F/X & F/X2: The Grande Illusion
Directed by Robert Mandel/Richard Franklin.
Starring Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Tom Noonan, Rachel Ticotin, Kevin J. O’Connor, Mason Adams, Roscoe Orman, Tom Mason, Cliff De Young, Martha Gehman, and Jerry Orbach.
SYNOPSIS:
Box set featuring the two special effects-themed action thrillers starring Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy.
The idea of a special effects-driven thriller is a very potent one, as just imagine what sort of capers you could get up to if, say, someone got shot in public, but it was all a rouse. Perish the thought that it should ever happen, but it is a cool idea for a movie and in 1986 – when practical effects were in a golden period – we were treated to F/X (or F/X: Murder by Illusion, to give it its full title), a thriller that sees special effects maestro Roland ‘Rollie’ Tyler (Bryan Brown) get hired by a shadowy government agency to fake the public shooting of mafia boss-turned-snitch Nicholas DeFranco (Jerry Orbach) The Godfather-style, in a restaurant with plenty of witnesses, so the people DeFranco is testifying against think he is dead.
Rollie is reluctant but takes the job on, working with DeFranco and fiery Agent Lipton (Cliff De Young) to make it look convincing, which it does but once Rollie has ‘killed’ the mob boss Lipton turns a gun on him, forcing Rollie to fight for his life before going on the run, which brings in investigating detective Leo McCarthy (Brian Dennehy) to try and piece together what has been happening, who Agent Lipton and his boss Colonel Mason (Mason Adams) really are, and how he and Rollie can put it all right again.
In essence a buddy movie but one where the buddies don’t really share a great deal of screen time together, F/X has sort of been forgotten about amongst the plethora of similarly toned crime thrillers from the 1980s, which is a shame because it is probably one of the most entertaining, mainly down to the presence of Bryan and Brian, who both possess the necessary charisma and acting chops to carry the conventional, if a little thin, plot and make it more than it really is.
Despite being called F/X and leaning into the idea of creating illusions, there aren’t really that many special effects going on other than blood squibs, fake beards and, for some reason, a large troll-like monster that Rollie likes to surprise visitors to his apartment with. It is all basic level stuff and used sparingly as and when the plot requires it, which is probably better than if the filmmakers had overdone it and ended up with everyone wearing disguises in every scene like a Mission: Impossible parody, and it does raise the question about whether a movie like this could be done today, what with the advancements in prosthetics and what people are prepared to believe with their own eyes. Food for thought there…
Unfortunately, the ideas presented in the movie weren’t capitalised on for a sequel until five years later, by which time Total Recall was the top-level standard for practical effects and Terminator 2 was looming on the horizon to take things further in both the effects department and for action movies as a whole. F/X2 (or F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion) arrived in 1991 to little fanfare, but it did see Bryan and Brian return, and this time the two got to share a lot more screen time together, so somebody took notice of the screen chemistry they had.
Rollie has now left the special effects business and has become a toymaker, using his skills to create animatronic toys that can copy the movements of somebody wearing a special suit – wonder if that will become useful in any way before the end of the movie? Anyway, he is asked by Mike (Tom Mason), the cop ex-husband of his girlfriend Kim (Rachel Ticotin), to help set up a honey trap to lure in a killer, which he does but things go wrong and Mike gets killed, and not by the killer they were trying to trap. Because of this, Rollie becomes involved in an elaborate plot involving coins stolen from the Vatican and he must protect Kim and her young son, calling on his old pal Leo – who is now a private detective – to help.
Less effects-driven than its predecessor, F/X2 does feel like too little too late and that it should have come out three years before, but it is still an entertaining, if a little convoluted, watch. Thankfully, Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy are on top form and carry the movie along which, had it been a pairing that didn’t bounce quite so well off each other, would have been a lot more painful to sit through.
There are a few familiar faces that pop up throughout, like Total Recall’s Rachel Ticotin and The Mummy’s Kevin J. O’Connor, but it seems that only Bryan and Brian got the memo about being a little more light-hearted with the dialogue, as everyone else is pitching it a little more seriously, and given how twisty the drawn-out plot is, the tonal inconsistencies are a little jarring and the movie just doesn’t give off the same energy, especially when neither of the two leads are on the screen. With that in mind, Brian Dennehy doesn’t show up until about 45 minutes in so it is left to Bryan Brown to carry the first act, which he does well as Rollie is such a likeable character, and when he does show up Dennehy is given a lot more to do this time, so it does seem like someone was trying to iron out the wrinkles to get the balance right, but the clunky script just never lets it all flow as well as it should.
Coming backed with video essays, audio commentaries – each movie gets one by Dan Martin of 13 Finger FX and filmmaker Jennifer Handorf, which are well worth listening to – and archive featurettes, this is a decent package of a series that doesn’t really get enough love or reference, and despite a lack of more relatively recent bonus material from the two leads or either directors, there is enough to sink your teeth into should you require it. As movies, though, they do entertain in that throwaway fun way that 1980s action thrillers do but prepare to lower your quality threshold for the second one. F/X, however, is still a hoot.
Flickering Myth Rating – F/X: Murder by Illusion – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Flickering Myth Rating – F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
