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| Friday, August 10, 2007 10:46 AM |
| Walking Out |
 by Fëanor |
I don't know if it's just the fact that my life is very busy these days and I don't have time to fool around, or it's the influence of my lovely wife's no nonsense attitude, or a little bit of both, but lately I've been a lot more willing to give up on a movie entirely and shut it off without watching the entire thing. Some movies I've "walked out on" recently (all received via Netflix):
Dracula 3000
The Libertine
You Only Live Once
Dracula 3000, of course, I didn't expect to be all that good. But I had really enjoyed its predecessor, Dracula 2000, despite the (few!) faults it may have had, so I figured, what the hey? Besides, this time it's in outer space!!! Which makes everything better! Well, except Dracula, as it turns out. A bunch of B- and Z-list actors reading lines from a script that's essentially a heaping pile of garbage (with some sci-fi and horror cliches mixed in for added flavor) is not a good basis for your movie. And then having your future Dracula be a completely not menacing 40-something still wearing that ridiculous turned up collar is even worse.
The Libertine, meanwhile, I at least had some reason to expect to be good. It's got some great actors (Johnny Depp, John Malkovich) in a period piece about the Earl of Rochester (Depp), an incredibly cheeky and self-destructive drunkard/poet/playwright from 17th century England. Problem is, the film does almost too good a job of showing us how filthy and miserable 17th century London must have been, and fails to give us any likable characters to hang on to. And all the sex is kind of ugly and dirty, too. It's a movie that does nothing to draw you in, and instead is continually turning you away. So, I turned away.
Finally, last night poppy and I tried to watch You Only Live Once, which is ostensibly a classic film, mentioned in all the film books, directed by the great Fritz Lang, and starring the great Henry Fonda. Fonda plays an ex-con who gets married to a nice girl and tries hard to go straight. Now, I've enjoyed the work of Lang in the past, including the fantastic M and the impressive, if also melodramatic and completely unsubtle, Metropolis. But this movie we couldn't even bare to continue watching. It was poorly acted, poorly scripted, corny, and obvious. We could already see pretty much where it was headed after the first 10 minutes, and after the first 20, we just couldn't stand it anymore and turned it off. Has anybody else watched this movie? What were we missing? Why do people like it? I don't get it.
Anyways, I'm not sure if this new willingness to give up on things is a good or a bad thing. But I'm leaning toward good, as it means I'll probably be wasting less time on things I don't like in the future. |
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