Monday Morning Quarterback Part II

By BOP Staff

June 20, 2012

Behold: the dullest man in America.

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Edwin Davies: I saw Prometheus and fall firmly into the hate it camp. I admired its ideas and ambitions, but the storytelling was so shoddy and borderline incompetent that I just couldn't enjoy it. Every time an arresting visual or interesting concept was raised I was immediately pulled out of the story by the fact that every one of the characters seemed to be suffering from some severe brain damage, or at the very least extreme schizophrenia. As meditative sci-fi, it had some good ideas that it failed to make interesting, as a horror film it wasn't scary, and as an action thriller it was dull. Easily the worst film in the Alien franchise.

It looked pretty, though.




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David Mumpower: I saw Prometheus and fall firmly into the I Hate Edwin for Hating It camp...but he looks pretty, though. Anyway, I spoke of Prometheus last week. The other movies that I have watched recently are Rock of Ages, Underworld: Awakening, This Means War, Safe House and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Suffice to say that I have had better movie-watching weeks.

Rock of Ages is a glorious mess that I cannot recommend in good conscience because it has the character development of a third grade play. I understand that sweeping changes were made from the Broadway production to the movie, presumably in order to convince Tom Cruise and Catherine Zeta-Jones to sign on. Perhaps that story would have been more coherent, by which I mean demonstrating any coherence whatsoever. Despite the nonsense permeating throughout the movie, however, I found myself enjoying it more than expected. Rock of Ages is as its heart a celebration of the hair band era and its reverence to the subject matter, particularly Def Leppard, places me in a difficult position if I criticize it too harshly. Also, the movie is very, very funny at the least expected moments. The signal to noise ratio is atrocious but I laughed enough to feel as if I got my money's worth. It is a sunny, optimistic style of storytelling that the industry sorely lacks these days and I fully expect a lot of people to grow passionate about it in the coming years. I mentioned Grease 2 and Xanadu yesterday, and I did this precisely because each of those movies is *horrible* yet I love them dearly anyway. Rock of Ages will probably prove to be the same for me, warts and all.

Underworld: Awakening felt like the final straw for this Underworld fan. For that matter, the vibe of the movie was that of forced fan fiction from someone who had kidnapped Kate Beckinsale and forced her to star in their Underworld movie. The proceedings were rushed, there was none of the Shakespearean drama the original movie possessed and that *horrible* actor from Lost Girl was such a lousy choice as the bad guy. He has the personality of a grilled cheese sandwich. The one aspect of the movie that does deserve praise is the performance of India Eisley, The Secret Life of an American Teenager actress. Without spoiling her role, I will say that she provides several moments of chameleon-like role playing that should have been utilized in combination with a better screenplay.


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