gilknut
Joined Apr 2001
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gilknut's rating
This movie is kind of confusing in its tone and presentation. It truly seems like the work of amateurs; perhaps a film school project.
The cast seems to consist of first-time actors, led by a completely charmless main character, and I would've dismissed it completely after the first disheartening 10 minutes, if not for the puzzling presence of names like Monica Potter, Lucy Hale, Jim Gaffigan and Rhys Coiro.
Did they owe money or favors to the producers?
The script is a mess, the dialogue clumsy, scenes are long and ambling and poorly edited. The entire pacing of both individual scenes and the movie as a whole seems off. It tries to come off as a sort of quirky unpredictable dark comedy, but it's neither funny nor original, and completely devoid of any charm.
According to IMDb this is the director's feature debut, and honestly: that doesn't surprise me one bit.
The cast seems to consist of first-time actors, led by a completely charmless main character, and I would've dismissed it completely after the first disheartening 10 minutes, if not for the puzzling presence of names like Monica Potter, Lucy Hale, Jim Gaffigan and Rhys Coiro.
Did they owe money or favors to the producers?
The script is a mess, the dialogue clumsy, scenes are long and ambling and poorly edited. The entire pacing of both individual scenes and the movie as a whole seems off. It tries to come off as a sort of quirky unpredictable dark comedy, but it's neither funny nor original, and completely devoid of any charm.
According to IMDb this is the director's feature debut, and honestly: that doesn't surprise me one bit.
I'm not sure what is harder to believe: The story, the characters, or the insane hype of this very unremarkable movie.
There are a few reputable magazines that reviewed this for what it is, but an alarming number of critics seem to have either *never* seen another horror movie in their life before this one, or they've been paid to hype it. I fully expected something different, if not actually "the horror movie of the century" as some have said, but all I got was a cliche-fest of improbable situations, completely unbelievable characters with breakfast cereal for brains, and a plot with little coherence and zero originality. If this movie actually scares you, I suspect you're either 10 years old or you're on drugs.
Nicolas Cage is not "completely transformed and unrecognisable", he's Nicolas Cage, in typical weird mode. Like most Gen Xers I grew up with Cage as a category unto himself; he's of course often over the top, but I admit I have a soft spot for him somehow. He works fairly well in this role, as it is, but no: You're NOT gonna remember this performance or the movie itself "for years to come". It's not gonna keep you sleepless or thinking about it for any length of time, unless you have an IQ below 70. All the massive marketing hype for this movie has done for me, is make me lose the last little sliver of faith I might have had in movie critics in general. Bummer.
There are a few reputable magazines that reviewed this for what it is, but an alarming number of critics seem to have either *never* seen another horror movie in their life before this one, or they've been paid to hype it. I fully expected something different, if not actually "the horror movie of the century" as some have said, but all I got was a cliche-fest of improbable situations, completely unbelievable characters with breakfast cereal for brains, and a plot with little coherence and zero originality. If this movie actually scares you, I suspect you're either 10 years old or you're on drugs.
Nicolas Cage is not "completely transformed and unrecognisable", he's Nicolas Cage, in typical weird mode. Like most Gen Xers I grew up with Cage as a category unto himself; he's of course often over the top, but I admit I have a soft spot for him somehow. He works fairly well in this role, as it is, but no: You're NOT gonna remember this performance or the movie itself "for years to come". It's not gonna keep you sleepless or thinking about it for any length of time, unless you have an IQ below 70. All the massive marketing hype for this movie has done for me, is make me lose the last little sliver of faith I might have had in movie critics in general. Bummer.
