The Tourist – A Sony Pictures’ Release

http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/thetourist/

DVD Release Date: March 22nd, 2010

Rated PG for violence and coarse language

Running time: 103 minutes

 

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (dir.)

 

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (screenplay)

Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay)

Julian Fellowes (screenplay)

 

Based on the motion picture Anthony Zimmer by Jérôme Salle

 

James Newton Howard (music)

 

Johnny Depp as Frank Tupelo

Angelina Jolie as Elise Clifton-Ward

Paul Bettany as Inspector John Acheson

Timothy Dalton as Chief Inspector Jones

 

Our reviews below:

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The Tourist DVD Review By John C.

*1/2 (out of 4)

The cinematic pairing of Angelina Jolie & Johnny Depp should have caused fireworks.  Instead we get The Tourist – a clunky tale of espionage and romance that would seem lame in any genre.  Elise (Jolie) is on business in Venice when she runs into the mysterious Frank (Depp).  A case of mistaken identity leads them to being chased by the government and the Russian mob, who are after them for alleged financial fraud.

 

The Tourist is a beautifully shot travelogue and it’s occasionally amusing as a dumb action comedy.  The problem is that everyone involved seems to think they were making a tense thriller or sweeping romance.  As it reached an entirely idiotic conclusion, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what went wrong.  All I knew was that nothing went right.  With the talent involved, this is nothing more than a disappointing missed opportunity on pretty much every level.

 

The Blu-ray includes outtakes, an alternate animated title track, several featurettes as well as commentary with director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

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The Tourist DVD Review By Erin V.

*1/2 (out of 4)

In The Tourist, Angelina Jolie plays ‘someone I can’t remember the name of despite the fact that I just finished watching this an hour and a half ago’, who is a mysterious woman who is being followed by Interpol, the Italian police, and some Russian mobsters.  It all has to do with some guy called Alexandre Pierce, who stole 744 million dollars.  To try to throw them off the trail, she befriends Frank (Johnny Depp), an American tourist, and pretends that this is Alexandre so that they will chase him instead.  Then she feels sorry for doing this to him and tries to help him, and then he decides that he wants to help her, and everyone is chasing them…but we don’t feel a connection to any of this.

 

At the beginning, I was laughing a bit at the film out of amusement, but as it went along I got bored with even this and tried to analyze what makes a bad script so bad.  The dialogue maybe?  The plot?  I’m still not sure, but it’s pretty easy to tell once you see one – if only it was that easy for them to tell they were writing one.   Two fine actors play the leads, but I felt no real connection to the characters – in some ways, at times it felt like I was watching a fake spy action movie for a younger audience – just kind of lame.  On the other hand, it felt like I was watching something the filmmakers honestly felt, when they were making it, was a serious mature outing.  Twelve or thirteen-year-olds could watch this one and might like it to pass the time, but I certainly didn’t find it very engaging.

 

Some films make you get to a final twist in the plot and you look back, see all the signs pointing to it and literally think – ‘I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!’  This film features a twist that is so not set up right, that we only didn’t guess it, because it isn’t really believable in the way it was revealed.  And when you think back over the film, the only way it works is if the characters are all highly unintelligent.  If you just want fun action, try something like Knight and Day.  If you want a cool, intelligent spy film where no one is quite who they seem, try Duplicity.  I can’t quite figure out exactly what The Tourist is, but ‘cool’ does not come up at all.  The bottom line is, this is a romance that offers no romantic feeling between the characters, and a spy film that offers no real suspense or tension, and finishes up with not much of a payoff.  It didn’t anger/disgust me like watching some other bad films have, it just felt very bland and not worth the energy, nor time.

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The Tourist DVD Review By Nicole

*1/2 (out of 4)

What is The Tourist supposed to be?  A comedy perhaps?  Anyway, the story is about Elise (Angelina Jolie), an English woman who for mysterious reasons is being chased by Interpol, Italian police and the Russian mob.  While visiting Venice, she meets an American tourist (Johnny Depp), who goes out with her.  Of course, he gets mixed up in all the chaos that is following Elise.  This all leads to a twist that doesn’t even make much sense.

 

While The Tourist is unintentionally funny at times, there is not enough silliness or seriousness to make it worth 103-minutes.  Even the beautiful scenery is not enough to save this film.  Lacking the cool factor that decent action movies have, The Tourist is only mildly worth borrowing from the library if you have time to spare.

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The Tourist DVD Review By Maureen

** (out of 4)

Set in Venice, Italy The Tourist is actually very pretty to watch.  Angelina Jolie is also lovely to look at as the mysterious Elise.  Her romantic lead Johnny Depp is also nice to look at as Frank, the mild-mannered math teacher she meets in Venice.  The storyline is that of an action-thriller.  Interpol, Italian police and assorted others are monitoring and flollowing Elise hoping she will lead them to her elusive husband, Alex who may have stolen a large sum of money.  She uses Frank to throw her pursuers off their tracks.

 

The problem is, The Tourist doesn’t have a lot of action or a lot of thrills.  Even the romance between Elise and Frank could have had a little more energy.  While not a terrible movie to watch, given the calibre of the lead actors, the beautiful setting and the potentially interesting storyline, I expected more from this movie.  Rent this one only if you can’t get enough of Johnny Depp or Angelina Jolie or if you just love seeing Venice on screen.

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The Tourist DVD Review By Tony

** (out of 4)

The title character of The Tourist is Frank (Johnny Depp), an American math teacher picked up on a train from Paris to Venice by Elise (Angelina Jolie) while under constant surveillance. Frank is supposed to be a decoy for Alexander Pearce, whom Elise is really going to meet, but first she invites Frank to spend the night on the couch in her luxury hotel suite. The next morning, finding Elise gone, Frank is suddenly pursued by Russian thugs, ending up in a canal where Elise rescues him. She explains that the Russians work for Reginald Shaw (Steven Berkoff), a British gangster from whom Pearce allegedly embezzled two billion pounds. Though Elise has paid his way home, Frank stays behind, apparently infatuated with Elise, and is promptly picked up by Interpol working through Scotland Yard to recover Pearce’s British back taxes. Things come to a head as Elise gets closer to the hidden money with Shaw, the police and Frank right behind her.

 

Directed and co-written by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, The Tourist is just not very good. Before the final showdown there is little suspense or much else to keep us watching. The fine cast is largely wasted in uninspired dialogue, Jolie largely left to looking good as she strolls through her scenes or stands at the helm of vaporetti, while Berkoff, surrounded by central casting Russians, is a caricature of the arch-villains he has played in Bond and other films. As the proud son of an Italian tailor, I found it personally disturbing watching Shaw gratuitously demonstrate his sadistic streak with a measuring tape. The plot twist at the end is admittedly clever, but in a Mission Impossible sort of way as if written backwards, relying a bit too much on coincidence at the front end. We don’t even get to see much of Venice.

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Consensus: Despite pairing Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp against the beautiful backdrop of Venice, The Tourist succeeds as neither action or romance and is ultimately a missed opportunity. *3/4 (Out of 4)