Monday, January 04, 2010


An overdirected movie. A bad directed movie. An unexpectedly terrible screenplay. Awful visual effects. Awful romances. Overscored. Superficial writing. Bad casting. Future Razzie nominee Mark Wahlberg. Horrible teenage love interest. Painfully bad screenplay.

Good Saoirse Ronan. Fascinating Stanley Tucci. Unexplainably underused Susan Sarandon (terrific).

Cheesy book + horrible screenplay = bad adaptation. A lovely mess.

14 comments:

Andrew K. said...

"A lovely mess." Accent on the lovely or on the mess...?

I am looking forward to this much, and I will admit poor reviews do not daunt me. Pity you didn't like it though. What of Weisz? Was she good?

I'm still hoping that Ronan or even Cornish might upset and get a nod over Bullock. I've given up Pfeiffer, for obvious reasons. Speaking of which, have you seen Bright Star?

joe burns said...

I'm looking forward to it, but I'm afraid it has no Oscar chances anymore. But maybe Ronan will pull off a surprise nomination.

Alex Constantin said...

Andrew, the accent is on the mess :)

Andrew & Joe, Saoirse won't get nominated. I just don't see it happening. She's good, but the role is pretty badly written.

Weisz is barely in it. Her role was more complex in the book. In the movie you can't understand ANYTHING she's doing. And she's in it for like 15 minutes.
[for example, in the book there was a love affair between her and the police guy and many hospital scenes and some slapping. nothing in the movie. just pure/poor cheese].

I guess the only nomination will be for Supporting Actor. Art Direction is not happening. Neither is Cinematography, in my opinion, as the graphic work is quite bad.

I haven't seen Bright Star. yet. Up in the Air tonight, if I find the time.

Runs Like A Gay said...

So, you didn't like it then. ;)

I still be going to see it, but from what you're saying it managed to find all the traps that the book set for an adaptation, and then create some of its own to fall into.

Vanessa said...

Best review ever! Says it all! Thanks for that!

Alex Constantin said...

Vanessa, what's ur link?
the url isn't working :)

Anonymous said...

I will go wherever Weisz goes, but I am not looking forward to this one at all.

Andrew K. said...

Forget the bones, I just gave you an award over at my blog. So head over there and follow the rules :)

pasifauna said...

I did the same, ignoring the poor reviews about Lovely Bones, but see this does not feel like a Peter Jackson movie. It feels more like a Hallmark movie. Cheesy CGI Stuff, Overacting and Overdirecting... I even think that Ronan was not that good. She cries here and there, got all doe-eyed over a boy and wishes us all a long and happy life. So what?!?
Now that I can see why Ryan Gosling left bc of creative differences. This movie had nothing creative in it.
Such a waste of great talent...

Alex Constantin said...

very true. the last scene was the icing on a very bad cake :P

Vanessa said...

Really? When I click on it, its working.
It is:

www.themovieness.com

Unknown said...

Let's be fair. PJ is the one of few directors out there that know how to create poetry using visual effects.

I thoroughly enjoyed the symbolism signaled by his visual effects.

It was "lovely."

I hate it when directors exploit CGI just for the "wow-factor" instead of aiming for substance.

Nowi it may not be an oscar-worthy pic, since the competition is stiff; but It's a good flick to snuggle to with a cup of hot chocolate on a lonely Sunday.

M. Carter @ the Movies said...

Drat, drat, drat. I had such high hopes for this one, and then Peter Jackson happened to it. The book is so full of tragedy and beauty and subtlety that I sort of expected he's ruin it. Peter Jackson, as we know, don't do "subtle." In fact, if subtle blew up, he wouldn't hear the sound for another three days.

Buzz on Stanley Tucci has been good, though? What did you think of his role? He doesn't get half the critical acclaim he deserves, if you ask me.

Alex Constantin said...

well, the reason for that is simple: Christoph Waltz...

I thought Tucci was way better than the role might've required. He really didn't have one big Oscar scene just for himself. Or at least I don't remember.

my underrated supporting actor has to be Anthony Mackie. but that's a different story.