Rancid (2004) User Reviews (12)

Some immaturity exploited; but a fair flick

[tonopah6 · 6/10 · 22 January 2008]

I am tired of seeing cutie-pie-guys who never comb their hair and have a see-thru beard. Matthew Settle (leading actor): of course is also a slob: with a messy apartment, dirty dishes, and who drinks instant coffee. But the teenyboppers will love him.

Now you've got to amplify his character by making him a loser (and with bad dialogue; trying to make good on sentences like: puke on the floor, and, hole in the head). He's a goof who has previously expressed to people that he desires to be a writer, but when his past friends inquire about his progress, (6 years later), he covers up about still being on page one.

Page one!

Yes … page one is revealed by a former girlfriend, now extramarital affair partner, making this viewer wonder if he is … who knows … maybe a chronic masturbator because of his lack of writing?

This movie could be considered as a learning film for the young just to show them an imbecile adult. With a good example being when he destroys valuable glass figurines from a mantle in a playful way; probably in order to put the blame on someone else for his own ineptness. Although he does accept blame when he and his former girlfriend talk about the abortion that he failed to do correctly several years before, resulting in her inability to have children in future attempts. Nevertheless, they deem their screw-ups as minor compared to the millionaire husband, who gets condemned for just making some illegal business ventures, and for slapping his unfaithful conniving wife.

So now we've got an immature woman involved, only caring about money, revenge, and participating in the two (yes two) affairs she's involved with. And you will see Mr. Inept parking right in front of the house he wants to enter to commit murder, along with seeing him mosey to an entrance while security guards are patrolling the grounds.

Lots more take place; which includes detectives: one of which is an old buddy of the inept writer, and who has a great deal of problems himself. That detective (Patrik Ersgard) was sort of okay. I did like the millionaire, Currie Graham. And if you can manage to gruel out Mr. inept writer's disposition, you can actually see a decent story take place - WITH A FEW UNEXPECTED TURN OF EVENTS.

Why the Swedes don't run Hollywood

[MBunge · 4/10 · 5 April 2010]

This attempt by Swedish filmmakers to create an American-style mystery/thriller is about as poorly put together as your average piece of IKEA furniture. It's functional, but you're always going to want something better.

The plot of this thing is as well-worn and familiar as an old pair of slippers. A guy down on his luck is reunited with his old flame. She's trapped in an abusive marriage with her evil husband. The two former lovers fall back into bed and eventually plot to solve their problems by killing the husband. It all goes wrong and the guy ends up on the run from the cops. There's absolutely nothing in this story you haven't seen before and seen done better. And after coming up with a tale that hasn't one original moment in it, these filmmakers desperately employ flashbacks, music video-style editing and fancy camera tricks to try and slap a stylish veneer on this moldering script. They fail.

The acting in Rancid is the sort of bland, shallow stuff you get when okay actors are given nothing to work with. Matthew Settle is acceptable as Jayson Hayson, one of those incredibly handsome and physically fit writers who only exist in movies. Fay Masterson as Jason's old love Monica is hampered by the fact that her character's only purpose is to serve the Almighty Plot Hammer, but even that can't take away from the fact Masterson's the sort of woman who looks better and better the more you see her. Currie Graham is tries to bring a little something to the two-dimensional character of the evil husband. It's almost as though he's trying to pull off the "I'm in my own movie" thing that Val Kilmer did in Tombstone but he can't quite do it. The only member of the cast that's noticeably sub par is chinless wonder Patrik Ersgard as the cop who happens to be Jason Hayson's old friend. The role is a muddled mess, yet Ersgard somehow manages to be even worse. It's like trying to watch a drunk Danny Devito play Sherlock Holmes.

The writing isn't egregiously bad. The script is just poorly constructed. Some scenes go on too long while others are too short. The movie wastes time with scenes that are unnecessary and then skips over important steps in the plot. There are waaaaay too many characters. The story only needs one cop character, it has four. Jason doesn't have one old love in the script, he's got two. The film's love triangle turns into a rectangle. There's an amazingly tone deaf moment when the movie tries to make a statement about anti-Asian prejudice. It's like the Ersgards never wrote more than the first draft of this screenplay because they were so stunned by their own brilliance. They were mistaken.

This isn't an awful film. I suppose you might enjoy it if you were drunk, zonked out on cough medicine or otherwise impaired. If you're clean and sober, this is one of those movies that is never bad enough to make you stop watching. By the time you get to the end, though, you realize that it was simply a waste of your time.

For a beginner crime thriller, I thought it was awesome!

