Control (2004)

Beautiful, moving film.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

OK, the plot is nothing special. Willem Dafoe is a doctor who directs a research on a drug that has potentials to remove criminal tendencies of a man. Ray Liotta is a serial murderer, a death row convict who becomes his test subject. Dafoe places Liotta in controlled social environment after first part of the experiment looked promising. But things went wrong.Liotta is the major reason to watch this film. Really it's a treat every time to watch him in the role of a criminal. But who cares? He's still very much underrated by the industry. Anyways, Dafoe and Michelle Rodriguez are also fine. But the actors are not helped much by the screenplay. It is weak, often predictable, sometimes filled with unnecessary subplots and the ending is really unsatisfactory. I expected more surprises in the story... but it turned out to be just as I foresaw after half-an-hour of the film.

The premise of this movie is a decent one, if done before in other ways. There are reasons why some movies go straight-to-video; the utter predictability, laughably clichéd scenes and obvious subplots intended to lengthen the film are these reasons. Ray Liotta's intensity at the beginning should have been capitalized upon, but he loses it halfway through. The movie has all the earmarks of being rewritten as it was being shot.Some observations: What purpose does it serve to have TWO people gunning for the Ray Liotta character? The corrupt warden and "Russian mafia" hit-man contribute nothing to the storyline and could easily have been left out. The avenging brother would have been enough, and was not fleshed out. Liotta showing remorse, trying to befriend and help the man he shot and crippled, beginning to live a normal life, only to have the angry brother whose life was ruined bent on revenge.... now that could have been a good movie.Do we really need to know the Dafoe character's personal life? What does this contribute? The way he tells the story of his murdered son should be shown to acting students as an example of bad "mailing it in" acting. "He looked up at me and said, I'll be alright Dad... and then he died." This only exists to prop up the cheesy end scene, which should never have been included. A better ending would be to have Liotta die, and that's it! Gee, the undercover guys driving around in a large dark colored van. How original. And the pursuers all driving identical black sedans. Not original at all... and the "blood dripping on the shoulder" flashback scene was shown far too often. Gotta justify that CGI expenditure, I suppose.Why were the drugs taken as pills? Why not injections to make SURE? Why was the doctor allowed to go into Liotta's cell where he could be easily attacked? How is it that Defoe was beaten by Liotta the first time, but the second time Dafoe suddenly gets fighting skills and beats Liotta to a pulp? Ah, there is plenty more to pick at, but to save time, stay away from this one.

Thought the story of Tim Hunter's Controle, about the reprogramming of a psychopath, is intriguing, this film displays one of the major Hollywood cliché problems. What I am referring to is the fact that the first part of Controle is, without any doubt, the best part. This half is well-written, sometimes visually attractive (f.i. the flashback of Liotta's character shooting an innocent man, followed by a cgi blood drop that falls down on his shoulder) and by far the best acted 'phase' of the movie. This is also the slowest part of the film. The characters and their problems are set and displayed. I was impressed with Liotta's depiction of murderer Lee Ray, who changes, through the experimental drug Anagress, from a killer to a nice, relaxed and friendly person.In a way Dafoe is a miscast. Every scene seems like he's not acting his best and in the most fascinating scenes Liotta simply 'outguns' Dafoe's performance. He makes it look too much like a routine job. I remember he did the same thing in Paul Auster's Lulu on the Bridge (1998). Though he was splendid in Cronenberg's eXistenZ (1999).And now for the second part... The second half of Controle is what I referred to before as a Hollywood problem. The first half can be called a 'psychological drama/thriller', the second part though tries to become a fast-paced 'action flick'. Which could have been great, if the first part hadn't been so fascinating. It almost seems as though Hunter suddenly screams in the middle: "Ok, guys, let's take it to the bank!"The idea of a medicine that would alter our behaviour isn't that refreshing, but the way it is acted and depicted in the first part of the movie is fine. I must admit that I was moved by Liotta apologizing to his victim. That is the power of Liotta's acting in Controle: he actually succeeds in making you feel sorry for him, while you feel detested by the psycho he in the first few scenes.One thing the movie touches nicely, though very Hollywood-esquire, is the philosophy of 'second chance'. Lee Ray is handed a second chance after his death sentence and faked lethal injection. While dieing near the end of the film the flashbacks of his life are different from the ones he experiences in the beginning of the film, during the lethal injection. He dies with guilt, but also with a few (new) good memories of things he DID handle right.Overall Controle is (because of the lacking second part) a mediocre movie. A typical dime-store Hollywood production. But I cannot admit there are some very interesting ideas and performances in it.

It's like when you follow the music of your favorite artist. On the DVD cover was printed 'from the directors of Narc' and it was also with Ray Liotta. So I followed my previous director.I saw Narc,and it was great! This convinced me to hire this DVD,after wandering for an hour in the DVD-shop. Nowadays it's hard to find great movies (new) cause there's so much junk on the market. Ray Liotta is a tough criminal who gets the death penalty. He he gets injections,but awakes in the mortuarium. When everyone is gone,they tell him that he can chose to participate an experiment. They give him pills to control his anger and some metal around his leg,so that they can trace him with GPS. He gets in secret a new life,searches for a job and starts a new life. Then suddenly he gets nightmares about his past kills. He meets the nephew of a guy that he shot in the head and got into coma. This nephew captures him and tries to kill him but he escapes. There is also a team of researches that wants to capture him. Willem Dafoe plays also a great role.Very good movie for todays standard,one for your collection like Narc! Deserves at least 7.5 or 8. I noticed that the best movies have around 6/10 on IMDb. I think because there are too much kids that vote for movies with big budgets and big publicity campains,like war of the worlds,...