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jcla
Reviews
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
What a terrible waste of time
I've always been a little suspicious of Spielberg's ability to tell an interesting story, and after watching this movie, my feelings are confirmed. This is basically a three act play:
Act 1: Human melodrama. Well, it would be if the actors seemed even remotely human (why is it that the robotic child acts more human than either of his human parents?). Dreadful dialogue. Inexplicable behaviour. Bizarre pacing.
Act 2: Road movie. Stealing the mood of films like Blade Runner, we wander across an interesting milieu. Doesn't really do anything for the story, but the visuals are distinctive, in a rubber-stamped sci-fi sort of way.
Act 3: Bizarre otherworldly philosophical finale. Spielberg was intent on finishing this movie after Kubrick died without filming it. He therefore decided that he should pay homage to the master by ripping off the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but adding a drippy Hollywood ending, making it at once both meaningless and preachy. A very difficult combination to master, but Spielberg tries his best.
A local reviewer said in his review "there will come a point in this movie, and you'll know it when you see it, where you think 'this is the end, it should end here'." He was right. I can't say this enough. If you watch the last half hour of this movie, you'll want to track down the director and give him a kick in the pants for wasting your precious time, when you could be doing more interesting and creative things like sweeping your driveway or dusting the tops of all your picture frames.
Bleah. I give the movie a four out of ten for visual style, but I struggle to do even that.
Fight Club (1999)
Ideas are interesting, but the execution is bad
Here's an idea. Write a movie that explores the idea of a pawn in society turning to anarchist ideals. Have the transformation happen in a unique setting. Take the idea to extremes. Throw in some unredeemed violence to give it that authentic gutter feel of anarchism.
Okay, now you have the plot of a pretty decent movie. Oh, wait, though. We should add a plot twist. Hmmmm, but the twist will cause some of our scenes to make no sense. Oh well, most of the movie is already printed, lets just finish it and call the loose ends artistic license.
The only problem is the twist pretty much ruins the movie. Oh sure, it makes you rethink the early parts, and adds a clever uncertainty to the original experience, but the twist just doesn't hold up. How can many of the earlier scenes be plausibly explained? The final scenes of the movie just let the air out of the whole plot (the twist didn't work in my mind, and the final sixty seconds made me think that the writers couldn't figure out how to finish off the movie).
Good acting by Ed Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. Brad Pitt has done this same character before in Twelve Monkeys.
Compare this movie to momento, however, and you'll find that momento manages to pack in a much more devilish twist that makes you rethink the whole experience and doesn't leave you saying "but hold on a second, how could that other scene have happened"?
Corvette Summer (1978)
Bad drive in movie
Annie Potts is the only highlight in this truly dull film. Mark Hamill plays a teenager who is really really really upset that someone stole the Corvette he and his classmates turned into a hotrod (quite possibly the ugliest looking car to be featured in a movie), and heads off to Las Vegas with Annie to track down the evil genius who has stolen his pride and joy.
I would have plucked out my eyes after watching this if it wasn't for the fun of watching Annie Potts in a very early role, and it's too bad for Hamill that he didn't take a few acting lessons from her. Danny Bonaduce also makes a goofy cameo.