Monday, March 31, 2008

Tagged with a movie meme!

Hilary asks about five critically-lauded movies that I happen to detest:

1. Dances With Wolves. Beautiful cinematography and two fine performances (Mary McDonnell and Graham Greene) wasted on this rancid revisionist epic. The instant it plummets downhill: when Costner's character visits the army post headed by the lunatic who thinks he's a medieval lord. Who, not being a member of a band of noble native ecologists, naturally has bowel control problems.

A shame, too, because Costner can tell a gritty Western story, as Wyatt Earp demonstrates.

2. Chocolat. The usual twaddle about free-spirits vs. repressed traditionalists. I prefer my confectionery less stale, thank you. At least try to hide the maggots.

3. The American President. Yes, this love-letter to Bill was actually a critical fave. Mildly amusing in parts, if very silly, when it was released (1995), it passed its sell-by date on the morning of September 11, 2001. Utterly unwatchable now. But the SNL movie review by Bill Clinton is still pretty hilarious.

4. Indecent Proposal. People actually took this seriously and it became a "cultural moment." Feeling stupid now, aren't you? My comment on the premise: "But how will you be able to do that in traction?"

5. Dead Poets Society. Sorry, Heather. But DPS is drivel. Free spirits vs. oppression, yaddayadda. Just once I'd like to see a free spirits vs. uptight squares film where the free spirits get bitten on the keister by the consequences of their heedless actions and the repressed types are demonstrated to have been wise, indeed.

You know, the way it happens in real life about 80% of the time.

Tag: Heather, Victor, Zach.

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