Go (1999)
Directed by Doug Liman
A supermarket clerk decides to step in for an absent drug dealer, setting off an explosive, comedic chain of events.
14 connections found
View:
14 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Go to
Go is a rave-generation joyride, a kind of junior Pulp Fiction that courses along on waves of freedom and excitement.
Go is the latest piece of high-octane eye candy aimed squarely at members of the infamous Generation X. Fast-paced and often witty, but ultimately vapid, Go borrows heavily both in rhythm and approach from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
The outrageous antics of the just-say-"Go" generation are the engine driving the latest furiously paced, perversely entertaining "Pulp Fiction" for puppies.
The non-linear structure, adding a poetic edge to something so disposable, led directly to films like Boogie Nights, Go and Snatch in the following years.
What's lost a lot in the conversation is that Go is no mere rip-off of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction from five years previous, something that's clearer now that we're a decade-and-a-half--holy Christ!--removed from Pulp Fiction, so that it's that much easier to distinguish the cheap knock-offs that erupted in its wake from movies like Go that are far more unique.
From acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" to hip filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and "Jackie Brown" and including other films such as "Courage Under Fire" and the recent "Hilary and Jackie," audiences nearly always get a kick out of films that slam on their cinematic brakes, back up, and then tell the same story again but from another perspective.
And so the heist half of “Baby Driver” plays like one of those wildly eccentric ’90s-era crime movies, à la Doug Liman’s “Go” or pretty much anything from Tarantino at that time.
And now it makes sense that “American Ultra” takes place in a town called Liman, W.V.—perhaps it’s an homage to Doug Liman ’s “ The Bourne Identity ,” with some druggy nuggets of one of the director’s earliest films, “Go.”
The movie compares favorably with Doug Liman ’s “Go,” another late-night waffle run of a movie that didn’t let the modest budget and lack of big set pieces kill the momentum.
After Dale witnesses a shooting, the two stoners and their cache of Pineapple Express get wrapped into a crime comedy-drama that's two parts Cheech and Chong and one part "To Live and Die in L.A.." It's reminiscent in tone of Doug Liman's underrated druggie dramedy "Go," except this movie is way less tightly paced, and has almost no major female characters.
Advertisement
…think of it as the union of Go and Snatch…
It’s as if the director watched Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction , Doug Liman’s Go , Guy Ritchie’s Snatch , and Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces and thought he’d try to use Isaka’s source material as the base ingredient in a stew that would be an homage to all of those 1990s and early 2000s crowd-pleasers.
The downside to such comparisons, of course, is that there have been any number of films in the last 14 years that have attempted to recapture the spirit of that enormously influential work by utilizing those very same ingredients and while some of them have turned to be entertaining enough pastiches (I remain a committed fan of Doug Liman’s wonderful “Go” and Guy Ritchie’s first two features, “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch”), the vast majority of them have been irritating, foul-mouthed and self-consciously “edgy” disasters along the lines of “Things to Do In Denver When You’re Dead,” “Lucky Number Slevin” and “Smokin Aces.”
Much like Go or certain portions of Pulp Fiction, we see the same period of time repeatedly from different characters’ points of view…
Advertisement
Director Doug Liman, who did "Swingers" and "Go" before becoming an action guy with "The Bourne Identity" and "Mr.
This is a surprise because the film was directed by Doug Liman, a filmmaker whose previous efforts (including “Go” and “The Bourne Identity”) has shown him to have a certain flair for putting together complicated narratives and kinetic action scenes into a final product that plays absolutely coherently as you watch it (though many questions may come to mind the minute you hit the parking lot afterwards).
This incoherent, unimaginative and silly sci-fi thriller about teleporters is based on the novel by Steven Gould and is directed by Doug Liman ("Go"/"Swingers"/"Mr. & Mrs. Smith"), a once promising filmmaker who has now settled nicely into a mediocre Hollywood career.
The film signifies a need for a career intervention for director Doug Liman, who started as an exciting indie filmmaker with "Swingers" and "Go" but then made the speedy but hollow action flicks "The Bourne Identity" and "Mr.
It should be a way-cool kick in the pants, but Liman -- who made his name directing such hyper-caffeinated films as "Go" and "The Bourne Identity" -- dispenses with even the most visceral pleasures of pulp, rendering "Jumper" oddly lifeless.
2. Could Liman — director of "Swingers," "Go," "The Bourne Identity" and "Mr.
Before Liman helmed big-budget actioners such as “The Bourne Identity” and the Cruise-starring “Edge of Tomorrow,” he established himself as a talented quick-cut stylist with the culture-shaping buddy comedy “Swingers” (1996) and the underrated caper comedy “Go” (1999).
After breaking through with Swingers and Go , Liman made the leap to studio movies in 2002 with The Bourne Identity , which he personally convinced pulp titan Robert Ludlum to let him adapt—and returned the favor by chucking out most of the novel except for its premise.
The film has the frenetic, pop art sensibilities of Go, one of Liman’s earliest hits that ironically enough enamored me with Cruise’s ex-wife Katie Holmes .
Perhaps improbably, especially for a film starring a man who’s still one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, if not the biggest, it bears more resemblance to Liman’s scrappy 1999 debut Go than anything he’s made this century.
Director Doug Liman, who commanded Cruise’s best non- Impossible mission of the past decade with Edge Of Tomorrow , throws back to the jitters of his itchy earlier movies like Swingers and Go.
Its equally unpredictable director Doug Liman has shown he can make a more than handsome job of big-budget action thrillers and sci-fi ( The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow ) but he's never surrendered his indie sensibilities ( Swingers , Go and the recent The Wall ).