Certified Fresh
I've always prided myself on siding with the critics when it came to movie reviews. I liked what they liked. I dismissed what they dismissed. Not so much anymore. I've recently noticed that I'm loving movies they hate and hating movies they love. How can this be? What alternate universe have I landed in where up is down and down is up? Case in point... The Hurt Locker and The Collector. The former won the Oscar for Best Picture and the latter is torture porn that was roundly dismissed as a "sub-Saw knockoff." Really? I thought The Hurt Locker was ok, but nothing great... and I thought The Collector was one of the most creative and brilliantly directed slasher films I've ever seen. I liked it better than Saw, in fact. So... what the fuck is going on? Should I be ignoring the critic's reviews? Did I experience a brain injury and can't tell good from bad anymore? If I go back and watch it, will Ishtar be one of my favorite movies?
In his review of The Collector, Kurt Loder (MTV) said "the torture never stops." Yeah... so? You knew going in that it was that kind of movie, so why knock it for being true to its roots? I don't hate on The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants for being a chick flick, because... well... it's a chick flick. I just think it's unfair if you have a bias against an entire genre, yet review the film.
Buddha
Reader Comments (3)
The last four movies we saw were: "Zift","Private", "Oldboy" and "The Heine". All really good- All foreign films. Americans need to get over the fear of subtitles (don't even think about english dubbing) and explore films from other countries where storytelling,cinematography, and acting trump special effects and big budget marketing. I agree with you about " Hurt Locker" and haven't seen "The collector" but will look for it. I always like to tell people to watch "Audition" for some real terror.
Oldboy is one of my 10 favorite films. I'll have to check out the others. Thanks.
Audition was great, as well.
My wife is a librarian and we have access to the large collection of foreign films from the NYPL. All free. We watch a lot of movies and have been very disappointed by recent US films. I don't know what possessed me to rent "The Green Hornet" from Blockbuster last month- perhaps my fond memories of the TV show and its introduction of Bruce Lee to audiences. I like to watch movies all the way through, but I had to turn this piece of SHIT off about halfway through. I wanted my money back. Then again, when people think the state of US moviemaking has hit bottom and couldn't get worse, I tell them to watch any of Steven Segal's last ten or so "direct to dvd" efforts. There you will find the bottom.