Arlington Road

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..."Arlington Road" is this year's "Breakdown." It's filled to the rim with hard core, high octane tension and suspense-so much that it is almost hard to catch your breath throughout the movie's running period. Fueled with first rate performances and a script that is understandable and clear, this may be one of the best thrillers. The movie starts off with a boy, named Brady Lang, who stumbles down Arlington Rd. with blood dripping from his body. Jeff Bridges, who plays Michael Faraday, a single professor who teachers a course on terrorism at a local university, observes this terrified and injured child from inside his car as he drives by. After realizing the nature of his wounds, he dashes out of his car to help. Michael rushes Brady to the nearest hospital, in result he saves his life and meets some people whom he will soon wish he...

ros145 15.07.2000 · Read review
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Review of Arlington Road (DVD)

A trip down Arlington Road

Advantages: A sterling cast and a superb story
Disadvantages: Some of the supporting cast are underused

...Michael Farraday is a recently bereaved widower who is raising his son with only the help of new girlfriend Brooke. Hee finds himself at logerheads with his son as the boy refuses to accept the new relationship and struggles with the death of his mother. One day Michael discovers his new neighbours son drifting along the road nearly bleeding to death after a firework accident. As he saves the boys life, he is befriended by the boys parents, Oliver and Cheryl Lang. Soon though, Michael starts to suspect that Oliver isn't all that he says he is, as he has blueprints for office buildings which make a lie of Oliver's claims that he designs shopping malls. As Michael relates his findings about Oliver to a class he teaches, he becomes more and more convinced that his neighbour is part of some terrorist organisation. And as revelations...

bilbob20 02.04.2007 · Read review
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Review of Arlington Road (DVD)

Hit The Road

Advantages: Un-Hollywood, Tense, Twists, Acting
Disadvantages: May be far fetched for some

...and unreluctant to show some parts of their house. Soon He uncovers a secret about his neighbours past and some deeper digging can't prepare Michael for the real truth and how it will afect his life and those around him. Arlington Road has some very good twists in it's tale throughout and it also helps that the situation is believable to a degree. Some people might not buy into the fact that terrosirsts would come in the shape of a normal family on an american suburban street. But then again it's the perfect cover for such operations. Bridges character at one stage makes a good point about the people who are blamed for some terrorist acts. He makes the point that having someone to blame takes away some of the pain and anger. This made me think of the almost immediate pointing of the finger at Bin Laden after the true life events occured. I'm not...

utero 26.06.2002 · Read review
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Review of Arlington Road (DVD)

Road works (for me)

Advantages: great ending
Disadvantages: too many coincidences

...basic Outline ------------------- A recently bereaved college professor begins to suspect that one of his neighbours is a terrorist. He catches him out with a few innocent lies but since he teaches American history and his wife was in the FBI he knows where to look, what questions to ask & who to ask them of. Plot ------ Faraday (Bridges) has been plodding through his life since his wife died, he keeps himself pretty much to himself until one day he comes across an injured boy walking down the middle of his road. He helps him to the hospital where he discovers that the boys parents live over the road from him. He starts to hang out with the family after this but catching the father, Lang (Robbins) in a few innocent lies he starts to dig into his past. Lang claims to be a structural engineer for a new shopping centre but...

earlofaldgate 25.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of Arlington Road (DVD)

The neighbours from hell! but what a film

Advantages: Terrific acting, terrific plotline, intense, suspenseful, full of twists
Disadvantages: Perhaps a little too dark for some

...This film seemed to be released to little fanfare and it was only when I was circling the bargain basement bin that I came across this. After turning the case round to read many of the praise worthy quotes from different publications and critics I decided that this would be well worth taking a chance on. The plot for this story is essentially that Jeff Bridges plays the part of a teacher on terrorism who is still haunted by his wife dying as a result of a bundled stake out. After driving home from work he sees this kid staggering along in the middle of the road, blood is dripping from his arm profusely and with no time to lose rushes him to the hospital. It at this point where he is introduced to the parents of the boy and indeed his new neighbours. We soon learn that his neighbours are not quite what they seem but the real truths...

grandchamp 12.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Arlington Road (DVD)

Should you trust your neighbour?

