Poll Position: Cape Fear

Alright friends, we have all read Jim’s review on “Cape Fear”, he did not seem to enjoy the movie all that much. But none the less I am here to share you my views on this movie. And before I get started I am glad to say, this is not my first Scorsese movie. I saw “Taxi Driver” earlier this year, and it also started Robert De Niro. Now I did not thoroughly enjoy that movie to the fullest, even though it did have some good parts in it. So because of this I was a bit recently to see this movie, fearing I might not like this. But click the jump to read what I thought.

Jim explained the story real well so I won’t bore you with redundancy. I thought the story was interesting, even though it is the boring old: I went to jail and now I’m gonna kill you. Maybe it wasn’t so much the story I liked, but the presentation of the story. I was not bored throughout this movie, nor was I overwhelmed. It was a good balance of thriller and action. But likewise with other Scorsese movies, the movie did not feel like it followed the traditional guideline of a story of a beginning, middle, climax and end. So this change was quite refreshing and kept me on the edge of my seat.

Cady with his former Lawyer

I liked the acting of both De Niro (Max Cady) and Juliette Lewis (Danielle Bowden, daughter of the lawyer). Cady was a psychotic serial rapist who presented himself as a well-educated man. I thought De Niro portrait Cady amazingly, and you see how the character evolved from well-mannered to a killer. Now the reason I say Juliette played Danielle amazingly is because she played a 15 year old convincingly, and that her chemistry with De Niro was astonishing. I completely felt that Danielle had Stockholm syndrome with Cady and I felt she was mentally f’ed up when she was around him. Though the father and mother of Danielle were mediocrely played and there is no point on bringing it up.

Thought I have mixed feelings on the ending. I will try to express my feelings without spoiling the movie but I thought it was a bit too long and stretched out. The reason was, even though there was action and plenty of it, there were too many twists in the movie. Something happens, and the tables have turned, and again, and again and again … You get my drift. This movie had more twists than an M. Night Shyamaln movie, though better twists. I guess this is good because it kept me on my feet, but after a while I just screamed at the TV, “Make up your mind!” It seemed there was a bunch of coin tossing between the writers to find a good solid ending and it just ended up being too complex.

Though overall I liked this movie. It was fun and entertaining. There were plenty of action parts and the suspense was present during the course of the movie. I wish they made a better ending to the movie, but hey what am I supposed to say. If there was a decision on what Scorsese movie was better, I would give it to this one, because I just had more fun with it. So yeah, go watch this movie and enjoy it. It is an intense thriller with solid acting.