The Alarmist

Although the ending is likely to disappoint, this weakness should not dissuade one from watching THE ALARMIST. All the characters are appealing, the script witty, and the pacing tight. The interactions between Howard and Tommy and the family dinner scene are especially good. Stanley Tucci attacks his part with both barrels. A word about Kate Capshaw: Wow! A forty-something grand multipara in real life, Kate is as attractive as a woman can be. While much credit is due the cinematographer for knowing how to shoot her in soft, warm light, her native charms give him a lot to work with. She endows her character with the sweetness of youth and the cynicism of maturity. I see from her filmography that she has been working pretty steadily since INDIANA JONES days, but I must have missed most of her films. Maybe the financial security Mrs Spielberg enjoys allows her to limit her work to small, low-key pictures with little marketing, but I sure would like to see her hit the big-time.

I was surprised by the number of times I caught myself smiling or laughing quietly during The Alarmist (AKA Life During Wartime), a film where the parts are definitely greater than the whole. Be prepared to all but ignore the plot, which is unnecessary except as a place to loosely hang some wonderful performances by everyone involved.

"The Alarmist" has a pointless first half, with David Arquette's stiff acting getting in the way of any possible comedy, but gets better in the second half, when it enters darker territory and presents some unexpected plot developments. And yes, Kate Capshaw does look good for her age. (**1/2)

The first time I saw this movie, I joined in right before the mood got dark--during the overnight stay with the parents, and this movie knocked my socks off. Very quirky and interesting, but not "Tarentino-like" at all, as someone else has said. So tonight I rented the movie and watched it start to finish. Ugh! I feel like the first time I saw it, I only saw the very best of the movie! It's got one dark, nice twist, but otherwise, this is a mediocre movie at best. Stay away unless you're very bored!

There's really not that needs to be said about this movie, except perhaps that it is little more than an unbelievably average attempt by all parties involved, from scriptwriters to actors to the film crew Stanley Tucci within a tight timeframe, and this was the only project on the shelf. But how any producer could look at If there's one good thing I can draw from this movie is the increase in respect I offer towards the Cohen brothers; even in their weakest attempts, the characters themselves remain interesting and unique due to a successful blend of writing, acting and directing. Why Evan Dunsky was handed this film to both write and direct is beyond me. One must imagine that the producers had to use Dunsky's record and see "My Demon Lover" as his career highlight is beyond me. My guess is that Dunsky is stuck filiming commercials for the collect-calling companies, as his only use for David Arquette is to count the angles at which he can capture his smirks. Still, credit does go to Dunsky for making a feature length piece that is easier to watch than those 30-second commercials. The rest of the cast is utterly forgetful; no surprise, as their characters are bland and without the ability to utter anything that might deamnd out attention. The movie's strongest points lie in what starts out as the plot for the film -- residential alarm and theft-detection salesmen -- and the small tributary tales that grow from it. Unfortunately, many of these branches are severed quickly (most simply dry up and disappear) while the heart of the plot meanders onward. As this film originated as a play, ultimate judgment must fall on Dunsky. His screenplay adaptation is as snappy as a train-of-thought piece written while on Riddelin, his direction little more than a poorly-lit theatre production taken outside and put on film. in this case, with the Dunsky behind both the typewriter and camera, it's easy enough to point the blame. Still, this movie did not fall victim to the channel flip... perhaps it was because I was too busy counting the 20-odd members of the Arquette family involved.

I was at this film's premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 1997. After the screening, when the writer/director and some cast members offered to answer questions, no one could even be bothered to ask any. Rarely has a film been so poorly directed (why on earth were random frames snipped out of some scenes?), wretchedly acted (David Arquette, to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, does not run the emotional gamut from A to B. He parks at A and brings a lunch) and utterly pointless. Characters behave completely out of character for no reason except to force the plot to move in certain directions. At long last, the film comes to a completely random and pointless end that's supposed to "really make you think." Unfortunately, what it makes you think is, "Well, there's 90 minutes of my life I'm never getting back."

What a horrible comedy. Totally lame. The supposed "humor" was simple and stupid. Stanly Tucci (a great actor) had the only parts worth chuckling at. And he was tied up and gagged at the time. Don't waste your time with this one. It deserves a 0/10.

What begins as a fairly clever farce about a somewhat shady security monitoring company turns, almost instantaneously, into an uninteresting and completely inane murder mystery. David Arquette and the great Stanley Tucci try mightily to make this train wreck watchable, but some things are just not humanly possible. What, for instance, causes Gale to turn suddenly from a sweet motherly figure into a drunken shrew at Tommy's parents house? Why would Heinrich, although admittedly a sleezebag, want to destroy the business to which he devotes his life, by robbing and possibly murdering his customers? Why does the seemingly sensible Tommy believe that Heinrich could be a murderer (based almost entirely on a dream), and even if that were believable, why wouldn't he go to the police? And why didn't Gale activate the alarm when she got home, especially after scolding Howie about it being off? Of course, all of these events are necessary for the plot (and I use the term very, very loosely) to unfold. And it might be forgivable if it resulted in even the slightest bit of comedy. But everything, from Howie's description of his date rape, to the coroner's misidentification of Gale, to the final "joke" about Gale and Howie still being dead, is more tasteless and pathetic than anything else. I checked the box indicating that my comments contained "spoilers", but there's nothing more I or anyone else could do to spoil this thing that already stinks to high heaven.

Very poor effort that offers pretty much nothing to anyone but a hardcore fan of Stanley Tucci, who tries, but can not save the poor structure, dialogue, direction, or talent of our leading man. Pretty much the only trick this plodding tale of a naive new salesman for an alarm company has, is its quirky side characters. But without a realistic backdrop, such characters are pointless. Nothing to see here, keep moving...