In a counterpart to Five Easy Pieces (ahead), Michael Douglas’ vain attempt to order breakfast in a fast-food restaurant that just shifted to lunch three minutes ago is another episode of an anti-hero rebelling against arbitrary authority. But unlike Jack Nicholson’s Bobby Dupea, a contemporary man reacting against a world mired in the past, Douglas’ nameless drone is a man of the past (a white male with a 1950s crew cut and a defense-industry career) who’s been left behind in a fast-moving world of ethnic and gender diversity, a world that moves fast and stops serving breakfast at 11:30. Of course, the Douglas character’s ballistic response, part of a day-long rampage against modernity, is a behavioral and legal no-no, but in Joel Schumacher’s provocative, button-pushing movie, his Whammyburger flip-out is awfully cathartic. Even if you’re not an older white guy left confused by modern life, you’ve still probably felt the urge to go postal in a fast-food joint that won’t actually let you have it your way.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eREiQhBDIk]