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A mildly amusing film that has a great premise that
is fumbled more than caught, "The Darwin Awards" takes its
name from a website (and books) that celebrate those of
us who eliminate us from the gene pool through idiotic behavior.
For example, golfing during a thunder and lightning storm
or attaching a jet engine to the back of our car. Unfortunately
the characters in this film are more a collection of annoying
ticks than actual human beings. Joseph Fiennes is Michael
a brilliant police profiler who has one major flaw--he faints
at the sight of blood. Michael is under constant surveillance
when he agrees to be the topic of a film by a student (Wilmer
Valderrama). When he loses his job after botching the arrest
of a serial killer due to the sight of blood, he embarks
on a new career because he has no choice--he approaches
a insurance company with the idea of profiling those who
are at higher risk of dying using risk factors that indicates
that their policy holders might die due to their own incompetence.
He's given a chance to prove his theory when he's paired
with a cynical, foul mouthed insurance investigator Siri
(Winona Ryder) to assess a number of cases that the firm
hasn't paid off yet. If Michael can prove his theory, he
has a job that will save the insurance company millions.
The duo investigate a man (David Arquette) who straps a
jet engine to his car, a pair of heavy metal rockers (one
of whom is Lukas Haas) trying to sneak into a Metallic concert
and a man (Chris Penn in his last role) who claims his car
was stolen while ice fishing. ***
What works in the film is the main plot point what
doesn't work is the subplot of the film itself-Michael feels
he must figure out why the serial killer he let run free
is killing and, more importantly, what his literary clues
mean. This subplot feels completely artificial and just
doesn't work within the context of a film with such an off-beat
sense of humor. This along with the quirky characters that
have absolutely no appeal to the audience whatsoever (Michael
is like the TV character Monk without any of that characters
appealing quirks and Fiennes just can't sell the role).
It's like slapping that jet engine on an old car expecting
it to suddenly be a hotrod-it just ain't gonna happen folks.
The film works best when it focuses on the small details
of those average Americans that have less common sense than
a cow standing in the rain. Arquette, Penn and Juliette
Lewis provide amusing occasionally touching cameos in the
film. The plot point about the grad student shooting the
film also doesn't quite work; why would Michael continue
to let the student shoot his film after he loses his job
but, more importantly, it constantly takes us out of the
film when it moves from its documentary style. ---
Image & Sound:
"The Darwin Awards" looks fine although there was a
bit of a problem with pixilation on the preview copy I received.
This problem will more than likely be corrected as the preview
copy was a single layer DVD-R burned by Fox. Audio sounds
fine occasionally using the 5.1 format to good effect (especially
during Arquette's segment). ---
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