Bug (2006)

Bug (2006) with Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon. I thought this film would easily get 5 stars or at least 4 stars, as the first hour is so perfect. The actors are excellent, and the dialogues are interesting and gripping. But all this… only for an hour. After that, it sinks into the ridiculous. Yes, this film shows a beautiful descent into hell where the main protagonists sink totally into madness. The paranoia is definitely there too. The film becomes involuntarily funny, so much so that it becomes overplayed, but it could still pass if there wasn’t an excess of violence too.

It’s a pity, because the film has an avant-garde side with very good messages. But it’s as if they have to be drowned out after they’ve been revealed. This film makes a mockery of everything that is already ridiculous about the conspiracists. But in the end, it does not make believable anything that may be true and important. This film is an adaptation of the play in which Michael Shannon also played the character of Peter. This actor is so often in disturbing roles that one almost forgets that he has played other things too. As for Ashley Judd, it seems to me that she gives one of her best performances as an actress, which is rather distressing. To go to so much trouble for such a bad film.

I guess this story was meant to stay in the theatre and never come out to the cinema. I’ve written my review with ten minutes of film still to painfully watch. I can’t wait for it to end. Unless there’s a truly amazing ending, this film will only get one star from me. It stupidly lost four. It’s as if they’ve said to themselves that this film won’t be famous anyway, so they might as well sabotage it for good. A film that had a lot of good stuff in it, that had a lot of potential, but that wasted it miserably.

That’s it! I just saw the end. It’s getting worse and worse… but it ends in a rather logical way. But… what if it was all in the head that this movie happened? In whose head? Good question! The post-generic scene is relatively interesting, but saves nothing. William Friedkin made the excellent “The Exorcist.” Here, he had to sign his or by far one of his worst films, yet applauded by the film critics of the time. I’ll give his Sorcerer (1977) a song one of these days. You never know!