesses a brutal shooting. When nobody calls 911, Sands intervenes and uses his ingenuity to save the wounded man. As it turns out, the poor slob worked for international smuggler Raymond Blossom (Timothy Hutton). Blossom is a wacky psycho who'd double-cross his own mother on the flip of a coin as well as a fashion designer's nightmare. Sands finds himself suddenly being smothered by Blossom's offer of works and drugs. The young, disadvantaged doctor doesn't know quite what to think. Blossom requires Sands' considerable medical talents to save a Russian hit-man who has information vital to Blossom's criminal interests. Initially, despite some misgivings, Sands agrees to perform the surgery and pocket a cool $10-thousand dollars. Before Sands can cruise into the sunset, a scheming, Dagwood Bumstead-esque FBI agent (Michael Massee) recruits Sands as his material witness to back up the person working undercover in Blossom's motley gang of Metallica rejects. Meanwhile, Blossom's sultry moll Claire (Angelina Jolie) complicates matters. Initially, she admires Sands, but she doesn't trust him. Things go incredibly wrong for everybody when a gang of vengeful Russian hit men invade Blossom's posh premises. They gun down one of Blossom's henchmen and put a bullet through Claire's chest. Before "Playing God" grinds predictably to its harebrained conclusion, the movie has Claire and Sands become lovers. Everything in Smith's script hangs on sudden reversals that are more stultifying than startling. Most ridiculous is Sands' unconvincing metamorphosis from a drugged out, self-depreciating loser to a resourceful, jaw-clenched action hero. Sands' fight with the sharp-shooting show-off Cyril (Andrew Tiernan) in a car is particularly unrealistic. Wilson's efforts to make "Playing God" different are doomed by his derivative approach. He bungles what should have been a minor film noir thriller. The story comes apart early on because the chain of events lacks dramatic cohesion. The final car chase starts out promisingly. Blossom and Claire dive into a truck, and as Sands follows them, two identical trucks breeze into the picture on either side of Blossom's ride. Sadly, Wilson does nothing original here, and the rest of the chase is a yawner. Nothing exciting occurs probably because their low budget couldn't afford any car crashes. The shoot-outs are staged with little panache. Most jarring of all is the surgery vignette enacted on a pool tale in an isolated hillbilly biker bar where Sands doctors the wounded Claire. Meantime, the FBI agents are so incompetent that a couple of brainless bad-guy buffoons can smash into their safe house and blast them into oblivion with little difficulty. The cast struggles with Smith's pseudo-cut dialogue that calls attention to the preposterous nature of the script. In the middle of the climactic car chase, Hutton's villain berates his struggling Claire for trying to disrupt the big auto chase. When movies indulge in self-mockery, you know that you're in trouble as an audience member. Presumably, by letting the characters poke fun at the plot twists, Wilson and Smith both hoped to distract spectators from the contrived quality of the story. Their well-intended attempts backfire miserably, and "Playing God" looks goofy. As the good guy hero who realizes the error of his ways, Duchovny maintains a poker face throughout the laughable proceedings. The filmmakers seem more intent on endorsing a didactic, anti-narcotics message than consistency of character. "Playing God" might have played better had Wilson and Smith kept their outlandish hero more strung out and challenged than straightened out and scrupulous. Duchovny's voice-over narration in the style of the old film noir detective thrillers seems more heavy-handed than handy. Jolie does little more than look pretty and pout her abundant lips. The movie takes a time-out to let the hero and the heroine bond with each other without shedding their clothes. As Sands' scumbag foe, Hutton drums up pathetic nastiness. Credit composer Richard Hartley with contributing a bouncy theme for the film. Die-hard "X-Files" fans beware: Scrub this one.

leplatypus I know there aren't any ties between Baywatch and this movie. Except that they are shot in California, and more exactly in LA and its surroundings. Those locations struck me strongly while watching this movie. The audience moves as well in downtown than in the country, alternating beach and forest. The views you can find here complete the dreamy, cool ones of Baywatch, and even I didn't go there, I think this movie offers a good picture of the real LA. And really, I don't like very much this environment for a living and I prefer the San Francisco area.Now, the story is original but the gimmick (a doctor for healing thugs) is too much used. After the first one, the script becomes a collection of what-if: what-if the doctor visits junk heads, what if the doctor cures the wife's boss, etc..Then, I am perplexed with the cast: Hutton has really no charisma for a nutty and violent boss. On the contrary, Jolie and above all, Duchvony are excellent. I really appreciate Duchovny, because he is a tall man but he is also quiet. He knows what he wants but he doesn't speak a lot. I like his humor, dry, detached that fits well with his personality. I'am sure that without this hot ticket, this movie would be actually left in limbs.NB: my trailer proposes a love scene between the two but it has been cut from the movie.

Bloomaholic Now I am a David Duchovny, but I didn't think this movie was going to be good, but was I wrong. The dialogue was great. A little humor, but nothing stupid to ruin the moment. David Duchovny was good, didn't overplay his character, maybe overdid a few of his lines, but that's about it. Timothy Hutton was good as well. He played his character quite well. Having fun with a few of his lines, but pretty good. Angelina Jolie had a smaller role, but not too small and worked surprisingly well with David. They just kinda fit. The relationship between her and Timothy were good as well. The two 20-some year old's that were Timothy's little gang were quit funny and worked well together too. The cop after Timothy's character, I found quite annoying, but was there for a reason and wasn't so bad. The music in this film, the little music it had, I quit liked and fit with the film. I would rate this film 8.5/10.

bob the moo Eugene Sands is a drug addict doctor - although he has long since been barred from practicing medicine having been found operating high, leading to a girl's death. When he is at a club buying he witnesses a shooting and steps in to do enough to save a man's life. The owner of the club and criminal to boot, Raymond Blossom, takes an interest in Eugene and begins using him and his doctor. However the FBI are after Raymond and make moves to use Eugene to trap him.Coming off as a slightly upmarket video thriller, this film could have been much better but ultimately fails to engage or rise to it's potential. The plot is OK but the script doesn't manage to lift the story up into something that is really strong and engaging. The delivery is a big part of the problem - it isn't that well directed, nothing very wrong but certainly the feel of a video film as opposed to a big screen thriller. The decision to have a voice over narrator is always a gamble; sometimes it works but sometimes it really doesn't.Here the narration doesn't work for two reasons. First of all, the narrator has to explain or develop so much because the film fails to do it as part of the story being told. To make matters worse Duchovny delivery is so flat that it really sucks any energy out of the film. His actual performance is not as bad as his voiceover but he doesn't exactly manage to lead the film. This leaves the way open for Hutton's villain, but he struggles with a lack of character and eventually gives into overacting. Jolie is good but again suffers from having no character. Regardless of performances, not having any buy in with the main people meant that I wasn't into the story as I needed to be. Support from Massee, Stormare and Dourdan doesn't so much add quality as add familiarity.Overall this was very much a workmanlike thriller. It is passable but really it is difficult to overlook the fact that the film has major weaknesses in most areas. The plot is good but the script can't do anything with it, the narration is rubbish and the acting is only reasonable on the whole. Worth watching once but it's hard not to feel let down by it.