charlytully Review of Whistle

Whistle (2002)

This clunker is no MOON--it's more of a pain in the asteroid!

[5/10 · 13 May 2011]

While MOON--the first feature effort by WHISTLE director Duncan Jones--is a decent sci-fi exercise, only D.J. "completists" will find this preposterously-premised short worth a half hour of their time. I found the Swiss scenery about the only worthwhile aspect of this family-man-by-day, techno-assassin-by-day yarn. When Groucho Marx famously proclaimed "I shot an elephant in my pajamas!" he was only JOKING. But Jones seems to be trying to stretch Groucho's thin comment into the basis for his spin on THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, as in, perhaps, THE NAP OF THE PEKINGESE. Seldom has so much effort been expended to accomplish so little. Perhaps such a waste of time would be excusable if it was coming as an ill-formed comedy skit from an SNL dim bulb. But viewers expect more in the thriller and\or sci-fi genres, and WHISTLE appears to have veered way off course while it was still in the concept stage. About the only positive lesson that can be derived from this misfire is that not every successful director will produce a humdinger his or her first time out of the chute. After all, Robert Redford may have won Oscar with his ORDINARY PEOPLE debut, but he wasn't exactly sun-dancing during the preceding decade or two.