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    Derailed

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    "Derailed" is a ridiculous thriller that only gets worse as it goes along. At first I was with this film and found it genuinely effective but the more you find out about what’s really going on, and the longer you witness our protagonist repeatedly drop the ball, the angrier you’ll get.

    Charles (Clive Owen) is in a failing marriage and his diabetic daughter is putting serious strains upon him. When he meets an attractive woman named Lucinda (Jennifer Aniston) on a train, they begin an affair. When Lucinda is the victim of a brutal crime, Charles finds himself in blackmailed and afraid for his life.

    The whole film depends on our hero being the most gullible, suggestible and idiotic victim of blackmail in the history of mankind. It becomes so infuriating you'll need to take breaks during the film to scream out in rage. With that brief setup, you might ask yourself some questions like "Why is Charles going along with this instead of calling the police? " The answer is: because he's a total moron. It doesn't take a genius to realise that the reason why a criminal would tell you "not to contact the police" is because the police would be able to solve the whole affair quickly. It also doesn't take a mastermind to realise that if you give a blackmailer some money, they're not going to go away. You almost want the blackmailer (Vincent Cassel) to succeed with his plot because you have no sympathy for someone who would be stupid enough to blindly follow the orders of the most transparent and one-dimensional villains ever seen on screen. He's so evil that he casually goes around beating up people (even in their own house), threatening people over the phone and even committing murder to get his blackmail money. I said you ALMOST want to cheer for the guy because he’s not even professional when it comes to his villainous deeds. He leaves blatant evidence of his crimes everywhere. It’s like he’s simply lucky that he happened upon the biggest pushover in the world to pick on.

    As the movie goes, there are several scenes that feel very awkward and create plot holes for later. In one scene that cements Charles as a total fool, he is speaking to a police officer when he gets a call from the blackmailer. It doesn't take a titan of intellect to think that maybe if you passed the phone onto the detective while making a "shh, just listen" motion, you would probably be able to set up the bad guy to confess his crimes to the police right there and then! This is a thriller that relies on some twists to keep itself going. It would be wrong to write down all of the scenes that have logical problems in them. That would just give away too much for those people who are determined not to listen to reason and avoid this film. I’ll just say that particularly towards the end the developments and surprises become increasingly obvious. It's hard to believe that the man who has been saving money for years for his daughter to get better would just throw it away, regardless of what could be exposed.

    I’ll give it to “Derailed” that I wanted to keep looking, so it is entertaining in its own way. Sure, it will drive you mad looking at these fools making the dumbest choices possible while dealing with this whole blackmail plot. You won't be able to turn it off though. It’s fascinating how the movie consistently tops its own stupidity. Other than that, Jennifer Anniston sure looks good trying to seduce Clive Owen and the performances are decent too.

    The plot of "Derailed" is utter nonsense but it does stay consistently interesting as it goes along. Even though the characters are surprisingly stupid you'll still be curious to see what happens to them. “Derailed” might not be good, I’d even say it’s awful, but there is some entertainment to be found here. (On Dvd, March 29, 2013)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  15.2.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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