Advantages: Great thriller
Disadvantages: Some plot-holes

...When Michael Faraday returns home one day, he finds a young boy wondering down the middle of the road with his hand bathed in blood. Rushing him to the hospital, Michael saves the boy's life and is later thanked by his parents, the Langs. Michael gets to know Oliver and Cheryl Lang very well after that and they quickly become good friends. However, he soon begins to show concern for Oliver's's interest in his son, and, after some research, he discovers that the man is not who he says he is. More research suggests that Lang, who has some terrorist activities in his past, may still be very much involved in terrorism. Can Faraday work out what it is that Lang is planning and stop him before it is too late? Jeff Bridges plays Michael Faraday, in what I think is one of his best roles. Faraday is a University Professor, and lost his FBI wife...

sunmeilan 10.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Arlington Road (DVD)

The end of the road

Advantages: Terrific clever ending
Disadvantages: Otherwise average thriller

...Arlington Road is a suburban thriller and a pretty good one at that. Jeff Bridges is driving home when he comes across a young boy with a badly burnt hand. After rushing his to the hospital, he finds that the boy's parents are his new next door neighbours (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack). The boys is okay and the a friendship develops between Bridges the couple. Bridges son becomes friends with the boy and seems the happiest he has been since the death of his mother, an FBI agent, killed in a bloody shoot out after a mistake by the Bureau. Bridges character teaches American Terrorism in a University and soon becomes suspicious of Robins when some of his stories don't add up. He becomes obsessed with his neighbour and convinced he's a terrorist but is he paranoid or is his neighbour planning something explosive. I won't give...

Ork1927 22.04.2001 · Read review
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Review of Arlington Road (DVD)

Avoid Arlington

Advantages: Solid thriller with good performances
Disadvantages: Average transfer to dvd, awful disc

...Arlington Road is not a bad movie. Honestly there is a lot worse out there. But there are also many other movies which outperform this one. But then that is just my opnion. Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins both put in good performances as neighbours in the same street. The plot is somewhat original - teasers and promotional material asking the punter if they really know their neighbour. Several twists and turns do keep the viewer guessing - but to the brutally honest I wasn't that involved in the film to worry too much about whether or not I had realised what was going to happen. A little bit run of the mill all round I feel. The picture quality is not bad, although a grainy feel to some of the darker sequences, for example when the two couples have dinner together, it is distinctly noticeable. Cheaper dvd players will not have...

petrasol 02.04.2001 · Read review
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Review of Arlington Road (DVD)

Hit and Miss at the Arlington

Advantages: City centre location
Disadvantages: Expensive, noisy at night times.

...The Arlington Hotel is situated in the heart of Dublin, just off O?Connell Street, and across the river from the Temple Bar area of the city. The entrance hall and adjoining Knightsbridge Bar are decorated like something out of a medieval movie, complete with a faux set of armour. While the entrance and reception are always well lit, the bar is quite dark even during the day. According to the hotel?s website, it boasts 131 rooms, ranging from double rooms to twin and even triplet rooms. On my last visit, we stayed in a twin room. It was lovely and spacious, and there was a TV, en suite bathroom and a kettle (complete with tea and coffee). We had a good view across the River Liffy. At first, we thought this was fantastic - until, of course, night descended. The wind roared the whole night, traffic rattled by, and we could hear...

dr_nightshade 21.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Arlington Hotel, Dublin

The Suburban Terrorist

Advantages: Interesting and unpredictable
Disadvantages: Irritating and implausible

...his failure to be friendly towards them, Faraday sets about building bridges with the pleasant couple. But his rather suspicious nature very quickly starts to pick up on things. The neighbour, Oliver Lang (Tim Robbins) claims that he is working on a project in a local shopping mall, but Faraday believes that the plans on his table look more like those of an office building. Is it just the case that Faraday is starting to become obsessed or is there a genuinely dark side to his neighbour? For some reason, I had it in my mind that Arlington Road was one of those strange David Lynch dramas that would make absolutely no sense from start to finish. I was therefore quite surprised to find that the film was actually a fairly interesting, if not rather frustrating thriller. Arlington Road is a film with a point. It is interested solely in...

LostWitness 10.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of Arlington Road (DVD)