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List Price: $26.97 | | Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Salesrank: 34394
Released: September 16, 2008 |
| Our Price: $8.10 |
| Used Price: $4.18 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Academy Award® winner Tim Robbins stars as David Owen, a Manhattan husband and father so unhinged by the noise outside his window that he declares a one-man war on car alarms. But when David goes over the edge and becomes a citywide noise-vigilante known as 'The Rectifier', he incurs the wrath of New York’s sleazy blowhard Mayor (a hilarious performance by Oscar® winner William Hurt) who vows to stop him. How much damage will one guy inflict for a little peace and quiet? Bridget Moynahan (I, ROBOT) and William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) co-star in this wickedly funny black comedy from award-winning writer/director Henry Bean (The Believer) that The New Yorker hails as "a splendidly eccentric film alive with the creative madness of New York City!"
Description of Noise:
Of all the noxious aspects to modern life, the one that people seem to most passively put up with is noise pollution--random car alarms, horns, sirens, screeching machinery and the like. Perhaps because there's no single "bad guy" behind the creeping situation, there've been few movements against it. Which leaves the perfect opening for Noise, Henry Bean's allegory about a one-man vigilante for peace and quiet, played with torment and depth by the always-dependable Tim Robbins. Robbins plays David, a devoted husband and father who becomes so distressed--then obsessed--by the noise in his adopted home of Manhattan that he snaps (quietly, of course). The film channels Falling Down, but also has elements of Batman and other superhero dramas, as David takes on the persona of The Rectifier--breaking into cars whose alarms go off incessantly and dismantling the alarms. His obsession takes deeper and more dangerous turns, and he becomes both public enemy No. 1 (in the eyes of the city's unctuous mayor, played splendidly by William Hurt, who calls him "nothing but a two-bit vigilante") and a hero to the everyjoes as rattled by the needless racket as David is. Bean's storytelling is also creative, playing with time and chronology, as David's focus shifts and darkens. One wonders periodically why David doesn't take up the suggestion of his wife (Bridget Moynahan) to move to the leafy suburbs, or even back to the Midwest. But no matter: The Rectifier is on a mission. "I used to think there's nothing you could do about the noise," David muses at one point. "But once you get started, it's easy. It's stopping that's hard." The disc includes a fascinating commentary by writer-director Bean, who based the character of David on himself, years earlier when he broke into cars to turn off their alarms, even serving jail time for the offenses. --A.T. Hurley
Noise Reviews:
Noise 
2008-10-30 - This movie is actually very good. The concept is hilariouse and his reactions are priceless! There's even a couple of hot scenes with the young chick interveiwing him. Good job.
Meet the Rectifier...a new kind of superhero
2008-10-27 - This is a very tongue-in-cheek dark comedy about a man who takes the Noise in his life very seriously. Tim Robbins plays David, a man who is so distracted by the noise surrounding him in New York city that he cannot live a normal life. His solution, to become the Rectifier, a vigilante sneak who gives people with those darn car alarms exactly what they deserve no matter what the cost.
This movie was hilarious, if a bit sad at times. This is not an action film but David nonetheless sees himself as a superhero of sorts. In typical superhero style he has to loose everything to become the vigilante he wants to be. The difference this time is losing it is his choice, kind of.
Where the movie started to fail a little bit was when David's new love interest talks him into trying to get legislation against noise put into place. This is a bit weird, and the movie takes itself a bit too seriously.
Still as a dry, dark comedy this movie had me and my husband in stitches most of the time. Just don't take it too seriously or try to get a message out of it. If you need some sort of significant question to ponder from this movie it would be broader than the topics investigated in the movie. I guess it would be this, "What would happen if people stopped tolerating every annoyance they deal with in a day and started to really do something about?" The answer is probably chaos, but it is still funny to contemplate.
How Could You Not Like This? 
2008-09-16 - I feel like I watched a diff movie than the first reviewer, cos I really loved this movie. I liked the grittiness and realism it displayed. And even without that, how could anyone NOT enjoy a movie starring Tim Robbins, William Hurt and the gorgeous & talented Bridget Moynahan? How many of us have gritted our teeth and at times felt like throwing a chair through the window when the noise outside gets so loud and persistent you feel like you're losing it? This movie is not unlike the Michael Douglas vehicle, Falling Down, where he went slowly nuts and took it out on bullies and bad guys. I watched this movie at a private screening when it was first released and I jumped at the chance to own a copy for my private library. Highly recommend this movie.
Tim taking on the noise problem this time... 
2008-09-16 - Hard to catch a Tim Robbins film the last few years without there being a poly slant/statement to it in some way; this time he takes on the noise pollution of car alarms in New York City.
The feel of the film gets set right away with a Tim Robbins voice-over intro, followed by him talking to the camera/audience directly in relation to his hatred of car alarms. The story begins to jump back and forth between an apparent media interview of his telling how he became this vigilante of noise reduction, and present day. His personal and professional drama continues to unfold in past and present, including the all to brief clips of the city mayor (played effortlessly by William Hurt) targeting our main character as an enemy of the city and his crusade to catch him.
The supporting cast includes decent covers with Moynahan playing his wife, Leveiva playing the new found sex interest, and Gabrielle Brennan (who I liked much better in Life Before Her Eyes) as the ignored daughter. Baldwin actually does OK for his two scenes, but Hurt once again steals the movie.
The movie really becomes a piece about the little guy trying to make a difference in the big city at the cost of his family and career. Reality should have hit a great deal sooner, but I guess that was the point of the film; digress from reality and become a fanatical activist who magically gets everything in the end that he lost anyway. Sounds confusing, but the movie seemed that way too. Between the fake dream sequences, jumping time lines, and the slant towards violent activism, the film seemed to quagmire in self righteousness.
Worth the watch for Hurt fans, his 12 minutes of screen time are hilarious. Otherwise, the film might only be useful for testing your center channel limits with the incessant car alarms and glass breaking scenes. The DVD extras inclue the talking head interviews and docus.
