silvourbolt

A gimmicky commercial for the abolition of the death penalty. The premise could have been entertaining and thought provoking, and if the producers had attempted at making a more intelligent movie, I might have been able to put the political message aside. Instead, the movie goes for a "gotcha" style message aimed more at those in favor of the death penalty then actually making the audience question the death penalty as an institution. This is so evident that the *entire premise* of the movie is meant to show that the pro-death penalty is wrong, not that the death penalty itself is wrong (please note the subtle distinction, because the former implies a hatred, or feeling of moral, even intellectual superiority over death penalty advocates wheras the latter does not).... the movie attempts to accomplish this by creating an utterly unrealistic story, complete with unlikeable characters, badly portrayed by otherwise highly talented actors and actresses (even Spacey fails to make Gale seem likable. Winslet turns in a downright awful performance.... rather shocking after seeing her fine turn in The Constant Gardener). The worst of these performances is easily the intern hired to fill in those pesky plot holes. SPOILERS BELOW Winslets character receives clues that practically fall from heaven, doing the hard work for her and relieving the writers of the movie from doing any imaginative thinking. This is compounded by the ridiculous conclusions that her character comes to which, of course, turn out to be correct. Is she psychic? Nah, just bad writing. In the end, what does this movie accomplish? It proves that if you are willing to participate in a suicide stunt and leave evidence making it seem as if you murdered the deceased, then refuse to produce any evidence to exonerate yourself, you have a decent chance of being executed... if the incident occurs in the state of Texas. Wooooow. Home run for the anti DP crowd (cough, cough). This is a movie with an agenda that feels no shame in running straw man arguments and depicting advocates of the death penalty as hicks. The movie lost credibility for me when the intern says that Spacey's character probably didn't kill the victim because he was a liberal and most serial killers are republican (how stupid...). This is a fine example of why I think the movie is more interested in throwing dirt in the face of DP advocates and not the death penalty itself. Here, the intern character mistakenly labels Spacey a serial killer, and twenty minutes later the same character SPECIFICALLY STATES that Spacey is not a serial killer.... wha?... so essentially, the writers wanted to include the reference about serial killers being predominantly republican to throw mud. How childish. Just like the ridiculous plot. Do yourself a favor and watch "Dead Man Walking".... a movie of similar topic with a far production values.

Strike one for Will Smith (Strikes two, three, four, and five being WILD WILD WEST.) Okay, the premise isn't too hot, but it has a little potential. The actors are gold, and the director is good, but the movie falls flat on it's face. The jokes fail miserably, and thus the film goes down in flames. Will Smith has awful lines, and Tommy's deadpan doesn't work. The non-cgi effects are good, but this movie sports some of the most god-awful computer imagery in major motion picture history. The lack-luster premise, the dull performances, the poor sfx, the misfired jokes (BLANKMAN at least made me laugh at one point, this movie did not) and the unusual directing style meld together to make a big pile of c**p. Someone call Will Smith's agent, and someone get a pooper-scooper. This cinematic abomination is without a doubt the most overrated movie of all time. It would have failed at the box office had it not had Will Smith's name on it.

THE PATRIOT is an excellent movie. It is an excellent example of how to do an epic action film, but it tries to be a sweeping action, romance, family, and to a lesser degree comedy epic. However, the PATRIOT doesn't quite deliver the romance portion very well, and truth be told, the portion of the film focusing on the family could have been better. But what do you expect from Roland Emmerich, whose best attempt at a story about a family was INDEPENDENCE DAY? Nevertheless, Emmerich did a good job on that aspect of the film, it just could have been better. This is by far Emmerich's best film, and a quite surprising turn-around after the God-awful GODZILLA.

Also, THE PATRIOT, in my opinion, did not take advantage of the American Revolution to it's fullest. In the final segments of the film, we see a quickie detail of the end of the war, but this film makes the Revolutionary War seem as if it was completely centered around stopping the band of men led by Gibson's character, which is, in my opinion, a mistake in story direction. The patriotism could have been pumped up, and that would have done for THE PATRIOT what Wallace did for Scotland: given the audience a surreal sense of honor and pride to be an American. I saw this movie on the Fourth of July, and at no other time of year could this movie have made me feel more patriotic, yet it still didn't completely deliver. Another slight annoyance is with the name Gibson takes on: "The Ghost" which is to say the least, not a very original idea nor a very original name to give the character. As well, the final confrontation, while excellently shot and gripping, it a bit contrived and unoriginal, a fault that BRAVEHEART did not have to carry by any degree. My last gripe is with the female love interest that Gibson takes on. She is not very well established, and personally, seems a bit wrong for Gibson's character. The floundering relationship acts like a sharp kick to the gut, taking a potentially flawless movie like BRAVEHEART and making it a mere great movie. Still, the movie is excellent, and to be quite honest, the scene where Martin (Gibson) rescues his eldest son is the most intense and vivid scene I have ever watched in my entire movie-going experience. That counts for something, and so does this fine example of an epic film. *************************************************