This week on Back to the Beach, the Cinapse team hits the beaches of Hawaii for murder and mayhem.
Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
I have to confess, when I threw out A Perfect Getaway as an option for beach month I wasn’t necessarily hoping it would get picked. We were spitballing ideas and there were plenty of great options already on the board. I just wanted to suggest a movie that hadn’t been mentioned yet. I revisited A Perfect Getaway just under two years ago (according to my Letterboxd), for the first time since the film was in theaters. That rewatch was quite rewarding, as the movie is evening more entertaining than my faded, decade-old memories told me it was. A Perfect Getaway is a total blast. It’s fiendishly plotted and set against a lush Hawaiian backdrop. It’s the kind of movie where you watch it and desperately want to be there. Just, you know, without the looming threat of murder. Alas. A Perfect Getaway is a delightful piece of escapist entertainment and I’m excited to see what the team thinks of it.
Eddie Strait
This marks the third time I’ve watched A Perfect Getaway and I have to say I’m more amused by David Twohy’s twisty concoction than I’ve ever been. A Perfect Getaway is a game that places viewers in the middle as active participants. Twohy’s playful direction and mischievous writing excels at keeping the characters and viewers off-balance. It’s a cat-and-mouse thriller where Twohy is the cat and everyone else is a mouse, running from one setup to the next. Like many great B-movies, A Perfect Getaway knows exactly what kind of movie it wants to be. It doesn’t aspire to be anything more than a sun soaked mystery with twists that will stick in your craw like beach sand.
What better setup for a movie than a newlywed couple stuck on a Hawaiian island with reports of murders on the loose and surrounded by suspicious strangers? The cast is lively, with Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovich, Timothy Olyphant, Kiele Sanchez, Marley Shelton, and Chris Hemsworth feasting on Twohy’s devilish script. It’s hard to tell who’s having the most fun here. Perhaps it’s Olyphant as an ex-marine and his stream of survival and amatuer screenwriting advice. Although it’s hard to top Zahn’s work as Cliff, a screenwriter who seems to be in a constant state of exasperation. On this watch, Jovovich takes the crown for me. As Cydney, Jovovich gets the most notes to play. She has this kid-in-a-candy-store enthusiasm that is undeniable. In a movie designed to keep viewers off-kilter, Jovovich’s performance provides a false sense of stability from which she, and Twohy, always has the upper hand. Everyone onscreen is having a blast, the type that is infectious and draws the viewers in. By the end of the movie it’s obvious to me that the real winners here are the viewers. One of the most satisfying feelings you can get from a movie like this is the sensation that you’re in the hands of a master manipulator. Twohy delivers on that over and over again. He’s constantly throwing the characters and viewers off the scent and doing so with a wink and a smile.
(@eddie_strait on Xitter)
Frank Calvillo
Aside from containing what may be the best performance Timothy Olyphant ever put to film, A Perfect Getaway remains a memorable piece of well-crafted popcorn entertainment for a number of reasons. Chief among A Perfect Getaway’s attributes is its existence as a true 21st century B-movie. With a cast full of high B-list actors, a story that’s pulpy, yet diverting, and a mother of a twist in its third act, the movie is the quintessential alternative to the kind of overly-polished studio fare that seems to dominate the summer movie box-office. Speaking of that twist, even those who see it coming early on (such as your’s truly who figured it out thanks to an incredibly stupid and incidental reason), the level of suspense and action that springs up as a result of the reveal only amps up the overall enjoyment of the experience and takes its audience to places they might not readily see coming.
Visually, the movie’s lush, paradise-like settings provide the perfect juxapostion to the terror surrounding the main characters and the core four people placed at the center of the action are each well-drawn just enough to make them feel believable and compelling. This is due in no small part to the collection of great performances from a quartet of actors who are all turning in characterizations the likes of which they seldom have before. A Perfect Getaway is also one of those films whose extended cut is should have been the one to play in theaters. While some may find the extra material (available on the home video release) superfluous, the scenes do give some nuance and unexpected poetry to the overall movie, which is extremely unexpected given the nature of the movie as a whole. Great performances, an adrenaline-fueled action/mystery, and paradise-level surroundings all conspire to make A Perfect Getaway the kind of late summer genre gem that comes along only once in a very long while.
(@frankfilmgeek on Xitter)
Justin Harlan
I’m currently resisting the urge to just type “it was fine” and nothing else, but the movie does deserve more than that. I find myself a bit disappointed, despite mostly enjoying the film. “Why?” you ask. Simple, it had a great cast of genre stalwarts and an extremely interesting premise. Sadly, the overall execution left me feeling that the finished product was a good deal lesser than the sum of its parts.
I can’t pinpoint one primary issue, but I left the experience feeling like it was a decent enough thriller which had the potential to be a stellar one. Perhaps a double feature at the theater just a day prior where I took in Longlegs and MaXXXine was to blame for setting my expectations too high… but alas… A Perfect Getaway was “fine”.
(@thepaintedman on Xitter)
CINAPSE GOES BACK TO THE BEACH!
Every week in July, we’ll be headed to the beach. Sometimes it’ll be fun, other times it’ll be a difficult journey, and yet other weeks it may end up deadly! Join us this month by reaching out to any of the team or emailing [email protected]!
July 22nd – Evil Under the Sun
July 29th – Club Dread
