F/X & F/X2: The Grande Illusion
It was in 1986 that Hollywood special effects expert Roland “Rollie” Tyler was first approached for an off-book special assignment, Department of Justice officer Martin Lipton asking him to use his expertise to help stage the fake assassination of Mafia informant Nicholas DeFranco, his public murder ensuring his safety until the trial at which he was to stand witness only for Rollie to then find himself the next target.
The subsequent trail of bodies investigated by NYPD detective Leo McCarthy, already at odds with his commanding officer, he knows that the pieces of the puzzle do not fit together, particularly the involvement of Rollie, and without the knowledge of the other in parallel the two men try not only to ascertain the truth of the situation but find a way to prove it, without dying in the process.
Their collaboration successful, it was five years later with Rollie out of the effects business for good that he was again approached to assist the police by his girlfriend Kim’s ex-husband, for good reasons reticent after the previous double cross but agreeing to stage an entrapment of a suspected killer only to find himself witness to another murder, again on the run and calling in the help of his old friend Leo, now a private detective.
The first directed by Robert Mandel from a script by Gregory Fleeman and Robert T Megginson and the belated sequel directed by Richard Franklin from a script by Bill Condon, both F/X, sometimes subtitled as Murder by Illusion, and F/X2, again sometimes subtitled The Deadly Art of Illusion, starred Breaker Morant’s Bryan Brown and Cocoon’s Brian Dennehy as Rollie Tyler and Leo McCarthy, the only other returnee Josie de Guzman as computer expert Marisa Velez.
A celebration of the secrets of the movie industry, the first is by far the superior of the two films, the plotting convoluted but tight, never allowing the technical aspects to overwhelm the two leads who despite not crossing paths until late in proceedings never feel other than that they could carry it alone if necessary, the eccentric perfectionist behind Blood in the Basement and I Dismember Mama and the insightful detective whose traditional methods leave him at odds with colleagues.
The opening scene demonstrating that everything is false and the viewer then conditioned to just enjoy the ride, F/X is a New York thriller where the momentum and sheer entertainment are sufficient to keep the necessary contrivances manageable, with Shock Treatment’s Cliff De Young and Law & Order’s Jerry Orbach unravelling as the conspirators whose perfect plan falls apart when the man they hired to take the fall refuses to play the role they cast him in.
F/X2 very much following the same template, the twists which try to shape it into something new rather than a straight retread only serve to highlight how much of the material is just the same film, opening with an overblown effects sequence before the careful setup and swift betrayal, reliant on an animatronic clown and the viewer not asking questions as the bad guys conveniently walk into traps, the most significant change in the interim being how much Leo has changed since leaving the police force.
The two films gathered together by Arrow on a Blu-ray box entitled The Grande Illusion, the films are supported by newly recorded commentaries by film critic Mike White on the first and by Dan Martin of 13 Finger FX and filmmaker Jen Handorf on both, three visual essays, new interviews with the effects supervisors of both films, Carl Fullerton and Eric Allard, an archive interview with Robert Mandel and archive featurettes on both films as well as trailers and galleries.
F/X & F/X2: The Grande Illusion will be released on Blu-ray by Arrow Films on Monday 14th April
