Overall Rating
  Awesome: 50%
Worth A Look: 41.3%
Average: 2.17%
Pretty Bad: 4.35%
Total Crap: 2.17%
3 reviews, 28 user ratings
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| Zero Effect |
by Brian McKay
"Zero is my Hero, now where's the goddamn sequel?"
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You know those little gems you occasionally stumble upon in the video store? The movie you've never even remotely heard of, but something about the box cover, or the plot synopsis, or the cast, or all three, wins you over and you decide to gamble your five-day rental fee on it and take it home. And then you watch it and think "This movie is fucking great. What left field did it come from?"This is such a film. I found it in the new release section a few years back. Not in the regular new release section, where every movie has at least ten copies. No, it was in the "special" new release shelf, where it's all either shitty B-movies or pretentious art-fuck stuff -- and, if you dig deep enough, occasionally a great movie.
I don't care what anyone says, Bill Pullman is an awesome fucking actor. Let's overlook such silliness as "Independence Day" (Nobody could have elevated that overblown piece of shit) or "Mr. Wrong". Whether you love or hate films like "Lost Highway", can you deny that he's fucking brilliant in them? As Darryl Zero, private dick extroidinaire, Pullman has some of his most memorable moments. Whether you love or loathe "Zero Effect", you can't help but admit that Pullman brings gusto to the role
Darryl Zero (not his real name, of course) is the self-proclaimed "Greatest detective in the world". Though a brilliant detective, he is an antisocial recluse, like a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Howard Hughes in his later germ-counting days. Master of deduction, observation, and disguise, he shuts himself up in his penthouse apartment when he's not working, drinks a lot of Tab, writes really bad music, and generally makes the life of his assistant, Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller), a living hell.
On his latest case, Zero becomes involved with a blackmail victim (Ryan O'neal) and a gorgeious paramedic (Kim Dickens). That's about all I'm gonna tell you. Just rent this fucker. Stiller, as the straight man, is funnier here than in most of his films, and Pullman is a riot. Jake Kasdan, in his directorial debut, does a competent job as a writer as well. At the moment, the only things to his credit are some episodes of TV shows I've never seen and a couple of films in pre or post production, but if Zero Effect is any indication, he has a promising career ahead of him - even if he did get his big break because he's Lawrence Kasdan's kid.Not only is it hilarious, but it's a damn good detective story that has fun toying around with all the tired old conventions of the detective story.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=109&reviewer=258
originally posted: 07/09/01 16:02:11
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USA
30-Jan-1998 (R)
DVD: 14-Jul-1998
UK
N/A
Australia
06-Aug-1998 (MA)
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