Go, 1999.
Directed by Doug Liman.
Starring William Fichtner, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr, Sarah Polley, Scott Wolf, J. E. Freeman, Breckin Meyer, and Timothy Olyphant.
SYNOPSIS:
Go makes its 4K Ultra HD debut courtesy of Arrow Video, which invested in a solid 4K restoration, some new bonus features, and a booklet. It’s a must-buy if you’re a fan of the film.
Die Hard remains my favorite Christmas movie, but if yours is Go, I’ll allow it. Released in 1999, this film was directed by Doug Liman, from a script by John August, and it features three intertwining plots whose characters’ stories go from bad to worse over the course of a day and a night close to the Christmas holiday.
The proceedings kick off with Ronna (Sarah Polley), a supermarket cashier who’s on the verge of being evicted from her apartment. Her co-worker Simon (Desmond Askew) wants to head to Vegas with some buddies and is desperate for someone to take his shift, so Ronna agrees, with the caveat that he pay her in advance for it.
When Adam (Scott Wolf) and Zack (Jay Mohr) show up at the supermarket hoping to buy ecstasy pills from Simon and end up talking to Ronna about it, she sees an opportunity and says she can get what they need. After work, she visits Simon’s dealer, Todd (Timothy Olyphant) to buy the pills, but she doesn’t have enough money for the full amount, so she leaves her friends with him as collateral while she attempts to scrounge up the additional cash.
Her evening goes awry from there, which leads to a cut to Simon and his friends on their way to Las Vegas. Their situation doesn’t go so well either, and Go cuts over to Adam and Zack, who have turned out to be working for the cops to help them bust drug dealers in exchange for a lighter sentence for their own drug-related charges. When they visit one of the officers’ homes for a Christmas dinner, they find themselves in their own difficult situation.
All three plotlines converge during the final act, leaving all of the characters worse for wear and still pretty much in the same situations they were in at the start of the movie. There aren’t much in the way of character arcs or lessons learned in Go, but that’s okay because the fun of this film is just wondering how all the harebrained schemes will go south, since you know they will. The theme seems very much in tune with the general sense of ennui us Gen Xers felt around the turn of the millennium.
While Go didn’t do well at the box office in 1999, it became a bit of a cult classic in the 25+ years since then, making it a great candidate for an Arrow release. The company commissioned a 4K restoration that looks great, along with three new bonus features and a booklet with essays by film critics David Michael Brown and Michelle Kisner.
Here are the extras:
• Audio Commentaries: You’ll find two of them here, an archival track with director Doug Liman and editor Stephen Mirroine and a new one with critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry. Both are worth your time, since the former gets into the nuts and bolts of making the film and the other puts it in context.
• From the Word Go (HD; 21:54): This movie was the first in the career of John August, who served as screenwriter, co-producer, and second unit director and has enjoyed a very productive career since then. He looks back on Go in this new interview.
• A View Askew (HD; 20:41): Another new interview, this one with actor Desmond Askew.
• Making of Featurette (HD; 6:22): One of those standard-issue featurettes that just skims the surface of the making of the film.
• God (HD; 11:23): John August made this short film during Go’s production. It stars Melissa McCarthy, who has a tiny role in the film, which was her big screen debut. An optional commentary track is included.
Finally, we have 25 minutes worth of deleted scenes that are in bad shape but still worth watching, am image gallery, and the theatrical trailer.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
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Brad Cook
