When you watch it as a black comedy it is meant to be, its genius. Too many people watched this as a serious movie.
This is my happy face: http://i43.tinypic.com/2zg901k.jpg
Reckon you hit the nail on the head there, RA. I was laughing out loud a lot and I thought The Rock was hilarious, and I mean in a good way. In fact he made it for me.
sharehalf of one and half of another.
awful: the cast. I can see why Kelly wanted cheesy hollywood stars for this movie (starring Justin Timberlake must be the worst possible offense to Cinema), but he should have been able to admit that, while succeeding in delivering part of the message, it would brutally destroy the quality and credibility of the output. and, in fact...
genius: well, the rest. every other thing.
Neither. It is fun, but it's a bit of a mess. There's too much going on in the background and none of it ever really gets to the forefront. It's like a series of waves that never crest, promising a lot more than it ever delivers and just leaving the audience disappointed or unsatisfied (not including those who had no idea what was going on at all). Not as a terrible as The Box but a long way from Donnie Darko.
What if a squirrel wants a sausage?
I could stand on the side saying that it is BOTH, genius and awful. A math theorem can be a work of genius, but also awful for most of the people (even genius, but not "math" oriented).
Einstein said that a genius makes complex thing "simple", not the reverse. From that criteria, this movies is NOT a candidate to get the label "genius", since it exposes many obscured sub-splots (such as orbs colors, references to Bible added on the late as an after-thought, ... ) to make things more complex, not simpler.
That does not mean that the movie cannot be agreable to watch.
It is AWFUL....beyond AWFUL.
shareWhile this film is definitely not perfect, it is more genius than awful.
This film is overflowing with ambition, concepts and original ideas. Thats more than you get from the majority of Hollywoods output today. It's beautifully filmed and features several stellar performances (Gellar especially). While many are quick to note this as a flaw, The fact that the plot of film is frustrating is intentional. It demands repeat viewings.
If it is an intentionnal concept, then it is awful:
"What is well conceived is clear"
And the words to say it come easily."
Pure genius does not require repeated viewings. Pure genius acquires common concensus by its simplicity.
If it is about a notion of something (by opposition to a concept), then indeed, it may be hard to render with simple words. "Describe the taste of sugar". But a notion has no relation with the label "genius". Time, love, sweeetness, ... these are not ... "genius".
I find it oddly enjoyable. Its like its parodying itself. Like there was some super pretentious movie with a similar plotline I never saw and Southland Tales is ripping it a new one.
shareGenius? Or Awful?