Re: RARA-AVIS: Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown...

From: JIM DOHERTY ( jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 18 Aug 2001


Re Kevin's observations below:

> A lot of people seem to hate THE TWO JAKES, but I
> see it as the
> logical sequel to CHINATOWN, tracing not just the
> development of Los
> Angeles, but of the private eye genre itself, as it
> moved from
> Hammett and Chandler's mean streets to the
> psychological mean streets
> of Ross Macdonald. No, JAKES is not CHINATOWN, but
> most movies
> aren't. What it is is a perhaps flawed but
> nonetheless engaging and
> intelligent, thought-out sequel that actual deserved
> to be filmed,
> not a quickie rip-off with a number tacked on the
> end of its title.

I agree. *The Two Jakes* may not be as good as
*Chinatown*, but it's the best private eye picture
*since* *Chinatown*, which automatically makes it one of the two best PI films of the last thirty years.

My one complaint, and it's a fairly minor one, is that the film assumed the audience had an intimate knowledge of the events in *Chinatown*. Not merely a passing familiarity, but intimate knowledge. So if you hadn't seen *Chinatown* a very short time before seeing *2 Jakes*, you were likely to find things a bit confusing. But, like I said, that's a minor quibble.

I'm still hoping that somehow they'll manage to get the third one made.

JIM DOHERTY
 

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