My review of The Broken Arrow isn’t going to be an easy one. I have said it many times, but I try to give indie movies the benefit of the doubt. They don’t have big budgets, they don’t have the best actors, but they are trying to make a piece of entertainment.
Sometimes, it works, and I’ve seen some great movies. Then there are movies like The Broken Arrow.
We had the trailer the other day, and it looked good. I was sent a screener and watched it this weekend. In a nutshell, there’s a half-decent story, but that’s about it.
The Broken Arrow stars Ste Johnston, Chris Simmons, Elena Pitsiaeli, Paul Wils, Zoe Brough, Sue Johnston and Alan Ford. Pablo Raybould and Simmons direct, with Steve Holbrook and Raybould writing.
The Story
We open with Barry (Johnston) as a darts player, and the best in the game. However, he needs his lucky darts to win, which don’t arrive in time for a big game. He ends up winning a big trophy and glueing it to his hand. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a trophy presentation with super glue present. Oh, wait, yes I can… once, in this movie.
Before he wins, it’s a completely ass about the entire thing, he turns up drunk, is a sore winner, and basically needs to learn a lesson over the course of the movie to improve himself and have a character arc.
After losing his arm, he has to crawl his way back into the game, even though he lost his non-playing arm. This is a joke, and I imagine people laughed at this point. I, however, did not.
The rest of the movie is Barry hustling his way back to the top and trying to enter the Paralympics.
The Cast
Sadly, there are several things wrong with The Broken Arrow; one of them is the cast.
Comedy, it turns out, is hard work. You know that guy in your office, who always makes jokes and thinks he’s funny? This is Johnston in this movie. He’s not really funny, just annoying. I honestly don’t think he delivered a line that even made me blow air through my nose.
It’s not like his acting is bad, but he’s just not funny; and in a comedy, that’s an issue. Barry isn’t a bad protagonist, but his story is spoiled by someone who takes you out of the movie.
Some of the cast are great, but with people like Sue Johnson and Alan Ford, you expect that. Then some of the cast are terrible. The acting range is very good to The Room levels.
In the first 5 minutes, there are people on set saying lines. I can’t say ‘acting’, as I’ve seen better acting in an advert for life insurance.
Sense of Humour
I like to think I have a sense of humour. I’ve seen a few movies recently where I found myself laughing out loud; see my review of Buddy. From the trailer, The Broken Arrow did look pretty good, and I was happy to give it a go.
However, I just didn’t find any of it funny. There are jokes that don’t land, performances that are meant to be funny but just aren’t, and the overall writing just isn’t good enough.
I do fine British comedy hit and miss; Only Fools and Horses has been outstanding, but then Mrs Brown’s Boys just isn’t funny at all. There’s no comparison between those two and The Broken Arrow; I’m just pointing out that some things are funny, some things aren’t to me.
Overall
I thought that The Broken Arrow looked good from the trailer, but the first 10 minutes of the movie just didn’t do anything for me. As I said, some of the acting was just terrible, and I half checked out.
The rest of the story was as cliched as they come. If it had been based on a true story, it might have been a little more interesting, but from what I could see, it wasn’t.
Annoyingly, some of the direction is very good; there are long shots without cutting. Even with some of the actors continuing throughout the shot. I like to notice things like that and appreciate the work. Sadly, good direction doesn’t make up for a dull story.
Also, I’m not into sports, especially something like darts. I have seen some sports movies, and they are perfectly fine, but just not for me.
I also need to mention the ‘lost arm’. There are times when Barry’s lost arm looks pretty good. Then there is the rest of the movie, when it’s clear he’s wearing an oversized coat with his real arm under his fake arm.
Now that I think about it, the entire ‘bit’ of him losing his arm is completely meaningless. The only effect it has on Barry is that he can try for the Paralympics; that’s it. The movie could have been about his journey from being an asshole to changing his ways without the arm thing.
I guess they wanted to try and get in some jokes about him losing it in the war. Pity really, as not much of it is funny.
Rating
This isn’t a badly made movie; it’s just not very well written, and the main protagonist is terribly miscast. I appreciate the effort that went into making it, but it just wasn’t funny to me.
I won’t be watching or thinking about this movie ever again.
