Arlington Road DVD

Advantages: Interesting and unpredictable
Disadvantages: Irritating and implausible

...it in my mind that Arlington Road was one of those strange David Lynch dramas that would make absolutely no sense from start to finish. I was therefore quite surprised to find that the film was actually a fairly interesting, if not rather frustrating thriller. Arlington Road is a film with a point. It is interested solely in the concept of terrorism and although it was made in 1999, it now feels more appropriate than ever. But this film isn’t ...
...interested the creative team behind Arlington Road and so they have crafted a tale that sets about informing us how and why these people do what they do. Michael Faraday is not your average American citizen. Not only has he lost his wife in an incident that he believes should never have happened, but also he blames government policy for putting his wife there in the first place. Secondly, he has a vocational interest in terrorism and imparts his ... Read review

Advantages: Dark, Different
Disadvantages: Buy the DVD, get no extras, ain't it great?

How well do you know the people you call your friends?, strange way for me to open up a review of a movie doncha think? well this is the whole basis of the movie 'Arlington Road' only instead of taking it that you just don't know that much - the creators of the movie take it that one step further. So a little bit of background for the movie, we open seeing a young child stumbling disorientatedly along the middle of a road hearing a multitude of voices ...
...few feet behind him and this is where we're introduced to one of the main characters of the movie as Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) emerges from the car and tries to get the boys attention. Before long it becomes blatantly obvious that the boy is seriously injured, and so Michael begins to help the child, before taking him to hospital. It is here at the hospital where we first meet Michaels neighbours - Oliver (Tim Robbins) and Cheryl (Joan Cusack) ... Read review

Advantages: Very tense thriller, great acting and unexpected ending
Disadvantages: Need to be in the mood - a bit dark and morose

...staggers home. ------------------------------------------------------------------- This is Arlington Road, an unsuspecting ordinary road in a quiet suburb in Washington DC. A road where anyone of us might live, a road that has very few exciting events, but that is all about to change…. Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) plays a widower and father to 10 year old Grant. Michael’s wife was an FBI agent and was killed in a terrorist bombing. ...
...over the loss of his wife. Grant can’t accept that this new woman might become a permanent part of their lives. Michael teaches terrorism history classes at the local University and since his wife’s death has started to border on the edges of paranoia. ------------------------------------------------------------------- As the boy continues his awkward journey a car comes around the corner. The boy is still walking away from the car and ... Read review

Advantages: Un-Hollywood, Tense, Twists, Acting
Disadvantages: May be far fetched for some

...those around him. Arlington Road has some very good twists in it's tale throughout and it also helps that the situation is believable to a degree. Some people might not buy into the fact that terrosirsts would come in the shape of a normal family on an american suburban street. But then again it's the perfect cover for such operations. Bridges character at one stage makes a good point about the people who are blamed for some terrorist acts. He makes ...
...the film you are waiting for the usual good guy/bad guy confrontation that obviously ends up being okay in the end. I'm glad to say that Arlington Road doesn't actually do this and actually goes in the opposite direction. I won't say how but I think you'd be generally surprised. ... Read review

Advantages: Solid film making, a competent production
Disadvantages: never got going, maintained too slow a pace

I bought Arlington Road purely because it had been sat teasing me from the Woolworths sale section for weeks. I had read many good things about the film, but in all honesty the leads didn't encourage me to watch it, the director had no track record, and the plot seemed like your average X-Files paranoia nonsense. However, it had been one of those days at work and some frivolous spending seemed in order, so, Arlington Road is now in my DVD collection. ...
...but when the music and action kicks in it does deliver quite a jolt. You will see far more boring films, far worse performances, far less impressive direction, see Arlington Road with low expectations and you might be surprised, I was left satisfied, but I wouldn't want an encore. ... Read review

Advantages: Quite different from your normal horror/sci-fi
Disadvantages: A little long winded

...Arlington Road was well thought out and kept me enraptured throughout (even if I had to buy it on DVD later as I'd fallen asleep at the cinema). However, I found that compared, the Mothmen Prophecies didn't really live up to this director, Mark Pellington. Set mainly in a small town in West Virginia where strange happening are becoming the norm, John Klein finds himself amidst an unusual and slightly scary phenomenon. When his wife Mary (Debra Messing aka Grace from Will & Grace) died in a rather diturbing car crash two years previous, she had tried to describe a strange being to her husband but had been far too distressed to explain in full. After her rather emotional death, Klein is lead to his late wifes sketches of a strange angel/moth-like creature. He simply put this down to her condition at her time of death. Now, stranded... Read review

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Advantages: errrrrrrrrrrrrr
Disadvantages: errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

...(Arlington Road and The Shawshank Redemption) there, but there was also Ryan Phillipe (Cruel Intentions and I Know what you Did last Summer) and Rachael Leigh Cook (She’s All That and Josie and The PussyCats) in there as well - to me that was a mixed crowd, personally I’ve never liked Phillipe’s work and even here playing Milo Hoffman I felt like he’d not put as much into his performance as he could have done. Whenever he was on-screen it seemed that he had one facial expression and that was it, it didn’t matter if he was scared, worried, nervous or just plain working - he was constantly looking exactly and acting in exactly the same way and with Phillipe having the lead part this wasn’t exactly encouraging me to enjoy the movie. Moving onto Tim Robbins (playing Gary Winston) and I’ve got to feel he played the Bill Gates link a little too much... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful