Everything to Gain (Nothing To Lose (DVD))

Member Name: Ophelia

Product:	Nothing To Lose (DVD)
Date:	02/09/03 (108 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great acting, very funny

Disadvantages: None

The buddy movie genre is well established; we?ve had the loner cop paired with the rookie, the lazy cop with the anal retentive, we?ve even had the cop partnered with a dog. This comedy starring Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence is a buddy movie with a difference.

Tim Robbins plays a man for whom life seems to be going well. He has a successful job and a beautiful wife until one day he comes home from work early to find his wife in bed with his boss. He leaves the house and drives off, preoccupied with his thoughts.

While stopped at a junction, crook, Martin Lawrence, jumps into Robbins? car and attempts to rob him. However, he has chosen the wrong man on the wrong day and Robbins, by now slightly unhinged by his recent discovery succeeds in terrifying the robber and imprisoning him in the car for the ride of his life.

It will come as no surprise to learn that the two men slowly form a friendship with Lawrence providing romance advice and Robbins lecturing Lawrence on robbing technique. They come up with a plan to get rich and get revenge; they will break into Robbins? boss? safe and walk away with millions of dollars.

There are interesting and unexpected plot twists and numerous colourful and genuinely hysterical comic moments at which you cannot fail to laugh out loud.

Memorable incidents are frequent, such as when Robbins (who earlier spilt petrol on his feet while filling up the car) jumps from the car to rid himself of a tarantula that is crawling on his head and while jigging around in a desperate attempt to remove it dances over a book of matches, striking them and setting fire to his own feet!

At one point they rob a store manned by an elderly gentleman. Lawrence takes the traditional robber approach littering his language with colourful and threatening expletives. Robbins (with the salesperson in view) starts to point out how clichéd his performance is and attempts a more psychologically threatening
approach with the cashier. The elderly man is soon giving them constructive criticism on which is the most scary and, as Robbins shouts at a customer on their way out of the store, the old man calls after him, ?That was much scarier!?

Robbins straight performance of a normal guy who has lost it in the heat of the moment contrasts well with Lawrence?s usual madcap attitude and relaxed performance. Robbins straight-laced character begins to relax in the company of Lawrence?s laid-back persona. The two very different actors work well together and the comedy flows and is enhanced by the fact that they laugh at each other as well as with each other.

No comedy film could quite condone robbery and violence without some sort of justification. Robbins original attitude towards Lawrence displays his disapproval of law breaking and as the film progresses we learn that Lawrence has obviously become a desperate man; in his house Robbins finds countless job application refusals. We meet Lawrence?s lovely wife and very, very cute children. Cue gunfire and a comment from the wife that ?We need to get out of this area?. Not exactly subtle but, within the realms of the comic genre, justification enough for our hero to be a little the wrong side of the law.

As for Robbins, he has always been a good citizen and he is under obvious strain. We can forgive him much considering his current circumstances and the crime he is planning, aside from the benefit of money, is chiefly an act of revenge against the boss who has stolen his wife.

The film is definitely a hit. The script and storyline are good; I would go so far as to say that the plot is one of the best in a buddy movie that I have seen. The film is genuinely funny and raises true bellyaching laughs. The actors are good and seem comfortable on screen with each other and within the roles they play.

You must watch this film. Go on, you have nothing to lose!

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