Meeting Evil is an old theme. Think of the classic German tale, Faust or the American version, The Devil and Daniel Webster. The song version would be Charlie Daniel's, The Devil went down to Georgia.
The old theme is basically, man suffers string of bad luck. He is on the verge of losing everything, or does. He is vulnerable. He makes a pact with a stranger, the devil (literally or metaphorically). Luck changes. Everything is better. Man confident. Man almost arrogant; drunk with his own success. Devil comes to collect debt. Debt is usually man's soul or life or both. Man resists and tries to beat Devil. In the end, man finds loophole and everything is back to normal, well, sort of. Kind of a distorted message, don't you think? Sell your soul, declare bankruptcy and avoid paying the debt. Sounds a bit like the global economic crisis we're in...
The Hunger Games is also an old theme. I don't think for one minute that Meeting Evil will be as successful or as good as The Hunger Games. It's just that old themes, if they haven't been done in recent years or if they attempt a new spin, can seem both fresh and familiar.
I like Luke Wilson. I like him much better than Owen Wilson. Luke never annoys me on screen and he was brilliantly sad and disturbed in The Royal Tenanbaums. Wes Anderson is a favourite.
When the wife and I were in Jamaica, Lakeview Terrace was on TV every morning. We watched it while we prepared for our day. Every morning we missed the ending because, who wants to spend their vacation watching a crap movie? Sam L. was really menacing. He can have a very intimidating presence. Sometimes he makes a bad movie watchable.
The trailer for Meeting Evil seems to show that, since Wilson is trying to get out of their deal, the devil (or whatever Sam is) is killing people and Wilson is being accused of the crimes. During the interrogations Luke tries to tell the police that he is innocent. There was this evil guy... So, the question becomes, is the devil character real or is he part of Wilson`s imagination and is Wilson really the killer? Kind of like The Secret Window?
Movies like this can be entertaining and are usually decent rentals when you`re not sure what you feel like. That's as committal as I can be with this one.
I've seen Meeting Evil. It should have been titled, Meeting the Toilet Paper After You've Wiped.
ReplyDeleteYah, Luke comes across as some (allegorical) everyman. Just had your house repossessed and lost your job? Who (at the other end of the bubble-busting, flimflam economy to the south) can’t relate? And who wouldn’t make a pact with Beelzebub (or Mitt Romney, for that matter)?
ReplyDeleteNice camera work/suggestions on Sam as the devil: the cool chiaroscuro play on his face, first dressed in a (corporate) suit, then in state trooper duds. Would be infinitely cooler if it suggests that the devil is a figment of Luke’s imagination/ dementia and leaves room for ambiguity – yah, I know… that’s not something North American audiences like… give me the good ole black and white/good and evil – god forbid we reflect the greys in between.
And yup, Luke: under-rated. Owen: over-rated (painfully so). But ain’t that Hollywood…