Whoa

I couldn't really enjoy this movie at all. Let me preface this by saying that I'm just an average movie fan; not at all an expert in cinematography.

My complaints with this movie actually isn't too much about the content. It was a little cheesy and the accents were..uh, yeah, and it sounded like 40 percent of the movie had to be redubbed, but it was entertaining considering the hour I was watching it. The dialogue was extremely cheesy at times: "Do you ever let your guard down?" "I shaved my mustache last week". The acting was very melodramatic at times and often times stilted, but enough about that.

The real reason I couldn't enjoy this movie was the editing/production or whatever it is of the movie. The thing that bothered me the most were the constant quick cuts; almost every 15 seconds there was a cut. I usually don't notice this too much in other movies but I don't know if it was bad timing or what it was. I now most movie have a ton of cuts, but I mean do we really need to have like 27 cuts between two characters sitting and talking? No.

Another thing was the close-ups. Why are there so many of them and why is the camera so damn close? It was pretty much going up their noses. I don't mind close-ups but I don't want to watch a movie of floating heads. I couldn't help but watch this movie and think how much better it would be if they backed it up a little bit. It was often time comical to see a close-up of Denzel's face making a reaction. This is supposed to be taking place in Jamaica, I really wanted to see A LOT more of the scenery, the sets/props, etc. Everything seemed to be shot so tight and close. Apart from a few scenes I thought I was going to develop claustrophobia.

Also they had this weird panning thing going on with the camera. These things just kind of take me out of the movie. I don't really want to watch a movie and than have the screen move right than left for no apparent reason. I don't mind if they did it a little bit, but they use this technique often and beat it into the ground. Another technique they seem to do often is an actor in the background while another actors giant head is in the foreground. There were a bunch of odd angle camera shots; is that supposed to be artsy? How many damn times do you really need to do that circle pan? I mean there seemed to be times when a shot seemed to be off-centered and the camera moved a bit to center them.

I really think this movie tried to be too fancy for it's own good. I mean you have a scene where you're doing 50 cuts and then you decide to start panning. I think this movie would have been a lot better if it was just not so close.

But other than that a decent flick, but if it's on T.V. again I think I'll flip the channel. Gotta love the red stripe though.