Action-oriented directors have always been accused of going too far. Yet movies such as Lethal Weapon, Die Hard and Top Gun seem tame and static by today's standards. The latter was directed by Tony Scott, who was often accused of excessive, stylistic flourishes in the '80s and '90s with flicks such as Days of Thunder and Beverly Hills Cop II, where he could always be counted upon to produce carnage with backdrops of gorgeous sunsets. Nowadays, most action films can't even get through a quiet dialogue sequence without the camera spinning around the two leads with quick zooms and smash cuts. If directors such as Michael Bay are who they are today because they're trying to one-up Scott, then Scott today is trying to one-up Bay one-upping Scott. The result is nauseating.
Domino is based on the true story of Domino Harvey, who was born into Hollywood royalty as the daughter of '60s film star Laurence Harvey, but shunned the glamorous life in favor of a career as a bounty hunter. To say the film is "loosely based" is putting it too lightly. By the climax, there are explosive action sequences that change the Las Vegas skyline. Domino's story is told in a series of flashback vignettes that skip along unacceptably fast. The movie is like a child with a short attention span, running around screaming while you hope his parents will smack him before you do.
We're shown Domino's childhood but before we're convinced she's anything but a moody brat, the film skips ahead to her unlikely entrance into bounty hunting. Before we're convinced she could actually pull off such a dangerous job, the film jumps into a reality TV show subplot. And just when we're starting to wonder how the filmmakers convinced former 90210 stars Ian Zeiring and Brian Austin Green to appear as themselves in such unflattering cameos, the film shifts into its convoluted central plot. The whole thing ends with the same standoff between multiple armed factions we've already seen in Scott films such as Enemy of the State and True Romance, except the stylization has grown so excessive by now that we can't tell what the hell is going on.
With Domino, Scott proves he deserves Bay's title of King of Excess. Maybe in 20 years, Domino will seem ahead of its time as action flicks go. I can only hope I'll be blind by then. Two or three more Scott films would do the trick.