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STUDIO: Miramax
MSRP: $29.99
RATED: R
RUNNING TIME: 93 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES: None
The Pitch
(Pulp Fiction + Jackie Brown)/(Aussies!)
The Humans
Heath Ledger,
The Nutshell
Jimmy (Ledger) gets his first job for local gangster Panda (Brown). Deliver $10,000 to an old lady. Very simple. Jimmy would make $500 for this. Jimmy is apparently dumber than dirt, however, and messes the job up. Panda and his crew are then after Jimmy to kill him. Along the way Jimmy throws logic aside to romance a pretty blond (Byrne).
The Package
A bare bones release with nothing extra on it at all. I doubt they are going to double dip with it. Someone cared enough to release it, but barely.
They smiled politely and then quickly ran in opposite directions. He was awkward around girls and she feared any man with a green wife beater and the makings of a mullet.
The Lowdown
This film won a bazillion awards (give or take a few) back in 1999. So, why haven’t you heard of it? Because they were all in
Yeah, sure.
Two Hands is good but it isn’t great. It plays in a similar vein as flicks like Pulp Fiction. Actually, more accurately, it plays more like The Immortals, a Pulp Fiction-esque rip off. Every time a movie comes out that shakes up the mainstream (like Pulp) there are a host of rip-off incarnations.
I’m OK with that. Some of those will be good and some bad. However, the more and more of them you see, the less and less good they become. Not because they’re bad on their own, but because the formula is tired.
That’s my problem with Two Hands. Basically, I’ve seen it before. It covers no new ground and offers nothing new. It has the right elements (some snappy dialogue, good editing, nefarious yet likeable characters, etc.) but no individual element was something new to the genre. What was cutting-edge is now formulaic.
It might have been terrific to Australian audiences at the time and, thus, the awards. Had I seen it in 1999, I probably would have liked it more. Had it come out in 1996, I might have loved it. However, as it is now, I enjoyed it but didn’t find it spectacular in any way.
"Why, yes! That is a salami in my pants! And, yes! I am happy to see you!"