Playing God

Bomb Rating: 

This is another one of those films which derives its hipness from a total disregard for the horror of human suffering.

Timothy Hutton the supervillain -- now this is a case of seriously bad casting. If I'm walking down a dark alley in the middle of some seedy downtown area and I run into Ving Rhames, I'm scared. I'm very scared. Maybe this is because he's big. Maybe this is because he's black. Maybe this is because he's bald. Maybe it's a combination of all three, but I'm scared. Now if I'm walking down a dark alley and I run into Timothy Hutton, I'm thinking maybe I'm going to be offered some girl scout cookies.

Fortunately for Raymond Blossom (Hutton) and movies like this, the Lord gave us guns, which offer even the most bony-legged wimps a chance to push people around. Raymond and his friends use them but, as is often the case with guns, come to find themselves on the wrong end of the barrel . Dr. Eugene Sands (David Duchovny) witnesses the shooting of one of Raymond's friends and saves his life, prompting Raymond to give Sands a job as his personal surgeon. Since Sands has lost his license and thinks Raymond's girlfriend (Angelina Jolie) is about the hottest little candy striper he's ever seen, he accepts.

This is another one of those films which derives its hipness from a total disregard for the horror of human suffering. In the most disingenuous way possible, the filmmakers insist that the characters' situations necessitate incredible amounts of shooting and blood and death. Thus, everything that happens has the emotional sincerity of a Promise Keepers gathering.

It's also about as entertaining.