Rating: 
Summary: A VIEW that ends with a whimper...instead of a BANG
Review: Warren Beatty does an excellent job playing Joe Frady. Frady is an idealistic, arrogant and ultimately naive reporter who is prodded into invetigating the statistically improbable deaths of media colleagues who "witnessed" the assassination of a populist Senatorial candidate. PARALLAX is a murky corporation involved in genetic engineering research and the training of killers-for-hire. Frady infiltrates...he thinks...this assassination bureau hoping to dicover THE WHO & WHAT of a veritable political MURDER INCORPORATED. The film has good pacing and several well-executed...literally... set pieces. The film's major sequence is Frady's recruitment. This includes a disturbing, pornographically violent montge-test designed to identify homocidal psychopaths. (Go to the head of the class Mr. Beatty.) For three-quarters the film generates a quirky ambience of paranoia and menace. To me the bubble bursts a bit too soon and too many questions are left unresovled in what I regarded as a predictable ending. PARALLAX VIEW is a film that ends with a sly whimper instead of a jolting bang...
Rating: 
Summary: Psychological Thriller
Review: Warren Beatty is great in this movie. So is Hume Cronyn and a host of others you'll recognize from the 1970's TV and Film. But the real star of this movie is the story ... a mystery inside an enigma wrapped up in a riddle. Born from the investigations into the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King Jr. and RFK and the investigations into each this story is all too plausible ... and frightenly believable. 1960's were turbulent times, with great movements and events all over the nation and the world. It's not unthinkable that some wanted to control the outcome of these events.Towards this theory, "The Parallax View" demonstrates how bogus corporations recruit certain profiled individuals to carry out their objectives using trickery and deceit to "compartmentalize" the actor and eliminate the "target". This movie requires close attention to see all the subtle elements. If you ever thought the assassinations of America's leaders in the 1960's were "glossed over" then this movie is for you. It's a paranoia storyline to be sure, but perhaps a little skepticism is healthy from time to time. The only thing I'm not crazy about in the film is its 1974 production. So the clothes and cars are so out of date as to be distracting from the storyline. I think this film is an excellent candidate for remake and I'l like to see a director like Ridley Scott or James Cameron look at this script. For movies of the same genre, be sure and check out "Executive Action" with Burt Lancaster. Another 5-star effort.
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