Schmoffi

There were quite a lot of negative reviews of this movie, but I watched it anyway because I was kind of bored... and I have to admit that I quite liked it.

Of course, one could argue that everything in this movie seems a bit phony or pretended, but at least the story of Todd and Reggie is as touching as anything you can see at the movies. Admittedly, the other two storylines are a bit shallow compared to the first one.

Anyway, this is IMHO a kind of so-so movies, one of those that some people like and some don't. But I think compared to the other stuff that is playing right now (over here in Germany, that includes "Pearl Harbor" and "Tomb Raider" :- ), you might as well give this one a try, if only to see Paul Giamatti's and Andre Braugher's great performances.

Seven years after "Pulp Fiction", I think we have reached a point where we don't need any more movies containing: (1) stupid criminals who are (2) talking like ten-year-olds, while they are (3) committing acts of violence, (4) giving laconic comments on those, all of which is (5) shown in many interwoven plots with lots of flashbacks and time jumps.

In fact, I liked the movie, and I laughed quite hard in some places. There are great farcical scenes, great editing (Dennis Farina's trans-atlantic flights are about the funniest 2 seconds of movie I've ever seen), but all the same, I thought, yawn, just another "Pulp Fiction" rip-off.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those hard-boiled "Tarantino is god, and everyone else is stealing from him" fans, but in this case it's pretty obvious, and it kind of spoiled the movie for me.

This movie looks like a pure exercise in style. Someone must have thought that the more close-ups of ashtrays or coffee cups you can add to your movie (from weird angles and/or out of focus), the more intellectual appeal it gets.

This film is about two people who meet in an Internet chat room, are more or less destined for each other, but, to quote Roger Ebert, try to avoid happiness as long as possible; will they finally meet? (Right; you guessed it.)

I liked the basic outline of the plot, but there were just to many scenes of people sitting with their heads propped up on their hands, staring into their overflowing ashtrays, drinking heavily, and looking sooo depressed.

I'm not trying to poke fun at someone who's lonely or rejected, but the makers of this movie spent way to much effort at expressing their intentions in wonderful pictures; many of the shots are really beautiful, but there are just to many of them, and after a while you (I, that is) want to yell "alright, I know what you want to express, now let's move on with the plot".

As I said, the movie looks great, I liked the actors, and if you're in the right mood and don't mind a bit of exaggeration you'll possibly like it.