The Descendants
This entry was posted on 1/30/2012 9:33 AM and is filed under Movies.
Saw The Descendants last night; George Clooney's latest movie, which is getting a lot of awards buzz.
On a scale in which The Princess Bride is an A+ and A Space Odyssey 2001 is an F, I gave it a B-.
There were some parts I liked and some lines that made me laugh but it's been twelve hours now and I can't remember what any of them were.
If this is one of the best movies of the last year, I'm just glad I didn't bother seeing many movies last year.
I'd heard nothing but good about this movie but I'm just not a big fan of angst fests. Also, I know I'm nit picking here but I like movies in which things happen. I'm not necessarily talking about explosions and I think car chases are the worst waste of film ever; I'm just talking about some kind of progress.
For instance, I loved Castaway even though you can plausibly say nothing happens in it.
I loved Pursuit of Happyness although I understand why some were bored by it.
In both those movies, the protagonist undergoes profound changes to become the person he's meant to be.
What happens in The Descendants is that George Clooney finds out his marriage, which he pretty much ignored, wasn't what he thought it was. His reaction is subtle to the point of nonexistent and everyone is exactly the same at the end of the movie as at the beginning.
Oh, and George gets to screw his entire extended family out of a fortune just to feel better about himself. Wow. Didn't see that coming from the very first minute of the movie.
I'll admit, I'm prejudiced. Not a fan of Meat Face Clooney. I'm still bitter about the two hours I wasted watching The American. I don't remember if I liked him in One Fine Day (probably not or I'd have watched that movie again by now) so I don't know if I've ever liked him in a movie. Either he's trying to be funny (the Coen Bro. films he's done) where he fails, painfully, or he's trying to be serious in which case...I'm sorry, I fell asleep. What were we talking about?
For George to get me back on his side, he really needed to turn in a performance up there with Russell Crowe ala Cinderella Man.
He didn't.
And I'm completely over kids with foul mouths. I consider them as cheap a gimmick as sex obsessed grannies.
But I wasn't bored and I did stick the whole thing out, wondering if something was going to happen.
I guess my expectations were too high.
