It takes some guts to remake Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, so I'll give the film that, but it felt completely cosmetic, with nothing ever really sinking in. That's started with the casting of Richard Gere and Valerie Kaprisky, who, while steaming things up in their nude scenes, both turned in poor performances. From the moment we see Gere hamming it up while singing along to Jerry Lee Lewis's title song in the Porsche he's stolen at the beginning of the film, we know it's going to be a rocky road relative to acting. (I wondered if he had ever heard that song before shooting that scene). He overacts even when runs around bare-chested later in the film, which is often.
The characters these two play are hard to feel a connection for too. Karpisky's is shapeless and weak, and Gere's is a total bore. He's annoyingly jealous and controlling on top of it. You know, because he "loves" Kaprisky's character so much. I never for a second felt or believed that between the two of them. Why in god's name would she go with him to Mexico? Why in god's name would we care about these characters? There are no answers to these questions that I could see.
Mercifully, missing is the original film's lengthy scene in the hotel room with Godard's banal dialogue; instead, we get the profound musings of the Silver Surfer, which was preferable. There are lots of classic cars that Gere's character steals, classic 50's rock & roll, and nice scenery around Los Angeles, including Rip Cronk's original homage to Botticelli, Venice on the Half-Shell (1978). James Hong makes a small appearance late. They are all little things, but the only things I really liked here. The ending was so cheesy and bad that it knocked my score down even further.
The characters these two play are hard to feel a connection for too. Karpisky's is shapeless and weak, and Gere's is a total bore. He's annoyingly jealous and controlling on top of it. You know, because he "loves" Kaprisky's character so much. I never for a second felt or believed that between the two of them. Why in god's name would she go with him to Mexico? Why in god's name would we care about these characters? There are no answers to these questions that I could see.
Mercifully, missing is the original film's lengthy scene in the hotel room with Godard's banal dialogue; instead, we get the profound musings of the Silver Surfer, which was preferable. There are lots of classic cars that Gere's character steals, classic 50's rock & roll, and nice scenery around Los Angeles, including Rip Cronk's original homage to Botticelli, Venice on the Half-Shell (1978). James Hong makes a small appearance late. They are all little things, but the only things I really liked here. The ending was so cheesy and bad that it knocked my score down even further.