Metro

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Michael Rappaport, Carmen Ejogo, Michael Wincott, Donal Logue, Kim Miyori
Directed by: Thomas Carter
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Comedy
1997

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: A hostage negotiator (Eddie Murphy) works to track down a thief (Michael Wincott) who killed his boss.

Review:

Tim: I've seen Metro twice, two decades apart. I didn't remember much from the first viewing by the second viewing, outside of the fact that it wasn't a very good movie. I remember being bored and thankful when it ended. I have probably softened somewhat on my stance in those ensuing decades. I still wouldn't call this a good movie (it is deeply flawed), but the issues are mostly with it being generic and overly long. Otherwise, it's a decent movie and an attempt for Murphy to do something a little different. This is a decent movie.

The biggest problem I had is that the movie is overly long. It desperately needed to be cut down. The movie clocks in at 1 hour, 57 minutes- it's easily 15 minutes too long. The pacing and structure of the movie are off, too. At just over an hour, there's a pretty incredible action sequence (more on that in a minute) and it feels like the movie could have wrapped up there. When that scene ends, the movie goes on for another 50 minutes! This is a case of a movie peaking too early. Nothing in the last 50 minutes comes close to that high. This really hurts the movie because it's all downhill the back half of the film. The first half of the movie is significantly stronger than the latter. That makes sense- that's why I remember the movie being so long and was so happy when it concluded.

The first half of the movie is actually pretty good. Eddie Murphy plays a talented hostage negotiator. It's actually a lot of fun to see him work. The opening scene's hostage negotiation is entertaining and intense. It does a good job of establishing his character. I really enjoyed Murphy in that light. The hostage negotiation scenes are especially strong. The movie starts to fall apart with the antagonist- a jewel thief who's also a coldblooded killer. Michael Wincott is an expert at playing villains, so his performance was good- his character and story were beyond lackluster, though. For what it's worth, the movie does benefit from these two- Murphy is such a likeable actor, he's always fun to watch. Wincott is instantly unlikable and has this dangerous edge to him. They were both solid.

The first half of the film builds to the highlight of the movie, the quite strong action scene on board the runaway trolley. I remember liking the scene the first time around, but I appreciated it much more the second time. It's a well-shot action sequence that uses the location of San Francisco to full effect. It's intense, entertaining, and thrilling. It felt like a worthwhile climactic action scene. The car chase in the beginning, trying to get onto the trolley, the flipping cars, the trolley smashing into cars... it's all quite good. I really, really enjoyed that scene. The odd thing is that it feels like the movie should have been over, but it just keeps going.

Carmen Ejogo was good in her role. She's an underrated actress. She worked well, especially since her character wasn't handled well enough. She's too often the damsel in distress. Her relationship with Murphy's character is at the heart of the movie, but it's resolved far too quickly and conveniently. On the positive side, this movie did spend far more time diving into their relationship than your typical action movie. Those scenes allowed Ejogo and Murphy to act, to banter, to help us understand their characters better. The movie benefits from that. Michael Rappaport is good here, too. I've always felt this weird like/dislike toward Rappaport. I have zero complaints about his performance here.

Metro gets a bad rap from critics, and I acknowledge some of that is warranted. However, this isn't a bad movie at all- it's just a completely generic one. If I'd rated the movie the first time through, I'd likely have given it a 6. I felt a bit better about it the second time, so I adjusted up half a percent. This is a decent movie (which is good), but it should have been better (which is bad). Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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