kali1998

This is really one of the absolute worst films I have ever seen, and I do not mean that hyperbolically. I came into the film with fairly low expectations -- and even *they* weren't met.

All the characters are weakly drawn. There is a paucity of conflict throughout. Scenes go by with little purpose or even base entertainment value. The writing is dull to bad; a structural and dramatic mess. And the film-making itself was just awful. Things like a softball game and a dance are shot so dully, the life seemed literally sucked out of these "easy" scenes. Like the filmmaker didn't even care about trying to make these visually engaging.

The premise seemed like shooting fish in a barrel. The fact that the film failed even to live up to the clichés of a drama like this is remarkable. The protagonist is vaguely defined and motivated. (Though "Zachary Taylor" tries hard to make it work, there's nothing for him to work with.) I didn't care about any of the characters. The "bookend" scenes with Elliot Gould are simply absurd.

This is a very bad movie. Not even enjoyably so.

Okay, the truth is that I hated a lot of GNR's videos, and watching them again hasn't altered my appraisal too much. Andy Morahan was such a hack and those sprawling, meaningless, pseudo-narratives really helped to make the band more of a joke than it should have been.

IMHO, they should have aligned themselves with more visionary people. Mark Romanek and David Fincher -- I would love to see what those guys would do with a GNR video. Spike Jonze, maybe. Any of those "Director's Label" DVD guys.

I guess it's all moot right now. I'm just thankful I got to see the last show of the New GNR's Chinese Democracy tour before the whole thing got pulled. Say what you will, and I know that they canceled a bunch of shows during that small, aborted tour: on December 5, 2002, at Madison Square Garden in NYC, Guns N' Roses lived. They sounded incredible. They looked incredible. (Though I miss Axl's more flamboyant styles -- he just wore sports jerseys throughout, no kilt/catcher's mask combos...)

I pray they/he gets their/his act together. As appreciated as they were, I've always felt they were underappreciated. Or rather, I've always felt they represented much more potential greatness than they ever fully realized. CHINESE DEMOCRACY will be something to behold...

I found the film mildly annoying at the very beginning. The character of Roger is a real pseudo-intellectual, misogynistic dirtbag -- and for a while it seems that the film is sympathetic to him.

Stick with it. It gets better. I don't know the last time I had such a negative immediate reaction to a film turn around into an extremely positive reaction. We see Roger's ways turn on him. We see him fail in a very realistic way. We see a man whose whole world is dependent on him being in control of everything -- we see it all go wrong beneath him to the point where it seems like the film is poised to become "American Psycho"... and then his nephew comes into the picture. Suddenly, he's in a position of power again. And we're afraid for this poor kid.

This film actually made me fall for Elizabeth Berkeley. And the presence of my childhood crush (the ageless Jennifer Beals) was pitch perfect. The segment with them is simply magical. I would have fallen in love with this film as an adolescent.

The journey this film takes you on is just wonderful. I ordered the DVD for a friend before the film was even over. It's the kind of film you want to share with people who'll get it. Can't say enough about it.