It's time to play catch-up.
On the weekend, I sat down to watch The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, having finished the book a few weeks ago. Those Swedes know how to make a movie, don't they? (Of course, I'm basing this opinion primarily on this film and Let the Right One In. Ha!) The filmmakers did a nice job of streamlining the story as necessary without missing the essence of the story, and Noomi Rapace is downright riveting in the title role. The film is sometimes uncomfortable, but never needlessly so. I'll watch the two Swedish sequels once I've read their respective books.
Then to utterly change gears, I watched Bad Teacher which, while having some amusing moments, is essentially bad. Even more problematic than the crass, juvenile humour (which was expected) is the nearly non-existent arc of the film. About ten minutes in, the action plateaus, and it's confirmed that we're essentially in for a one-trick pony show that will last the next 80 minutes or so. I'm not criticizing it as a teacher (though anyone in education will scoff at the supposed "way things work", but again this is to be expected), but just as a film that should have been better. I have to agree entirely with the following quotation from Rotten Tomatoes: "In spite of a promising concept and a charmingly brazen performance from Cameron Diaz, Bad Teacher is never as funny as it should be."
No comments:
Post a Comment