I think you are probably looking at the wrong sort of film. Hot Fuzz or Mr. and Mrs. Smith are not in any sense realist films (you point this out yourself), and to demand that they conform to reality is to ignore the fact that they are examples of particular genres whose raison d'etre is that they are set aside from reality.
I would recommend smaller-scale movies which purport to deal with real characters in real situations - my favourite film of the past few years is The Beat That My Heart Skipped, about small-scale gangsters in Paris, one of whom wants to become a concert pianist. I suppose this isn't entirely realistic, but it is non-realistic rather than unrealistic, if you see the distinction. The characters aren't bullet-proof, for a start.
M and I went to see Eastern Promises yesterday, which is a film about slightly-larger-scale gangsters in London, not one of whom wants to become any sort of orchestral musician, but which isn't very good.
I suppose the problem is the attempt to balance film as entertainment against the Hollywood assumption that entertainment means excess. If you want slick genre thrillers which are less unrealistic than Mr. and Mrs. Smith, how about Michael Mann? I think we went to see Heat together in the cinema, and it's three hours long, but Collateral is quite a good film in which the violence is plot-driven rather than excessive.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-10-27 11:41 am (UTC)I would recommend smaller-scale movies which purport to deal with real characters in real situations - my favourite film of the past few years is The Beat That My Heart Skipped, about small-scale gangsters in Paris, one of whom wants to become a concert pianist. I suppose this isn't entirely realistic, but it is non-realistic rather than unrealistic, if you see the distinction. The characters aren't bullet-proof, for a start.
M and I went to see Eastern Promises yesterday, which is a film about slightly-larger-scale gangsters in London, not one of whom wants to become any sort of orchestral musician, but which isn't very good.
I suppose the problem is the attempt to balance film as entertainment against the Hollywood assumption that entertainment means excess. If you want slick genre thrillers which are less unrealistic than Mr. and Mrs. Smith, how about Michael Mann? I think we went to see Heat together in the cinema, and it's three hours long, but Collateral is quite a good film in which the violence is plot-driven rather than excessive.