25th Hour

I never claim to be a connoisseur of film. I just know what I like. Run Lola Run? Love it. Happenstance? Awsome. Sliding Doors? Great. (btw, i realise the last three movies have the same context, but that was a coinky dink). I’d like to think that I understand most major films and what the ‘point being’. That I can discern between a good film and a bad film. Like Showgirls. It is a great film — if you go into it knowing it’s what it’s about. Yes but it is terrible, but it’s so terrible it’s good! Like Evil Dead is so terrible that it’s good. So why the fuck do people keep saying if you don’t enjoy a film that ‘is deep’ this somehow makes you stupid? That you are better off watching Dude, Where’s My Car?.
Like Thin Red Line. It’s crap. I don’t care what anyone says about symbolism and foreshadowing, it’s crap. It was poorly edited, the script was choppy and I spent the whole 3 hours wishing I could watch paint dry. Gladiator is another one. Didn’t like it, didn’t get “it”. What the fuck was Robin Williams thinking about in One Hour Photo? I mean, fuck, Death to Smoochy was a MUCH better film (and had better imagery and symbolism etc). But yet OHP got better ratings than DTS, and DTS apparently was a “bomb” (at least according to Premier Magazine).
What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?
Well, tonight Chris, one of Jeff’s roommates, suggested that we go see 25th Hour. Of course the boys wouldn’t DREAM of seeing a chick flick with me (though Jeff did want to go see Gangs of New York with me, but there were no more showings), even though Jeff claims that by hanging out with me his chances of picking up women double because women assume that if one girl wants someone that they will want them too and also apparently that because i’m his sister and deem him cool enough to hang out with, this makes him a better person. Right. Follow? So anyway, Chris gives the synopsis and I’m thinking he’s talking about Life of David Gale by his synopsis and I did want to see this and it has Kate Winslet in it (mmmmmm).
Haha. I was wrong. Oh. So. Wrong.
What the fuck is up with Spike Lee? I mean, what the fuck. The context of the movie seemed plausible but oh jesus, WHY DOES HE ALWAYS GOTTA DIG at everything racial. There is this half moment where Edward Norton (mmmm Edward Norton) is in the bathroom and his image is just ragging on every race left and right. Like out of no where. And ALL THE GRATUITOUS showing of post-9/11 bullshit. Yah, move on okay. MOVE THE FUCK ON. Yah it was terrible and it was awful and people died but people DIE EVERYDAY and it may not be violent or filled with anger or rage or hate but they still do die. Where are their memorials? I mean, fuck. C’mon on now. Where the fuck is your patriotism?
Okay, I’m going left of center here — the thing with Lee is that he takes the ideas of his past films and he reinvents them for a newer generation. This was like watching Jungle Fever and Do the Right Thing mixed together with the imagery of post-9/11 thrown in. The thing that killed me is that it had a GREAT cast: Edward Norton, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Anna Paquin playing a tart. Major props for Norton going from neo-nazi to a angry white ikea boy to a clown to a drug dealer in NYC. There were a lot of unnecessary moments in the film that for continuity could have been left out and there seemed to be mix messages, like Lee had this one idea and then scooted over to another idea and just kept doing this back and forth. The movie is crap. There was maybe one or two good scenes in the 2.5 hour flick.
Don’t believe the hype. Lee has made some stinkers (like Girl 6). Just because Lee directed it doesn’t mean it’s good and trust me, it IS okay to dislike a movie that everyone hypes up, it doesn’t make you any less stupid or less of an intellectual.
Save your money and see something else. ANYTHING else.