Review: GO

LOOKING FOR THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE? HERE YOU ‘GO’

(reviewed at marple 10)

    It’s truly rare to go to the movies and have a great time. To just sit back, relax, and feel the energy come right off of the screen and make you smile. ‘Go’, Doug Liman’s new Tarantino-esque comedy has that pure cinema gold energy.
    I had this revelation about halfway through the film. Three L.A. hoods are in a Vegas hotel parking garage. The catch? They’re being chased by guys for reasons that’d spoil the film. The chasers are right on their ass. The one hood driving the car happens to be a bozo Brit who doesn’t exactly know how to drive. The Brit floors the car up a ramp and out of the garage. The car lunges into the air and out onto The Strip. As soon as the car lands and pulls off a screeching hair pin turn the song ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ pumps in through the speakers. I haven’t felt this thrillingly alive in cinema since ‘Pulp Fiction’.
    Sarah Polley is a supermarket 9-5er cashier who needs mucho dough for her rent. After pulling a 14 hour (has to be non-union) shift she’s asked by the same Brit I wrote about above to take his shift. See the Brit has connections, drug connections. Two dudes show up (Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf) that want, no, need drugs that only the Brit can hook up. The dudes ask the cashier if she can get them the 20 hits of ecstasy they need. That’s more or less how the movie starts.
    To add even more It’s-A-Pulp-Fiction-Rip-Off insult to injury, the film is divided into three stories chronicling characters and their stories during one long and action packed night. The cashier’s night spins the first tale, the second story involves the Brit and his adventure in Vegas, and the somewhat faltering third tale involves the dudes who were looking for ecstasy.
    Add two horny bridesmaids, a tough ass bouncer, a wild Christmas rave party, and plenty of drugs, sex, and violence, and you’re starting to understand what ‘Go’ exactly is.
    Doug Liman shot and directed ‘Go’, with a great script by some dude named John August. Liman had previously made the hilarious 4-star affair, ‘Swingers’, but for my money that was more John Favreau’s film that Liman’s. While John August should get the credit for the way-cool labyrinthine plot, the humor, and the numerous story twists, Liman deserves all the credit in the world for bringing this script alive, and brilliantly alive at that. Without his fast camera work, insane drug-induced visuals, and break-neck “rave”-style editing, the film just wouldn’t be the movie it is.
    It’s alive with attitude, and hilarious and cool at that. This is one of the best rides in years, one of the films that you kick back and have a blast with. And even though the third story arc falters a bit, the middle section is filmmaking at it’s greatest, and ‘Go’ as a whole will most definitely put your faith back into the art. ***1/2