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August 22, 2005
The Fourth Man
The Fourth Man (1983), Paul Verhoeven:
Man, I love Paul Verhoeven. Starship Troopers was just on and I'm still amazed how good of a movie it is. I guess the mass of critics thinks praising Robocop (and in some cases Total Recall) is enough.
Anyway, I was in a movie rut and couldn't bring myself to get excited about anything to watch. I was in the mood for something fun and came across this. Any movie arrogant enough to name itself The Fourth Man seemed like it'd be the perfect stylistic overload. Apparently Verhoeven made this right before coming over to America, so at least someone noticed.
So it was the perfect movie for my doldrums; artsy fluff full of wit and imagination pushed to their limits. At least Mr. Verhoeven has the good sense not to take himself too seriously (which got in the way of my enjoying the similar early work of Lars von Trier. I'm not sure I really need to discuss what it was about; does it really matter?
12/15
Posted by bing at August 22, 2005 12:44 AM