Runtime:
172 minutes
Directed
by: The Wachowski Siblings and Tom Tykwer
Starring:
Many people, but the main ones are Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim
Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, and Jim Sturgess
From:
Warner Brothers released it in the U.S but several production
companies produced it, including those in Hong Kong and Singapore;
the main companies are in Germany, thus that is why I am doing this
as part of Foreign June
I
imagine that some would argue about me reviewing this for the theme
month, but given that it was produced by foreign entities and it was
filmed in Germany, Scotland, and Spain... by my standards it
qualifies.
I'll
be honest here, I never thought I would see this movie. I've never
read the book it was based on, even if it is highly praised. The idea
of the movie just sounds pretentious and goofy; actors made up to be
different ethnicities and even genders to try and tie together this
odd story? Needless to say, something like this has gotten a strongly
mixed reaction; what got me to watch this was hearing a podcast
recently where someone saw it and they hated it, but they laughed at
the same things I did just from the trailers and commercials, i.e.
what I just told you about the characters and the makeup.
How
do I describe the plot? It's six different stories that are connected
(in threadbare ways), as various actors appear in most or all of
them, playing different roles. There's the South Pacific Ocean in
1849, the United Kingdom in 1936, San Francisco in 1973, the United
Kingdom in 2012, Seoul, South Korea in 2144, and an island in 2321
after a nuclear holocaust. If you read about it on Wikipedia it
doesn't sound so complicated what all happens. Well, that's not the
case when you watch the movie, as everything is all jumbled up and
you constantly jump between the timelines and when you have various
actors appearing often in different roles... a real mess.
My
main issue with the movie... I was never given a reason to give a
damn at all about these stupid A-hole characters and their plight,
and the stories they were in, they were not just not interesting. The
fact that you jumped across the timelines meant that I could not even
try to get into the lame stories even if I wanted to. I grew
frustrated and I am amazed I was able to last for almost 3 hours.
“Pretentious prattle” is the perfect phrase to use here. It is SO
pretentious. The idea of everyone being interconnected throughout
history and one random thing happening in the past and it affecting
the future in unexpected ways... that sounds fine-enough in theory.
Maybe in the book it's done well. Here, though... it's ostentatious
and there's a strong stench of arrogance around the whole thing; no
surprise, given the incredible unbearable Wachowski's are involved!
Really,
the main thing that kept me going... all the preposterous outfits and
characters the main actors had to play. From Keith David (obviously
an African-American) playing a Korean dude, to Halle Barry as a woman
from India AND a white Jewish woman whose skin color looked exactly
like Dave Chapelle when he played a white person on The Chapelle
Show, from a man as a woman (and woman as a man) to Tom Hanks looking
both like Robert Prosky and a balding goateed gangster with a Cockney
accent... it's so terrible and wrong-headed it's hilarious. You can't
even get offended by people playing different races as it's so goofy.
The
movie has its share of famous people (there's also Hugh Grant and
Susan Sarandon) but that doesn't mean too much to me; I imagine that
if I saw it again and this time had knowledge as to what was supposed
to be going on, my opinion may change... but I really would prefer
not to go on that long arduous journey ever again.
I'll be back Friday night.
I'll be back Friday night.
No comments:
Post a Comment