CountryJim

Normally I enjoy off-beat and unfathomable movies. This certainly fell into that category. But it was incredibly slow-moving and tedious. Lingering scenes of blank screen or repeated motifs, cheap and scary-movie bursts of loud music or screams into the camera to occasionally awake a sleeping and bored audience. A whole film-maker's bag of tricks of pseudo lead-ups to something, then going nowhere.

I felt that I had been tricked into spending half a day (yes, half a day!) watching a director's tedious indulgence, with payoffs and existential meaning that could have been achieved in around an hour. Other directors have enough respect for their audiences to edit down a bit to at least keep interest up.

The BIG irony is that this is supposed to an evocative, non-linear expression. Yet the audience is FORCED to watch it as a linear experience.

How is it that otherwise good actors allow themselves to take part in a banal script like this? Characters are unidimensional (well 1.5 dimensional at best). I can see how it would appeal to average and undemanding movie viewers (that is to say the statistical 50% mark of sophistication).

It had a lot of "zany, wacky, goofy, madcap, off-the-wall, weird" antics. Not funny, just antics and very predictable. I think I chuckled once at Dabney and once at Stockard - a testament to their abilities to at least rescue a moment here and there.

If you have a very undemanding and unsophisticated sense of humor, you will like find it quite amusing with its zany, wacky, goofy, madcap, off-the-wall, weird antics. But if you have a mental age of over 14, you will likely get bored.

But movies like this are valuable to watch. They are so juvenile and bland, that they remind one what a good movie is when you see one. But not this one.

With all the hype and slavering about the "Bourne Franchise", I rented this DVD. I was expecting complex intrigue, deep complex character development, and believability.

What I experienced was an action flick, with mostly wooden characters (exception - Clive Owen's brief appearance was most memorable). The car chase was wayyyyy too long and looked hokey and staged for the last two thirds. The movie could have been a good 20 minutes shorter.

But it meets the needs of its demographic - 17-22 YO males, or those whose discernment for more intelligent and well-crafted suspense-intrigue has not matured beyond 25.

The chemistry between the two leads seemed contrived.

And Julia Styles - why? Not a credible character in this movie.

I was so disappointed. I had been really looking forward to this and the other two.