Saturday, November 12, 2011

Overheard at the Counter: A Passion Play



I watched that movie just because it had Mickey Rourke and Bill Murray in it, never mind Megan Fox, who frankly is nothing but a semi-pretty face - which by the way, reminds me of the only good line in the movie, from the only decent character: This washed-up stripper friend of Mickey Rourke at one point, when he's on the phone telling her he's bringing back this girl to show to Bill Murray the gangster, she says, "You says she's beautiful. Gotta be something more to her. This town's full of beautiful women."




The "something more" is a pair of wings, and Rourke has saved her from a carnival freakshow. But dang, the plot is all over the place, and also not there at all. The dialogue is stiffed. Murray seems like he's not even there, and Rourke puts out what he can. I read somewhere that some director said Rourke has more talent in his little finger than most actors have in their whole bodies, and that must be true, because if it is the job a director to bring out an actor's best performance, this director had no idea what his job was. Rourke at least put up a fair play with the crud he was dealt.


It was almost as if this movie were made by actors who were past thier prime, and are trying to get back in the game. But I thought that couldn't be true for Murray. I was thinking maybe this was Megan Fox's first movie, before she made her big break in Transformers. Then I looked the movie up today and it was made only LAST YEAR!




How did that happen? These people were still using pay phones! Was it set in the nineties? Eighties? Who made this monster? Why wasn't he stopped? Instead, we have this dull, turgid, insipid drudgery - the ONLY THING ALIVE IN THIS MOVIE IS HER WINGS!


This is definitely one of those films that could have been made better if you took the basic idea, re-wrote the entire script, changed directors, maybe keep the cinematographer and the actors (except for Fox - anybody can look that dense), and definitely a new editing team.


Pretty much - make it different right from the start.

No comments:

Post a Comment