Domino

I'm a big fan of Tony Scott's last film, Man on Fire. It blew me away with its stylish direction and editing, with a very distinct look that worked in the film's favor. The clever use of captions and unique approach to subtitles, coupled with a fantastic soundtrack resulted in a brilliantly tense and thrilling film. Coupled with impressive performances from Denzel Washington, and Dakota Fanning (with solid support from Radha Mitchell and Christopher Walken) Man on Fire is probably my favorite Tony Scott film. Many people didn't enjoy the editing style, however, and accused it of being too "MTV"; too much a case of style over substance. I can't really describe Domino, Tony Scott's latest film, as a case of style over substance because I don't find it to be particularly stylish. Let's put it this way: either Scott has come off the A.D.D medication he was taking during the production of Man on Fire, or he needs to lay off whatever he's smoking now. Domino is a confused mess of piss-coloured filters, idiotic repetition of lines of dialogue, rapid fire editing, and blurry camera work. There's a section of the film, within which "our heroes" (Mickey Rourke, Edgar Ramirez, and Keira Knightley) are tricked into taking Mescaline. Scott shoots this using filters, blurry camera work, fast cutting, and a "hardcore" soundtrack, presumably to simulate the altered perceptions of the characters. There's a problem here though – the rest of the film is created in exactly the same way! The "clever" subtitles make a return, but now they feel somewhat old and unnecessary. Kiera Knightly is way out of her depth. She doesn't cope well with the vast majority of the dialogue, and is effortlessly acted off the screen by Mickey Rourke, Christopher Walken, and Delroy Lindo. I'd go so far as to say that Mickey Rourke is one of the few good things here, even if he is criminally under-used. My gut feeling about Domino, is that it's trying too hard to emulate Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (which I rate very highly, by the way). It's trying to portray a similar "bad people as media icons" message, it tells its tale in similarly jumbled fashion (start somewhere, flash back a bit, come back to present day, flash back again, end up where you started and continue the story from there, all recounted by Domino during an FBI interrogation), and features characters which continually spout cut-rate Tarantino-esque dialogue. It all feels terribly unoriginal. Throw in two "stars" of Beverly Hills 90210 (Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green for those that care, or remember), Jerry Springer, and a bizarre Tom Waits cameo, and I'm arrive at my unshakable belief that this is Scott's attempt at Natural Born Killers. What's even worse is that Domino has virtually no action, tension, momentum, or humour. It drags along for just over two hours, with no interesting set-pieces, or insightful dialogue, and it's "explosive" finale feels like a tired rehash of Scott's True Romance. Domino is easily the worst film I've seen in the last twelve months, and while this year has been a particularly good one, Domino would rank as a bad film whenever it had been released. I only hope that Scott starts (or stops) taking the drugs before embarking on his remake of Walter Hill's classic The Warriors. Just to end on a positive note; it is nice to see Dabney Coleman working again