Civic Duty

Paranoia fuels the leap from being vigilant to being a vigilante
I was always surprised in the wake of 9/11 that we never heard of an instance where an Arab looking passenger got up to use the lavatory on an airplane and was attacked by the other passengers. With tensions and suspicion both running high I thought such incidents were inevitable, but if they happened I never heard about them. There was the incident where six Muslim clerics where pulled off of an airplane in Minneapolis because the pilot received a note from a passenger pointing out there were "Arabic men" on the plane, but that has been the exception rather than the rule (the airport in Minneapolis is apparently just a place where strange things happen if you pray in Arabic or go around tapping your foot too often in a restroom).

"Civic Duty" is a 2006 film that deals with the sort of paranoid over-reaction to the terrorist attack that I had suspected might become commonplace. Terry Allen (Peter Krause) has just lost his job as an accountant and without work to keep his...

Better Than Anticipated
Pros: Great acting throughout; Peter Krause is incredible. All extras fill their respective roles convincingly, as well. Directer put great emphasis on the details, which, in this movie, is important. Story/Plot is simple due to its symbolic nature, making it easy to follow. Awesome camera work lends to the unsettling nature of the film. Great cultural/stereotype contrasts, though sometimes over the top.

Cons: Message is too heavy-handed, taking away some realism. Film tends to be dramatically claustrophobic. It does not matter if it was intended, it still needed air.

Where They Went Wrong: There is an anti-American diatribe against American Foreign Policy to rebut the cruel treatment of women in certain Middle-Eastern countries. This did nothing to lend to the films credibility and came off as ridiculous, unfair, and one sided. Conflicts (wars) are completely different than inhumane domestic policy. Even if those conflicts are wrong. The whole screed was a...

Great suspensful thriller with an important message !
When I was reading the back of this DVD I was thinking to myself, well it could be a good movie, but from the very moment it got started it grab me, and was captivating until the very dramatic end.

Terry is a good looking middle class accountant, who is age wise either in his late 20s or early 30s. His life clearly takes a turn for the worse, when he is suddenly and unexpectedly laid off. Now, the problems with his wife begin: there's the impending question of how to pay their mortage on their new home, and most of all how soon Terry will get another job, to make ends meet. But all these problem pale in comparison to Terry's newest obsession with his Middle Eastern looking neighbor. To Terry he is behaving increasingly suspicious and fits neatly into the profile of an islamic extremist and terrorist.

This new obsession which he discovered soon starts to drive a big wedge between him and his wife. She simply dosen't at all approve of Terry's suspicions. Needless...

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