After Hours (1985)
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Final Destination Movie Review
After Hours is a 1985 black comedy film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Griffin Dunne and Rosanna Arquette. It’s such a mediocre movie.
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“What do you want from me? What have I done?
I’m just a word processor for Christ sake!“
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When he breaks his routine to meet a strange woman, Paul Hackett, an office worker, experiences a strange night where he finds himself in farcical circumstances. This movie is usually regarded as one of the most underrated Scorsese movies, but in my opinion this is yet another case of a film being renowned just for being made by a big name director. There is nothing in this film that amazed me as it is thoroughly unremarkable.
My main contention with After Hours is its genre classification. For what is regarded as a comedy, I did not laugh once. Even worse, I did not find its intentions to be humorous at all. This is much more so a noirish mystery than a black comedy, though even in that area the film is wildly uneven as it’s populated by unlikable, uninteresting personalities and a slim plot.
Griffin Dunne is a very unappealing actor to me personally and his Paul is a boring, annoying protagonist with no interesting personality traits whatsoever. Rosanna Arquette is somewhat memorable, but most of these female characters were just there to inflict pain or frustration upon the protagonist. There is a definite exploration of male sexuality and how women can subjugate men, but it was mostly symbolic and not potent enough in order for it to work.
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After Hours features very strong, artistic cinematography, a great score and competent directing. It’s a well acted, well made and atmospheric movie that is also quite stylish at times. However, technical aspects can only take you so far as you need a compelling story to make an impact, which this movie clearly lacked. This is one of those confusing, manic movies that are weird for the sake of being weird. Most of the situations that the protagonist gets himself into are ridiculous and thoroughly implausible and there is nobody here whom I could relate to, leaving me in the cold throughout.
After Hours is often regarded as one of the most underrated Scorsese movies, but just because this movie was made by a big name director doesn’t mean that it deserves so much praise. In fact, this is one of his worst movies as it lacked a compelling story and memorable characters to make any impact. It’s technically quite polished and even artistic, but strong audio-visuals can only take you so far. The movie is populated by unappealing characters and ridiculously implausible scenarios. It’s classified as a black comedy, which is the worst offender to me – not only is the movie never funny, but it doesn’t even try to be. Ironically, this isn’t Scorsese’s underrated masterpiece, but an overrated mess.
My Rating – 2.5
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#1. What other movies did Scorsese direct in the eighties?
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