Meh...
Annoying characters, doing annoying stupid things, can be kinda hard to
relate to, and they certainly where in this film. It\'s comedy classic to have stupid people doing stupid things, but if the creators also want the audience to be involved in the ups & downs of these characters they got to give us some kind of reason, any reason... they didn\'t here. Steve Zahn is likable and charmingly goofy, I guess they just hoped that would be enough... I was fairly entertained anyway though, not because of the lazy faux-Tarantino time shifts, or the I-can\'t-really-be-bothered direction ("lowkey", if one wants to be charitable), but because most of the truckload of stars they had wheeled in has at least one or two amusing tricks they always can rely on if everything ells fails; I rarely laughed at the obvious "witty" lines or comedy set piece bits, but several times I snickered and giggled at some funny little look or tilt with the head. The plot was just the usual losers & crooks doing stuff on account of some McGuffin; I thought those went out of style back when Two Days in the Valley was released, but it seems like I was wrong. Still, seeing Elijah Wood as a 17 year old hit-man who smashes chair on people\'s heads was at least something different, and Salam Hayek in her underwear is always nice, so despite the fact that I can\'t really claim this is a good movie per se, I would still recommend it for anyone looking for a very undemanding time killer.. 
Aptly named
This is basically a "laugh at the losers" episode flick in the vein of
"Short Cuts", without the pretension and with a healthy dose of Quentin Tarantino thrown in for good measure (sans the nastiness and macho violence.) Chain of Fools boasts the essential (for this type of movie) array of crooks and oddballs; from Jeff Goldblum's psychopathic rent-a-thief character to Elijah Wood's adolescent aspiring hitman. The film is uneven, which is probably a result of the relative inexperience of the director(s). There are several scenes that just feel pointless, and the Bollingsworth character could have used a little polishing, but on the whole the movie is thoroughly enjoyable. Steve Zahn is great as the loser protagonist, Elijah Wood shines as the hitman wannabe, Jeff Goldblum turns in a solid performance and sexy Salma Hayek once again demonstrates she can do a lot more than just look pretty and dance with snakes. Chain of Fools is no Pulp Fiction, but it has got an endearing quality all of its own. If Tarantino and the Coen brothers were to do a movie together I imagine you would get something a lot like this. I give it 7/10, where Pulp Fiction is a 10/10 and The Big Lebowski is a 9/10.. |
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