onedaveatatime

"I wish I was like you, easily amused" - Kurt Cobain.

I am, again, disappointed to see nothing but praise for a movie that I very much disliked.

This movie, like the past few from Burton, is visually stunning, but that's all. The story is crap. It's not AS bad as some of the most recent failures from Tim Burton such as Planet of the Apes and Sleepy Hollow, but that doesn't make it worth watching. It's just boring.

The beef of this film is in the retelling of tall tales, none of which got more than a chuckle and a shrug from myself and the two friends I saw the movie with. It just doesn't grasp what it's reaching for. The magic is not there. It's also draaaaaaaaaaaawn out, and aimless.

The main character, Edward Bloom, is an ordinary guy who tells hugely exaggerated stories of adventures that may or may not have happened to him. And the main point is that everyone, except his son, loves Edward Bloom and wants to be around him. The problem with this is that the character is NOT loveable or even likeable. I found him mostly annoying, in fact.

I love some of Tim Burton's earlier movies like Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Beetlejuice. I don't know what happened to him. Why can't he make good movies anymore? I hope he doesn't ruin his upcoming project, the remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

This has gotta be one of the very worst movies I've ever seen. I'm genuinely shocked that anyone liked it. The dialogue is laughably bad, the timing is all off, and the camera just lingers on shots for way too long after the scene should have ended. There's really practically no story, either. It's one of those movies that you shake your head at while watching because you can't believe how fricken bad it is. Getting good actors doesn't save a bad script. I really like Douglas Spain, but I wish someone would put him in something good.

This is an interesting little slice-of-life indie film. It certainly isn't made for a mainstream audience - which is probably why I mostly liked it.

Here's the problem I had with it, though:

The first of the three stories in the movie, which is very dialogue heavy, is in mostly Japanese. I rented the DVD and AND THERE WERE NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES AVAILBLE! This made the first part completely frustrating to watch. Were there English subtitles when this was in theaters?