Who Is Cletis Tout? (2001)

Director: Chris Ver Wiel
Starring: Christian Slater, Tim Allen, Portia de Rossi

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Well here's a movie that's aimed very directly at cinephiles but succeeds in only being a cutesy heist/mafia/romance film. We've got Christian Slater as our standard charming lead. If it hadn't've been him, the movie would be almost unwatchable. We've got Portia de Rossi as The Girl. There's nothing special about her part as written, and unfortunately Rossi doesn't bring a whole lot to the character. We've got Tim Allen as the quirky, film-loving hitman who quotes lines from famous movies and post-scripts these quotations with the title, year, and occasionally the company of the film in question. He also gives a pretty clear diagram of what the story structure is going to be as he ticks off necessities of a good story, and the film is sure enough happy to oblige in doing exactly these things. This means we know exactly what's going to happen before it actually happens in the narrative, and it also means the film almost explicitly states that it's going to be derivitive. It's structure is that of The Usual Suspects; Tim Allen interviews Christian Slater and almost all of the story proper takes place in flashback as Slater recounts his tale. As anyone who knows me can verify, I'm not a big fan of those films that don't conceal their references well--one of the main reasons I didn't jump for joy after seeing Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2. Although I have to commend Tout's honesty in its quotations of its films, I also have to condemn it for not trying anything new.

June 30-July 1
apartment TV, late night/early morning

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