scudkat

Blood Simple is a tangled fishing line. It has curves, knots, and every way you look, you're headed in the wrong direction. Somehow, though you know there's gonna be a predictable outcome. Everyone's got to start somewhere, and here's where the Coens start. Now, i'll give credit the style, and some to the plot, but other than that the Coens have a few cool camera shots (thanks to Barry Sonnenfeld) and gripping scenes, but thats it! All the meaning, and imagery, and tastey characters couldn't save this movie. The actors, besides the spicey PI, were all boring, especially Ray and Abby. I could have cared less about them. And I wanted that saucey, pimpin, afro bartender Meurice to just diappear from the moment he said "Well, I'm from Detroit!" Great, go jump down a well. Music was either out of place or marginal, and the sound was terrible, I could hardly hear what they were saying, and that twangy texan accent didnt help. The biggest killer, however, was the flow and pace. I didn't know when to be excited or when to tuck myself in, which you might think is good, but in actuality is really tiresome, just like the surprises. They gave the surprises away too easily, and I'm thinking, "waiiiit a minute, sumthin wrong here..(!BANG!).. gosh, i WAS expecting that." The Coen Brothers got off to a rocky start, but I'm glad this was their first film. If they ever had a chance to learn from their mistakes, it was here.

Not even the rare cameo by raw talent Tom Waits could save this movie. This movie was adapted from the Ray Carver collection of short stories. Though the book may have been worth something when it was written, the film is useless. Most of the stories are real testaments of modern life, and in that is the only reason why it should be recognized. After that, not much is left to praise, except for a few amusing moments with Peter Gallagher, and Lyle Lovett. The film could be compared as the Magnolia/American Beauty of the early 90's. But then one would fail to realize that at least both Magnolia and American Beauty were fun to watch, artistically enjoyable, have key points, and kept your interest. It's bad enough you watch an eyesore with no cinematographical appeal (ala documentary style texture, angles, and movement), but having to go through 3 hours of it... lets keep our nasty comments to ourselves here. This movie is sequenced into fragments you get to see in parts. STAY AWAY FROM THIS FILM unless you are doing case study on LA, or social decadence, or blunders of film, or poop. Other critics praise how Altman makes you relate to the characters, and the rarity of realism this film has to offer on social decadence. Well for one, I can relate to my Dad's life, that doesn't it would make a good story. I would have liked to see Peter Gallagher and Tom Waits gone on a drunken, balled-up rampage around town and fish tail Gallagher's classic car into various mailboxes and small erect structures. And if Altman wanted to display sociopaths in real life situations around LA, he could just as well have had hired retards to work at Del Taco for a day. Did I mind you to STAY AWAY FROM THIS FILM?

-The main grudge with this film is that it is NOT interesting-

and it's 3 hours long

scudkat

If I was a west-euro student in highschool, i'd thank heavens to see a movie like this. It has a belivable and captivating plot, marvelous acting and directing, and a premise that works so well WITHOUT any sappy, disgusting hollywood spin. Though it was altered from the book, I never throughout the whole film had a tinge of disbelief. The reason why Americans would doubt the greatness of this film is either they are too lazy to keep up with the story through the subtitles, or they just can't appreciate a slower paced war film. When will we ever learn?