Runtime:
What seemed like an interminable two hours long
Directed
by: Panos “I'll probably never see another one of his movie”
Cosmatos
Starring:
Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, and a bunch of actors not as good,
except for Bill Duke and Richard Brake, but they are only in one
scene each
From:
A bunch of small studios
A lot of people are already loving this movie-I was not one of those people:
I should have known this wouldn't be a movie for me once I heard
there was not only Cenobite bikers, but also something known as THE
CHEDDAR GOBLIN. Turns out, that goblin was something pretty pointless...
as were the Cenobite bikers from hell or whatever they were supposed to
be. It's nice that many people love this movie; for me, talk about
trying WAY too hard to be “cool” or “hip” or a “cult classic” and at
least for me, it was grating and tiresome and ponderous instead of fun
or a blast of a thrill ride. As I've said before, you can't just try to
make a cult classic; those happen organically.
At first, things seemed fine as we got to know our leads, Red and Mandy. Then those stupid religious villains showed up, and that's when things fall apart. Talk about faux-deep, thoughtful dialogue that was actually dopey and tedious. Then those bikers show up, and what purpose did they ever serve to the main plot? They were pretty inconsequential. Then a 10 minute drug scene happens and that was just awful in a number of ways and I don't want to get into that as it'd be spoilers but the movie officially lost me there. Then something happens and Red is looking for revenge, which makes up the second half of the movie.
And that second half, to describe it in brief: Nic Cage does a bunch of things that probably have already become memes, along with more babbling, ultraviolence, and general nonsense. Really, too much of it is like a sizzle reel of wacky Nicolas Cage (including a few eye-rolling one-liners) with little to nothing to connect it all together; I mean, an epic fight between Red and someone else literally comes out of nowhere w/ no setup in the least. It was nice seeing Bill Duke in a movie again and his one scene was relatively straightforward; Richard Brake's one scene... the opposite: utter stupidity and what exactly was the scene's purpose? This was one of many examples I think of when I think of the phrase "style over substance", which Mandy is all about and it's a thing that is like black licorice to me-which is not a compliment.
I can say that the synth score from the late Johann Johannsson was aces, and I can't complain about the performances from Cage or Andrea Riseborough-at times, she reminded me of Shelley Duvall. However, that and there being some very pretty images does not a good movie make on its own. The movie just rubbed me the wrong way with its self-important nature and poorly tarted up revenge story. Those positive elements are the only reasons why I am not rating this even lower. I've never seen Beyond the Black Rainbow and now I have no desire to ever waste my time with that or any movie the director does in the future.
At first, things seemed fine as we got to know our leads, Red and Mandy. Then those stupid religious villains showed up, and that's when things fall apart. Talk about faux-deep, thoughtful dialogue that was actually dopey and tedious. Then those bikers show up, and what purpose did they ever serve to the main plot? They were pretty inconsequential. Then a 10 minute drug scene happens and that was just awful in a number of ways and I don't want to get into that as it'd be spoilers but the movie officially lost me there. Then something happens and Red is looking for revenge, which makes up the second half of the movie.
And that second half, to describe it in brief: Nic Cage does a bunch of things that probably have already become memes, along with more babbling, ultraviolence, and general nonsense. Really, too much of it is like a sizzle reel of wacky Nicolas Cage (including a few eye-rolling one-liners) with little to nothing to connect it all together; I mean, an epic fight between Red and someone else literally comes out of nowhere w/ no setup in the least. It was nice seeing Bill Duke in a movie again and his one scene was relatively straightforward; Richard Brake's one scene... the opposite: utter stupidity and what exactly was the scene's purpose? This was one of many examples I think of when I think of the phrase "style over substance", which Mandy is all about and it's a thing that is like black licorice to me-which is not a compliment.
I can say that the synth score from the late Johann Johannsson was aces, and I can't complain about the performances from Cage or Andrea Riseborough-at times, she reminded me of Shelley Duvall. However, that and there being some very pretty images does not a good movie make on its own. The movie just rubbed me the wrong way with its self-important nature and poorly tarted up revenge story. Those positive elements are the only reasons why I am not rating this even lower. I've never seen Beyond the Black Rainbow and now I have no desire to ever waste my time with that or any movie the director does in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment