the Royal Tenenbaums in 1984?

Stay in the closet man. I watched this movie for the second time ever tonight. I saw it for the first time about 15-20 years ago, when I was way too young to really understand it. "Tennenbaums" walks all over this as far as being a piece of cinema. From cinematography, acting, screenplay, editing, directing, script, even up to the soundtrack - it's no comparison.

It wasn't "out-there" enough to be surreal, and yet it was too far-fetched and contrived to be remotely believeable. The death count in this movie was higher than Rambo. Just off the top of my head, we had a bear, a dog, , a mime, two children, a mother, a recently deflowered Austrian, the grandfather, and a blind guy named Freud with some terrorists as collateral damage. A few too many tragedies to be plausible. Granted, the mime was anecdotal, but it's where we get the whole "keep passing the open windows" BS from.

I couldn't understand if the sexual aspect of this movie was designed to shock, enlighten, or what. One viewer on this board decribed it as "romantic." I'll just say that my conception of romance differs somewhat.

Casting was an abject catastrophe. Why take one of the sexiest women of the 1980s and stick her in a bear suit for most of her screen time? Hell, she and Amanda Plummer should have reversed roles. At least then, Natassja could have picked an accent and stuck with it, since she would have been Austrian anyway. She's clearly trying an American accent when her character is first introduced. Put Amanda as the chick in the bear suit, and then we'll believe her when she gives that speech near the end about being ugly.

This movie comes across as over the top melodrama with an extensive amout of sexual kinks thrown in for pure shock value. And one final note... whoever thought the repeated scenes with the Benny Hill-esque fast motion was a great idea is mistaken. Sorely.

ahhh. i feel better.