Plunkett and Macleane

Bomb Rating: 

Isn't it inspiring how the film industry values experience over nepotism?

In 1979, "Alien" was released and director Ridley Scott was in a bar somewhere in Hollywood or London when a woman came up to him and asked him who he was and what he did. Proudly, Scott pointed out who he was and what he had just done. Twenty years later, his son, Jake Scott, gets to direct his own movie. Isn't it inspiring how the film industry values experience over nepotism?

Lacking anything remotely representing a plot, the younger Scott plants his movie in the late 18th or early 19th century -- I forget and I don't really care -- in England. Plunkett (Robert Carlyle) and Macleane (Johnny Lee Miller) hook up and start robbing people, which is something of an irony, considering how you'll feel after seeing this film. Scott uses lots of camera work and lots of music to try to make you forget that you couldn't care less about anyone or anything in the film.

The two are hunted by Chance (Ken Stott) who is the typical law enforcement person with an attitude, reminiscent of Javert from "Les Miserables." Macleane falls for Lord Gibson's (Michael Gambon) niece, Lady Rebecca (Liv Tyler), and she seems to like him, too, despite the fact that he robs her at gunpoint.

Frankly, I thought the best thing about this film was that Scott managed to avoid having any Aerosmith tunes in the soundtrack. If young Jake would like to use that bit of positivism from me on his resumé, he's welcome to it.

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