F/X

Movie Lottery 3-D was delayed a bit while my computer had a bout of laryngitis. Or cancer or hypothermia or something. It was sick. Now it's better. But while it was sick I could not access Netflix.
So, of course, when my computer was well again and I leapt back into Movie Lottery territory, out of the bucket came a movie I had on VHS and could have easily watched without the computer. Joke's on me?
Anyway.
A special effects artist is approached by a couple of men who work for the Witness Protection Program. They have a mobster in custody. He's going to testify for the FBI but, in order to make sure his enemies don't kill him first, they want to stage a very public assassination of said mobster. And they want the special effects guy to be the one to "kill" him.
Yeah, that sounds like a safe and trustworthy situation that couldn't possibly go wrong at all.
Once I managed to let go of the "Who would be dumb enough to take that job?" angle, I really enjoyed F/X. After the initial assassination it switches gears to people trying to kill the effects man and honest cops doing honest cop work (figuring out what the hell is going on, also trying to catch the effects man).
It was like a really long episode of a pretty good cop drama. And that was the only real problem I had with the movie. It goes on longer than I really thought it needed to (come on, extended car chase, were you really necessary? I have the attention span of ... someone who's attention span is somewhat limited) but it was entertaining almost the entire time. And the cast is chock full of familiar faces:
- that Australian guy who looks like if Michael Caine and Ryan Stiles had a baby
- Brian Dennehy
- Jerry Orbach
- Gordon from Sesame Street
- Joe Grifasi (whose name I had to look up, because I mostly just knew him as "That Guy!")
Playing "figure out why that guy looks familiar" is always a fun pastime when the movie is going on a bit too long. And where else are you going to hear Gordon call somebody an asshole? They don't allow that kind of language on Sesame Street.

End of line.
-Sally