Murder by Illusion

A few weeks back, Tubi TV kept throwing up messages that among the movies to be leaving the platform at the end of July was one that I'd heard of on release back in the mid 80s, but was obviously too young to watch at the time: F/X. It's available to rent on other platforms, but I made a point of watching it on Tubi before it left so that I could write up this review and eventually get around to posting it.

The movie opens up with what looks like some sort of mob hit, but it's fairly obvious from the way it's carried out, as well as the title of the movie (if you didn't already know the synopsis), that this hit is actually part of a movie that's being filled. Rollie Tyler (Bryan Brown) is the special effects artist responsible for making the hit look authentic, and he's pretty darn good at his job. Indeed, it's what's brought a visitor to the set.

The visitor, Lipton (Cliff De Young), is a producer who would like to hire Rollie for his next project. Or at least, that's the story Lipton gives Rollie at first. In fact, Lipton works for the FBI, and he's in charge of the witness protection project surrounding Nicholas DeFranco (Jerry Orbach), a mobster turncoat who is set to testify against his former colleages. Lipton wants to fake DeFranco's death before the real Mob can get him, with the implication that DeFranco might be able to come back from the "dead" to testify at the trial, which to me doesn't make sense as it seems like claiming this valuable witness isn't really dead would cause a mistrial. As for Rolly, the reason he's being contacted is because Lipton wants the death to look realistic and Rolly is just the man to do that.

Rolly is understandably alarmed, and should be even more alarmed when Lipton's boss, Col. Mason (Mason Adams), suggests that Rolly be the one to actually pull the trigger in the fake shooting. You have to think Rolly is being set up for something, but what? And who's going to perform the autopsy anyway, since it seems to me signing off on a fake autopsy would be a serious violation of medical ethics. Then again, the FBI probably has people on its payroll to do just such a thing.

At any rate, Rolly takes the job, and at first it seems to go off without a hitch. But after the hit, Lipton picks him up in the getaway car and makes a comment about there being no loose ends. Rolly understands, a second too late, that this means Lipton intends to kill him too. Rolly is resourceful, however, and is able to engineer a crash of the getaway car, allowing him to call Mason for help. But he's also smart enough to realize Mason may not be all he seems, and sure enough, a car comes up to the phone booth where Rolly called Mason and someone gets out to shoot the next person in the booth.

Rolly is on a flight to prove his innocence in the grand style of Alfred Hitchcock's "wrong man" movies. He doesn't realize it, but he does have someone who will wind up being on his side, in the form of Det. McCarthy (Brian Dennehy). McCarthy has been investigating DeFranco, but more than that investigating the people who have gotten murdered since the phony hit on DeFranco, notably the deaths of the hitman brought in to kill Rolly, and Rolly's girlfriend whom the hitman mistakenly killed instead of Rolly.

F/X was apparently not intended to be a prestige movie, but became a surprise hit. That's because, despite some of the predictable plot holes, the script is fairly intelligent by the standards of a 1980s action movie, and has a somewhat more plausible rationale for the protagonist staying one step ahead of the authorities: as an effects master, he's an expert in disguises and fooling people.

Having said that, action movies like F/X are less about being intelligent, and more about the entertaining action. And in that, F/X absolutely succeeds. Whatever imperfections it might have, it will definitely entertain you for the running time of the movie. Definitely watch this one if you get the chance.