pgreyy

Despite some fine performances and great source material, this movie doesn't stand up as well as I'd hoped it would. It's either too dark and serious for the comedy it hopes to be or it's too gauzy for the serious look at modern teenagers in Britain that it hopes to be.

Still, it's interesting to see Dexter "did you know I was in Bugsy Malone AND Lock, Stock & 2 Smoking Barrells" Fletcher, Ione "wow, am I really this naked in this movie" Skye, Jonathon "why aren't I working more often?" Pryce and James "didn't I play this same character only with more lines in Pretty in Pink" Spader in a movie that hardly any American has ever heard of...

This has its clever moments, its funny moments, its heartbreaking moments and a few moments that are meant to be (and are) disturbing... It's not as clever as its American cousin, or as funny...but it does have a bit more depth...and Ione Skye is REALLY naked in it.

That's worth a rental, isn't it?

Torture. Sheer torture. Don't get me wrong, it was beautifully filmed (although poorly edited)--Malick certainly has an eye...but he can't tell a story. I know what you're saying--he wasn't trying to tell a story, he was trying to convey a mood... Well, he certainly put ME in a mood. I was so tempted to stand up in the theatre, while some anonymous voice-over is saying something flowery and oblique about the nature of man and shout "OK, we get it! War is bad, people are messed up and can't we all get along...can we go home now?" Instead, I just checked my watch and realized I still had over an hour to go... There are some great moments and some memorable scenes, but by the end I was so bludgeoned and uninvolved that those moments and scenes didn't make up for the time spent. Nolte is good--although his inner dialogue (which is interchangable with every other inner dialogue in the film) is laughable. Penn is...well, Penn... No one else makes an impression (unless you count Travolta's poor cameo.) It's criminal that Malick chose to change Elias Koteas' character from being Jewish to being Greek. You could tell there was a sub-plot straining to burst free from Malick's dreamlike imagery--something that might have maintained my interest for the interminable length of this film...but Malick successfully undercuts the dramatic impact offered in the book.

Overall...this is as flawed of a movie as "Dune" was... And some people loved "Dune"--so many will love "The Thin Red Line."

Not me, though.

Biases admitted first. I'm not a big Araki fan... His ever-so-bleak approach to nearly everything wins him big fans in those circles who haven't gotten out of that "everything sucks = that's cool" phase--and for one who personally spent that phase watching "Brazil" and "Blue Velvet," I think his films are a distinct step down in both quality and underlying themes. So, I hadn't planned on watching "The Doom Generation" but I stumbled across it late at night and found myself mesmerized...wondering how far he'd go.

He went pretty far.

This movie is neither as funny nor as deep as it seems to think that it is... I will admit that, watching this late at night and alone, I was left breathless during the climactic "strobe light" scene--the "no spoiler" rule certainly blocks any discussion of what goes on there...but it definitely affected me... At the same time, it created a violent repulsion that erased almost all of whatever positively quirky moments I'd noticed in the first 2/3rds of the movie. And then, the non-ending left me with a completely empty feeling about the movie... That may have been Araki's point, but that doesn't mean I LIKED it...and I'm not going to complement him on his lack of subtlety...

Now, there's something to be said about a movie that puts a Keanu Reeves look-a-like into a three-way sexual sandwich--although, I'm not certain what that "something" would be... And, I'd be less than honest if one of major motivations for watching the movie all the way through wasn't Rose MacGowan--and for the reviewer who thought she was ugly...errrr...no...(although the less said about Marilyn Manson the better...)

If you want a bizarre, mildly funny movie that reminds you of a low budget Natural Born Killers with a pan-sexual twist...and don't mind a little childish nihilistic pandering to the very people he's making fun of (what's the expected reaction--"Ha ha...we're so lame"????)--then go ahead and give this a shot.

Warning--don't bother with the "R" rated edit. It's a hack job--and if you're concerned about extreme sex and violence...what the heck are you thinking about watching this movie for??? Rent the unrated version...and if you live through it...you're just sooooo cool, aren't you? :)