Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Arlington Road

(1999)

There’s a bomb that’s about to go off under the FBI building in D.C., and Jeff Bridges is in a race to stop it. We’re all familiar with the scenario, and the last-second arrival of the hero and subsequent prevention of a huge disaster. But this one is a little different. I can’t say more without a spoiler warning, and I don’t really think it’s worth it. This is an extremely paranoid and pretty unbelievable story, made when the worst terrorism we could imagine on American soil was perpetrated by that human sack of shit, Timothy McVeigh. It plays on the idea that there might be more co-conspirators in Oklahoma City other than that other human sack of shit, Terry Nichols (who, inexplicably, is still contaminating the planet with his breath when two juries were unable to agree on wasting the motherfucker). Not only that, there are millions of them, hiding in plain sight in suburbia, taking their children to soccer games. Sorry, just can’t go with that. It’s a pretty bad movie.