Rancid Aluminum (2000)
Directed by Edward Thomas
Written by James Hawes
Starring Rhys Ifans, Joseph Fiennes, Sadie Frost
Release Date January 21st, 2000
Published May 30th, 2002
Paging the Hollywood career counselor, call on line 1 from Josef Fiennes.
After starring in a Best Picture winner and seemingly emerging from the shadow of his Oscar nominated brother, Joseph Fiennes has taken it upon himself to do absolutely nothing. I appreciate his willingness to spurn big money Hollywood projects, but Josef is taking this to an extreme that could land him in straight-to-video purgatory. His first major misstep is a pale imitation of a Guy Ritchie movie called Rancid Aluminum.
Rhys Ifans, best known as Hugh Grant's roommate in Notting Hill, stars as Peter, a slacker who, following the death of his father, takes over the family publishing business. Peter's promotion comes at the expense of his far more qualified friend Sean (Fiennes). Sean sets about to get revenge and take over the company by buddying up to the Russian mob.
This is how you know you’re creatively bankrupt, when you need the bad guys of choice for every hack writer in Hollywood, the Russian mob. The hack in this case is first time director Ed Thomas who attempts to incorporate every genre of film he's ever seen, from lame straight-to-video suspense trash, farcical comedy, and even romantic comedy.
Fiennes and Ifans are both awful in this film, especially Fiennes who is saddled with an unspeakably bad Irish accent and looks bored to tears. This film didn’t bore me. I was too busy attempting to decipher the accents and whatever the plot was to be bored. No, for me, Rancid Aluminum isn't a boring film. It was just incoherent, stupid and well, rancid.
