Z/Web

This is the film about a shy loser who befriends rats and uses them to instigate his revenge. It’s a mildly entertaining effort at a cult classic that doesn’t quite make the cut. First, it’s not vicious enough: the rats really only kill one person (his mother was on her last legs so I don’t count her). For this to be really frightening or thrilling, we must see the rats’ power more than a handful of times. Second, a part of the plot is that Willard doesn’t have complete control over the rats — this is the ending, where the rats turn against him, makes sense. Unfortunately, this also weakens the whole rats-as-weapon thing. It would have been much better if there was only a hint of lack of control once at the beginning (like when Big Ben disobeyed and got into the sack) and then the rats always obeyed Willard until the final scene when there was a sudden table turn. That would have been exciting. As it was, the first point means the rats aren’t very scary, and the second means we aren’t too worried about what Willard will do with them (since his control is questionable). Finally, the writing sets up Willard as such a sympathetic character, and all the other people in his life (mother, boss, co-workers) as so over-the-top cruel, that we’re totally rooting for Willard and the rats. But then the film tries to make us think of Willard as evil for using the rats to kill, and that conflicts with the way we were set up to think. Weak. I also found it surprising that Willard had no special powers or connection with the rats. I guess the writer was going for realism, but I felt that weakened the story. It would have been much better if Willard had some sort of unique ability to “talk” to the rats and get them to do his bidding, like a Pied Piper sort of thing. (Speaking of viciousness like I did earlier, remember in the Pied Piper story he gains his revenge for non-payment by stealing all the children in the town. People tend to forget that tragic ending!) By giving Willard some sort of special ability, it would have enhanced his character, making him special. As it is he’s just another loser wimp who discovers a way to get revenge. I really wanted to like this film, and there were things about it I did like, but just not enough to take it above average fair. It could have been a classic with more character development (less stereotyping) and more ominous actions by the rats.

Like again, and now he’s in the city and Tommy must track him through downtown Portland. Tommy’s tracking skills in the woods make sense, but in the city it’s just dumb. The camera pans around, Tommy looks thoughtful, and suddenly he darts off in the direction we know Benicio went. How did Tommy know that? Perhaps he saw the dailies, I have no idea. Worse, after like fifteen minutes of tracking the elusive Benicio with only a few glimpses of him, the two end up on a light rail train (Portland’s public transportation system). Benicio’s inside, Tommy’s climbed onto the roof. Now here’s the really dumb part: the FBI and cops are on the scene and they stop the train on a bridge, trapping Benicio. So what the hell was the point of Tommy tracking Benicio throughout town if the cops and FBI were going to be at his end location anyway??? (Tommy did not alert the cops.) Tommy could have saved his breath and waited until the cops had Benicio surrounded. But of course at this point Benicio escapes yet again, this time by diving into the river, and this leads to more absurdities. Benicio loves knives and during a flashback we saw how Tommy had shown him how to make his own. So when he crawls out of the river he finds a rusted iron bar, builds a fire, a forges his own knife! Besides the fact that a tiny fire of a few dozen sticks wouldn’t be hot enough to melt lead let alone iron, wouldn’t this take a lot of TIME? And even more significant, what’s the point? Does Benicio, this super soldier, not know how to fight without a knife? Is having a knife more important than getting away from the police dragnet? The answer is that Benicio needs the knife so he and Tommy can fight (Tommy has carved himself a stone knife and it’s a very bloody fight), and in the end, of course, Tommy can kill Benicio with his own knife. This is “drama,” folks, because in another mishmash of illogic, we’ve been told earlier that though Tommy has trained hundreds of soldiers how to kill, he has never killed himself (absurd). Until now, of course. Then the movie ends. Just bizarre. What was the point of all that? It’s basically a chase, target is acquired, movie ends. But the producers throw in all sorts of red herrings and distractions and artificial complications to make the story interesting, it’s just dumb. I would have liked this far better if the original search by Tommy in the woods would have lasted much longer, and forget all the nonsense in the city. Oh dear, there was just so much about this film that made no sense. Like Benicio’s justification for killing the hunters was they were using high-powered rifles and scopes and it was unfair competition. You’d think that argument would have some weight with Tommy’s character (whom we see rescuing a wolf from a trap at the beginning of the film), but Tommy isn’t even sympathetic. We’re never really given any other reason for Benicio’s behavior, which is weak. The whole movie just feels artificially cobbled together, as though some producers sat around a dreamed up what elements they wanted in an exciting action flick and them put them together without any thought of how they actually connected. Despite all the flaws, there is some decent action (though Tommy Lee looks pretty old for a lot of the stunts he does). The film has some style in direction. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s frustrating. What a waste of acting talent and budget. Why couldn’t this have been done right? It wouldn’t have been that hard to fix these obvious flaws. If you’re from the Northwest, you’ll get a kick from seeing the Oregon scenes and shots in Portland. That’s probably the best reason to see it.