Saturday, December 20, 2008

DO NOT TOUCH THE JELLYFISH

When reading critiques is probably more entertaining than watching the movie.

Variety:
A movie that, like “The Sixth Sense,” depends entirely upon the payoff for its impact, “Seven Pounds” is an endlessly sentimental fable about sacrifice and redemption that aims only at the heart at the expense of the head. Intricately constructed so as to infuriate anyone predominantly guided by rationality and intellect, this reteaming of star Will Smith and director Gabriele Muccino after their surprisingly effective “The Pursuit of Happyness” is off-putting for its manifest manipulations, as well as its pretentiousness and self-importance.
New York Times:
Frankly, though, I don’t see how any review could really spoil what may be among the most transcendently, eye-poppingly, call-your-friend-ranting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-just-to-go-over-it-one-more-time crazily awful motion pictures ever made. I would tell you to go out and see it for yourself, but you might take that as a recommendation rather than a plea for corroboration. Did I really see what I thought I saw?
Ultimate spoiler at New York Magazine. I don't think I'll be wasting any time on this one. I don't, usually, when it comes to his movies anyway.

P.S. At what point during Sixth Sense did you figure out what the twist was? I got it when he threw that rock through that window and then managed to dash away without being seen. My thought process was: Wait a minute--that's poltergeist behavior. Oh...I see.

2 comments:

  1. I knew when Bruce Willis sat down for dinner with his wife, and she never made eye contact.

    I'm always surprised that people were shocked by the ending of '6th Sense'. Did no one watch 'Ghost' with Demi Moore & Patrick Swayze?

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  2. I really didn't know the "twist" for "The Sixth Sense" until it was revealed. In "Ghost", you know he's dead all along... it doesn't try to portray things otherwise. In "The Sixth Sense", I kept expecting this really was a man that has just fallen into such a dismal rut in life that he's surviving, rather than living, and this case would be what wakes him up and makes him see the wonder and magic in the world again. Basically, I expected it to be predictably cheesy from the get-go. Even a small twist was better than what I thought I was having to sit through.

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