The Trigger Effect

Rating:
Summary: A hypnotic , gripping thriller with impeccable performances.
Review: Trigger effect is the directorial debut of writer David Koepp who proves himself as talented a director as he's a writer. His first film is a bizzare piece of suspense\thriller that grabs the viewer through till the finale. Intriguing , stylish and visually beautiful and filled with great performances from MacLachaln and Shue this a unique movie experience.

Rating:
Summary: A darn good little thriller...
Review: What can you say about movies that seemingly fly under the radar of most folks' awareness?? I think most people missed out on this one from the late '90s.

This was filmed as David Koepp's calling card into feature films as a director (having already written "Carlito's Way" and "Jurrasic Park," among other terrific films) and it is very light on action and very character driven... obviously budget gets in the way of major action set pieces, but that should never be an obstacle to good characters and plausible writing... Koepp handles all those chores adeptly and keeps a very good pace going... While his characters decide what to do when the blackout hits (and then lingers for days, and days, and days and...) you never feel as if their actions are out-of-line with reality and what people might do under the very same conditions.

This is a taut thriller, but hardly of the depth of Hitchcock's work. Instead, the film is an elaborate "Twilight Zone" episode (and gives its nods to Rod Serling's classic anthology show in both visual and verbal gags... the characters literally live at the corner of Maple and Willoughby streets (a gag on the episodes "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" (a direct antecedent to "The Trigger Effect") and "Last Stop, Willoughby" (which has nothing at all to do with this film, but is still a nice touch for those who feel this film is a direct lift from "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street") and is filmed in very sparse and minimalist ways to highlight the tension and agitation of the characters.

The key scene in this film comes fairly early, when all bets for civilized society are called off... this scene, when Matt (Kyle MacLachlan) attempts to get amoxicilin for his little infant girl (ear infection, very painful and made excruciating in the prior scene with Elizabeth Shue's character holding the crying girl during heatwave-like conditions inside the home). The pharmacist will not let him have it... plain and simple. The electricity does not work, the phones are also screwed and the doctor cannot verfiy the prescription... therefore, no medicine no matter how much pleading and cajoling Matt can attempt with the larger man behind the counter... as the scene progresses it turns ugly, a microcosm of just how frayed our civil attitudes have become in this day of technology handling just about everything for us. It's tense, it's upsetting, and it works very, very well without one punch thrown or one drop of blood spilled, a credit to Koepp's burgeoning (at the time) directorial skills.

The film kind of falls apart about 3/4's of the way through... it tries to wrap things up a little too neatly, but in the end, it's a satisfying film for those that like their thrillers with an apocalyptic edge (the film reminded me, just a bit, of the nuclear war thrillers of the 1980's including "The Day After," "Testament" and "Threads"... especially "Threads").

It's not corny, but it's not a masterpiece either... instead it's a competently written film with a first-time director (who wrote it) who pulls off the thrills on a tight budget. Worth a rental, if not a buy (especially at a price of under $10).

Rating:
Summary: A darn good little thriller...
Review: What can you say about movies that seemingly fly under the radar of most folks' awareness?? I think most people missed out on this one from the late '90s.

This was filmed as David Koepp's calling card into feature films as a director (having already written "Carlito's Way" and "Jurrasic Park," among other terrific films) and it is very light on action and very character driven... obviously budget gets in the way of major action set pieces, but that should never be an obstacle to good characters and plausible writing... Koepp handles all those chores adeptly and keeps a very good pace going... While his characters decide what to do when the blackout hits (and then lingers for days, and days, and days and...) you never feel as if their actions are out-of-line with reality and what people might do under the very same conditions.

This is a taut thriller, but hardly of the depth of Hitchcock's work. Instead, the film is an elaborate "Twilight Zone" episode (and gives its nods to Rod Serling's classic anthology show in both visual and verbal gags... the characters literally live at the corner of Maple and Willoughby streets (a gag on the episodes "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" (a direct antecedent to "The Trigger Effect") and "Last Stop, Willoughby" (which has nothing at all to do with this film, but is still a nice touch for those who feel this film is a direct lift from "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street") and is filmed in very sparse and minimalist ways to highlight the tension and agitation of the characters.

The key scene in this film comes fairly early, when all bets for civilized society are called off... this scene, when Matt (Kyle MacLachlan) attempts to get amoxicilin for his little infant girl (ear infection, very painful and made excruciating in the prior scene with Elizabeth Shue's character holding the crying girl during heatwave-like conditions inside the home). The pharmacist will not let him have it... plain and simple. The electricity does not work, the phones are also screwed and the doctor cannot verfiy the prescription... therefore, no medicine no matter how much pleading and cajoling Matt can attempt with the larger man behind the counter... as the scene progresses it turns ugly, a microcosm of just how frayed our civil attitudes have become in this day of technology handling just about everything for us. It's tense, it's upsetting, and it works very, very well without one punch thrown or one drop of blood spilled, a credit to Koepp's burgeoning (at the time) directorial skills.

The film kind of falls apart about 3/4's of the way through... it tries to wrap things up a little too neatly, but in the end, it's a satisfying film for those that like their thrillers with an apocalyptic edge (the film reminded me, just a bit, of the nuclear war thrillers of the 1980's including "The Day After," "Testament" and "Threads"... especially "Threads").

It's not corny, but it's not a masterpiece either... instead it's a competently written film with a first-time director (who wrote it) who pulls off the thrills on a tight budget. Worth a rental, if not a buy (especially at a price of under $10).