Director: David
O. Russell | Starring:
Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Lily
Tomlin, Jude Law, Mark Wahlberg, Naomi Watts
Released: 2004
| Runtime: 106m
| Rating (out of 5):
** |
|
Wow, I mean, wow. Never
have I seen a poorer imitation of decent filmmaking. Why try to make
a Wes
Anderson movie when you're obviously not him? Hiring Jason Schwartzman
(he of Rushmore
fame, ex-drummer of Phantom
Planet and one failed sitcom, Cracking
Up) will not get you any closer. Besides, nobody buys that
guy as an adult anyway. Hiring Gerard
Depardieu mumbling French equivalent in one of the main roles
probably won't up the ante either. Sure the film is quirky, with its
body bag therapy and really lame, semi-animated, machete laden dreams,
but it soon wears out its welcome and devolves into a gag gone way
too far. Also, you'd think one of these days Jude Law would want to
play something besides a plastic Ken Doll caricature. I mean the guy
can't help being pretty, but how 'bout a real, sympathetic character
some day? I guess Hugh
Grant has made a career out of playing the glib cad, but at least
his roles have a touch of humanity. Whatever, Jude has managers and
agents for all this crap. And is it just me who was cheering when
Lilly Tomlin almost got her ass squashed in The
Incredible Shrinking Woman? I find her acting style incredibly
annoying. I kind of see what they were going for here, but why not
let boring-ass Richard
Linklater do the talky, philosophical dull-fests? There is apparently
a market out there for his crap, but not even those wet rags are buying
this pap. An attempt at hip just becomes the second coming of Ugly
Kid Joe--a cheap imitator in cutoffs. [DVD]
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