[homekathaven · 5/10 · 14 February 2007]

From start to finish, I enjoyed this film. The frequently used aerial shots and the fast editing kept me intrigued throughout. The ending I thought I had figured out and the exciting plot changed again and just when you think you have figured out the ending again you are again pleasantly surprised. A few of the actors and actresses did brilliantly. A few critical points are the "microsoft paint edited pictures" on the mantelpiece, poor continuity when the bruise on the main lady characters face disappears and then returns. Other than that, if you like crime thrillers and love creating films watch this for inspiration. I Loved it. I have to keep typing so this makes the comments page so hopefully you liked this film as much as I did.

Bland

[Antagonisten · 21 November 2004]

I saw this film at it's world premier on the Stockholm International Film Festival 2004. It's a Swedish film made in English with (mostly) American actors, funded and produced in Sweden and (despite the New York-setting) mostly shot in Sweden as well. For me this was an incentive in seeing the film as i am always curious when it comes to Swedish film (even though it continually offers mostly disappointments).

The film is about a writer who has trouble with his inspiration ever since his loved one abandoned him for his school-time antagonist. Now there is a class reunion coming up and it seems he has a chance at getting her back, but nothing is what it seems and things soon spiral out of control.

Many times when i review films i think about what is actually worse: hating a film or feeling nothing at all about it. Because movies you loathe still had something that at least made you feel strongly about it one way or the other. Some films just don't have that, you don't really think they are that bad, but they're not really that good either. And Rancid is definitely one of those films.

Technically Rancid is well made. It's about as good looking a Swedish film as i have ever seen. The production values are high at the, in Hollywood terms, quite meager budget of $6 million. Among the cast there is one actor that really stands out. Matthew Settle really does a nice job in the lead and actually manages to lift the film a notch in my eyes.

The story is where i have a problem with this film. It simply doesn't grab a hold of you. I felt uninterested in most of the characters and their problems. Also the story felt rushed and some of the time spent with flowing overhead shots of New York could instead have been spent on making the script more cohesive. More background and more elaborated explanations on why the characters acted the way they did would have helped considerably. The way things happen now you can never really predict anyones actions, which is a bad thing since it makes the characters a lot less believable.

So is this bad? Not really. Is it good? Not really that either. This is simply one of those films that i don't feel very strongly about one way or the other. Watch it if you feel another "innocent-man-accused-of-murder"/cop-thriller is what you need. I rate it 4/10.

Hollow plot - Hollow Actings and terrible screenplay it just doesn't flow

[james-wilde · 1/10 · 15 April 2006]

I wanted to watch this movie, because I'm European and was anticipating a real avant-guard thriller. No frills, no special effects just some good film making. I was shocked, it was wooden and the camera zoom became just annoying in the end. The acting was light, the character development ? let me say I didn't find it. The plot was so empty, the 'bad' guy never got a chance to rise above his stereotype, the 'good' guy was so weak and the 'twist' so clumsily enacted. Well what can I say, there are no spoilers because the movie spoils itself. A ill managed collage of bad dialogue, weakly acted, strung together with an amateur plot and directed by someone who should better stick to 'home movies'. It cannot get any worse.

It's actually good, no matter what others say

[Fist_of_Heaven · 7/10 · 2 July 2005]

Rancid is an average thriller with a quite good story. There's not anything that's really bad with this movie, rather it's that nothing is quite great. As someone said, you're left with a small feeling of nothing. Now, this can be said of thousands of Hollywood films, too. The reason why they get a higher score is probably because they got a cast that's more mainstream and probably some cool action scene! The performance in Rancid is good. Well-casted and well-acted. Matthew Settle, Fay Masterson, Currie Graham and Patrik Ersgård are all doing a good job. Personally, I think Patrik Ersgårds character and acting lifts the movie a bit. Michael Wiseman and Siena Goines are the weaker links in this chain. The characters are interesting enough.

The dialog is without marks, actually quite good I'd say. The movie is rather fast-paced, compared to most Hollywood-thrillers. The editing is so-so. Music and overall "look and feel" is about average.

There's no reason to choose another thriller over this one. It feels authentic, and maybe that's the downside to it? It's just not enough "Hollywood" to give you that adrenaline. Personally, I prefer Rancid over any action-packed thriller. And that feeling of nothing I mentioned? Well, it's not a feeling of bad, is it? Go see it, rent it or whatever. It's worth it, if only to rest your eyes from all mainstream actors! 7/10

OK, but slow.

[gotland · 3/10 · 3 January 2005]

Went to the cinema to see this since a friend is in the movie, for about 3 seconds. Didn't expect anything from it, but it was OK. The story about the struggling writer that get caught up in a mess is OK, even if it's a bit simple for a movie. And there is at least 10 other movies with the same plot.

What really separates Rancid from being a good movie, is the tempo. Every ten minutes there are long helicopter-shots over Manhattan and almost every scene is too long and too slow. If it would lose some of the 'fly over Manhattan while playing really loud music'-scenes and cut faster and with a tempo it wouldn't be that boring.

The sound was bad, no effort in making everyday sounds come from the right angle, and some obvious errors, like a NYC cop not wearing a vest while on a mission.

A better script, more focus on the details and a faster pace, and this could have been a great movie.

Waste of time and money!!!

[MCEdwards13 · 2/10 · 13 November 2006]

If this movie had (a) been better directed and produced, and (b) had half decent acting throughout, it would have been a fairly decent 90 minutes of my life taken up on a Saturday evening. I now wish i'd gone out and spent the £3.95 on a couple of beers down the local pub instead. It tried far too hard to be slick and clever, but fell very badly at every turn. I would steer clear of this at your local DVD rental shop and go for something good! How it got the near 6 out of 10 mark on IMDb, i'm not sure. If you're looking for an entertaining, fast paced thriller with a wicked twist and an awesome story-line, PLEASE don't bother renting this, I was truly disappointed and annoyed that I spent nearly £4 to hire it, and the guy behind the counter didn't think it good customer service to inform me on just how bad it is. If you don't want to take my word for it, that's fine, just let it be known that I did tell you so...

Seen it all before...and much better...

[animatralex · 2/10 · 22 May 2007]

It's always worrying when asked about a film and the only thing you can say as a positive is that it had boobs in it. And that's only from the perspective of women-lovers everywhere....

Now, don't get me wrong, this film does have merit. Unfortunately, that is that it had the good sense to rip EVERY idea it had from other, more memorable examples of the crime/thriller genre. Everything you see will be familiar, even if you aren't sure why.

It looks good enough. It sounds good enough. The people are beautiful enough. The stroy is interesting enough. But is it good enough to watch...No.

Wow - great film. 5/5

[aputland · 10/10 · 4 July 2005]

Congratulations to the makers and actors of this film. It was really something else. Every one in a while a thriller comes along that leaves me searching for breath, and this was one of them. One of very few films I can honestly say I enjoyed in every respect.

Action packed, drenched with dark scenes, incredible execution of the plot, sizzling sexual and romantic chemistry between the characters, and a dark undertone of brutal justice.

It wasn't too clichéd for the die-hard thriller-buff, yet also was not too obscure for enjoyment by the average movie-goer.

Recommended.

Excellent thriller!

[happyjer · 10/10 · 23 November 2004]

Excellent thriller with a slick cool look. The story is intense and the plots twists and turns, it keeps you guessing all the way to the end. As far as thrillers goes, this is as good as it gets. The acting is great and it's good to see Matthew Settle in a staring role. He has movie star quality and works great in this one. The narration is broken up and consists of flashbacks which adds to the building of tension. The movie is shot in studios in Sweden and the exterior in New York. The sets are just great and you could never guess that the movie isn't made on location in New York. If you like fast pacing slick thrillers then you should catch this one.

Stripped down and brutal, this is good

[lagriff05 · 8/10 · 17 June 2007]

This movie reminds me of one of those plastic hamster wheels. It goes pretty fast, and gets pretty intense, but in the end, you're left in exactly the same place that you started. It starts out pretty slowly, and at first I wasn't inclined to like it too much. There is no noticeable soundtrack to this one, so it's devoid of a good atmosphere (which a good suspense/thriller needs), and this gives the whole package a very 'hollow' feel, like it's a low budget movie. The directing is lackluster in the respect that those damn camera zoom-ins get really irritating by the end of the film. I've never seen a movie that overused aerial shots like this, and that's probably because it's a bad idea. But despite all that, I enjoyed this movie.

The plot is rich and leaves a lot for you to ponder over while the cameras are rolling, and the characters all give off very memorable and believable performances. This is a very dark and gritty film, reminding me of what A Killer Within should've been, but wasn't exactly. The plot twists at the end are unexpected, and maybe they weren't executed as well as they could've been, but it's all fine and dandy with me. While most of the movie is a bit slower and building things up, with the romantic tension and such, the last half hour or so is very intense and bloody, and I'm left very satisfied with this film overall. While the rather open-ended ending left me feeling empty (that whole hamster wheel analogy), this film manages to build up a crescendo of surprising energy that left this movie as quite a good offering of crime/thriller action. Recommended to fans of the genre.