Arlington Road (1999)

How sad is this?

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I haven't seen a film like this in quite a while and hope, thanks to pages like this one that it will be some time away before I see another 1. If, like me, you like the idea that by the end of a Film that those "Good guys" beat the "bad guys" then this isn't for you, Convincing performances from those involved but for me, once seen - that's enough and not a great way to spend a couple of hours, knowing the "guilty" get away with murder and mayhem and no one knows who they are!. Better films than this around

Worst movie I've ever seen! Good atmosphere but the ending was totally a disappointment! Why does this abomination have 7/10 stars? I could write a better scenario than this! It was building tension and in the end the bomb was in the car? Really? REALLY? Was Erchen Krouger high while he was writing it? Don't watch it... You'll just waste 2 hours of your life.

A bleak, pessimistic little thriller of a film, which failed to be a blockbuster but wowed audiences no less. A top notch cast, a clever story and oodles of suspense help to make this a much underrated gem of a film, much like the previous year's BREAKDOWN, with Kurt Russell.The plot is a pure product of the '90s, following in the same government conspiracy steps as stuff like ENEMY OF THE STATE. Jeff Bridges, as the paranoid, wacko hero, bears more than a passing resemblance to the X-FILES' Fox Mulder, with both guys having their own conspiracy theories (and nobody believing them). The structure of the film is very good, with the first hour moving slowly and being the basic set-up, then the next half hour moving up a notch into a fast-moving race against the clock to find out the truth, until the last twenty minutes which turn into sheer adrenaline pumping horror.The cast are all great in this film, with the acting honours going to Tim Robbins (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) who does a great portrayal of an apparently innocent man who turns out to be a terrorist and a murderer. Jeff Bridges is solid as the nutty, on the edge teacher whose theories grow more and more outlandish as time goes on, and we really feel for him by the time the credits roll. With able support from the two female leads helping to give the film a well-rounded feel in the acting stakes, as well as a realistic turn from the guy playing the FBI man, the acting really can't be faulted for this film.It's the direction, though, which makes everything excellent. The plot twists and turns and little, unnoticeable things turn out to have major consequences. Thankfully, for a change we aren't always one step ahead of the main character, we too (as an audience) are surprised and shocked by the events which occur. There is also a commendably hard edge to the film too, with many 'good' characters dying, it's not often we see a young boy being graphically gunned down in cold blood.There is little in the way of action until a top-notch car chase in the last twenty minutes, which is edge of the seat stuff, but then there doesn't need to be either. Disturbingly brilliant, this is a film which will make you think just who could be behind the door across the street. It left me feeling exhausted, disappointed and yet satisfied at the same time. The highest recommendation.

This was an intense little thriller, dealing with the premise that your friendly next door neighbours might also just be terrorists. Jeff Bridges plays a widowed college professor who (in a gripping opening scene) comes across a bloody 10 year old boy staggering down the middle of the street. He appears to have been in some kind of explosion and Bridges rushes him into emergency. These first 5 minutes set the tone for the rest of the movie; dark, mysterious and intense with Bridges bordering on hysteria.The boy turns out to be his neighbours kid whom he makes friends with, but while having a beer in their living room he comes across some suspicious blueprints which sets into paranoia and soon has Bridges investigating into who these people really are. They seem normal enough, but... Tim Robbins & Joan Cusack play the neighbours, -what a great choice for the bad guys, giving solid performances and very atypical for terrorists which made them even scarier.Bridges does a good job too, he has a lot of scenes without dialogue, just him running around figuring stuff out, freaking out, driving fast, yelling, he does a lot of yelling and running with big facial expressions.I will say that while the whole movie was intense there were also sections that dragged, so that the pacing felt off at times.The ending was.... unexpected to say the least. I think my exact words were "holy sh!t he ----- and that just happened, wow." Very un-Hollywood, including a scary spin regarding the angle the media takes post event. 2/6/15