Rating: 
Summary: RIGHT IDEA, WRONG EXECUTION
Review: As we journey with Michael Douglas in this excellent film, cant' we all identify with his frustration and anger? 85 cents for a can of soda? A store that won't give you change unless you buy something? Panhandlers looking for food, money and making you feel you owe it to them? People who think gays, blacks and other minorities are worthless? A fast food place that won't serve you breakfast even when they have tons of left overs they'll have to throw out? Wealthy old farts who think they own the golf course they pay membership in?
Yes, indeed, one can see why Douglas is so mad...it's just that his way of dealing with it is not one that we all should take.
Joel Schumacher's direction is right on, I think; people tend to like to pan Schumacher, when he has actually given us some vastly entertaining films. He knows what the audience wants and he knows that in FALLING DOWN, there can be no happy endings, so let's just enjoy Douglas getting revenge on people we'll never get a chance to!
Douglas is superb in the role, one of his best performances. Robert Duvall is very good in his role of the almost retired cop; Tuesday Weld is dazzling in her brief role as Duvall's wife; Rachel Ticotin does well in her role as Duvall's partner; John Diehl is very effective in his very brief role as the guy at the pool who offers to go with Douglas in order to protect his wife and child; and Barbara Hershey does wonders as Douglas' ex-wife.
Manipulative thought it may be, FALLING DOWN makes a statement, and makes one wonder what we would do if we snapped like Douglas!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but Flawed by a Substandard Director
Review: Joel Schumacher, the director best known for putting nipples on the Batsuit, and thus ruining a perfectly good franchise, is an expert at taking something good and turning it into trash. He is, in fact, the prime example of a moviemaker who could've been, but isn't ... in all aspects of the phrase."Falling Down" could've been an gripping drama with tons of social commentary tossed in. And for more than half of the film, Schumacher, with the help of an incredible performance by Michael Douglas, achieves this. Douglas's comments on the price of a can of soda reflect the frustration of the poor in rising inflation. His attack on the golf course, again, is a fist in the air for the needy in the United States. Not until Schumacher has Douglas shoot apart a telephone booth for the sake of shooting something to shreds does he lose the integrity of a good film. He is now out for bang and bucks, and from there, the whole movie goes somewhat downhill. Yet not entirely. Michael Douglas still keeps this film afloat. His performance, as mentioned before, is one of the actor's greatest, and will be remembered alongside his reptilian turn in "Wall Street." Robert Duvall is great as the cop on the brink of retirement - a film cliche, but workable here - and when the pair finally meet, the sparks fly. Yet in the meantime, Douglas's "comments" on society become more vague, or else they strike the viewer on the head with their obviousness. To mention the golf course scene again - Schumacher could've executed the comment beautifully without having Douglas burst into preachy prose. Subtlety is a skill Hollywood hasn't possessed since the birth of special effects. Everything is a hammer over the head. Moviemakers have no faith in their audience. They think we're stupid. While "Falling Down" is a vastly entertaining film that has a great re-watch value, it still leaves you feeling dissatisfied in the end. You want something more. And that something is exactly what Schumacher, as long as he keeps making films, cannot give you.
Rating: 
Summary: The ugly reality of L.A.
Review: Here's the story of a simple man (played very well by Michael Douglas) who's life is crumbling around him. He's been layed-off for months now from the Defense Industry, a job he loved so much that he had his license plate personalized with the letters "D FENS". His marraige is over. He's been reduced to living with his mother, and is too ashamed to tell anyone that he's unemployed. He's been looking for work elsewhere but is "no longer economically viable", as you'll find out. He snaps and leaves his car sitting in a traffic jam on one of L.A.'s freeways. In the next 8hrs he goes from being a transparent man to a heavily-armed, camoflage-wearing vigilante who deals a heavy hand to anyone who gets in his way. And in the streets of L.A., it's not hard to find someone who wants to get in your way. Robert Duvall plays an L.A. Robbery Detective who just happens to be working his last day before retirement. He's chastised for having taken a desk job after a shooting incident, at the insistence of his wife (the only character in this movie I couldn't stand). And he realizes most of his fellow cops won't miss him for long when he retires. But, he's the only cop who links several violent crimes on that day to the vigilante defense worker. He further redeems himself by tracking down and stopping the vigilante. At the same time, he rescues his boys from his wife's purse and takes a stand for once in his life. You'll find yourself cheering for the vigilante as he leaves death and destruction in his wake. And at the same time, you can't help but feel sorry for him because his life is falling apart, hence the film's appropriately-named title, "Falling Down". I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. 4+ stars. If you liked this Joel Schumacher movie, I recommend one of his newest films, "Phone Booth".
Rating:
Summary: How two different people respond to the horror of urban life
Review: I reviewed this movie 5 years ago for VHS and had not visited LA at that time. 5 years and 2 visits hence, I felt the need to review this feature again for DVD. Michael Douglas(as Bill "D-FENS" Foster)is a man who paid his dues and bought into the American Dream in a place once considered the Promised Land- Los Angeles, CA. It's definitely not the LA of old, the magical place where the weather is warm and the skies are blue. It is not difficult to sympathize with Bill as he plugs on through a dirty urban wasteland with one thought in his bewildered mind...to see his daughter, his hope for the future. It is a lesson for us all to be a little more civilized and a little more empathetic to the ones who find it harder to adapt...Otherwise there will be more Bill Fosters...And far more lethal than he was. Robert Duvall (as Officer Prendergast) is a man who but for the grace of a Higher Power could have ended up a casualty like Bill. He understands the life of quiet frustration that Bill has had to lead, yet he tries with all his might to adapt to the misfortune that is 1990s' Los Angeles. Prendergast realizes that he must NOT be seduced into the abyss of savagery that has subsumed Bill. FALLING DOWN is the classic story of a black-and-white moralist who cannot distinguish the various shades of gray that our world has become. In my opinion the most important message of this movie is how two men with very similar backgrounds deal with the challenges of urban life, whether in L.A., NYC or any other metropolis. THIS is what separates the "good guy" from the "bad guy" in modern society and asks YOU--the viewer--this question: Are you the problem or the solution?
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