Just came back from the latest Spielberg opus "The Terminal." I wanted to like it more than I did. This one has a lot of flaws so it isn't that close to being great in the way that "Minority Report" and "A.I." almost are. Both of those were ruined by bad endings. This is kind of blah the whole way through. It isn't even nearly as good as "Catch Me If You Can."
I just don't understand why Spielberg can't make a great movie from beginning to end. He clearly is allowed to do whatever the hell he wants in his films but still feels the need to pander to the masses. But, I can't see this film setting any sort of box office records so why bother pandering. Matt Zoller Seitz described this film as Kafka directing a Capra film- good description except Spielberg waters down both: not enough bite to get all his points across and not heartfelt enough to moisten the eyes.
File this entry away under "Don't need to read again when Dan reposts this in January as part of his year end list."
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2 comments:
from hong
you really liked AI? that was a piece o' poop.
(rethinking this marriage thing)
Since I'm being slammed by all parties, I'll repost what I wrote in 2001 in my movie list. And I still stand by my words.
20. A.I.- The most unfairly maligned film of the year. What was so wrong with this movie? For most of the film the tone was dark, claustrophobic, and moody. The shots of Manhattan and the World Trade Center underneath water seem even more eerie post Sept. 11. If Spielberg just had had the sense to end the movie with the boy trapped in the ice underneath the Wonder Wheel, this would have been much higher on my list. Still, I don’t think the ending was too much of a copout- the boy doesn’t end up happy, just delaying the inevitable sorrow.
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