constrapolator

After ejecting "The Fountain" after a grueling 20 minutes, I was in the mood for a movie that was well grounded, and without the symbolic and "intellectual" pretension found in movies such as "Mullholland Drive" and the like. For some reason, it seems the common notion is that a nonlinear and obfuscated plot combined with a plot twist epiphany automatically create a great movie. As soon as I began to realize the deeper nature of "The Nines", I gripped my temple and moaned, "not this again."

That's because I felt the sinking feeling of a movie about jerk me around and forcefully slam my rational mind into a blender of nonsense. You know what I'm talking about: everything seems fine and makes sense, and then WHAM!

But wait, that's not happening. Instead, we're being spoon fed weirdness one bit at a time; allowing our rational mind to slowly come to grips with what is going on. "Fight Club" did it, and it certainly worked there.

But why do I say ridiculous? Because parts of it are. But what makes it wonderful is that despite any apparent absurdity (which did go a bit far), if you take the premise and run with it, it all adds up.

But all that aside, I was enthralled from start to finish, and really enjoyed watching it.

Artistically, this movie should get some extra points. The use of color, the sharp contrast of black and white, good and evil, and so on. Based on that, I'd probably give the movie a 3.

However, to put it simply, the plot and acting in this movie is terrible. Here is me fundamental rule in movies: You have to actually CARE about the characters and what they were going through. And, trust me, I didn't care. Admittedly, the introduction was quite compelling, and I was drawn in a bit. However, after the introduction, my mind slowly turned to mush and my eyes de-focused. This is my altruistic warning to the masses: Don't watch this movie.

If you think about the distribution of movies on a bell curve, then the all-time greats are just as rare as the worst movies of all time! In this respect, it is better to be a HORRIBLE movie than it is to be a mediocre one.

But seriously, this is actually a great C-film to enjoy and to hate while sitting around and drinking beers with a bunch of friends.

In addition, the film seems remarkably surreal at points. The behavior of the characters, especially while "pursuaded" by the mailman make very little sense. It's the visual enactment of a "non sequitur." Throw in random breasts every ten minutes and you have the makings of a very strange movie.